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.

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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.)

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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.

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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.

 



7 thoughts on “Stone Brewing Berlin: A Rocky Landing Righted?”

  • Hadn’t heard about this odd grand opening. I actually was unaware of Stone being in Berlin until I saw the Stone beers at Braukunst in Munich a few years ago. They had all the regular suspects and was happy the beer was more available in Germany. That said, when I saw it in Saxony, the price tag found me buying two to show my family there and never getting it again. I think what craft beer brewers are having a hard time with is Germans aren’t so into paying inflated prices for beer. I fully realize the beers cost more to make but I doubt as much as is being passed onto the consumer. I was into craft beer in the States when it was still reasonably priced. In fact, in the beginning, it was cheaper due to cutting out the middle-man. Now, it’s about exotic (expensive) ingredients that I often don’t even taste. Still, glad to hear the facility is so pleasant. Not sure when I’ll get back to Berlin, but when I do, I’ll make my way out here. Sounds like a good Urban Beer Hike. 😉

    • Rich, that would make for a fine urban beer hike indeed. You could start at any number of taprooms in Kreuzberg, Mitte, or even Prenzlauer Berg, cut through the old Tempelhof airfield, and hit a few Eckkneipen along the way. (I think I might do just that next time I’m in Berlin. It’ll give me an excuse to explore a part of Berlin on foot that I don’t know that well.)

      I think you might be onto something with the price of craft beer relative to other solid beers in Germany. Apropos of that, I noticed that craft beer prices have actually dropped in a few of Vienna’s craft beer establishments that were charging what I thought were some absurd prices for beers like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (don’t get me wrong: Sierra Nevada remains one of my favourite pale ales) and other fairly common broad-distro beers in the U.S. Maybe the craft beer prices in Germany will follow a similar trend as these newer beers establish themselves. As for the U.S., it’s not uncommon anymore to find bottles that cost more than 20 bux. Some of them are quite good, but more often than not I feel as if I’ve bought a decent beer that was way to expensive for what it was. I’m also left thinking that if places like Cantillon can keep their 750-mL bottles to ~€15 in their home market, brewers in the U.S. should be able to do so with their specialty releases as well — especially if they have a good flagship to offset the costs of producing specialty beers. (Then again, flagship beers aren’t doing as well in these days of weekly/monthly new releases.)

      Back to Stone Berlin: the facility truly is impressive. Hats off to them for such a thoughtful repurposing of that grand ole gasworks and the surrounding site.

      • Sadly, it seems breweries charge what they can in the US, I guess everywhere. A lot of small breweries in Franconia are closing down and I’d rather they raise their prices but they probably can’t as locals couldn’t afford it. 🙁 All that said, some of the big bottles in the US are out of control. I’ve seen stuff for $50. Looking forward to your urban Berlin romp.

  • well written! i guess, we are all very happy to have stone in town, pushing things forward for german craft and they doing great things, but it was a very lets say interesting experience to see and feel the miscommunication with the german market, germans and berliners in the begining. looking forward whats stone coming up with the next years! we really need em in germany, plans to open bars in other major german towns would be great to educate ppl about craftbeer. hope to seem all over germany to help change the landscape. if ppl drink stone ipas, they also will seek out the small breweries in town. the brewdog way …

    AND the finally opend a beau taproom in pberg middle of tourist district to solve the problem to go to mariendorf just for a post work beer … i would love to see stone being more approachable, softer and kind. for their neigbours, for families and non beer geeks. be arrogant is probably the worst thing u could do to reach new customers and old berliners who prefer great 2€ ausgustiner helles from every bottle shop 24/7 – this is not the us!

    • Einen echt verspäteten herzlichen Dank für Deinen rücksichtvollen Kommentar! So spät, dass Stone in Mariendorf überraschenderweise bereits ein Teil der Berlinische Biergeschichte ist. (Im Nachhinein ist es eigentlich keine Überraschung.)

      Ich bin vollkommend bei Dir in allen Aspekten (bis auf Brewdog — nicht meine lieblings Brauerei … Wir haben eine Fluglinie und Hotels! Wir sind so Punk!): Teilweise war Stone in gewisser Art und Weise einen Impuls für positive Umwandlung. Es ist nur bedauerlich, dass sie so in die Berliner Bierszene eintraten, wie sie es „arrogant“ taten.

      Ich bin gespannt, wie das Taproom in P-berg weiter geht. Mittlerweile trinke ich ein Augustiner ;-).

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