Monday!! (1/10)

I knew today was going to be a FANTASTIC day in Germany when I woke up to the shining sun! We went on a day trip to Leipzig, which is about an hour train ride from Berlin. It was my first train ride ever, and I loved it!!! Brain (our professor) taught Emma, Caleb and I how to play elevator, which is a very fun card game. We played that elevator until we got to Leipzig, and once we got there we made our way to Sternburg brewery. It was the biggest brewery we’ve seen so far, by FAR. We were able to see the huge malt tanks and boiling tanks (the room that they were in smelt like a zoo at the time…), the fermenters that could hold up to 300,000 liters of beer, the filtration system, and we were actually able to watch the whole bottling process, which was actually very similar to watching cheese get packaged at the Tilomook cheese factory (but with beer). We had a great time on that tour.

Next we went to Bayerischer Bahnhof which was actually a train station before over half of it got flattened in WWII. Now it is one of the only two breweries that brews gose in Germany. Gose beer (what I did my presentation on) was originally brewed in the city of Goslar, and the water used to brew it was from the river Gose, which was a salt water river. This is why gose has a salty flavor. I must admit, after doing research on this type of brewing, I thought the beer was not going to be very good. We got a taste of it at this brewery, and it’s actually really good!! The salty-ness wasn’t too prominent, and I am a big fan of sour, which is good because this beer was definitely on the sour side. It has a fruity aroma and tasted a bit on the fruity side as well. One can also sweeten the beer with raspberry or woodruff to make it sweeter. I can definitely see myself drinking that beer on a hot summer day.

After dinner and a tour of their brewery, we stopped by Ratskeller, which is the only other pub in Germany that brews gose. We compared that to Bayerischer Bahnhof's gose and it was definitely more sour and a little more salty. This is more of what I was expecting from gose, but still not bad. I actually liked this version better. We weren't originally planning on stopping there, but it was a great decision. On the way back to the train station we made stops at Nikolai kirche, then to Thomas kirche. I learned that Nikolai church is where people from former western Germany began gathering every Monday, starting a revolution to take down the Berlin wall. Which is pretty huge, and I love how the church still holds peace services every Monday. Thomas kirche is where Johann Sebastian Bach himself played for a while, and where his grave lies. We were fortunate enough to walk in to someone playing the organ, which was gigantic. I've never been in an old, large church like that when the organ was actually playing. It was a pretty cool experience.

We took the train back and continued our game of elevator. I was winning from the first train ride but Caleb clinched the win at the end, he beat me by 50 points, but Brian was only 5 off from victory. I was mad, I’ll win next time. The day before we all went to the bottle store and purchased a 0.5 liter bottle of beer, so when we got back to the hotel we each tried a little of all the beers. This was the second time we’ve done tasted like this so far, and it is very fun! It’s cool to test out our senses, and put into practice what we are learning in the class. Next we showered and headed out to Slumberland, which is a pub not too far away, Gudrun was recommended it from a friend. The bar was cool! It had a sandy floor which was pretty cool, but the only downside was that it was very smoky because smoking is allowed inside pubs/bars here. But I got a hefeweizen, which was really good! 

Tuesday (1/11) 

Woke up and left by 8:50 to go to Berliner Kindl Schultheiss Brauerei, which was awesome. When we got off the street car we instantly noticed that the brewery was nearby due to the aroma. Turns out, their brewery was even bigger than Sternberg, which seemed to be impossible, and it is the biggest brewery in Germany. Their fermenation tanks hold 500,000 liters, which is actually insane. We got to see their boiling tanks in action also, which was pretty cool, I didn't realize how big those tanks were until I saw it full of wort. Then after the tour we were served lunch and got to taste a few of their beers. I really enjoyed their lager, I can't remember what it was called but the English translation was "robin." The whole trip was very interesting, fun and very informative.  

Now I am sitting at the bakery drinking a Chai green tea, in order to stay up for our dinner this afternoon and Lindsey's presentation. But before that, were going to do a little shopping at the KaDeWe, which is a 6 story department store about a block away from our hotel :) 

First train ride ever!!

Playing elevator, so excited!! 

Boiling tank at Sternberg

Fermentors at Sternberg

Racks on racks of empty beer bottles waiting to be sanitized and filled

A section of the bottling process at Stenberg

Gosa at Bayerischer Bahnhof

Gose at Ratskeller (the one I liked a little more)

Thomas kirche, this is Johann Sebastian Bach's grave

"Robin" lager, tasted today at Berliner Kindl Schulteiss Brauerei 

Gose in its original bottle. The neck was made so long so that when the  yeast  went up through the neck it would  stop at the top, creating a stopper. When the waiter/waitress would serve the beer all they would have to do is shake it a bit for the stopper to pop out.