Saturday 23rd May 2009
Bob Thompson
This is a large brewpub which takes over nearly all of the ground floor of a very smart hotel. The host is the 4-Star Theodor Storm Hotel, which is in the Best Western chain. Husum is a very old town and brewing was first recorded about 1460. There were many small brewers but they consolidated over the years and finally Husumer Brauerei came about in 1882, as the only brewery in town.
It closed in 1959, which left the town bereft of a brewery for thirty-two years. The final nail in the coffin for the old brewery was in October 1980 when the last brew of Husumer Herrenhaus Pils was made. Since the closure of the original brewery it was brewed by the Flensburger Brauerei under contract.
Today's brewery opened in October 1991 and has proved very popular ever since. It is large and is also very comfortable. A lot goes on in this pub. For instance, of interest to beer lovers, there is a "Braumeister Stammtisch" on the second Tuesday of the month at 18.30. A stammtisch is a table in a pub that is reserved for favoured locals. It is marked by a hanging sign above, usually made of wrought iron. Woe betide your fate if you sit there uninvited! It is regarded as a great privilege to be invited to the table. I guess this one is much more open and is really a get-together with the brewer, Jens Nachtwein, and the first beer is free! Every day there is "Brauer Hour" which is actually two hours from 17.00 to 19.00. It is actually the equivalent of a happy hour(s) with cheaper beer.
I was visiting with fellow beer-tasters Patrick, Vaughan and Russell and we all thought the beers were very good indeed. They were Hell (Light) (5.0%), Dunkel (Dark) (4.8%), Weizen (Wheat) (5.5%) and Maibock (7.0%). The wheat beer is available in summer only and the Maibock was a seasonal. Bernstein (5.8%), a brown beer, replaces Weizen in the winter. I had Hell, Dunkel and Maibock and thought they were all excellent.
The menu looked excellent and there is a lovely garden for alfresco drinking. It is a totally recommended pub in an area that is sparsely populated by small independent brewers.
Important Information:
Husums-Brauhaus, Neustadt 60-68, Husum 25813
Open: Daily 17.00 to close. In winter the pub is closed on Sunday.
The pub and hotel are about twenty minutes walk from Husum railway station which is served by Regional Express trains from Hamburg on the line to Westerland on the island of Sylt. There are also some DB InterCity trains connecting to places in the south of the country, especially in Summer.
