OK, to appease those of you who want more beer, less history, here's a whole page devoted to the nectar. We're actually home now; it simply proved impossible to keep up with this log on the trip. When forced to choose between going out and seeing Germany or sitting in the hotel lobby on-line at $4.50/hour, the correct course of action was clear.
This is the first brewpub we visited in Berlin: Brauhaus Mitte, named for the neighborhood in central Berlin were it is located. It is right off Alexander Platz, in the former east, near the very tall television tower.

We started the evening dining outside, but then moved in for more beer as the air became cooler.

The beers here are good. The Pils, which Jenn is drinking in the above photo , is a very nice beer, with spicy hop flavors, good pilsner malt and then a bitter finish that is more like a Czech pils in its softness.

The Hefeweizen in the pic is mine, and is a standard Bavarian version, with a good malt flavor balanced by the yeast-derived banana and clove character. The finish is perhaps too hoppy for my taste, but a I had no trouble finishing the half liter. Note that it is served without lemon!

They also offer an unfiltered "Zwickelbier," rich with toasty malt character and a surprisingly spicy Dunkles, both of which are good, but I like the Pils best.

The next day found us across the city, in Charlottenberg, were we visited a palace and a very cool bar: Das Haus der 100 Biere.

If you've never been to Germany, you may be under the mistaken impression that it is a beer paradise. In some ways it is; the beer quality tends to be very high. Germany is becoming stylistically monotonous, however, with bitter German pilsner holding the vast majority of market share. It is tough to find imported beers, especially from neighboring Belgium, but this place had 'em, along with domestic beers rarely found outside their home towns.

We started the evening with Andechs Doppelbock, a Bavarian rarity that I did not expect to find on draft on this trip in northern Germany. It was sublime; malty with notes of toasted bread crust and a gentle astringency balancing the finish. It is as intensely malty as my Bock, but without the burnt sugar and caramel notes. Elegant and delicious!

The food on the shovel was my meal for the night: Pferdaeppel. If you speak a little German, you might think that means, "horse droppings," because it does. I couldn't pass up a dish so colorfully named! It turned out to be spicy meat balls with a ton of potatoes.

It was very tasty, and the presentation speaks for itself.

As you can see in the photo, night has fallen, and yet Jenn is still able to read the paper. The service in Germany tends to be a little slow by American standards. In a way, this is good: our livers survived the trip. On the other hand, we could have sampled many more beers had the servers been more expedient. The two waitresses that worked Das Haus der 100 Biere this evening were completely slammed by the rather large crowd. We'll just have to get an earlier start next time.

The pictured bottle of Hoevels Bitterbier, from Dortmund, was past its prime. I also had an Einbecker Bock, which was good but not exciting after the Andechs. We also had some Orval, just to be different. The waitress acted as if she had never heard the name before!

This was a great place that we will visit again.

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