BrewDog Acquires Stone Berlin

Explain. I'll give bonus points for proper capitalization, punctuation, grammar, or minimal coherence.

 

i dont really need bonus points thanks bud. im happy just drinking good beer without stressing about craftness too much

 

Remember this thread on how the US was going to save the German bier scene?

Well, it seems that we've come full circle now.

The Frau and I visited the site in 2016 and it wasn't easy to get to that was for sure. It was a looong train ride out of downtown Berlin and then a pretty good hike on foot to get to the brewery. I will say that the architecture & decor was well done and the food, excellent.

I am not a fan of Brewdog, I don't really understand their whacky business model nor their even whackier beer... but I wish them luck. I hope they go in knowing the German bier culture isn't broken and has been around for half a millennia and it will be around another 500 years.

 

When I first heard of Mariendorf location I figured. "OK, land is cheaper out there than in the center" and figured they'd build a (large) brewery there and have a tap room (or two) more centrally located. But they ended up building a remote "Beer Disneyland" (an impressive one I do admit). Then I figured they'd run a shuttle bus from a nearby S/U-Bahn station or subsidize a municipal bus -- at least during peak pub-going times. Nope.

So I happened to chat with "Mr Stone" at the opening of the Prenzlauer Berg taproom last May. I mentioned that I had been expecting this (the taproom) for a long time. When asked why, I said because the brewery was so difficult to get to. He was quite offended at that -- basically "I had no problem getting there the xx months I lived in Berlin". I thought -- but didn't say -- "Well of course, that was your JOB." If I lived in Berlin, and a friend asked to meet for a beer I doubt we'd haul ass to Mariendorf when there were a couple dozen (and growing) places easier to reach, and while the selection might not be as impressive, it would certainly be serviceable. And there probably would be a second or third place nearby we could move to if we felt like it.

I used to have a negative impression of Brewdog -- I was first exposed to them during their "ABV Wars" and had a lot of really bad, high alcohol beers (and I'm not just talking about the TNP level beers). But my opinion has improved since then -- I've been to a number of their pubs, in the London area as well as Brussels, Stockholm (2) and Berlin and they are for the most part perfectly fine pubs. They usually have a nice mix of their own and local beers. Sort of like Mikkeller -- in more ways than one

I'm headed to Berlin in a month (and then to Prague!) I wasn't planning to "haul ass to Mariendorf" but now I just might

 

I'll give it a go. And maybe you can even give me extra bonus points for extending your analogy of the old-school football coach who refuses to embrace "innovation."

Both you and Greg sound like the 14-year-old who gets cut by a legendary coach and then goes around telling everyone "that guy doesn't know shit about football."

 

I have some mixed feelings about this, mostly sad but also kind of good in a way. I moved to Czech Republic from California about 7 years ago, so overlapped with the time Stone opened in Berlin. When Stone Berlin originally opened I thought this was going to be incredible, and do wonders for the craft beer scene across Europe. We started to get the Stone Berlin cans here in Prague, and I was really happy at first about being able to drink some beers I was used to drinking from back home. But in the end, it always ended up being the same three stone beers: Stone IPA, Arrogant Bastard, and Ruination, and they were also in 0.3 size format and were often old and the same price as to get something local in a 0.75 size. Since that time the craft scene here has improved so much that there was no point in buying any of these Stone 'classics' anymore because you could buy a local much much better IPA that was fresh and just hit the shelves that week at a better price point that 8 month old Stone IPA. I'm glad Stone tried this, as I think it exposed some people to some styles they didn't normally drink, as well as it gave a reference point to small local European breweries here trying to brew those styles. I think much of the rest of Europe outside of Germany never saw much of what Stone Berlin brewed outside of Stone IPA, Arrogant Bastard, and Ruination, and within a few years of them distributing those cans, they were already far surpassed by local options and local variety.

 

In your opinion do you think that Stone Berlin was an 'expediter' of the Czech craft beer revolution? If so, perhaps Stone is a victim of that success?

Cheers!

 

All of this discussion on a some big/shouty US crafty beer company leaving Berlin makes it seem like it’s the end of the world for Germany.

When in fact, there are dozens of EXCELLENT homegrown Germany kraftbier breweries that have popped up throughout the nation starting about 2013ish. These are owned by local folks who have a genuine connection to the towns they brew in and lifelong understanding of the rich German beer culture. These businesses are doing craft beer in a way that is successful; they throughly understand their market & their customers, they are extremely conservative in their businesses decisions, their brewing skills are almost always excellent (getting to the level of a brewer requires formal education and apprenticeship), and they tend to be quite humble.

Germany is a nation the size of Montana with the population roughly the same as California. It isn’t (thank god) the same as America.

I would encourage everyone to spend some time living there (or at least visiting) and enjoying experience.

 

That's hard to say for sure as the craft scene here in Czech Republic already had a couple strong holds by the time Stone Berlin opened, but there wasn't a lot going on and it was mostly local IPAs and pale ales which is what Stone mostly does but by the time we were getting their beers they weren't fresh anyways. Now we have a lot going on in our craft scene in terms of great new england IPAs, west coast IPAs and pale ales, single hop IPAs, stouts, barrel aged beers (even barrel aged sours, stouts, and dopplebocks), kettle sours, small brewery lagers, etc. So then it is like, why would you ever buy a 8 month old Stone IPA or Ruination for the same price in a smaller format when you have local options doing all this interesting stuff and fresh? If the Stone Berlin location ever did anything special for that location in terms of brews, we never saw them here.
But to your original question, one example I can think of, there is a local brewery called Falkon which does an American Strong Ale that I'd buy every time rather than buying Arrogant Bastard. I'd say their beer was most probably influenced by Arrogant Bastard being available here, as the 'American Strong Ale' is not a hip popular style these days but one that I love, and I can get Falkon's american strong ale fresh (within a week of being bottled). It definitely has that Stone influence of being a very hoppy take on the style, while maintaining a very malt heavy presence. And it's local, and it's great, and it's fresh, and it's affordable.

 

@Snowcrash000 made the same statement concerning Stone beer in Germany.

You are fortunate to be able to purchase fresh locally brewed craft beer. As you likely know this is the situation today in the US. Maybe someday @Snowcrash000 will be able to obtain fresh locally brewed craft beer in Germany?

Cheers!

 

Aldi (Süd) Aldi Süd been expanding in the US.

There are also Trader Joe's, that chain started in Southern California. Aldi Nord bought it years ago.

I have not noticed the bread thing in Germany, but I'm not surprised.

 

I could order just about any European beer I wanted in Germany via the web. It was delivered FRESH and to my front door in (usually 24 hrs) and for an excellent price (vs US prices). I loved being able to get a large box of Rochefort 10 or a case of Crew Republic Escalation DIPA dropped off to my house via DHL.

 

@JackHorzempa To be honest, I have found myself circling back around to my original love of Czech lagers and am drinking those mainly these days.

 

You should go to Bavaria and deliver verbose seminars on how to appreciate really good beer.

 

Any businesses model that’s dependent on forcing its own philosophy onto its customers is not very likely to succeed.

Stone was pretty much a self-licking ice cream cone - far removed from its surroundings by attitude and distance and highly dependent on its name to generate $’s.

 

I visited Stone Berlin last summer while my wife and I were in the city. We had a tour booked for the afternoon of our last day. Stone emailed mid-morning that day to say the English speaking tour guide was sick, and since they apparently only had one, our tour was cancelled. We decided to make the trek out anyway, and it was a bitch to get out there, only to discover that the brewery was closed for a private event. Made me question if the tour guide really was sick. Just an unpleasant experience all around.

 

"Ugly American"

 

Germany actually has more than twice the population of California and a smaller land mass than California. But Californians are constantly crying about overcrowding and lack of housing. But that's another topic.

 

They have the brewery right there, I think that is why. Unlike Früh and the others...

 

Is this a comment regarding me asking you if you've been to Germany? (I think I asked you that, this has been a long thread)

Hey what do you know, "American Strong Ale" isn't that popular here anymore either.

The more I think about this issue Stone had in Germany, the more it sounds like the issue a brewery of Stone's size has in the US as well.

Craft beer that isn't local, that sits on shelves due to better options, and isn't fresh.