In the beginning, it was just beer... and then, a never ending saga!
It all started for us about 5 years ago, one perfect summer day to enjoy a nice evening out with our good friend, Ralph. He suggested a new restaurant with a brewery next door, Ratsherrn - one of the first craft breweries in Hamburg and now by far one of the most famous. We, of course, always have enjoyed drinking a pint or two and then a third in good company, so this was a perfect opportunity to get together. Little did we know this evening would be the start of something that has lasted till today.
You have to remember, at this time, 2013, craft beer was practically non-existent in Germany with maybe a dozen or so exceptions in all of Germany that no one had really heard of. The Germans are very proud of their “German Purity Law of 1516” and think that their beers (mainly pilseners) are the perfection of millinia of brewing history...and German beer is pretty much always good quality...so why the need to change it? Or as the typical German saying goes: “never change a winning team!”. There we were, in the new hip brew pub altogether deciding what beer we should order with no clue about what was about to hit us.
Yes, they had a pilsener, Lager and a standard wheat beer, but what was a Rotbier, Trappist, Zwickel, or West Coast India Pale Ale? Yes, of course, the names where somewhere in the back of our heads, what it meant and how it tasted...not a clue.
So we decided to all each order their standard tasting tray of 5 different beers. Lager - pilsener - Rotbier - pale ale - West Coast IPA. The lovely waitress explained that it would be best to start from the left and working our way to the end in that order. Ok, sounds fun and a good plan. Well then...Cheers!
First gulp, a lager. Wow, that is nice. Actually enjoyable in comparison to the lagers that we, for example, knew from Coors, Miller or Anheuser Busch and co. Some of us, unfortunately, have had experiences with U.S. Lagers. They are ironically (as they were invented in Germany) not easy now a days to find in Germany as most Germans drink pilseners. A good start, onto the next one.
A sip of their pilsener. Hmmm... interesting. hey this taste different than normal pilseners! A light lemony flavour to it but also a nice slight bitterness on the way down. All right, this time it caught our attention and the conversation started to turn from our personal stories and lives to the beer we were drinking.
The next glass was very unusual for us and we had no idea how it would taste - the Rotbier (amber beer). We first all notice the beautiful amber colour which led us to guess what it might taste like. Well, of course, we didnt philosophize about it too long! Hatch open and bombs away! WOHH!!! What is this??? This can´t be beer!!! Beer doesn´t taste like this... A sweet caramel aroma and nice malty flavour to it. Ok, ok... no worries, check the menu. Maybe they got the order mixed up? Everyone running through the menu descriptions of beers to make some sense of this. Yep, there it was in the middle of the menu, and as a matter of fact, it was beer.
By now we were certain that we had all found our lucky favourite for the next round. How wrong we were!
The last two...a pale ale and West Coast India Pale Ale. Both of which were completely different than the others. Wait a minute! What to do now? This hasn´t help us out one bit in our original goal of finding our favourite one to order for the next round or two. By this time we were in a frenzy as if we were a group of teenage boys meeting the day after we had all simultaniously, for the first time, lost our virginity!!! The difference of intense flavours and unusual aromas where mind boggling. We decided to split up the next round into other beer styles to broaden our beer experience that evening, which wasn´t short.
Of course, we started to go to craft beer events, reading craft beer magazines, buying books, visiting breweries, talking with craft brewers, and doing everything to discover new craft beer flavours and styles. Pretty soon, new craft breweries started to pop up and we were there on opening day, full of anticipation like little children before Christmas. Eventually, it was crystal clear to us, we had to show this to others!. The next step was just so obvious, we had to create the “Hamburg Craft Beer Tasting Tour”!!!
First we set out to find fitting locations. Ralph and Matej went out on foot, visiting every bar on the Reeperbahn and in St.Pauli, talking with every owner or manager. They all thought our idea was a great idea, but always had to turn us away because they were under contract with certain makro-breweries and were only allowed to serve their makro beers... after about 4 long evenings of combing St.Pauli, they were completely disheartened and discouraged at their lack of success in not even being able to find 1 location for our craft beer tour. They decided that they would give it one more shot and if it didnt work, call it a night and put the project on ice. Walking down the street, they noticed a small unsuspecting hotel with a small neon sign that said “BAR” on it...they paused, looked at each other with a doubting look in their eyes and asked each other, was it even worth a try? They climbed the few steps and found a closed locked door. It seemed to be closed and not a typically inviting bar for the Reeperbahn. But they decided to ring the doorbell anyways...
After a minute or two of anxious waiting, doubting if anyone would open, hoping they were not knocking on some mafia secret hideout and wondering whether or not this was a good idea at all, the door slowly opened and out came Gabi and asked if they had a reservation. After a bit on stuttering and bumbling on about what they were there for, she invited them in. It was then that it became clear that they had found the perfect place to start the craft beer tour, a former brothel turned hotel/hostel with a truely unique and authentic St.Pauli atmosphere. The mother of all locations in St.Pauli for the tour!
Gabi, soon realized what they wanted and was very willing to help us out in our new project. That was the beginning of a great friendship between Gabi and us...craft beer at its finest, bringing people together, one more friendship after another!
And the rest is history!!!
