Beers with Niki

We went out Friday night with Flo´s brother Niki and his friend Malte for some beers. He took us to the Gröninger brauhaus, a quaint and beautiful ´brewpub´ across the avenue from the famed Chilehaus (for its architecture…it has nothing to do with the chiles I thought). The brauhaus is just under ground level, darkly lit by candles and yellow lamps. We felt fortunate to get a seat immediately on a Friday night. We walked past huge copper brewing eqipment to our seats.

We sat and the waitress asked if we would like beers, to which the four of us replied in the affirmative in varying degrees of Deutsch. I was surprised when she walked away and returned shortly with four .2 liter steins. Gröninger only comes in one flavor, even when it comes in two. The Gröninger Pils is very good, a light and rich German Pilsener, not heavy on the hops, but its mellow bitter melds wonderfully with the golden malt. They are proud of the natural cloudiness of their beer, which I attribute to its not being filtered, but really couldn´t explain for sure.

In addition to the only beer they brew and sell, they also brew and sell a maibock, though this appears to be only seasonally. Fortunately, we visited in the right season and ordered a round of this strong dark lager. These stronger varieties of beer are rarely my favorites, and this was no exception. The maibock was a bit sweeter and slightly syrupy. Held to the candle, a deep amber hue was evident in the otherwise black beer. I didn´t detect much aroma amongst the smells of the bakery and cigarettes. It had a medium-light body. Overall, I did enjoy the maibock, but I was very happy to switch back to the pilsener.

Our German hosts also forced shots on us. Just one, a green concoction they called sours which actually tasted quite good, and was not so strong as to throw me for a loop. Of course, I felt like I could drink five more of them, but decided that might be a bad idea and they´d probably end up rolling me to the U-bahn.

The brauhaus itself contained a wonderful beerdrinking environment. The tables with large parties were fitted with 10- or 20-liter barrel kegs with wooden stoppers, so that they don´t need to wait for the speedy (especially so in German measures!) wait staff to bring them another round. A birthday party behind me frequently broke out in song. The party to my right upon finishing their 10L barrel stayed for some time, laughing heartily.

Waling to the restroom, some tables are set into huge wooden barrels, to better allow you to drink yourself into a barrel. There is also a bakery with bretzel, breads, and cheese. The restroom itself is prepared for quite an influx of guests, with at least fifteen stations. There is also a nod to Roman sensibilities with a porcelain sink, with a large drain at the bottom and no hand faucet, if you catch my drift.

We got out a bit before one in order to catch the U-bahn. A pretty short walk to the station, about five minutes. On the way there was an entertaining anti-USA video showing in a store window. Some bicycles zipped past, and some happy drunks wandered by. The U-bahn was quiet and uneventful.