Potsdam, Brandenburg; Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). Who has not heard of the Alte Meierei in Potsdam. it has been part of the landscaped Neuer Garten for ages now. The garden, or rather the park, laid out „in the english manner“, belongs like Sanssouci to the impressive area of the Potsdamer Schloßpark. That on more than a hundred hectares of grounds an oversized mansion, Cecilienhof, as well as a small palace made of marble are outstandingly placed goes without saying in Potsdam, but surprisingly, this also applies to what was once no more than:
The „Old Dairy“
The „Marmorpalais“ was built mainly 1787-1793 for Friedrich Wilhelm II. according to plans by Carl von Gontard and Carl Gotthard Langhans. Latter also planned the old dairy erected 1790-92, while Cecilienhof, nearby, still remembered for the Potsdam Conference held here 1945, was constructed for a Prussian prince only 1913-1917, supposedly to resemble an „english country residence“. While the „Old Dairy“ served to supply the royal court with milk and other dairy products such as butter, today beer is brewed for all to choose. Not like in the old days, when the king came to watch cows on the meadow from his cabinet, drinking milk out of a green glass. Later on, tea was served for royalty in a „venetian loggia“ overlooking the lake. Plain visitors received milk as well as coffee outside for some time, and even liquor to the disgust of the court.
The dairy was by the way expanded under Friedrich Wilhelm IV. of Prussia, an upper story came on top 1843-44 by plans of Ludwig Persius. A tower was added as well as a crenellation for the Norman character of the property. But that was not all: in 1861 when the dairy closed down, the property was extended by waterworks with a pump house and, in prominent position, a high square chimney with battlements. It rises like the trees around rank and slim into the sky over the lakes, Jungfernsee at its feet, Heiliger and Tiefer See not far away – but not up to Pfingstberg, to Belvedere with a panoramic view over Potsdam.
The dairy is no more, but the right to hospitality stayed in use, now exercised in the brewery – the place was transformed into an „Ausflugsgaststätte“, a german sort of pub for day-trippers with a beer garden or terrace, in 1926-28, and again after the Berlin Wall fell, buildings being right on the border until 1989. Then the pier just behind the north wall, which limits the New Garden, could be used again. Arrival by water is now not only allowed, but desired – really a jolly nice approach. Once there was even a lighthouse here. What remains, is a lovely setting.
The brewery
And the new brewery in the old dairy? The monument-worthy restoration and expansion to an inn brewery was planned by Putzmann + Partner Architekten, Berlin. „After a long life in ruins from 1945 to 2002“ says Jürgen M. Solkowski, head of Gasthausbrauerei Meierei im Neuen Garten GmbH the former Meierei now presents itself as a Gasthausbrauerei in unique position on the shore of Jungfernsee
That the concept of the Meierei … derives from the brewing tradition according to which, before the first large breweries were established in Germany (from 1860), each innkeeper had brewed his own beer“, writes Dr. Gabriele Horn. „The history of the Meierei Potsdam“ is shared by the foundation conservator, but also by brewer Jürgen-M. Solkowski, who leads through the brewery. The guided tour starts at the top of the malthouse and goes down to the south cellar, fermentation cellar and storage cellar.
Brewing engineer Solkowski studied at the Technical University Berlin. In 1987 he opened the „Luisenbräu“ at Charlottenburg Castle, the first brewery in the capital, in 1994 a brewery with an hotel in Spandau – and in June 2003 his new brewery was opened in the old Meierei in the Neuer Garten in Potsdam.
The beers
How about a Lüderjahn? This is a Meierei beer with 11.8% original wort and an alcohol content of 4.8 volume percent (vol.-%). With beer named Meierei Lüderjahn, as the brewer Jürgen M. Solkowski told us, the king who commissioned the building of the dairy is honored: Friedrich Wilhelm II., called Lüderjahn (Good-for-nothing). Cheers to him and his wage-workers!
One would also like to toast with house beer in the bottling, the Meierei hell of the brewery Meierei. A good glass contains 12.8% original wort and 5, vol.-%.
Something special is – no question – the „Berlin White“. It is fermented. A bottle of Berliner Weiß (0.33 liters) from our own bottling offers 12.8 percent original wort and 4.2 vol.-%. This White also comes as bottle fermentation (0.7 liters).
My favorite is the Meierei Wheat top-fermented beer of 12.8 percent original wort and 5.2% vol. This is considered a typical drink for a beer garden, but it works well not only outside of the Gasthausbrauerei Meierei im Neuen Garten GmbH run by Hannelore Maiwald-Solkowski and graduate brewing engineer Jürgen-M. Solkowski, but also inside.
There you can visit the brewhouse, the malt warehouse, the scrapyard, the fermentation cellar and the storage cellar and eat and drink on two floors of the traditional inn brewery. Especially hearty home cooking is enjoyed with beer made in-house.
and the beer goulash
You may if you wish watch the malt being chipped or mashed in the brewhouse, but do not interfere. This also applies to the kitchen. An insight is gladly granted, but a guest should enjoy, for example, some Meierei bread with celery and Spreewälder peppercorns. That must be – and for me also the Matjes-Mix and the Soljanka and the beer goulash of beef and the Eisbein Berliner Art“ and so on.
And if you just want to try something, take the steamer on Thursdays to the Gasthausbrauerei Meierei and order „Brauers Grillhaxe“ (grilled knuckle). The crispy pork shank fresh from the oven with colorful cabbage salad includes a freshly tapped Meierei Hell 0.5 liters.
Let’s come back soon, order beer goulash, a stew full of beef with high quality house beer and try some more, one after the other – or at least specials of the season. Take your time then when you arrive on foot, by bike or by boat, come into the inn
Gasthausbrauerei Meierei in Potsdam
Adress: Im Neuen Garten 10, 14469 Potsdam
Contakt: Phone: 03317043211, E-Mail: kontakt@meierei-potsdam.de
Website: meierei-potsdam.de
Note:
Rendered into English by Christoph Merten.
