Beers of Berlin

For some relaxation after our long walk around Berlin all day, this evening John and I popped in to a few of the local pubs in Berlin's Mitte district. Our mission was simple: to drink beer, and to drink good, tasty German beer. Fortunately, that proved to be quite an attainable endeavour — even by my generally beer-hating standards, Germany is one place where nobody can be disappointed by the quality of the brews.

John and myself enjoying a pint.

The first place we found was a little bar just down the road from our hostel. Although our hostel is smack-bang in the downtown area of Berlin, we were pleasantly surprised to find that this bar was packed with locals, who gave us friendly (if somewhat furtive) glances when we ambled in. We ordered a German brew called "Jevel", which is a little bit of a mass-market beer, but which tastes pretty good nonetheless. Following the Jevel joint, we grabbed some cheap noodles for dinner, at a great Asian place around the corner.

The night was concluded by a visit to a slightly fancier place — a so-called "brauhaus", where they make their own brew (usually on-location) and serve it straight out of the barrel, and into your glass. The beers were a little pricier here, but were quite delicious. The wheat brews, in particular, tasted sumptuous. As with my Belgian beer experience last weekend, I'm finding that German beers are unique among the world's beers, in that (amazingly) they actually don't taste like crap, and that they don't (particularly) leave you feeling nauseous after you've downed a few. I still don't think I'd waste my money on them without the peer pressure incentive: but at least when the occasion does call for it, drinking them is far from a painful experience.