A Second Full Day

 Entrance to the Club. No idea what the name of it was. I just know I got a G stamped on my arm.

 This is a view from the top floor of the brewery of the brew kettle where both the mashing and boiling steps took place

 More far away views of the equipment. I was impatient.

 This was the equipment used to mill the grain, or crush it up so it could be used to make malt.

 Hops!

 This was the cooling basin. The hot wort was poured in and cooled before being drained for further cooling on the floor below.

 This I believe was called a malter. It helped separate the grains from the malt.

 Another view of the boiling kettle. This setup, btw, made 1,400 L batches of beer.

 Me and the brew kettle. Best friends!

 This was the strangest sink i'd ever seen. I had to take a picture. I don't know it's significance in the brewing process as it didn't seem to be connected to anything.

 Some of the machinery behind the pipes.

 Hydrometers! Used for measuring density of the beer.

 The machinery underneath the brew kettle, which was heated with steam. This was a stirring device in the bottom of the kettle.

 The machines behind the madness. There are a couple pumps but most of the flow goes with gravity.

 The is the awesome counter-current cooler! It cooled the beer from around 70 C to 6 C from top to bottom in a matter of seconds. The bag thing on the left is a sort of strainer to catch stray hops or grains from the beer and Brian is translating enthusiastically for us.

 This is the filter for the finished beer.

 The second fermentation or resting cask where sediment settles out before the beer is filtered.

 A really cool bottle labeler.

 The first fermentation cask. the cooled beer is put in, brought to the correct temperature via a coil with water running through it in the cask. Ale's need to be warmer for fermentation and lagers cooler.

 Bottling apparatus

 More bottle stuff. A cleaner I think.

 And then the beer was off to the masses! 4200 bottles per batch!

 My roomies and I with our new family at the museum.

 This is a really beautiful square with two old cathedrals and an opera house. They were flattened durring the war bur were completely rebuilt as they had been before.

 Oldest University in Berlin. Very impressive buildings all around.

 A better picture of the first Catholic church in Berlin.

 This is a memorial for the books burned in this square by the Nazis. And the act of banning and burning books in general I think. 

 Berliner Bear! The bear is the symbol of Berlin and this looked like a pretty old one as this is the oldest part of Berlin. Unfortunately much of the quarter had to be rebuilt in imitation of the medieval building that occupied this quarter before the war.

 Nikolai Church. The oldest church in Berlin. It had to undergo major reconstruction after the war as well.

 A cool seal outside the church. No idea what it is.

 My delicious beer with lunch.

 The famous elephant gate at the Berlin Zoo.

Yesterday I didn't get a chance to give my overall impression from the tour. I really felt how much the war destroyed this city, and because of the division of the Cold War, it delayed thier recovery from the war significantly on both sides of the wall. There was so much history and culture destroyed in the war, even though there has been a great effort to recover it, rebuilding things the way they were before they were bombed flat, the city just does not feel like any other European city I've been to. The complete mixture of modern and ancient is dominated by the modern, or at least the post 1945 and in the east part of the city, post 70's and 80's. This city is also so international. There are parts of every culture here. One thing that really struck me was the central park. As we were driving through I saw that all the trees were relatively young. Our tour guide later told us that most of the trees were bombed out durring the war, and the rest were chopped down to be burned for warmth the year afterward. The trees all where replanted later, but it will take centuries for these trees to grow to replace the ones that were lost. I hope those trees have the chance to grow forever, but I think much was lost here that Berliners will never get back.
After struggling with the password for the Wi-Fi at the bakery down the street from the hotel (Schokokuchen. Not Schokokucheh or Schokokucnen.), I finally was able to post something, finishing just seconds before the bakery closed. Then I went to find somewhere to get some cash. After trying a closed bank and asking someone (in English, I still don't even know how to say "sorry" or "excuse me" in German) I finally found an ATM and got myself some Euros. I then went to a nearby grocery store and, like a true college student, bought a bit of bread, some camenbert, chocolate, and soda. It was all less than 5E, but all I had was a 50E bill. The cashier asked if I had anything smaller (I assume) and i just shrugged appologetically as I realized I really only could count to ten and say "hello" and "goodbye," "please" and "thank you." And "Prost" whatever that means. It certainly did not seem appropriate.
After delaying several times, we finally departed to Kreuzberg, a section of the city known for it's bars and dance clubs, at 10pm. We were looking for a specific bar and walked all the way past the well lit streets and bars. We finally asked for directions and were pointed to a building covered with rude graffiti that looked like an abandoned crack house. We decided to head back to the well lit bars, crowded into a small bar and ordered beers. At 12:30 we headed to the club, but had to take the subway to get there. We even got beers to go to drink on the subway. When we got on, people were playing music and singing, then at the next stop to very loud drunk guys got on. They seemed to be arguing about something. I think someone told them to calm down or something and one of the drunk guys started shouting insults at him. Then the man grabbed the drunk guy's neck and started choking him and before we knew what was happening the drunk guy had a knife out. It was pretty scary, but the other drunk guy stopped him and they got off at the next stop. Crazy. We all made it to the club safe though and it looked pretty sketch from the outside. But inside it was pretty nice and it should have been for a 10E fee to get in! The drinks were pricey but the music and dancing was fun. A little unexpected. There was no close dancing at all. People had their dancing bubbles and did not want them popped. We finally got back to the hotel at 4am, right when the club was starting to pick up. when we got there at 1am, there was hardly anyone there. I really had fun though, but I didn't have any remarkable beers while i was out. Some cheap pilsners and a light bock.

Today we started with class at 10:30am. Thankfully our proffesors are kind to us, letting us sleep in after our night out on the town. Luckily it was the lesson on chemistry so I didn't have to strain my brain too much.Then we went to the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin (kind of like the Museum of Science and Industry) to see the brewery exhibit. It was really interesting to learn that just two people ran this little brewery easily. Another fun fact was that they only had one little electric engine that powered all of the necessary pumps from 1910 to 1990 when the brewery retired it's equiment to the museum. The pictures show all of the different equipment and we had a really nice security guard give our group a tour which the proffesors translated for us. Afterward we went in search of a certain pub for a presentation and lunch. Unfortunately, the subway we took stopped before we could get to our stop because it was under repairs, so we had to walk quite a ways to get there, but we did get to see some of the things from the bus tour up close so that was cool. Finally we got there and I ordered the Markischer Landmann. it was a clear black beer with a crisp white head and red highlights. Very beautiful in the glass. It's smell was intriguing and I really struggled to place it. It seemed slightly malty but there was definitely something else to it. Maybe a woodiness. It tasted rather salty to me at first but again there was another taste to it, or maybe a blend of several that I couldn't identify. It was deliciously complex with a dry finish that left a powder-coated feeling in the mouth. I really enjoyed this beer and when I shared it around, everyone else seemed to too. After stuffing our faces with delicious food we got to listen to Emma's presentation on Berliner Weisse, which was the first beer I had in Berlin. I learned that it had been much more popular than it is today and it has become very difficult to find without syrup, though we got to taste some today. In the US however, it's very difficult to find with syrup. It seems to slowly be making a comeback though as breweries in America are starting to make it and it will always be a hit in Berlin where it was first brewed. I also learned that it's pairings depend on the syrup flavor, but it typically goes with light salads and citrus-based seafood dishes. The most common syrups are woodruff (a lemony/woody flavor), and rasberry. Tomorrow I get to do my presentation on Brewing Behind the Iron Curtain. Should be a lot of fun!