Saturday 5th October 2013
Bob Thompson
It was a dirty night when I walked in the rain from the U-Bahn station of Seestrasse in the Wedding district to the new Vagabund Brewery. It's on Antwerpener Strasse and I had arranged to meet fellow drinker Russell in the pub. Although I found it, I noticed that it had no outside signage yet. He was already there and had been chatting to the staff about the pub. It transpires that they opened in July 2013 and although work on the brewery had started it was not yet open.
That was confirmed as there were disconnected conditioning tanks in three corners of the room. I walked over to the room where the brewery is to be located and saw that quite a lot of work had already been done and it wouldn't be long until it is producing good beers.
Whilst taking to a bartender later he explained that they were brewing already on the plant of Heidenpeters in Kreuzberg.
There were four draught beers on offer as follows:
Vagabund Steam Lager (5.2%), brewed at Heidenpeters, Berlin-Kreuzberg.
Pyraser Angerwirts Weizen (5.2%), from Pyras in Franconia.
Hops & Barley Unfiltered Citra Ale (5.5%), from Berlin-Friedrichshain.
Propeller Nachtflug (9.0%), an Imperial Stout brewed by Brauerei Bosch of Bad Laasphe, Westphalen.
By now we had been joined by Patrick and Vaughan. We tried the Vagabund Lager first and all thought it acceptable but a little bit light on bitterness.
Then we had the Hops & Barley Citra and that licked our taste buds back in to life. It had all of the flavour the Citra hop provides, excellent.
I'm afraid I had to pass on the Propeller Nachtflug Imperial Stout, as I wanted to sleep in my hotel bed that night, not on the street!
There is a large selection of bottled beers from Germany, including a separate wheat beer list, USA and Belgium. Of course, there are also some from Brew Dog made on their new mega-plant in Scotland, yawn!
All too soon we had to leave into the gloomy night as we wanted to visit Eschenbräu which is around ten minutes walk away. We wished the helpful staff a good evening and best of luck for the future. I will go back as soon as I can, as I want to try their home-brewed beers.
Important Information:
Vagabund Brauerei, Antwerpener Strasse 3, Berlin-Wedding. Tel: 030 716 0119
Open: Thursday-Saturday 19.00-02.00. Sunday-Wednesday: Closed.
The pub is less than 10 minutes walk from the U-Bahn station of Seestrasse on line U6.
From the station take the Seestrasse exit and turn left, crossing Müllerstrasse if necessary.
Continue for two blocks along Seestrasse. You will see a large church on the left.
Turn left into Antwerpener Strasse and the pub is on the opposite side of the road at No 3.
