Stone Brewing Berlin: A Rocky Landing Righted?

I headed out to Stone Brewing’s Berlin outpost in Mariendorf with less than great expectations. Stone’s arrival in Berlin had, after all, been anything but auspicious. During a press conference in 2014, co-owner Greg Koch presided over the destruction of a pallet of main-stream European beers crushed with a rock he dropped from a forklift. The symbolism was lost on no one, and the exercise in cultural tone-deafness did little to endear Stone to the German drinking public beyond the contingent of craft beer converts in the crowd.

Koch came to have misgivings about this public display of arrogance, stating in an interview with Nina Anika Klotz of Hopfenhelden that it was a performance he wasn’t keen on repeating. He acknowledged that the stunt “was not meant as an insult toward beer.” His target all along, he claimed, was not the German brewing tradition per se, but rather the industrially produced beer lining the shelves of German discount supermarkets like Rewe and Lidl — beer, he emphasized, that was undermining the sterling reputation of German brewing.

Koch does have a point here. Consolidation hit the German beer industry later than it did in the United States, and the effects are still being felt. But despite being involved with the German beer scene for close to half a decade now, Koch still can’t seem to shake his notion that Germany is awash with subpar industrial beer, or that the German beer-drinking public is in need of enlightenment. In an October 2018 interview with Max Zimmermann of Die Welt, Koch related the following: “We’re only at the beginning of our journey. First and foremost, people need to change their perception of beer. At Stone, we create rock-and-roll, but the German industrial beers are more like the music you hear when you’re on hold — homogenized beer produced with a computer, and subsequently commercialized and packaged for someone not really interested in how the beer tastes.”

German press coverage of Stone and Koch since Stone Berlin’s opening leaves me wondering whether he has spent much time in regions like Franconia, or whether he is paying close enough attention to what’s going on around him in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany. Koch goes on to note in his interview with Zimmermann that he still hasn’t reached his goal in Berlin. A closer reading of the interview reveals a nagging sense of surprise and annoyance that German beer drinkers haven’t exactly flocked to Stone Berlin.

**

These were the thoughts that sent me off on my journey to Stone Berlin in Alt-Mariendorf. And a journey it is: a good 11 kilometers south of the Brandenburg Gate and 20 minutes with public transportation. From Attilastrasse, the nearest S-Bahn station along the S2 line, it’s another 20 minutes or so on foot.

**

Just as I admitted at the outset that I headed to Stone Berlin with low expectations, I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of thought that has gone into the grounds surrounding the brewery, as well as the repurposing of this one-time brick, glass, and steel gasworks. The cavernous interior is nothing short of stunning — an industrial sublime large enough to contain a glassed-off brewhouse and a 2400 square-meter (26,000 square-foot) main hall. With only about fifteen tables occupied when I arrived on a quiet Monday afternoon around lunchtime, it was as almost if I had this majestic early twentieth-century space to myself. The airy, new-age electro-synth music added to the sense that I was in a temple of industry rechristened as a cathedral dedicated to beer and brewing. (Incidentally, I’m left wondering whether Koch fully grasped the irony of snubbing German industrial beer by building his brewery on an erstwhile industrial site.)

**

It’s been a good hour now since I left the center of town, and I’m more than ready for a drink. In craft beer and third-wave coffee establishments throughout Berlin, it’s not uncommon to meet bartenders or barristas who don’t speak a word of German. Not here. The entire bar staff on shift when I visited were from Berlin or elsewhere in Germany — a positive sign that the folks at Stone have realized that the secret to filling their ambitious space lies in making it feel less like an American outpost.

As for the beers? Koch and co. seem to have learned from those early missteps in cross-cultural communication, carrying these lessons over to the beers themselves. Brash these beers aren’t. Instead, they’re characterized by an elegant restraint that remains uncompromising when it comes to flavour. The Cali-Belgique is a case in point. Though a touch on the bitter side, it has all the clove, bubblegum, and cardamom notes you’d expect from a beer that evokes Belgium, along with mild tropical fruit and a hint of blueberry reminiscent of contemporary American IPAs. The Ariana IPA, a single-hopped beer with a rich, honeyed malt foundation, recalls beers brewed with Citra, but goes a step further in combining the tangerine spiciness and tropical fruit character of Citra with darker notes of toasted fir needles. Stone Berlin even brews a stellar Berliner Weisse that is among the best I have tasted: floral citrus meets peach yogurt notes and a slate-like minerality framed by a rhubarb tanginess on the palate. The food is on point as well, a fitting evocation of the lighter side of Californian cuisine that goes beyond standard brewpub fare.

The verdict? By all means make the trek out to Mariendorf. The space, the grounds, and the beers are compelling precisely for their lack of Stone’s signature arrogance — a sign that Stone Berlin may well have gotten things right in their attempt to carve out a niche in Germany’s beer scene.

**

Address: Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens, Marienpark 23, 12107 Berlin. Take S2 south from any point in central Berlin, get out at Attilastrasse Station, and walk 20 minutes to Marienpark.

Sources:

Peter Korneffel, Biermanufakturen in Berlin (Berlin: Nicolai, 2015).

Brlo Brwhouse website: https://www.brlo.de/en/

Nina Anika Klotz, “Stone Brewing: ‘Sie halten mich für verrückt.’” Hopfenhelden (N.D.)

Max Zimmermann, “Deutsche Industriebiere sind oft wie Warteschleifenmusik,” Die Welt, 20 October 2018.

Related Tempest articles:

Berlin Calling: Beer in the Capital of Germany

Hefeweizen: A Beer for All Seasons

Let Us Now Praise Famous Lagers: Your Saturday Six-Pack (Vol.3)

© 2019 F.D. Hofer and A Tempest in a Tankard. All rights reserved.