Do you wanna come party with me? (BraufactuM in heavily German accented English) 
Ja, gerne! (SHE SAID in American accented German)
Come join the family, yo. (BraufactuM in heavily German accented English)
So let’s flow, yo. (SHE SAID in American accented English)

This led to:

BraufactuM + Brooklyn Brewery + Berlin = one sunny March weekend + 3 events = much fun + tasty beer

We attended two of those events - a small beer-food degustation at Harry’s New York Bar and a lunch at the brand new restaurant Das Meisterstück.

(Photos courtesy of BraufactuM’s Facebook page)

SHE SAID
I wish I could write something whitty and funny here, but as the logical, boring half of HE SAID/SHE SAID, I can’t. I am very left-brained. I like facts. Cold, hard, dry facts. So you can skip my part, as it’s dry and boring. HE SAID should be far more interesting (I hope).

I’ve got a cellar with various BraufactuM beers in it, but until our Berlin expedition, I had only ever tried one (Progusta). As for Brooklyn’s beers, I’d only ever had two (Lager and Local 1). And based on my limited previous experience, I was more of a BraufactuM fan. But after Berlin… well, I still prefer BraufactuM. Nothing against Brooklyn Brewery and/or Garrett Oliver. I do understand his contribution to the world of craft beer, and to have someone like him come to the Vaterland to help the fledgling craft beer scene here is a big bonus. Hence I went.

Over the course of the two events we attended, we sampled several beers – all good, some more so. HE SAID sampled far more than SHE SAID, as SHE SAID had to work on Monday. And being responsible, SHE SAID went to bed instead of staying out partying with the brewers. See told you I was boring. But for a list of what passed over my palate:

• Brooklyn Brewery: Lager, Sorachi Ace, Cuvée Elijah, Local 1, Local 2, Blast!
• BraufactuM: Progusta, Clan, Roog, Darkon
• Giesinger Bräu Sternhagel

I’m not going to give you a review of every beer. If I did, you’d probably go to sleep. And besides, I can’t review every beer in detail, because frankly, at one point I had had too much beer, and my palate was blown (as was my judgement). Let’s just say the standouts to me were Sorachi Ace, Cuvée Elijah, and Progusta. Clan and Sternhagel were also very nice.

The event at Harry’s New York Bar put most beer events I have attended to shame. This was problem #1 with reviewing in detail. For 20€ we filled out bellies with heaps of beer and tasty little paired snacks. When sitting at the bar and the bartenders keep giving you beer (especially Progusta and Sorachi Ace), how can you say no? I figured they would’ve cut me off after I spilled my water within the first 10 minutes (and only half a tasting of beer). But no. They apparently felt I needed more beer. Perhaps I become less clumsy with EtOH in my system. I know my beer reviewing skills don’t improve.

(Photo courtesy of BraufactuM’s Facebook page)

This was the first time I drank a beer with the Sorachi Ace hop and actually liked it! My nose was filled with lemon and dill… my mouth with saison-y, citrusy, dilly goodness. I had to shake Mr. Oliver’s hand for making me like the Sorachi Ace hop for once. I then proceeded to ask him if he could do the same for the Citra hop, and the message I pretty much got was “not yet”. The other standouts were the Cuvée Elijah with a half-molten chocolate souffle with vanilla-Cuvée Elijah ice cream, as well as the BraufactuM Clan with venison ravioli and kaffir lime foam.

The lunch at Das Meisterstück was also a fantastic event. This newly opened restaurant features essentially the three main staples of the German diet – Brot, Wurst and Bier. Artisan bread, gourmet sausages and craft beer are the focus of this lovely restaurant in the Hausvogteiplatz.

(Photos courtesy of BraufactuM’s Facebook page)

We sampled everything from house-made Leberwurst paired with Progusta to Duck sausage paired with Brooklyn Lager.

At the end of the lunch, there was a free-for-all on beers (and deserts) not part of the food-beer pairing… a sort of “Here, try these beers and these deserts… we let you pair”. Or at least that’s how I wanted it to be, even though it seemed as if the focus was the beer and less the pairing with food (which I think was the idea, as it was a beer event.)  The stand-out for the German crowd seemed to be the Brooklyn Brewery Blast! It was good, but I think there are better (e.g., MPB). I personally found the Sternhagel quite tasty, which the Germans I spoke to looked at me kinda crazy when I said that. That’s ok. I let them have Blast!, and I had Sternhagel.

(Photos courtesy of BraufactuM’s Facebook page)

HE SAID
Ahh Berlin, such rich in history, the rise and fall of many a dictator, current seat of German political thingys, and by the look of the amount of people that came out to the two events we attended, the next revolution in German beer. Yes, I’m sure the chance to be in the same room as Garrett Oliver was a major draw. But, seriously, I came for the beer… well that, and I had a business meeting (of sorts). First up was Harry’s New York Bar, a nice little bar on the ground floor of a hotel, 20€ got us in the door and then the German hospitality began. Best to think of it as a Niagara Falls of beer with little canape boats intermittently being thrown over the edge. We drank and drank and drank and drank. Oh look food!!! NOM NOM NOM NOM. More beer? Why yes, thank you. The stand out was the Brooklyn Sorachi Ace, amazingly balanced with nice citrusy characters, like a lemon head but as a beer. And Cuvee Elijah, one of Garrett’s Ghost Beers, as it it doesn’t really exist as a SKU sellable beer… but for those lucky few, it’s wonderful. Dark, smoky and smooth, just like a seedy back room jazz lounge.

At this point things get a little blurry. Here’s why. Remember that sort of business meeting I had? Well, it led me to a just opened restaurant. As in just opened the day before. This was about midnight or close to it. I accompanied Mr. Oliver and an entourage of about 10-15 hangers on from Harry’s to Das Meisterstück or “The Masterpiece.” And quite frankly for the things I like it was meat on open flames and beer in copious amounts. I ate, drank and chatted with Garrett and Marc Rauschmann of BraufactuM for about another two hours. So for a mere 20€ + 10€ cab fare I had 8 hours of beer and food decadence.

We made our way to Das Meisterstück for a lunch the following day. And I knew exactly where it was. Well, OK maybe I knew that I had visited it the previous night. I had passed a building that looked like “that one” and “Hey, there’s that Löwenbräu sign we passed, so we should take a left, a right. OK, so here’s the little green park area. Yeah I don’t really remember.” We finally made it there, and meat and beer were still the theme. As if I might have been merely dreaming such a delightful combination. Greeted with BraufactuM’s Progusta and housemade Leberwurst and bread, and more beer and more beer and more beer….a pattern emerges. Germans like to drink. We pretty much heard the same spiel from Garrett as the night before, though I did notice that his dates moved a decade and the number of breweries became about a 100 or so lighter overnight. I blame it on repetition and the fact he has to keep himself entertained. “I think I’ll just screw with these numbers a bit for shits and giggles.” I almost thought about calling him out on it. You know like a real beer snob. Which I’m not so I didn’t. Food was served. AMAZING!!! I highly recommend if you’re in Berlin, stop by Das Meisterstück. And then a beery free-for-all. I think there was about 7 beers… all 750mL… about 7-8 bottle deep… that soon multiplied to well over twice that many consumed by those in attendance.

Overall it was a fantastic experience that I would have easily payed more for in “other countries”. However, for the cost I can’t believe how good it was.

Brewery: Häffner Bräu
City: Bad Rappenau, Baden-Württemberg
Brewer: Thomas Wachno
Website: http://www.haeffner-braeu.de/Hopfenstopfer/
Style: Strong Ale
Alcohol: 10.3%
Original Wort: 22.5%
Serving: 330ml bottle, poured into stemmed tulip glass

A single hop strong ale… made in Germany?!?!?!? Hey, there are stranger things out there. Hundreds of years of experience of brewing (mainly) lager and pils makes for a good, but sometimes boring, brew. But there are a few “renegades” out there… brewers “taking chances” in a lager-laden palate. We picked this one up in Hamboich (Hamburg for you non-German speakers) at Bierland on a recent overnight weekend let’s-be-100€-poorer-thanks-to-beer trip.

SHE SAID
Tasting Notes: Sweet, ethanol aroma, apricot… with a bit of vomit (yes, vomit) sneaking in. VERY sweet, warming, heavy mouth feel (almost sticky), minimal carbonation, strong malt backbone. Tastes of flowers, citrus (grapefruit), pine resin.

Better as it warms. Essentially dessert in a glass. Although not what I would choose to drink, it’s a nice effort and good start to a promising craft beer future for Germany.

Rating: 5/10

HE SAID
Tasting Notes: Sweet, with a medium thick body, minimal head, mostly strong caramel malty smell with a hit of Amarillo coming through on the back (faint at cellar temp). Tastes of chewy caramel with light citrus and pine. As it warmed the Amarillo began to come through, and the body thickened up. It becomes dessert, I like dessert, I like beers that taste like dessert,  so much so that I wish we had bought more. I looking forward to the Chinook. I’m looking forward to tracking down more “Adventurous” German brewers as they try to work within the constraints of the Rheinheitsgebot, using more and different hops, malts and yeasts.

Rating: 7/10

(Thomas Wachno – Photo courtesy of the Hopfenstopfer Facebook page)

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