Kusterer Brauhaus

Roll out the barrel! Kusterer certainly has what I would expect to be the feel of an authentic German brauhaus—communal tables, spacious interior, and steins for the members. Taster flights run $9, a steal by any metric. Plenty of sausage options, include veg. I dig it.

 

After 3 separate failed attempts to get into this place I finally made it in today for lunch.
There was a bachelorette party going on at the time so it distracted from the experience a bit. Still, the flight of 4 beers was enjoyable and the very limited food selection was a bit of a letdown. But the vibe was great, all things considered. I imagine it rocks in the evening.

This location has a much more limited food menu than the original Cedar Springs location. It has the same excellent beers, however.

I had been looking forward to the opening of this place, but came away a little disappointed. The place is located on a busy street among other commercial buildings (across the street from Harmony Hall Brewing) Parking is curbside, or a city lot a block away. The parking lot at the rear is restricted. The counter where you order beer and food is at the rear of the beer hall, and there are a modest number of tables/chairs. The vibe is a good representation of a German beer hall, and I really like it. Oompah music was playing when we first arrived, but changed to pop music for most of our visit.

The beers are brewed at Cedar Springs Brewing which owns the historic Kusterer Brewing Company beer recipes, and it is those beers that make up most of the available beers here. All are German or East Euro styles, although several styles are IPAs or other choices. We chose a flight of 4 in order to try to get an overall evaluation for this review. All were brewed well to style, and we ended up with a 4.0 score for each of them.

The food consists of a limited selection of pre-made, deli-style items that are displayed in a cooler at the ordering counter. This is what I was disappointed about from my opening statement of this review. I hadn't done any advance search to know what to expect, but I had hopes of having some hot German dishes for dinner with my German-style beers. However, what we ordered was good, so there's that.

Apfelwein and a sangria were available for the non-beer drinkers, and I'm pretty sure I saw soft drinks too. Growlers are available for beer to go. It wasn't the experience that I had hoped to find, but was an okay visit just for the beers.