A few hundred metres from the busy Alexanderplatz in central Berlin there is a brewpub well suited to have a break and a refreshment. Brauhaus Lemke is actually situated in the railway arches between two stations, the closest being Hackescher Markt. They use two of the arches, making a large and airy restaurant, and there is a beer garden in the back, too. Some noise as the trains are rattling above, but not too bad.
Nice that there are other uses for such premium space than junkyards.
There is a lunchtime buffet and an extensive evening menu, but I did not have the time to linger for that.
They had four beers on when I was there, lovely presented in sampler glasses with some malt to chew on. Nothing very daring here, a Dunkel, a Pils, a Hefeweissen and a rotating special, which was a honey beer.
The Dunkel had a lovely mahogany color and a full malty taste. Sweet and sour, generous use of both hops and malt. The pils had a lovely hoppy aroma, a round body and a pronounced bitterness in the finish. The weissen was true to type – nothing outstanding.
The honey beer was quite similar to the dunkel, but it has a fine honey taste that was well balanced in relation to the other ingredients. Quite similar to the best honey beers I tried in Latvia earlier this year.
Note that they have a sister pub in Charlottenburg as well. If you are pressed for time, this is right next to a stop on the bus from Kurfürstendamm and Zoo towards Tegel airport, so theoretically you can squeeze in a 30 minute stop and try their samples. So there is no excuse for not trying the beers from Lemke!
