Latest Berlin Trip

Hey y’all


I’ve not been on here for a bit but thought i’d just put a quick report on from my latest Berlin trip, there might be something in it that someone finds useful one day. If anyones read any of my trip reports before you’ll know that as much as i love craft beer, when i go to Berlin i tend to be drawn towards the traditional eck kneipe and this trip was no different, a few brewpubs mixed in as well though.


We started off our trip with a wander around Marzahn, recommended for anyone who’s a fan of town planning and mass housing solutions, not much good on the beer front though, so after we got back into a more central area we headed for a few beers, first to Mittmans on a corner near maerkisches museum, a nice little pub with what looked like decent food, a nice Duckstein was had in here, then, about 3 doors down to Gitti’s Bierbar, a really good find in that its a good solid traditional kneipe in a very central location, the choice of beer was the ubiquitous Schultheiss or Kindl, i think they might have had Kostritzer on as well. After that we went on a bit of a journey by rail and tram taking in Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, we called at Voigts Bier Express at Mehringdamm, i like it in here, good selection of beers including the Kindl Zwickel which was a new one on me, plus it’s handy for curry 36 next door if you’re hungry, then just over the cross roads to Clash, interesting one this, down a little alleyway, a bit rough round the edges, full of old punks and playing loud rock music, the beer was flensburger, not bad. Next, just up the road to Yorckslosschen which is a kind of blues/jazz bar, no bands on the night we went in though, the beer was their own brand hell or dunkel called Kreuzberger Tag/Nacht, not sure who brews this for them but it was good. Then it was a u bahn ride to Oberbaumeck, a corner pub which seems to pay homage to hamburg and all things st pauli fc, they obviously had Astra beer in here but also had local brewery Rollberg’s rotbier which i think is excellent. There was just time to fit in a few more beers so we got the tram up to Friedrichshain and visited a couple of brewpubs, first Hops and Barley, really liked it in here, had there dunkel which was spot on, wish i could’ve spent a bit more time in here and tried the rest of their offering to be honest, next it was to Schalander where we just managed to get in before they were closing so we had to rush a swift down, helles, cold, wet, competent. Of course we obviously had to call in at Bierbar Alkopole on Alexanderplatz on the way home, there was the usual assortment of wierdos in, which i loved, i think i had Radeberger in here but i wouldnt stake my life on it. All in all a successful first day.

 

Soooo, day two began with a stroll round some tower blocks again, this time a good look round the flats built over the autobahn at schlangenbader strasse, a must see if you’ve got strabge interests like me, oh and we also went to the classic remise, look it up if you’re into cars, amazing place and free entry. Anyway, enough of what i did on my holidays, back to beer, called for a quick Schultheiss in a nice little kneipe called Joel, right under the block at Schlangenbader, a good crowd in here, during the time it took me to drink one beer the four blokes at the bar had gone through 4 beers and 4 schnapps each, it was 1.30 in the afternoon. I had a couple of things to attend to in Steglitz so we called for a few beers in the local pubs round that way, Zum Lindenblatt (schultheiss) anf Kneipenkonig (Kindl) were both lovely little pubs with proper friendly locals, there was also Foersters Feine Bier which is kind of a fancy craft beer place but has loads of proper good beers from traditional breweries in franconia and all over germany really. We had to change trains at Yorckstrasse so, what else to do but call for a drink at Zum Umsteiger, bit dead in here but some lovely art on the walls, the beer was a non branded thing just called “blond” who knows where this came from, it was, erm, ok ish. Back on the train to Schoneberg next and a bit of a pub crawl on foot, first, Leuchturm, very dark, very relaxed and friendly, the beer was from Hohenthanner, i like their stuff and the pils went down a treat, next, Felsenkeller, very narrow, very busy, standing room only, good choice of about 7 beers, i had Furstenburg cos i’ve not had it for a while, all good, next, a bit of a walk down the main street to Willi Mangler, love this place and not just for the cool name, only serves Kindl but the atmospheres great, the walls and shelves are jam packed full of dusty tat and the regulars are a good bunch.


An s bahn ride and a quick walk took us to Strassenbahn, a bit of a quirky tram themed pub towards Friedenau, good selection of beer here but i can’t for the life of me remember what i had, i must be getting old, then on the way back to Bundesplatz s bahn we passed a nice little kneipe called Friedenauer so called in for a swift one, easy to remember what i had in here, it was Schultheiss! It seemed like a good idea to go for more beers at this point so we got off the s bahn at Wedding which handily has a pub right underneath it, Zum Magendoktor, apparently this place is open 24/7, there were a few customers in there who definitely looked like they’d been in for 4 days straight. By some superhuman effort we managed to get one more in, Bierbrunnen an der Plumpe just next to Gesundbrunnen u bahn, im pretty sure that was the last one of the night.

 

And then it was day 3, less pubs were visited today i’m afraid. We went out to Spandau for a look round, nice little place, lots to see, and lots of boozers! We called in at Spandauer Bock, Zur Altstadt and Haveltreff which were all thoroughly decent kneipen then headed back into Berlin, we stopped off in Charlottenburg and first called in at Westend Klause, a great little eckkneipe serving Engelhardt beer which seems to be getting more and more rare in Berlin these days, then went to Dicker Wirt, which has actually changed names since i last went, it’s now called Lange Wirt and the new wirt is indeed very tall! They had Bayreuther Helles on tap here which was pretty lovely as it happens. Just round the corner is Schwarzen Kater Alex, not sure about it in here, a few too many flourescent lights and bar stools that are so wobbly you always feel in danger of a fall. All that was left to do was call in at Alkopole, obviously and then one last stop to see our old mate Henry at Cafe Prenzlau which has had the scaffolding removed from the outside after what must be about 15 years.


So, all in all another great trip, plenty of beers, plenty of great kneipen, maybe i’ll get to Stone next time eh.