Krombacher

This bottle of Krombacher (4.8% abv) helped wash down a nice slice of pizza! The beer itself is a refreshing and hoppy pils that is a decent example of a Dortmunder style Pilsener. The brewery is located in Krombach, which is a suburb of Kreuztal near Siegen, a small city in a part of Germany called Siegerland. Siegerland is located in the south east of the German state of North Rhine Westphalia. The small town of Krombach is located at the foot of the Rothaargebirge hills where locally sourced natural spring water is used to produce the beer. Anyhow that side, the weather was warm and the self proclaimed 'Number 1 Premium Beer of Germany' lived up to its name while I ate my lunch at Berlin's Potzdamer Platz. Potzdamer Platz itself is really interesting as it was basically the 'no mans land' between East and West Berlin. Now it houses an IMAX cinema, an Australian themed bar and numerous highrise buildings. Anyhow, Krombacher has a website here.

Radeberger Pils

Coming towards the end of my Berlin adventure I bought a bottle of Radeberger Pils (4.8% abv). I won't harp on about the beer too much as it was pretty standard compared to some of the other beers I had in Berlin. Basically it's gassy, straw coloured weak malt profile, noble hop aroima with a slightly spicy aftertaste, but nothing to write home about. Impressive looking bottle though, lots of shiny foil! German website here

Erdinger Weissbier 3

Ok, another beer that I have had already this year. Erdinger tastes the same the world over! Its no diferrent in Germany either! Ok for what it is, but it is still the worlds most mass produced wheat beer. It was one of my first postings to this blog, read about it here.

Bitburger Pils 2

Yes, I did manage to find Bitburger during my travels. It actually seems to be everywhere in Berlin and I couldnt avoid it forever! I think its actually a bit nicer in the bottle than from draught, but then maybe its because I ordered it in a restaurant rather than in a dedicated pub where the lines would be cleaned regularly. Over all my opinion hasn't changed since I last blogged about it. It still gets the job done!

Weihenstephan Hefeweissbier

Prater is an institution in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg. A beer garden built in an old ampitheatre that could mistake you for being in the heart of Bavaria. This place is literally huge and has a low key social almost family like vibe about it, and its reputation as the place to be on a Sunday afternoon led me down there to enjoy a nice sampling of Weihenstephan Hefeweissbier (5.4% abv). This beer pours to an orange/tan color with a cloudy body and a large head of foam. The foam settles into place rather quickly, but it maintains a thin, white layer throughout the drinking experience. The nose of this beer is yeasty, with a little bit of fruit and hop spiciness/dryness. To be honest I am not really into wheat beers that much as I generally can't distinguish a lot between different brands and even different wheat beer styles. So lets keep it simple and just say that it was no better or worse than any others I have tried and went down rather nicely in the warmth of the sun whilst eating a Pretzal!

Berliner Kindl

When in Berlin there is one culinary delight that should not be missed 'Currywurst!' Street side vendors selling this simple delicious delight are everywhere around the German captital and most of them sell a pale pils called 'Berliner kindl' (5.1% abv). The beer is good, but not exceptional and is the perfect companion alongside a plate of currywurst. My favourite currywurst vendor/beer garden happens to be the Berliner Kindl setup just down the street from Checkpoint Charlie. Its simple, urban and allows you to take in some of the best communist era architecture in Germany. I think the beer may be new to the market as there is not a great deal of information in regards. The official website is written completely in German and I find that when in Germany, its best to let pictures do the explaining as illustrated on this small cubicle like building below! What exactly does City Pissoir mean anyway?

Köstritzer Schwarzbier

The second Schwarzbier I had on my trip was Köstritzer (4.8%), a dark black lager of exteremely high standard. This beer is particularly remarkable espcially the feat of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who sustained himself on black beer from Köstritz when he was unable to eat during a period of illness. The brewery has a long history after being founded in 1543 and it is one of the oldest producers of Schwarzbier (black beer) in Germany. The brewery is now owned by Bitburger.

The beer does indeed look almost black, but is in fact a very dark brown colour when held up to the light, with a pale, fine-bubbled and lasting head. Nose is of dark malt, roast coffee, black treacle and dark dried fruit. It is quite lively in the mouth, with initially a somewhat lactic taste of creamy coffee, but quickly developing into rich, malty and dark but slightly sour fruity flavours - figs, blackcurrants, black cherries, black treacle, burnt sugar, dark chocolate, bitter dark-roast coffee (still with a dash of cream) and a touch of hop. The more bitter of these flavours (coffee, chocolate, hops) increase in intensity towards the finish, though still tempered by sweeter red fruit notes. Aftertaste is a gorgeous lingering malty bitterness, much like a dry stout, with a warming, spicy touch that wouldn't be out of place in a much stronger beer. A thoroughly lovely experience from start to finish. I'll get my hand off it now!

The closest thing I could find to an official website is this one which is bizarely enough a beers of Austria website!

Berliner Pilsner

Ok, I am not going to spend much time on this beer, as basically it was terrible and tasted like cats piss. Basically this forum comment sums it up nicely when it describes the beer as 'the beer of choice for construction workers around Berlin'....... just think the Berliner version of Carling. there is an official site here. Also the worlds dodgiest TV ad.

Holsten Pils

Holsten Pils is a well-known 'quality' mass-market beer which has a white, loose, thin yet lasting head and an aroma of stewed hops with a touch of malt. Hops are also apparent in the mouth (Saaz, but with occasional Goldings-like notes). Again there is a little malt. There is also a slightly tinny taste, perhaps due to overstewing of the hops. It is very lively, fizzy and belch-inducing. Towards the finish there is a cloying, slightly caramelly malt flavour. Overall this isn't too horrendous or too bland - both common failings of this market segment. More flavour than your standard ubiquitous pilsner-clone, but still well short of being an interesting beer. In light of this I could pretty much blog exactly the same stuff as Weinhenstephan Pils for Holsten Pils (5.5% abv) however the circumstances surrounding the beer are much more noteworthy! I can't remember the name of the cafe/bar, except that it is directly across the market square from the Weinhenstephan brauhaus. The staff in this bar were exteremely rude also! Anyhow after ordering my Holsten, I decided it was time to have a snack and ordered a weiner schnitzel. The half pig in the picture below is what I was served - lovely!

Oh, and I even managed to find a nice video! Score.....

Weihenstephan Pilsner

The second beer I ordered at the Weinhenstephan Brauhaus was their Pilsner (5.1% abv). The beer is a typical bavarial style pilsner. Its a little plain an not as good as other pilsners from the region and was a little dissapointing, although it did remind me of my last trip to Munich 2 years ago. Its a clean tasting beer with both malt and hop character, but not as bitter as it probably should be. This leaves the beer a little unbalanced in my opinion. Website

Weihenstephan Tradition

Berlin has its fair share of beer halls and gardens, and in my walk around town I stumbled upon the Weinhenstephan Brauhaus. Weinhenstephan is a Bavarian brewery (which is actually owned by the state of Bavaria)which produces iconic wheat beer (especially their hefeweissen), a Pils and various other beers. I was hoping to grab some dinner here, but the menu was a little limited so I settled down for a krug of their Tradition (5.2% abv), a dark, malty, bock style lager. I am not sure that bock is the correct beer style, as the beer does have some leanings towards Dusseldorfer Alt biers and is similar in colour and malt profile. Needless to say the beer was a lot more tasty/tasteful that the East German (DDR)communist architecture! You can find more our at the official website here.

Berliner Weiss

Whilst in Berlin the first German beer I tried was Berliner Weiss a beer that has long been on my list of beer styles to try. Coming from Australia where my only experience with the style was an effort by and AHB member called Seth in a xmas case. That example smelt and tasted like cheese, so i was a little unsure of what to expect. I went to the bar and ordered 'ein berliner weiss bitter', I was responded with 'rot or grun' to which I replied 'grun'. then the beer was delivered. My wife laughed as basically berliner weiss would be called a 'girly drink' anywhere else in the world. Basically its soured wheat beer with woodruff syrup, it bright green and comes in a milkshake tumbler with a straw!

"To be more technical Berliner Weisse is a top-fermented, bottle conditioned wheat beer made with both traditional warm-fermenting yeasts and lactobacillus culture. They have a rapidly vanishing head and a clear, pale golden straw-coloured appearance. The taste is refreshing, tart, sour and acidic, with a lemony-citric fruit sharpness and almost no hop bitterness. With food, they would make a good aperitif and might go well with cheeses and salads. Michael Jackson [1] reckons they can be used in chilled fruit soups.
Berliner Weisse can be difficult to find in the UK, but both Berliner Kindl and Schultheiss Berliner Weisse are available from Beers of Europe. Schultheiss Berliner Weisse is also available at the Bhurtpore Inn, Cheshire.
Schultheiss originally had breweries in East and West Berlin (before the city was divided). The East Berlin brewery was taken under state ownership when a Stalinist regime was imposed after the Second World War. Michael Jackson compares the East and West versions of Schultheiss Berliner Weiss in his "Beer Companion" [2]. When Germany reunified the East Berlin brewery at Pankow was re-acquired by Schultheiss and eventually closed, with production continuing only in the West of the city. The old Schultheiss brewery on Knaackstrasse, Prenzlauer Berg, is now an arts and culture centre (http://www.kulturbrauerei.de/). Schultheiss also brew a range of other beers including a pilsner but they don't seem to push it hard on the export market. Schultheiss is now part of the Brau und Brunnen group [http://www.brauundbrunnen.de/], so maybe they prefer to export mainly their more well known pilsners like Jever or Dortmunder Union. I haven't found the other Schultheiss beers on sale in the UK yet, and if the pils is anything to go by, that's no great loss. Schultheiss Berliner Weisse is easier to find as specialist off licences will seek it out as it's an example of a rare type but Schultheiss Pilsners are so ubiquitous that only the well known make a big impact on the export market."

I stole that last part and i can't find the URL for attribution, but as its a girls drink nobody will notice!

Kamenitza Dark

I went to Berlin for the May Bank Holiday weekend. Upon arriving on the Friday night, the Mrs and I went out in search of a feed and what we thought was an Italian restaurant turned out to be a Bulgarian one! I ordered a Kamenitza Dark or Schwartzbier which was actually surprisingly good. Having not had the pleasure of drinking Bulgarian beer before I took to it with a gusto! Actually these Eastern Euporean beers are actually very easy to blog about as there seems to be an ubundance of informatioj regarding them. For example, this fellow here: describes the beer as "somewhere between an English mild and a belgian dubbel". Now WTF??? how do you get that from a dark lager? The official website seems kind of lame, so there is not much info there. However Wikipedia truly does know all in this case!

Kamenitza (Bulgarian: Каменица) is one of the top-selling Bulgarian beer companies, based in the city of Plovdiv. Established in 1881 and as of 2006 owned by InBev, the brewery has a wide variety of lager and dark beers. Kamenitza had an 18% share of the Bulgarian beer market in 2005[1] according to data from ACNielsen. The company is a sponsor of the Bulgaria national football team.

History
Historical information in this section is from [Vatahov 2006][2] In 1881 three Swiss entrepreneurs built a brewery in Plovdiv on a hill called Kamenitza and used the name as their brand. The drink of choice for most Bulgarians at the time was lager, but Kamenitza broke new ground by producing the first dark beer for the market. By the 1890s they won awards at international exhibitions, including Brussels and Chicago. The communist regime nationalised Kamenitza: first, in 1947, as part of the state-owned Alcoholic Beverages, then in 1952 as part of Vinprom. The Belgian multinational company InBev bought the Bulgarian breweries Kamenitza, Astika and Burgasko Pivo in 1995 and added Plevensko Pivo in 1997. During 1997 to 2005, InBev invested 86.3 million leva in Bulgaria, and in 2005 Kamenitza sold 800,000 hectoliters, making it the best-selling domestic beer.[1]

I even managed to find a corny TV advert! Enjoy