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Review of 5 Breweries, Altstadt Dusseldorf Germany

5 BREWERIES IN ALTSTADT, DÜSSELDORF GERMANY We spent a few days in Düsseldorf visiting some of our friends, and were lucky enough to have the time to visit the Altstadt, or “Old Town” area which is one of my favorite places in Germany. This is a beautiful, classic town center that holds a LOT of breweries, restaurants, shops and bars. Every time we visit, we try to spend as much time as we can in this district discovering new and exciting things to buy, drink and eat. This time around we noticed a large Ferris wheel that was built recently on the river-walk/promenade which operates year round. While the weather was cold, rainy and foggy (late Dec. 2014), we made the best of it and walked around as much as we could. The breweries located in the Altstadt range from 100’s of years old, to just a few years old. The variety of Altbiers that are available is somewhat stunning, as this one type of beer usually has a full body, present malt and grain build, and sometimes a floral to spicy hop presence. You will find that every brewery does it differently and sometimes more successfully than others. Just …

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Review: Brauhaus Mitte, Berlin Germany

BRAUHAUS MITTE, BERLIN GERMANYThe Brauhaus Mitte in Berlin Germany is owned and operated by the same people that run the Lemke Brewery down the street. This restaurant is a large scale operation with a full menu and dinning experience with traditional German fare. They do have brewery tours available at certain times of the day. The beers are the same between Lemke and the Brauhaus so the reviews are the same. They provide samples of their beer for a euro a glass. During the holiday season, they did have the Weihnachtsbock (winter bock) available when we were there, which was their best beer. The brewery/restaurant location is next to a large shopping center in Mitte, and it is located on the second floor of the building. You have to walk up a number of stairs to get inside, and if it’s icy outside it’s challenging. They do have some of the brew kettles located behind the bar area and you can go up and take a look. The wait staff at the restaurant does speak fluent English and we had no issues ordering food and beers and felt really welcome there. Oh, and they have a crazy leg of ham …

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Beer Tasting, Dec. 24-26, Berlin Germany

VARIOUS BEER TASTINGS, DEC. 24-26, BERLIN GERMANY During our visit in Berlin during late December 2014, I was able to do some beer tasting at our friend Patrick’s place and a few restaurants/bars when we were out and about in Berlin. I want to thank Patrick for being so generous in providing a few different local/regional beers to share and sample, it made our visit even more special. Here’s the list of what I tried with my thoughts on each. Berliner-Kindl-Schultheiss-Brauerei Berliner Pilsner German Pilsner • ABV: 5% • IBUs: ? This pilsner presents with a nice golden hue, 7 SRM. The head is full and there is somewhat typical lacing on the glass. The nose is somewhat lacking and non-present. Light hop aroma does exist, but no grains. The front mouth is full carbonation with a slight sharp hop and slight malt that comes through on the mid. Overall this is an average German pilsner, not too bad, not too good. Altenburger Brauerei Altenburger Bock Maibock / Helles Bock • ABV: 6.7% • IBUs: ? This beer has a nice amber color (13) SRM. The nose has hints of toasted malt and lighter, sweet sugars. The front mouth is …

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Review: Brauhaus Lemke, Berlin Germany

BRAUHAUS LEMKE, BERLIN GERMANY During a recent trip to Berlin Germany (Dec. 2014), we tried to find a few breweries to visit, and this one was actually just a few blocks from our hotel. Lemke is an old school German brewery with rustic tables and friendly wait staff located in the “Mitte” part of Berlin under an S-BAHN line. There were two sides to the location, we sat in the bar side, the main restaurant is a dim candle light dinner vibe. Looking at the menu, it had standard bar food and restaurant fare for most traditional German pubs with tons of meat, and few vegetables. The wait staff was fluent in English and had a good time flirting with some of the group. They do offer pitchers of their beer, not just 0.5l or 0.3l. The overall sense is more of a neighborhood hangout than a brewery. They only had a few beers available when we stopped by and below is my review of them. Lemkes Spezialitätenbrauerei GmbH – http://www.brauhaus-lemke.com Dircksenstraße, S-Bahnbogen 143,144 | D-10178 Berlin-Mitte phone +49 (30) 247 287 27 | fax +49 (30) 247 287 28 hackeschermarkt@brauhaus-lemke.de Lemke Original Munich Dunkel Lager • ABV: 5.5% • …

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Humbug Lager Fest, Portland OR

HUMBUG LAGER FEST, PORTLAND OR The 2014 Humbug LagerFest is back again to celebrate lager beers this holiday season! It took place on Saturday December 13th, at Occidental Brewing in Portland Oregon. This year they had 18 lagers on draft for sampling. There was no price for admission, tokens were $1/ea and 1 token = 1 sample. The brewery utilized it’s two main rooms to pour 8 samples at each. The main room had tables and some barrels to stand at. There were a LOT of people there when I stopped by, so finding a place to stand was tricky. The bartenders were working really fast, and there was little to no waiting at the bar for pours. The 2nd room which is used for storage of empties was used for the food stand and a LOT of the empty pre-production cans from the brewery along two sides. Occidental Brewing is located in the far north end of Portland, in the St. John’s neighborhood under the St. John’s bridge, just a few blocks from the Willamette River. The brewery is the south side of an industrial building and there’s plenty of on-street parking. The food stand this year was from …

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Holiday Ale Festival, Portland OR

HOLIDAY ALE FESTIVAL, PORTLAND OR The 2014 Winter Holiday Ale Festival in downtown Portland, December 3rd-6th, is one of the funner festivals to attend for beer lovers. This year like every year we’ve gone in the past, had a number of seasonal/one-off’s/rare beers that are made especially for this event by local and west coast brewers. There is no cost for admission (as with most beer fests), the cost comes in buying the tasting glass/plastic cup, and the tokens or tickets. The standard package was $35 and included a plastic tasting mug and 12 tickets. 3 oz. tastes were normally 1 ticket, but some specialty beers were 2, 3, or even 4 per pour with 4-8 tickets for a full mug (10oz) pour. I did try a few of the more ‘expensive’ rare beers and none of them disappointed. The festival has been downtown Portland at Pioneer Courthouse Sq. for quite a few years, and the layout of the fest has been consistent, which we all appreciated. They have an upper tasting area w/ a side bar and two main tasting areas with food vendors in between. The tents are heated, and unfortunately on Saturday afternoon, it was warm outside …

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