Sunday 20th December 2015
Bob Thompson
This Brew-pub is the fourth outlet in a chain of four in and around Stuttgart. You can read an article regarding an earlier visit to their pub in Stuttgart-Fuerbach elsewhere in BeerVisits.eu. This one is located in Böblingen “on the wrong side of the tracks”; in other words, on the opposite side of the railway station to town centre. At first sight this pub would not seem to be historic, yet it is.
Although built in a fairly modern style the building dates from 1925 when it was the terminal building of the airport, known as the Flugfeld. I guess from its size that this was the main airport for Stuttgart in those days. From the name of the street it is located in I guess it also handled airships. It now has a glass extension and there remains a further transport link as the adjacent former airport buildings are now home to Motorworld, featuring vintage cars.
Other surrounding buildings are also occupied by vendors of “Old-timers”, the English phrase that Germans use for all old cars. Most of those on display come from the fifties, sixties and seventies and are best described as “classic”. Obviously Porsche, Mercedes and BMW heavily feature but there are cars from all over Europe.
As a matter of interest Stuttgart is the home city for both Porsche and Mercedes. In fact the latter have a factory in Sindelfingen, a northern suburb of Böblingen.
Wichtel arrived in Böblingen during 2009. Their name means elf or gnome in German and they started off life in Ditzingen in 1989 in the former Roser leather factory. Here in Böblingen, the large glass entrance hall has been added to the building. Part of the pub looks out over Motorworld and a corridor separates the main part of the building along with its brewery with the fermentation, bottling and kegging area.
There is a large seating area inside the main entrance door which looks out across a huge car park. Whilst looking this way I noticed a number of motorcyclists arriving on some very large machines, mostly Harley-Davidson, yet also BMW, amongst others. Obviously it was an organised meeting. They might have had some difficulty finding a seat as it was very busy on this last Sunday before Christmas.
I walked past the gleaming copper brewery equipment with sacks of malted barley piled up in front of it, and eventually found a good standing area opposite the service area. There were many separate rooms either side, this is a big pub.
Beers available on this day were the two staples Pils (5.2%) and Hefeweizen (wheat) (5.2%), yet there was also a seasonal offering in the form of Winterbock (6.5%). Naturally, I couldn’t resist this and had a half litre and thought it very good indeed. However, it was an indulgence of just one as I transferred to Pils afterwards. Sensible, as I had other places to visit later on that day.
I really enjoyed my visit here and would recommend it, especially if you like classic cars. Of course, there is a full menu including daily specials of soup / main course combinations at low prices.
Important Information:
Wichtel Hausbrauerei, Graf-Zeppelin-Platz, 71034 Böblingen. Tel: 07031 3069899
Hours: Monday-Thursday: 11.00-24.00; Friday-Saturday: 11.00-01.00; Sunday/Holiday: 11.00-23.00
The pub is five minutes walk from Böblingen railway station. It’s served from Stuttgart Hbf (main station). There’s an S-Bahn local train every half an hour that takes 24 minutes.
Also there is a Regional Express (RE).
Leave the station on the wrong side, i.e. not the town side. At the first road, cross it.
You need to turn left and then immediately right into Bahnhofspassage.
At the next intersection turn right passing many car showrooms.
You then turn left under a building and the entrance to the pub is on the right.
