Düsseldorf Pub Guide: the best beer bars, pubs and brewpubs

Dusseldorf Pub Guide

pubs - brewpubs

Introduction
You only get one chance at a first impression. The circumstances of my first encounter with Düsseldorf could not have been more favourable. When I first stepped off the train in Hauptbahnof I was in the middle of a particularly memorable long-distance, international pub-crawl. Those were the days. Düsseldorf is, in many ways, an odd mixture. The capital of Germany's most industrialised state, in the heart of an area of steel and chemical works, yet home to a sizeable upper middle-class population. These can be seen in their designer suits and fur coats strolling along the Königsallee, the poshest shopping street in the whole of Germany.	Index Düsseldorf Alt Sticke Düsseldorf Pubs Pub Listings Pub Map Düsseldorf breweries
Physically, the maze of busy roads is counterbalanced by the large pedestrianised Altstadt, which manages to be one of the country's liveliest and most-used city centres. Here everything is on a human scale with shopping and entertainment both well provided for. The Altstadt is jokingly known as Germany's longest bar and this isn't far short of the truth. There are an enormous number of pubs within its boundaries. For a night out, there are few places to rival it in the whole of Europe, if you're after decent beer. The locals certainly seem to have a good time. The jokey atmosphere in many pubs should help to dispel misconceptions about Germans' lack of humour and general dourness. The waiters are sometimes entertainment in themselves, with their cheeky comments (I wouldn't try asking for water in Zum Uerige). Dusseldorf's best pubs are amongst the best pubs in Germany. Happily, for anyone wanting to try out a few altbiers, the city has an enviable public transport system of trams (both on the surface and underground), as well as good train connections. So, no excuse for drinking and driving.

Düsseldorf Alt

Which is the best Alt?
A question I always ask myself on visits to the city is "which is the best alt?". It speaks volumes about my innate indecisiveness that I am, to this day, unable to provide you with a definitive answer. One day, I'm convinced that Füchschen is top dog. Next visit, the Uerige beer is such a delight that I have to revise my opinion. On a particular day, Schlüssel will hit the spot so precisely that I can't imagine any other beer ever matching it. Other times, nothing can surpass a glass of Schumacher. Go there, try the beers and see if you can help me resolve this riddle.

What is Alt?
Düsseldorf is the centre of one of the most interesting beer regions of Germany, because here, more than anywhere else, the pre-19th Century top-fermenting tradition has been kept alive. In contrast to Cologne, where Kölsch has, to some extent, mimicked the paleness and softness of pils, altbier has retained much of its individuality in terms of colour and flavour. Pretty well every pub in the city sells alt and even the most commercial versions could never be mistaken for a conventional lager.

The altbiers of Düsseldorf are the classic examples of the style: copper in colour, dry and with a long hoppy finish. Complex, yet drinkable beers, Düsseldorf alts (I mean here those from the brewpubs) are as superior to caramel-coloured industrial alts as cask-conditioned beer is to keg. All four brewpubs sell bottles to take away (some litres some half litres), but the only way to taste alt is on draught, straight from a wooden barrel.

How is Alt brewed?
Superficially, in colour and flavour, alt has much in common with the pale ales of Britain or Belgium. However, the method of brewing alt, which includes an initial fast, warm top-fermentation followed by a long of period lagering at a low temperature, is in fact a hybrid. (You can see on some of the labels the confusing term 'top-fermented lager beer' - a statement which appears to be a contradiction in terms.) The result is a beer which combines some of the roundness of a bottom-fermenting beer with the more complex fruity flavours of an ale.

There can be no doubt that the style has developed over the years, undergoing the type of industrialisation which occurred in London, Burton, Munich and Pilsen. The pre-industrial beers were probably darker, cloudy and with perhaps a touch of smokiness (I'm not 100% sure about this one - it depends on exactly how they kilned the malt), imparted by older methods of malt production.

After coming under considerable pressure from bottom-fermented beers in the first half of this century, the style has hung on in well in some parts of the Rhineland. Yet despite its continued popularity in some strongholds, the market share of alt is still declining, dropping from from 3.6% to 2.9% between 1992 and 2002. In the context of a beer market which is generally in decline, the percentage drop in altbier volumes is even greater.

Düsseldorf Breweries
Düsseldorf is lucky enough to still retain four long-established pub breweries, which produce almost exclusively altbier. In addition there are a couple of large commercial breweries in the city and more in the area around. For more details about these, go to my Düsseldorf brewery page.

Sticke, by Fred Waltman

What is Sticke?
The altbier breweries of Düsseldorf have a tradition of periodically brewing a special, stronger version of their beer. This is known variously as "Sticke" (zum Uerige), "Stike" (zum Schlüssel) or "Latzenbier" (Schumacher). The first two words are variations of "secret" in the local dialect. "Latzen" comes from the wooden slats on which the barrels were stored.

Im Füchschen does their special beer in winter as is known as "Weihnachtsbier" ("Christmas beer"). It is available in bottles in December but draft only on Christmas Eve.

The "secret" part was because it wasn't advertised. The brewery would just put out a sign that said "Tomorrow Sticke" -- to be replaced, of course, by one that said "Today Sticke."

All of the Düsseldorfer Hausbrauerein pretty much brew only one beer each -- if you order a beer, you get the house alt. When the "sticke" is on you get that beer and the everyday alt is not available. The price is the same (even though the beer is stronger -- in some cases 7% or more) so it is a good deal for the consumer. They would serve the sticke until it ran out -- it might go in one day, it might stretch into the next day (once at zum Uerige it stretched in the 3rd day -- which means locals didn't like it very much)

There is a little Uerige pub in the basement of the Carsch Haus department store and Sticke day is usually their busiest day -- because they don't serve sticke (except in bottles) and the regulars who don't like it go there to drink instead :)

In the "old days" (i.e. more than a couple years ago) you could only get the beer on the special day.

When is Sticke served?
The dates are no longer secret. For zum Uerige it is the 3rd Tuesday of Jan and Oct. For zum Schlüssels it is the last Wednesday of March and October. And for Schumacher it is the 3rd Thursday of March, September and November.

Our "tour" started when, after having been to Düsseldorf many times, I decided to time a visit for the sticke beer. A bunch of friends decided to tag along. That was 1998 and we've been every fall since. That first time, we told them we were going to drink sticke all day long. They said it couldn't be done. Well , we didn't last the whole day -- it was only 12 hours (out of the 14 hours they were open). The owner's son kept coming out to check it we were still there.

My favorite story about that trip was a man who drank with us that morning. He was from D-dorf originally but now lived in Munich. He was in town on business and saw the "tomorrow sticke" sign and told his wife "the meeting ran late" and that he would have to stay over. After drinking with us, he kept saying "I am so dead -- I'll still be drunk by the time the train gets to Munich and my wife will kill me"

Düsseldorf Pubs

Thankfully, along with the beer style, some of the traditional pub breweries have also survived. These offer both excellent gravity-served beer and regional food in lively, friendly surroundings. This is very welcome in North Germany where, in general, the pubs are modern, boring bars with little sense of style or tradition.

In many respects, the pub breweries of Düsseldorf have more in common with the beerhalls of Bavaria or the Czech Republic than with the everyday establishments around them. The customers are the same wonderful mix of all ages, classes and genders. Truly places where all of the city is to be seen. Unfortunately, such places are relatively few in number, even in Düsseldorf and, with a couple of notable exceptions, the city centre has little else to offer those in search of a genuine atmosphere.

What have I included in this guide?
This is a list of a some of the better pubs and bars in in the Düsseldorf. I do not claim that it is an exhaustive catalogue of even just the bars in Düsseldorf's Altstadt. I have not attempted to find the most stylish or fashionable posing locations; if you want to know a cool place to drink Corona straight from the bottle, I suggest that you look elsewhere. I have compiled this guide with the beer drinker in mind.

My main criterion for inclusion is the beer sold. I have tried to list bars selling as many different beers as possible, though with an emphasis on those brewed locally. After beer, the most important consideration is the atmosphere. If you have read any of my other guides, you will already know that I favour authenticity, tradition and simplicity when it comes to pub design. Though I have been known to fall for stylish and modern, if done well.

Unfortunately, as in a lot of North Germany, Düsseldorf is home to countless bland bars, with very little to recommend them, especially in the city centre. The décor is in a dull international style, which manages to make some of Britain's clumsily modernised pubs look interesting and cosy. The bars detailed below are exceptions to this depressing observation.

As is usual in Germany, Düsseldorf bars of any size serve meals, often quite traditional in nature and usually pretty good value.

How Alt is served
Altbier is served in stubby 0.25l glasses delivered by a blue-clad Köbes, as the waiters are known here, looking appropriately more like brewery workers. Constantly reloading their aluminium trays with beers, they circulate dropping fresh glasses of alt down in front of anyone who looks in need of a new one. They keep score by putting a pencil mark on your beermat. When it's time to pay, they simply count the marks and multiply it by the beer price - fairly simple to do when you only sell a single beer. Currently, the price is around €1.40 for 0.25l.

At a neighbouring table in Zum Uerige, I once saw an irate father discover that his young son had been playfully scribbling extra pencil marks on his beer mat. He was not a happy man.

Take a copywith you
You can purchase a printed copy or pdf file of this guide (which includes pub guides to other towns in the vicinity) here:

Trips! (West)

Map Index
A Monopoly B Zum Uerige C Im Weissen Baeren D Brauerei Zum Schluessel E Schumacher im Goldenen Kessel	F Brauerei im Goldenen Ring G Kreuzherreneck H Brauerei Zur Uel I Brauerei im Fuechschen J Brauerei Schumacher K Frankenheim Brauereiausschank	L Uerige Treff im Carsch-Haus M Schalander N Paulaner am Komödchen O Brauerei Kürzer P Pilsner Urquell

Dusseldorf Pub Guide

Pub Listings

Monopoly
Kreuzstraße 27, 40210 Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211-131261
Opening hours: Mon - Fri: 11:00-01:00 Sat 13:00-01:00 Sun: closed
Number of draught beers: 2
Number of bottled beers:
Regular draught beers: Jever Pils Füchschen Alt Sion Kölsch
Food: none. Beer €1.60.
Small one-room pub with central bar in a modern building. Barrel tables, wood-panelled walls. Large wooden cut-outs of household cavalry men on the wall! Old English cider advertising mirror - slightly bizarre decor. It's like a mixture of a tastelessly modernised English pub and a typical bland modern German bar.
Rating: *	Public transport:

Pilsner Urquell
Marktstraße 12-14, Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211 - 3004 5850 http://brauereiausschank-pilsnerurquell.de/
Opening hours: Sun - Thur: 11:00-24:00 Fri - Sat 11:00-01:00
Number of draught beers: 1
Number of bottled beers:
Regular draught beers: Pilsner Urquell 12%
Food: Snacks, meals.
I've not had chance to visit the resurrected Pilsner Urquell, a Czech pub that used to be a few streets away. It was a sad day when it closed. It meant I couldn't get my fix of dumplings and Czech beer when in town. Hopefully the new incarnation won't disappoint.
Rating:	Public transport:

Zum Uerige
Bergerstraße 1, 40213 Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211 - 866 990 Fax 0211 - 132 886 Email: info@uerige.de http://www.uerige.de/
Opening hours: Mon - Sun: 10:00-24:00
Number of draught beers: 2
Number of bottled beers: 1
Regular draught beers: Uerige Alt Uerige Weizen
Food: Snacks €2-5, meals €14. Beer €1.80 for 0.25 l.
This rambling and justly famous brewpub is located on the corner of a busy shopping street in the Altstadt. To the right of the entrance is an L-shaped taproom with beautiful stained glass windows depicting old Düsseldorf scenes and carved wooden panels with similar motifs. The walls are stained in various interesting shades of brown, presumably by a combination of beer and nicotine. Here you can watch the barrels come up by lift from the cellar, be tapped, very quickly emptied and then removed again. A heart-warming sight. The ceiling above the area for the barrels has an intriguing set of stains which must have been occurred when overactive casks were tapped. There is another small room to the left of the main entrance and a more cavernous drinking area to the rear. By the entrance is the usual take away section, where bottles and barrels are on sale. The outside seating seems to be gradually taking up the whole of the street running down the side of the pub. Immediately outside are the usual standup tables - handy for a quick bit of refreshment while shopping. Across the street are beer garden style tables and benches, offering the sheer luxury of sitting under the trees with a glass of alt. The waiters are remarkably cheeky and give anyone asking for something other than beer a very hard time. ('Water? That's in the Rhine.') If you don't want them relentlessly taking the mickey out of you, stick to beer. All ages, sexes and classes come here, many stopping off during shopping. A classic which is undoubtedly one of the very best pubs in the whole of Germany. The only negative feature is that you have to pay for the toilets. The Weizen is a bit of add oddity and Zum Uerige, despite its tiny size is one of the few north German breweries to produce a wheat beer. Given the waiters' reluctance to serve any liquid other than alt, it's amazing that it can survive. Fans of "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" might be interested to learn that one scene in the first series was shot in the back bar of Zum Uerige.
Rating: *****	Public transport:

Rockkneipe Engel im Haus zum Weißen Bären
Bolkerstrasse 33, Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211-133241
Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 10:00-24:00 Sun: 12:00-24:00
Number of draught beers: 2
Number of bottled beers: 0
Regular draught beers: Frankenheim Alt Warsteiner pils
Food: none.
Weissen Bären is one of many pubs on Bolkerstrasse. It's a long, thin, one-roomed place. The bar, which runs along one wall, has an attractive carved wooden cabinet, that looks as if it dates from the last century. The part where you stand your drinks or lean your elbows is much more modern, but still wooden. The walls are lined with benches which have fixed high tables in front of them - not exactly the most comfortable or flexible form of seating. At the back there is a pool table. It's a bit gloomy and the thunderous rock music could hardly be called relaxing. Somewhere for people with hard backsides and strong nerves. There are a few standing tables outside on the street.
Rating: **	Public transport:

Brauerei Zum Schlüssel
Bolkerstraße 43-47, 40213 Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211 - 828 9550 Fax: 0211 - 135 159 Email: info@zumschluessel.de http://www.zum-schluessel.de/
Opening hours: Mon - Sun 10:00-24:00
Number of draught beers: 1
Number of bottled beers: 1
Regular draught beers: Schlüssel Alt 5%
Food: Snacks €3-10, meals €7-14. Beer €1.80 for 0.25 l.
The relatively narrow frontage of this building disguises the size of this pub, which rambles backwards through a variety of rooms to the brewery at the rear. The main bar is placed centrally at the front and has a standing taproom to one side of it. If you're after a pubby atmosphere, it's best not to venture any further than this. The rear sections are more restauranty, but eating is not compulsory. The brewery itself can be observed through a glass wall. It has the usual collection of shiny copper equipment which so impresses us beer obsessives. There are a few standup tables outside on the pavement, when the weather permits. Like most of the buildings in the street, the original pub was destroyed in the war. It's been done in a fairly sympathetic style, like much of central Düsseldorf, which is one of the reasons I like the city so much. However, the interior must have been refurbished since reconstruction in the 1950's: It all looks a bit too new inside: so much pine can be glaring on the eye before a few decades of wear have toned the colour down a shade or three. It can be a bit of a disappointment after visiting the better and more traditional brewpubs, but it does grow on you. The food is excellent in an extremely German way - uncomplicated and in large portions. The menu usually includes a couple of items prepared using their own alt. Unlike the other brewpubs, most of the service is performed by waitresses rather than waiters. I've always appreciated their motherly good humour and great tolerance of our kids. The beer isn't bad, either, coming, as usual, directly from oak casks on the bar.
Rating: ****	Public transport:

Schumacher im Goldenen Kessel
Bolkerstraße 44, 40213 Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211-326007
Opening hours: Mon - Sun: 10:00-24:00
Number of draught beers: 2
Number of bottled beers: 1
Regular draught beers: Schumacher Alt 4.6% Schumacher Jung
Food: Snacks €4-8, meals €7-14. Beer €1.70 for 0.25 l.
This is Schumacher's second outlet in the city centre, very much in the style of the pub-breweries, though not brewing itself. It's been owned by the Schumacher family since 1902. Like Schlüssel across the road, it was bombed out during the war and reconstructed in the 1950's. The three houses of which it previously consisted were rebuilt as a single structure. In the right hand bar, there are framed newspaper cuttings telling the story of destruction and rebirth, with poignant photos of pre-war Bolkerstraße. Both outside and inside, it's very similar in style to its neighbour, though on a smaller scale. Here the size of the frontage is not deceptive. to the left of the entrance a standup taproom, to the right and rear restaurant-like rooms. As you can see from the photo to the left, the oak barrels sit on a magnificent copper bar counter. The interior still has a slightly new feel, with the pine fittings not having had time to develop the friendlier dark colouring that comes with age. The beer is served from the wood, just as in the brewery, and tastes equally as good, even if the atmosphere is not quite up to the same standard. Though it is handily placed bang in the pedestrianised part of the Altstadt. Traditional meals.
Rating: ***	Public transport:

Brauerei im Goldenen Ring
Burgplatz 21-22, Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211-133161
Opening hours: Mon - Sun: 10:00-01:00
Number of draught beers: 2
Number of bottled beers: 1
Regular draught beers: Frankenheim Alt Bitburger Pils
Food: Snacks, meals. Beer €1.80 for 0.25 l.
Originally three separate pubs were on this site, until 1704, when they were combined into one. The current building is a large establishment, in the beerhall style. Despite the name, it's no longer a brewery. It last brewed in the early 1970's. It may be on the bland side of 50's design, but it least it has retained a multi-room layout. There are the standard pine-topped tables and tiled floor, but overall it's rather bourgeois and the customers mostly middle-aged. The bar itself is enormous and runs almost the whole length of the pub. As is usual in this town, the blue-clad köbes are there to deliver a beer to your table whenever your glass is empty. Not exactly exciting but reasonable.
Rating: ***	Public transport:

Kreuzherreneck
Altestadt 14, Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211--131511 http://www.kreuzherreneck.de/
Opening hours: Sun - Thu: 17:00-01:00 Fri - Sat 17:00-05:00
Number of draught beers: 2
Number of bottled beers: 2
Regular draught beers: Frankenheim alt Warsteiner pils
Food: none. Beer €1.60 for 0.25 l.
Altestadt is a street full of boozers and one of them is this tiny corner pub. There are only 2 tables and a couple of bar stools for seating, yet somehow they manage to have live music here. Maybe the band take up position in the toilets. It's fitted out in a simple, but tasteful manner with wooden fittings and a tile floor. The windows are unusual: the bottom third of each is etched with the name of a spirit, the middle third with the name of a country and the top with various coloured culinary symbols, such as corkscrews, beer taps, etc. I've no idea what the meaning of it is, but it's attractive enough. It reminds me of the sort of decoration you would see in Interhotel bars or HO restaurants built in the 1960's (if anyone can remember such things now).
Rating: ***	Public transport:

Brauerei Zur Uel
Ratingerstraße 16, 40213 Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211-325369 Fax 0211 - 326391
Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 09:00-04:00 Sun: 10:00-01:00
Number of draught beers: 1
Number of bottled beers: 6
Regular draught beers: Füchschen Alt
Food: Snacks €4-8, meals €7-15. Beer €1.60 for 0.2 l.
A former brewery which is on the same street as Füchschen, this pub has been modernised to appeal to a principally younger market. It still has large wooden tables, but none of the odd old paintings and prints. Being opened into basically one large room hasn't done the general atmosphere any favours. Düssel Alt has now been replaced by Füchschen. This has its good and its bad side. On the one hand, you've lost the chance to try a different Alt and it makes popping in Zur Uel pretty pointless when Füchschen itself is only a couple of doors away. On the the other hand, it does stay open four hours later than its brewpub neighbour. No need to head off home at midnight. It's worth looking in to see what can happen to a good old boozer in slightly clumsy hands. Not a case of total wanton vandalism, so it could presumably be rescued, should anyone have the will to do so.
Rating: **	Public transport:

Brauerei im Füchschen
Ratingerstraße 28, Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211-84062 http://www.fuechschen.de
Opening hours: Mon - Sun: 09:00-24:00 Fri - Sat 11:00-03:00
Number of draught beers: 1
Number of bottled beers: 1
Regular draught beers: Füchschen Alt 4.5%
Food: Snacks €3-9, meals €6.50-12. Beer €1.80 for 0.25 l.
A wonderful, friendly old pub-brewery with an impressive wooden interior. By the entrance is a small taproom with seats grouped around barrel tables. The pub then meanders back towards the brewery itself through a series of rooms with large wooden tables. The atmosphere is very relaxed and open, with chance neighbours at a table soon striking up conversations. The customers are a great mixture of young and old from all social levels. The beer, in keeping with the general level of tradition and excellence, is one of the best Düsseldorf altbiers. The food is good, good value, local, but not very suited to vegetarians. It sells bottles and barrels to take away and if you sit close to the door you can see a happy procession of customers wheeling barrels out to their waiting cars. If only you could do this in every city. The inhabitants of Düsseldorf don't know how lucky they are. At the rear is a courtyard where you can sit outside in the Summer. Behind this is a diminutive brewery, quietly producing the liquid delight for the pub in front of it.
Rating: *****	Public transport:

Brauerei Schumacher
Oststraße 123, 0210 Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211-326004
Opening hours: Mon - Sun: 10:00-24:00
Number of draught beers: 2
Number of bottled beers: 1
Regular draught beers: Schumacher Alt 4.6% Schumacher Jung
Food: Snacks €4-8, meals €7-14. Beer €1.70 for 0.25 l.
Schumacher is the only one of Düsseldorf's brewpubs which isn't in the Altstadt. That said, it isn't exactly out in the sticks, being between the main station and the town centre proper. Behind the imposing stone facade is a huge pub-brewery with a selection of large rooms laid out with big pine tables. By the entrance is a smaller and more basic taproom, designed for standing drinking. Also at the front of the building is a takeaway section where bottles and small barrels can be bought. At the rear is a small courtyard drinking area, bounded on its opposite side by the miniature tower brewery. The main rooms are decorated with a series of oil paintings depicting scenes from the history of the city. A particularly charming example is of Russian soldiers marching down Ratingerstraße (which, oddly, is the location of one of the other pub breweries, Füchschen) in 1814. The draught beer is served directly from oak casks and is of consistently excellent quality. Traditional Rhineland food is served in typically German-sized (large) portions.
Rating: ****	Public transport:

Paulaner am Komödchen
Mutter Ey Strasse 1, 40213 Düsseldorf. Tel: 0211 301 807 80 http://www.paulaner-duesseldorf.de
Opening hours: Mon - Sun 11:00-01:00
Number of draught beers: 4
Number of bottled beers: 4
Regular draught beers: Schlösser Alt 4.9% Paulaner Urtyp Paulaner Salvator Doppelbock 7.5% Paulaner Hefeweissbier 5.4%
Food: Snacks 4 - 12, meals 8-15.
Something that sets Paulaner apart from the majority of German breweries is its estate of pubs spread across the country. Before the war, it was usual for the Munich breweries to have a "Brauereiausschank" in most of the large German cities. For some reason, all except Paulaner have given up on the idea. A shame, and a missed opportunity, as such pubs offer the beer lover a chance to sample Bavarian beer without a journey to the deep South. Paulaner's Düsseldorf showcase is a smallish corner pub not far from the new Kürzer Brauaerei in the Altstadt. Being so closely associated with the brewery, it naturally serves both beer and food of a very high standard. It has The Bavarian food is authentic and very good value (any true carnivore should try the sausage plate). The beer is, of course, excellent, but be careful of ordering a dark beer (Dunkles) as they tend to bring a half litre of Salvator Doppelbock. Rather annoyingly, the smoking section is at the front. You ihave to walk through it to get to clean air. And the food was a bit dodgy. I got what Lexie calls "Monday potatoes": boiled spuds that have been cooked the day before and reheated.
Rating: **	Public transport:

Frankenheim Brauereiausschank
Wielandstraße 14-16, Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211-351447
Opening hours: Mon - Sun: 10:30-24:00
Number of draught beers: 2
Number of bottled beers: ?
Regular draught beers: Fankenheim Alt 4.9% Warsteiner pils
Food: Snacks, meals.
Brewery tap of the Frankenheim brewery. Unusually for such places it employs waitresses instead of the usual blue-clad waiter. In other breaks with tradition, they have draught pils and even offer vegetarian meals. What is the world coming to.
Rating:	Public transport:

Uerige Treff im Carsch-Haus
Heinrich-Heine-Platz 1, 40213 Düsseldorf. Tel. 0211-866990
Opening hours: Mon - Fri: 10:00-18:00 Sat 10:00-16:00 Sun Closed
Number of draught beers: 1
Number of bottled beers: 1
Regular draught beers: Uerige Alt
Food: Snacks. Beer €1.80 for 0.25 l.
This Uerige outlet is nothing if not unusual. It's located in the basement of the Carsch-Haus department store, in a food court-style area. Uerige Treff is a tiny partitioned off space where they've done a pretty good job of creating a miniature version of the brewpub. And, just like in the original, the beer is served directly from oak barrels. The bottled beer is, unlike in the main pub, unfiltered. Germany is such a civilised country - where else can you get such high quality refreshment in a shop?
Rating: ****	Public transport:

Schalander
Kölner Landstr. 247, 40591 Düsseldorf. Tel.: 0211-7597057 Fax: 0211-987333 http://www.schalander.de/
Opening hours: Sun - Thur 17:00 - 01:00, Fri - Sat 17:00 - 02:00
Number of draught beers: 13
Number of bottled beers: 4
Regular draught beers: Füchschen Alt Uerige Alt Schumacher Alt Fankenheim Alt Früh Kölsch Veltins Pils Jever Pils Paulaner Pils Mönchshofer Schwarzpils Budweiser Pilsner Urquell Guinness Kilkenny
Food: Snacks €3-9, meals €8-14. Beer €2.40 for 0.4l, €3.20 for 0.5l.
A long thin pub that's deceptively large inside. You could describe it as a modern take on the Brauhaus style. It still has the brushed pine tables, but a conservatory-like glass wall means a much brighter interior. What makes Schalander really stand out is its beer selection. I can think of no other pub that has three home-brewed Alts on draught. They demonstrate their open-mindedness by even having a Kölsch on tap. So if you're short on time, you do the whole of Rhineland beer culture in this one pub. The only downside is the location, about four kilometers southwest of the Altstadt.
Rating:	Public transport: U-Bahn U74 or U77 to the stop Ickeswarder Strasse.

Brauerei Kürzer
Kurze Strasse 18-20 40213 Düsseldorf Tel: 0211 32 26 96 Fax: 0211 32 26 97 http://www.brauerei-kuerzer.de/ Email: info@brauerei-kuerzer.de
Opening hours:
Number of draught beers: 1
Number of bottled beers:
Regular draught beers:
Food: Snacks €, meals €. Beer € for 0.5l.
The city's latest Alt brewery. It's just openend so I have few details yet. Ben Powell reports: "The interior is what I guess one would describe as “Industrial-Chic”, with bare bricks & Steel Service Pipes & Ductings featuring. The staff were in keeping with this casual (cool) approach, with “shabby chic” attire & tattoos.. This seemed to attract a mainly younger crowd (except for ourselves), and the place was nicely busy, with all tables full. It is significantly smaller in scale than the established traditional Alt Taverns nearby, and maybe aims itself as a kind of hybrid of these Taverns, and the more new-world “Craft” Beer Pubs (?) The modern brewing equipment is at the back of the Pub, fairly open plan (not behind any glass or doors), and the Alt Beer dispensed from an unusual glass contraption, situated on the Bar.. Another quirky feature was that The Bar area was built on top of Kurzer Beer Crates.. The Tubes of Alt were slightly shorter & stubbier than those elsewhere; and were carried in a long wooden rack, which was mainly for effect, as this is clearly not very practical in a busy pub, full of increasingly tipsy patrons! The Alt Bier itself was relatively dark, with a quite pokey hoppy finish..very tasty, but again aiming to be a bit more modern than the more established Alts..in fairness, it must be a bit intimidating to open a new Alt Brewery in an area that contains such excellent Taverns..you can see they have tried to bring their own feel into what they brew & how they present it..."
Rating:	Public transport:

Questions? Suggestions? Click to email me.

More German Beer Pages
German pub guides	German Brewery Pages
Augsburg Pub Guide	The breweries of Bamberg
Bamberg Pub Guide	The breweries of Berlin
Berlin Pub Guide	The breweries of Baden-Württemberg
Duisburg Pub Guide	The breweries of the Former DDR
Düsseldorf Pub Guide	The breweries of Düsseldorf
Eisenach Pub Guide	The breweries of Munich
Goslar Pub Guide	The breweries of Cologne
Hamburg Pub Guide
Hannover Pub Guide
Cologne (Köln) Pub Guide	German Beer Articles
Leipzig Pub Guide	The Trouble with German Beer
Munich Pub Guide	Old German Beer Styles
Nürnberg (Nuremberg) Pub Guide	German Beer Statistics
Ratingen Pub Guide	Why the Reinheitsgebot is old bollocks
Stuttgart Pub Guide	Buying German Beer in the USA

More Beer Pages
Main index page

© Ron Pattinson 1997 - 2012

All articles and photos on these pages (unless otherwise stated) are property of Ron Pattinson. If you would like permission to reproduce either on your own site or in a book, please contact me first.