Close Out the Month with Your Own Personal Oktoberfest at Hopfenstube

Every day feels like Oktoberfest at Hopfenstube, a burgeoning brewpub restaurant in the Chaoyang U-Town’s Crowne Plaza. The owners’ affinity for German F&B is more than apparent – from the sizzling sausages served on sprawling platters, to the gleaming copper pipes trailing from tanks to the taps that pour fizzy, fresh pints. Beyond those trappings, the restaurant also boasts a brewmaster who was born outside of Hamburg and trained at one of his homeland’s most esteemed Bavarian breweries.

Elko Alfons became Hopfenstube’s brewer in 2014. He got his start in the suds industry at the age of 20 in his grandmother’s kitchen, tinkering as a lowly apprentice in order to pour the perfect strong, dark bockbier lager. “The beer's taste, let's put it this way, was average,” he says with little sentimentality, of his botched first batch.

But Alfons remained determined, mastering the basics and finishing his apprenticeship before studying brewery technology in university. He began applying for jobs and snagged a position that most his fellow pint aficionados would envy: at Drei Kronen 1308, the seven century old, world famous Bavarian brewery.
 

Drei Kronen assigned Alfons to work on its Far East operations, and he represented the brewery at a variety bars and restaurants across China. In the fall of 2014 he settled in Beijing to focus on one of Drei Kronen’s chief clients – The Crowne Plaza, which was aiming to open a casual restaurant that served hearty fare German and flavorful beer.

Recently Alfons returned to Germany to take advantage of a new venture. But his work at Hopfenstube is being carried on by fellow German Master Brewer Torsten Pape, with whom he not only worked closely at the Chaoyang Crowne Plaza venue, but also roomed with throughout his stay in Beijing. Together, the pair created several seasonal beer recipes for Hopfenstube.

Pape tells the Beijinger that he hails from Kassel and began training as a brewer in Berlin, before returning to that locale in central Germany to further his suds studies. “I spent 16 years learning the job at a brewery in my hometown, and then worked in other breweries across Europe and in Vietnam, before coming to China."

Together, Alfons and Pape have helped Hopfenstube attain the authenticity that its owners longed for, bringing with them the knowledge to brew classic ales and lagers like Weizenbier wheat beer, Helles blond lager, and Dunkles dark lager.

“The recipes haven't change significantly through the years, which means that we have been allowed to continue a very long tradition and brew delicious beers according to the German Purity Law,” Alfons says, in reference to his homeland’s centuries old tradition of strict ingredient and production regulations. He adds that Hopfenstube has given him and Pape him plenty of latitude to experiment with new flavors, before describing his own seasonal pint recipes like the Golden Crowne Summerale that he brewed right up until his departure earlier this fall. He describes that beer as “A golden blonde ale with about 4.5 percent alcohol that smells like grapefruit, lemon and ripe mango and has a very fruity and refreshing flavor. It was perfect for hot summer days in Beijing.”
 

Now Pape is doling out their autumn brew, a Scottish style highland ale that is reddish brown and has unique flavor thanks to its smoked malts, which is sure to leave Beijingers with rosy warm cheeks as the colder weather sets in.

Pape and Alfons’ brews are served in three varieties of mugs: 0.3L for RMB 48, half liter glasses for RMB 68, and hulking one liter mugs for RMB 118. All of Hopfenstube’s beers are brewed in the restaurant’s fermentation tanks, which each have a volume of 2,500 litres and are clearly visible for curious patrons at nearly all of its indoor tables. Aside from those 280 interior seats, the restaurant also has a huge street-side patio that can host up to 120 customers, many of whom stop in on their way to and from the nearby U-Town shopping complexes. A live band plays from 8pm to closing from Tuesday to Saturday nights.

Better still is Hopfenstube’s selection of savory German eats. The restaurant’s signature pork knuckle is a crispy hind of grain fed pork that glistens with juiciness and is tenderly wholesome. It is served with bread dumplings and smouldering sweet apple sauce. Another menu standout is the Wurstplate sausage platter, which includes a heaping, hunger eradicating offering of rinderbratwurst, nurnberger, thuringen, frankfurter and veal sausages.

Those dishes are aptly paired with Alfons and Pape’s beers, and they delight in seeing customers sip on those carefully crafted suds.

“When you talk to Chinese or foreign people about Germany they always mention two things: German cars and German beer,” Alfons says, adding: “When I then tell them that I am a brewmaster for a German Bavarian company they get really excited about it. And it makes me proud to be part of this 'legend.' Furthermore, our beer and restaurants bring some diversity to Beijing which is a nice side effect."

Photos courtesy of Hopfenstube