27 September 2018

Berlin 2018 - Thursday 2 August

A can of Warsteiner Pilsener (3 euros) on my Eurowings EW8462 flight from London Heathrow to Berlin Tegel airport was an inexpensive treat to get in the mood for a beer-orientated trip to the city.
Flight time passed quickly and despite warnings of delays at the overcrowded airport, with only hand luggage, transit through the airport was quick thanks to automated passport-checking booths.
I did not stop for a beer and currywurst at EsS-Bahn just outside the airport terminal but I did take a photo!
Having done some research into the various fares available, the best option for me, staying over 4 days and not planning to visit museums or tourist attactions, was a standard 7 day ticket.for zones A & B, costing 30 euros.
West section of Berlin transport map with route in orange
This ticket option was available on the 'more fares' (second) screen of the machine which accepted card payment. It then needed to be inserted into a validating machine before boarding the (TXL) bus.
Beusselstrasse S-bahn station
Berlin du bist so Wunderbar! - eastwards view from Halensee S-bahn station
A transfer to an anti-clockwise S-Bahn at Beusselstrasse for Halensee, left me near a bus stop for a short journey on a yellow double-decker bus to a stop near St Michaels-Heim hostel.
Wolf Vostell's Zwei Beton Cadillacs sculpture - Rathenau Platz
The bus route passes an unusual concrete sculpture in the middle of a roundabout at
Rathenau Platz. Constructed by Wolf Vostell in 1987, 'Two concrete Cadillacs in the form of naked Maya' some parts of the cars are still visible from some angles.
Biergarten am Herthasee / rear garden of St Michaels Heim
After checking in at St Michaels Heim hostel, it was necessary to return to reception to obtain an electric fan as my room was hot and lacking any air-con.
I was soon back on a bus to








25 September 2018

Berlin 2018 - Friday 3 August

With the weather forecast showing llittle chance of rain and a high chance of hot sunshine it was a day for wearing sunglasses, sandals and my green Downton Brewery polo shirt
At least there was some morning shade on the west facing patio of St Michaels Heim hostel where I could take my coffee (NB bring your own kettle and mug) and breakfast snack (also brought from UK to avoid 10 euro breakfast charge).
Having spied a tweet from Joe Stange on 24 July by searching for Biermeile on Twitter, my plan was to arrive at the 22nd International Berlin Beer Festival at opening time (noon) and head for the vicinity of lamppost 47 to start with a Schönramer Pils.
Barrel organ player on the shady side of Kurfürstendamm
The route from Grunewald hostel involved a 5 minute walk, bus to Kurfürstendamm U-bahn stop, a 5 minute walk to Zoologischer Garten station (once the central transport hub for West Berlin) and then 6 stops on the S-bahn eastbound, passing through Hauptbahnhof, to Alexanderplatz.
etched windows from interior of U5 line train
After going down from an elevated platform to an underground platform, past tempting bakery kiosks, the final stage was 4 stops on U5 from its current western terminus to Frankfurter Tor, the eastern end of the 'Biermeile'. This would be the first of several U5 journeys during the festival weekend!
Frankfurter Tor 1993
On arrival, I stopped to photograph one of the historic B&W photos of the Frankfurter Tor area in the underpass section of the U-bahn station.
Soon I was at street level and could take a contemporary photo of the same scene, showing Karl Marx Allee stretching westwards from Frankfurter Tor. The monumental socialist boulevard was built by the GDR between 1952 and 1960. At ground level, the 89 metre wide space has two separate roadways on the south side and a broad strip of grassland with trees on the north side, which is the location for the beer festival.
Tim - no protective headgear!
Unfotunately, I had forgotten to bring my Allagash Brewing cap to provide protection from the sun. There was time for a look around a multi-storey HUMANA charity shop at Frankfurter Tor 3, but there was no luck in my search for alternative headwear.
At noon I joined the queue at the festival information stand to buy a 'ProBierKrug' glass with 0.2l mark for 3.50 euro. I resisted the sales pitch to buy a lanyard with a carabiner clip (to attach to the handle of the glass) for an extra 3.50 euro! 
2.5 tall 'map' pages from 13 in the programme - that's 350 breweries!
The glass was supplied with a free festival programme 'Bier-Kompass' showing entertainment details and rough location of the beer stands. (The festival website also has a link to a 'Die Biermeile' tab which has multiple pages showing brewery stands between the lamppost numbers.)
With a ProBierKrug glass most breweries offer at least one beer at the 'ProBierPreis' 2.50 euros for 0.2l (2017 beer price was 2 euros). Without a festival glass, a Pfand (glass deposit) is also payable and the minimum measure may be 0.3l at a higher price per litre.
Schönramer Pils - from the green octagonal stand.
I went to the Schönramer stand where they were still setting things up. However, after a few minutes I was able to obtain the first glass of Schönramer (Bavarian) Pils. I found a seat at a bench on one of the few tables that had a sun umbrella. It was a nice surprise when Joe Stange appeared and introduced himself.
Joe Stange
Once Joe had a Schönramer Pils and a sausage he sat down and even took a look at the West Berkshire CAMRA Ullage magazine that I edit. Joe is an American living in Berlin and I was grateful for his suggestion that on my visit I should visit Foersters Feine Bier as it was the best beer bar reasonably close to my hostel in Grunewald.
Zachary Johnston - Twitter avatar
We were joined by a friend of Joe's, Zachary Johnston, another expat in Berlin, whose office is nearby. Originally from Washington's Olympic peninsula, Zach writes and broadcasts about beer,  food, music and travel..
Zach's Berlin BierMile instagram story for uproxxtravel includes video clips from the Biermeile and brief interviews with Joe Stange about Dérer's 'beer in disguise' and Schönramer Pils.
When it was time for another beer we went to the Dérer stand by our table and Joe explained that the Dérer branded Pils is brewed for the importer by Kout na Šumavě based in the Bohemian Forest of the Czech Republic.
Joe's and my tweets about meeting near lamppost 47 had been worthwhile as we were soon joined by beer writer 'Tandleman' (Peter) and his wife to swing our group's balance back in favour of the UK.
(I would meet up with Peter and Joe (briefly) again, six days later, at the Great British Beer Festival in Olympia, London, where Peter was a CAMRA volunteer and Joe had been leading a tutored tasting with Tim Webb 'New Influences on Belgian Beer').
I was keen to try one of the New Zealand beers selected as the festival's Motto 2018 - Beer from the other end of the world 'Neuseelands Hopfenseite'. This involved a bit of a walk to find the stand but I was pleased with my choice of draught Tomahawk, a 5.6% ABV American Pale Ale by Tuatara Brewery of Paraparaumu, north of Wellington.
The final link in the Twitter rendezvous was to meet up with Ron Pattinson an expert on the history of beer whose blog is Shut Up About Barclay Perkins.
A pleasant while later, when our group shrank with the departure of Joe and Zach, I joined Ron's table under a shady tree, behind the La Chouffe stand, where his wife and their two sons were already based. Although shadier it was also popular with wasps but somehow we managed to avoid spilling beer or getting stung! Ron's family had travelled from Amsterdam by train the previous day. His entertaining write up of Friday at the Biermeile is: Berlin day two (part two).

Nikolaiviertel

Brauhaus Georgbraeu (Photo: Mark Geeson)
When it was time for Ron and Andrew to depart and rejoin Dolores and Alexei who had gone back to their hotel earlier, I set off to meet up with Mark Geeson and his group who had now checked into their hotel and were at Brauhaus Georgbraeu, Spreeufer 4, a bar and brewery with copper vessels in Nikolaiviertel on the north bank of the river.
en route from Alexanderplatz to Nikolaiviertel: St Marienkirche and Fernsehturm
On the walk from Alexanderplatz U-bahn station to Brauhaus Georgbraeu, I noticed building work going on.
A poster on a temporary barrier explains the works are for extending the U5 line from Alexanderplatz to Hauptbahnhof with a new station at Rotes Rathaus (Berlin's Town Hall - built of red brick).

Zum Nussbaum

When I reached Brauhaus Georgbrau, Mark and the group had finished their beers at an outdoor table and were ready to head to the beer festival. However, a compromise was reached that we would go to Zum Nussbaum (Under the Nut Tree Inn) first. This was only 100 metres, along Propstrasse, at Am Nussbaum 3.
St Nikolai-Kirche - opposite Von Nussbaum
The original inn was destroyed by a bombing raid in 1943. In 1987, it was rebuilt in the Nikolaiviertel (the quarter around St Nikolai-kirche), as part of the DDR creation of an old town for tourists.
Zum Nussbaum - the 'Farnham Travel / Trubbel' group!
L to R: Dad, Geoff, Den, Peter, Wookie, Gillian, Bod, Mark, John & Phil
Although the tables were busy outside, we found two adjacent tables in the front room of the inn. A waiter took our orders including my Potsdamer Rex Pils from Berliner-Kindl-Schultheiss-Brauerei (4.20 euros / 50cl) which was served in a tall tankard with a handle.  
Von Nussbaum - Mark Geeson's panoramic photo
With the room to ourselves, we decided to have a second beer here and this time I enjoyed a tall glass of Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen (4.50 euros / 50cl).

Belin Biermeile (evening)

Fernsehturm and Rotes Rathaus
It was nearly 7pm by the time we passed the Rotes Rathaus on the way to Alexanderplatz for the U5 back to Frankfurter Tor.
It took a while for the group to get their festival glasses so I went ahead to get a Montestella lager from the Birrificio Lambrate stand, near the information stand.
(The beer is named after Monte Stella, a 25 metre artificial hill, built from WWII bombing rubble in Milan under the supervision of architect Pierro Bottoni who dedicated it to his wife Stella.)
The most impressive stand was the pirate ship for Störtebeker Braumanufaktur. Based in the Baltic coastal town of Stralsund, in 2011 the brewery was renamed from Stralsunder Brauerei in homage to the German pirate Klaus Störtebeker (1360-1401).
We had sausage or pork steak in a roll for supper from one of the many grill stands at the festival.
The Sussex CAMRA crew (Phil, Wookie, Dad, Geoff, John and Den) tired of the festival and headed to Zur Letzten Instanz from Weberwiese U-bahn station half way down Karl Marx Allee. 
My last beer of the evening was a 6.9% ABV Mysterious Orange IPA brewed in Zwolen, Poland by Browar Maryenzstadt. I said goodbye to Mark and Bod and headed for Weberwiese U-bahn station.
Mark and Bod carried on walking west, stopping at beer stands on the way. By the time they reached Strausberger Platz U-bahn at midnight the festival was closing so they headed directly back to their hotel.
Returning to my hostel involved U5 from Weberwiese and S-bahn from Alexanderplatz to Zoologischer Garten. I forgot to turn right at the road junction outside the station and ended up walking near Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, a landmark with its bomb damaged spire. Eventually I found the bus stop on Kurfürstendamm and after the bus ride and a final walk, on a warm night, got back to the hostel soon after midnight.

Friday Summary:

Beer writers met for first time c/o Twitter: 4
Beers enjoyed from: Germany, Czech Republic, New Zealand & Poland.
Travel trips (using 7 day pass) on: Buses (3), S-Bahn (2), U-Bahn (4)

Tim's Berlin Biermeile tips:

Do:                                          Don't:
Bring: sunglasses, suncream, water, euros    
                                                 Forget: headwear, emergency beermat
Spend 3.50 euro to buy the 0.2l festival glass
                                                 Spend 3.50 euro to buy a lanyard with a clip
Get a festival guide 'map' from an info stand
                                                 Expect card payments to be accepted
Check 'Die Biermeile' tab on festival website
                                                 Forget to take photos to remember details and faces
Plan a rendezvous in advance eg near lampost 47
                                                  Expect all stands to be ready at noon on Friday
Move to a seat in the shade if you can find one    
                                                  Sit in front of a stage if you don't want music
Visit excellent bars in Friedrichshain as well        
                                                  Expect high standards from temp festival staff
Enjoy grilled sausages etc from the food stands
                                                  Expect to find a variety of vegetarian food
Be aware of wasps that may be intoxicated!  
                                                  Be shocked by revealing outfits at some stands!
Find quiet times at afternoons or Sunday evening
                                                  Get trampled in the Friday & Saturday night crush


         
See also my posts that include further visits to the Biermeile, bars and breweries:
Berlin - Saturday: Stone Brewing,  Berlin Biermeile, Protokoll Taproom, Labor Berlin
Berlin - Sunday: BRLO Brewhouse, Berlin Biermeile, Hops & Barley, Zur Letzten Instanz
Berlin - Monday: Foersters Feine Bier, Frau Maus, Spinnrad