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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Review: Gigantic Brewing, Portland OR

GIGANTIC BREWING, PORTLAND OR This is the second spot we went to on during a little Sunday brewery tour (30 Dec. 2014). Gigantic Brewing Company is located in deep South East Portland a few blocks south of SE Holgate in an industrial area with on-street parking. This is a somewhat small building with room for about 30 people inside and a large patio out front. If it’s cold outside, you may not be able to find a place to sit inside, so be prepared to stand. There is a food cart parked next door (literally 10 paces from the door) that has food during normal business hours. The decor inside is somewhat of an art gallery with prints and objects for sale, as well as a big TV to watch Timbers matches on. We’ve never ran into kids inside, as I’m going to take a guess that it’s considered a bar. During warm months, there might be some outside on the patio when it’s open. Oh, and the patio is dog friendly as well. Regarding their beers, Gigantic has made a name for itself with strong, in your face beers. They have slowly expanded what they have on tap at …

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Review: Migration Brewing, Portland OR

MIGRATION BREWING, PORTLAND OR We stopped by Migration on a Sunday afternoon (30 Dec. 2014) as it’s one of our favorite NE breweries in Portland and it’s super conveniently located just south of NE Sandy off of 28th. They have a really friendly neighborhood vibe and super knowledgeable staff that make sure you’re taken care of. Years ago, when they first opened, they had a patio and small inside that was always packed. Now, they have an annex next to the main room and that helps keep the crowds spread out. As with most small breweries that serve food, you will run into CRIpods everywhere, there is no safe place except standing at the bar. On that note, the patio is super cool to hang out at when it’s nice outside and watch the kids run around if you’re into that. The walls have some sports memorabilia in tribute to the Trailblazers and the Timbers. Look up and check out their limited run scarves hanging in the rafters. They do put sports on their HDTV’s and run food/beer specials during games. Regarding their food, it’s somewhat limited to what you might consider as bar food, but it works when you’re …

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Review: Laurelwood Brewing, Portland OR

LAURELWOOD BREWING, PORTLAND OR This was the second stop on our Black Friday brewery crawl (28 Nov. 2014). The NE Sandy brewery location has some parking on the back and east side of the building. Inside, it has some windows to look in on what the brewers are up to and a full accompaniment of swag from clothing, hats, sauces (mustard, BBQ, etc.) for purchase at the front counter. The restaurant itself is broken into a few parts. The two main sections inside are for kids and large groups, the patio is only used during warm weather months. The bar area has self seating as well as seated booths towards the back. Keep in mind, that there are always a lot of kids in this restaurant, so you can not really get away from the criPODS if that’s important to you when enjoying a beer. The bar area is where we sat, next to the NE Sandy street entrance at a long table top in front of a huge picture window to watch the cars and people go by. The service at this location has always been good, and the bartender was quick to come over. Their menu is full …

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Review: Alameda Brewing, Portland OR

ALAMEDA BREWING, PORTLAND OR We stopped at a few breweries on Black Friday (28 Nov. 2014) when we were out and about, and this was were we went for lunch. We’ve been to Alameda brewing (EST. 1996) a number of times in the past and it’s always been a decent experience. As this is a brewery in a busy business/residential neighborhood, you need to be warned that there is a good chance that the table next to you, will have kids at it. Their food is better than bar food overall, with a large variety of sammiches, burgers, salads, and various other styles of food represented. The servers can be super busy at times, so you gotta be patient or sit at their bar top for quick service. The building itself is really echo-y (high ceilings), with brewery swag in a case to look at the front and brewery equipment/tanks being right there next to the bar. Their brewers work during the day, so if you stop at lunch, you might see them working, which is cool. Overall, it’s a decent place to go, their beers tend to be more middle of the road than memorable. I can honestly recommend …

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Review: Drop Anchor Brewing, Cathlamet WA

DROP ANCHOR BREWING, CATHLAMET WA Drop Anchor Brewing is the third brewery we visited on Saturday (15th Nov.) on our returning drive from the coast. We wanted to stop in the Longview area at some of the breweries and discovered this new brewery in Cathlamet (small fishing town 20 miles NW of Longview on the Columbia river) before we left that morning and decided to take the north route back to Longview and check it out. Please note, they have limited hours of operation: Friday and Saturday 4:00pm to 8:00pm with special days for boat clubs and special events. The location is a boat house next to Cathlamet Marina (including a boat ramp/dock). It’s owned/run by a couple of experienced brewers, Andy Lea (worked at Pyramid) and Steve Sharp (over a decade of home brewing). The small building includes tons of windows and a rough interior with the production in the back half, a small bar to sit at, as well as a few tables inside and outside. The overall feel is that of a small mom/pop operation, but the beer’s speak of decades of experience and skill. Drop Anchor Brewing www.dropanchorbrewery.com 285 3rd St, Cathlamet, WA 98612 (360) 355-4662 Here’s …

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