Despite a pretty bleak year, there have certainly been some great beery experiences. And Golden Pints seemed like a fun way to briefly sum some of them up. Happy 2021! Best brewery In summer 2020, I moved to Berlin and immediately fell in love with the Hausbrauerei Eschenbräu, tucked away in Berlin-Wedding. I have been … Continue reading Golden Pints 2020
A friend told me recently about a conversation he had with some craft brewers that he met at a local brewery. My pal is a German Braumeister and introduced himself to his fellow industry colleagues as such. Apparently, they retorted with something along the lines of: "Braumeister is an outdated concept and we don't like … Continue reading Braumeister Syndrome
I recently moved to Berlin. And I'm very excited about this. After an extended spell in Bonn and a short stay in Edinburgh cut even shorter by “The Thing”, I had some fresh perspective and was looking forward to a change of scenery. So I packed my suitcase, jumped on a train and moved to … Continue reading Drinking beer in Berlin
On my recent trip to Nuremberg I spent a day hiking in the fränkische Schweiz - a rural, particularly picturesque region of the southern German Franconia - following the 5 Seidla Steig hiking route. Seidla is Franconian dialect for a 500ml mug of beer and yes, that's right folks, it's a beer hike. This is one of the … Continue reading Walking the 5 Seidla Steig – a beery day hike in Franconia
German brewers take their hops seriously and this festival was organised to celebrate the 2017 hop harvest. Bäm Bäm Bräu is a nano-brewery collaborative in Cologne Ehrenfeld run by 6 incredibly passionate home brewers. They kindly invited Ale-Mania to pour beers last night at the third annual hop harvest festival and to get a little … Continue reading Hopfendankfest at Bäm Bäm Bräu in Cologne
When we were invited to pour Ale-Mania beer at the annual beer festival in Lingen the first thought that crossed my mind was where the hell is Lingen? With the help of Google Maps and Wikipedia I learnt that Lingen is a small northern German town in the federal state Lower Saxony, not far from … Continue reading Lingener Bierkultur festival, September 2017
In this globalised beer market there is a fluid exchange of beery knowledge and brewing expertise and this is undoubtedly a great thing. The Bavarian brewer Gabriel Sedlmayr II first introduced the Brits to bottom fermented lager beer in the 1830s (which came decades before foreign, premium lager was commercialised and subsequently bastardised in the … Continue reading Warm, flat English beer in Germany
For most brewers on this planet the brewing process begins in the brewery. Makes sense, right? Whether the process begins by milling the malt, or if you are a home brewer/do not own a mill, brewing can even start by mashing in. However, the German brewer dials things back one step and endorses the idea … Continue reading Harvest time in a Franconian malt house
On Monday 26th June my classmates and I went on a class visit to the Schumacher Brauerei in Düsseldorf. No, this wasn’t the kind of school trip where you have to get permission slips from parents/guardians and bring packed lunches. This was the type where you get to visit historical breweries and drink tasty Altbier. … Continue reading A beery school trip to Düsseldorf
Hop & Schwein 