DDR Drinking Bars

[Rob Brown]

Well I thought I would start that topic lol!

So what were the bars and beer like and the price?

Rob

[Eric Gaumann]

Well I thought I would start that topic lol!

So what were the bars and beer like and the price?

Rob

I was in Berlin once and had a Budweiser. It was a *real* Bud, not that 'Merkan crapola.

[torstenbel]

Well I thought I would start that topic lol!

So what were the bars and beer like and the price?

Rob

ahhh...an interesting thread that you have started here... they were plentiful and varied...a glass of Helles (cheap horrible beer) cost 49 Pfennige as a standard and a glass of Pils (slightly better beer) cost 51 Pfennige as a standard...most towns had their own breweries and so, the types and quality of the beer varied locally throughout the DDR...most of the pubs also served decent food and were great places to spend many happy hours and sometimes days.... Cheers, Torsten.

[Rob Brown]

Excellent! Plenty of good nights in them then. So were there much western beers available?

[torstenbel]

Excellent! Plenty of good nights in them then. So were there much western beers available?

absolutely none of course.... and I do not think there was any need for them in any case.... Cheers, Torsten.

[Mike G.]

absolutely none of course.... and I do not think there was any need for them in any case.... Cheers, Torsten.

Hey

Torsten, I take issue with that.

Having been over to the other side (East Berlin) numerous times, I found the following three West Berlin beers to be very good.

a). Schultheiss ( A slightly bitter after-taste, but it grows on you).
b). Berliner Kindl (My absolutely favorite German Beer) Erdinger Pils takes a close second.
c). Budwar Budweiser - Not German. This Exceptionally good Czech Pilsner Beer was available in West Berlin. A German introduced me to it. It became my favorite of all Beers, period.

Anyway, last year I managed to accomplish one of several goals - a Mecca to the Budwar Brewery in the Czech Republic.

Prost!!!

[torstenbel]

Anyway, last year I managed to accomplish one of several goals - a Mecca to the Budwar Brewery in the Czech Republic.

Prost!!!

In July 1990, two weeks after the monetary union and with our unexpected and new-found purchasing power through the D-Mark, I went on a camping trip with a couple of friends to Czechoslovakia in my first car, a 1969 Trabant P601 (had absolutely no problem with the car and it was great!)...among other things we went to Budovar or Budvar (can't remember what the correct spelling was?) and we went to Plzen and in Plzen we found a multi-storey carpark type establishment with five levels and a different type of beer on each level and did we have fun working our way up and down the levels... Cheers, Torsten.

[Dag]

Hey

Torsten, I take issue with that.

Having been over to the other side (East Berlin) numerous times, I found the following three West Berlin beers to be very good.

a). Schultheiss ( A slightly bitter after-taste, but it grows on you).
b). Berliner Kindl (My absolutely favorite German Beer) Erdinger Pils takes a close second.

Sorry Michael,

Both beers (when consumed in East Berlin) were actually brewed in East Berlin! There was, actually, a very distinctive difference in the labels. Certainly in the mid-eighties, when we usually bought a few bottles on the trip home to Rostock (from Teltow, where I and some mates did our apprenticeship). The East Berlin Schultheiss had a yellow/brown label, whilst the West berlin Schultheiss was white and red.

Budvar is the best, followed by some of the dark beers you get in the Czech republik and south East Germany.

Dag

[torstenbel]

Michael, problem is that I am fromt the East German provinces and I am not one of the priviledged Berliners that got all the things that we mortals never had.... certainly none of the beers that you have mentioned where available to us outside of Berlin and as Dag already mentioned those were brewed in East Berlin in any case...there were no Beers brewed in the West available in East Germany...apart from in the Forum shops maybe or in Wandlitz... Cheers and Prost, Torsten.

PS: Michael, I think we need to start planning our trip to East Berlin...there will be a lot to take in (in many senses of the word... )...and Dag is right the dark beers were the best... especially Maibock...

[Mike G.]

There may have been breweries in the East, but there was definitely a Schultheiss Brewery and a Berliner Kindl Brewery in West Berlin as well. I say this because I went to both of them. The owner of the Berliner Kindl Brewery hosted the U.S. Army Military Police as a "Going Away" tribute in 1994.

So perhaps there were multiple breweries? I don't know how else to explain this.

[Mike G.]

Hi Dag,

Regarding your post. I did not know Schultheiss and Berliner Kindl were available in East Berlin. Somehow, I missed this.
When I visited East Berlin (78 to 82) I always drank a different beer that was unique to East Berlin, and not available to any of us that were stationed in West Berlin. So I never had an East German Berliner Kindl or Schultheiss, and therefore cannot say if they were brewed and on par with their West Berlin counterpart (Better; not so good; or equal).

Perhaps you might know how one compared to the other?

I agree with you on the Czech Budwar Budweiser. My absolute favorite beer of all time.

Torsten,

I'm definitely looking forward to Berlin next Spring, and to raising some Beer Steins in remembrance of old times - both good and bad.

[Soviet]

I think Wernesgrüner (http://www.wernesgruener.de/) and Hasseröder (http://www.hasseroeder.de/hasseroeder/) are the most popular one today that come from East Germany. Am I wrong ?

[torstenbel]

I think Wernesgrüner (http://www.wernesgruener.de/) and Hasseröder (http://www.hasseroeder.de/hasseroeder/) are the most popular one today that come from East Germany. Am I wrong ?

Yes, and I have some Wernesgruener in the fridge right now... rather surprisingly came across it in the local Aldi shop...so, if you have an Aldi store nearby, check it out for Wernesgruener...that was one of the best DDR Pils...I had one last night, while playing in the new Medal of Hounour European Assault game on PS2 that I bought only for my son of course... Cheers, Torsten.

[Bone Collector]

Yes, and I have some Wernesgruener in the fridge right now... rather surprisingly came across it in the local Aldi shop...so, if you have an Aldi store nearby, check it out for Wernesgruener...that was one of the best DDR Pils...I had one last night, while playing in the new Medal of Hounour European Assault game on PS2 that I bought only for my son of course... Cheers, Torsten.

I've only been to Aldi one time and that time they only had one beer, Maternus or something.

[david stone]

Well, our Aldi here in North Carolina is totally crap. No beer made anywhere but here.

Make mine a LUBZER EXPORT, but I'll settle for a good old ROSTOCKER anyday. I'd rather have a Rostocker than anything I can get here in my own town.....

Dave

I've only been to Aldi one time and that time they only had one beer, Maternus or something.