The construction of the brewery – the first Berlin bock beer

The site of today’s modern business premises was purchased by Bavarian-born cooper and beer brewer Georg Leonard Hopf, and construction of a brewery began in 1838. Within a year the building was finished. The first bock beer ever brewed in Northern Germany was served here in the spring of 1840.

The bock beer was immediately hugely popular with Berliners. They travelled in droves to the city limits to enjoy the bottom-fermented beer at what were initially roughly-hewn tables and benches. It was not long before these social meetings developed into bock beer festivals, a tradition that lives on throughout Germany to this day.

Most of the building above ground was destroyed by fire in 1842 and had to be replaced.

Site expansion and a number of new developments and conversions over the following decades increased production capacities and created better conditions for catering.

Production changed from manual to steam in 1855, and one year later the beer garden was made much larger and a restaurant established under the management of a restaurateur.