The photo, to the left, was taken in 1998, in Zum Uerige, Düsseldorf, Germany (Deutschland). It is from the Sticke Warriors' website, www.stickewarriors.com, see below.

Zum Uerige only has a couple of regular beers, but it is a life-enhancing place that happens to be John White's favourite pub. The photo shows a waiter (Köbes), see below, filling glasses of its famous "Alt" from an oak barrel in one of the place's many rooms.

If you are only going to visit one bar in the world, then this one has to be on your short list; it truly is splendid; the beer is world-class too!

This White Beer Travels "Pub of the Month" was selected by John White of "White Beer Travels". Descriptions of places such as this are usually taken from Beer Guides that have been prepared for White Beer Travels Beer Hunts, all participants getting copies: they typically get well over 100 A4 pages of information per trip. Some of these guides are available from the Downloads page of the site. This particular write-up is based on one of the handouts for a 1996 Beer Hunt, the main focus of which was the wonderful Baroque city of Bamberg, in Northern Bavaria, Germany, click on Past [Beer Hunts], in this sentence, or at the top or bottom of this page. En route there was a two-night stay in Brussels and one night in Maastricht, in The Netherlands, on the return journey. The long journey between Brussels and Bamberg was broken with a stop in Cologne (Köln), in Germany, and the return journey from Bamberg to Maastricht was via a stop in Düsseldorf, also in Germany. The write-ups on other Pubs of the Month can be accessed by clicking on Archives, or by using the "Previous Month" and "Next Month" links at the top and bottom of this page.

When one is to stay in such a magnificent place as Bamberg for a few days and the attractive cities of Brussels and Maastricht, one may ask why one would want to spend time, in slow moving traffic, driving into the centre of two large cities on the Rhine, which were extensively damaged in the 2nd World War, and which are today full of modern high rise. True, Düsseldorf (www.duesseldorf.de) is proud of its Old Town (Altstadt) (www.duesseldorf-altstadt.de), and Cologne (www.koeln.de) has got a magnificent Cathedral and a famous Roman Museum (Römisch-Germanisches Museum) (www.museenkoeln.de/rgm), but this was a Beer Hunt after all. However, quite fittingly for a drinking trip, the latter museum houses the famous Dionysus Mosaic, which features Dionysus or Bacchus, the God of Wine, who is being supported by one of his Satyrs, as he is somewhat the worse for wear.

Both Cologne and Düsseldorf are much revered in beer circles. The major similarity between the two is that the everyday beer, unlike those in most big German cities, is not a Pils, but a local speciality. There is a further similarity between the beers from the two cities: both are produced by top fermentation. A waiter in the pubs in both cities are known by the same, fairly local dialect name: Köbes, plural Köbesse. Köbes derives from the surname Jakobus or Jacob. Its use is rather akin to the expression, which is unfortunately appropriate to far too many pubs around the world: "A beer please, Mack (or whoever). [Please make sure it's cold and fizzy, with no flavour.]" The Köbesse in both cities wear a uniform of a type formally worn by brewery workers, see the photo above. The most likely derivation of the word Köbes is that it is connected with the undertaking of a pilgrimage to the grave of St. Jacob, in Santiago de Compostela, in Spain. This could be a journey fraught with danger, but pilgrims had a list of recommended places that were run by "Jacob's Landlords", where they could be fairly certain of being safe when they stopped for the night. In the inns in the Rheinland, rather than Jacob, the landlords who ensured your safety were called, in the local dialect, Köbes.

Düsseldorf is only forty kilometres (twenty-five miles) down the Rhine from Cologne. Despite the similarities between the everyday beers from the two cities, detailed above, they are quite different. The Altbier (Old Beer) from Düsseldorf, often simply called an Alt, is a dark beer, in contrast with Kölsch from Cologne, which is very light in colour. There is certainly rivalry between the two towns when it comes to their famous beers. A fan of Düsseldorf Alt, who comes from Düsseldorf, has a website, which is full of information on the two beer styles, www.koelsch-ist-kein-bier.de. This translates to "Kölsch is no beer", so you can see where his loyalties lie. It is, in fact, a good site, with lots of useful information and links.

Most pubs in each of the two cities serve up their local beer; there are a number of superb, special taverns in which to drink them. Should you wish to fit in as many pubs as you can during a short stay in either city, a good tip is to pay for your drinks immediately on receipt, so that you do not waste time, when wanting to leave, having to look for your Köbes, when you could be half way to the next pub.

Because of its name, and the fact that it is a beer produced by top fermentation, Düsseldorf Alt is often described as being similar to an English Old Ale. However the best Alts from Düsseldorf are not as heavy or as rich as such beers, and are hoppier. The name "Old" symbolises a lack of acceptance of the newfangled, bottom fermented Pilsener-style beers that swept across Germany from Bohemia from the middle of the 19th Century. For an Alt, fermentation takes place at a temperature between that of an Ale and a Pilsener-style beer. The resulting beer is then aged (lagered) at around freezing point, as per a classic Pils. To quote from Altbier (ISBN 0937381624) by a Düsseldorfer, who now lives and brews in the USA, Horst Dornbusch: "… Alt represents perhaps the best of both styles: the flavor and complexity of a standard ale with the subtle refinement and clean finish of a lager." This book is an excellent example from the top-class "Classic Beer Styles Series", published by "Brewers Publications", which is a division of "The Brewers Association" (www.beertown.org), who are based in Boulder, Colorado, in the USA. Note that "The Brewers Association" was formed from the January, 2005 merge of the "Association of Brewers" and the "Brewers' Association of America". The book provides much insight into Alt, with superb detail on its history and how it is brewed. It can be ordered from the website quoted. In the UK, an excellent source for this and many other hard-to-find beer books is "Beer-Inn Print" (www.beerinnprint.co.uk), a company run by Paul Travis. Paul has a marvellous beer book stall at a number of UK Beer Festivals. Horst Dornbusch's own beers, including an Alt, are brewed by the Mercury Brewing Company (www.mercurybrewing.com), in Ipswich, Massachusetts. (It uses the brewery originally set up by the Ipswich Brewing Company.)

In the centre of Düsseldorf, the best Düsseldorf Alt can be sampled in four, well-established home-brew taverns, all fairly close together, three being in the Old Town (Altstadt): Im Füchschen (Ratinger Strasse 28, tel 0211/13 74 70, www.fuechschen.de); Zum Schlüssel, Bolkerstrasse 43-47, tel 0211/32 61 55, www.zumschluessel.de); Bierbrauerei Ferdinand Schumacher (Oststrasse 123, tel 0211/32 60 04, www.schumacher-alt.de); and Zum Uerige. Schumacher commenced brewing in 1836 and is thus the oldest surviving Alt brewery in the world. All four taverns are well worth visiting, but some people, even on a whole day trip to Düsseldorf, never get past Zum Uerige! No wonder, it is, like the Schlenkerla in Bamberg (www.schlenkerla.de, White Beer Travels Web page), truly one of the world's greatest taverns. Also in the city, there is a smaller Brew Pub, in the Joh. Albrecht chain (www.brauhaus-joh-albrecht.de), producing bottom-fermented beers, at Niederkasseler Strasse 104. Also worth a visit, is the Oberkasseler Belsenbräu, on the other side of the Rhein, in the suburb of Oberkassel (Belsenplatz 2).

There is an excellent booklet, by Wulf Metzmacher, covering the city's beer orientated places, past and present: Düsseldorfer Brauhäuser zu Fuß, for which there is an English version, Düsseldorf Brauhaus Tour on foot (J. P. Bachem Verlag, www.bachem-verlag.de, 2004, ISBN 3-7616-1853-1). It provides a comprehensive history of the taverns, Brew Pubs etc, featured and the major, general tourist attractions on the route. Don't enter Düsseldorf without it, and if you are going to Cologne, the same appplies to its equivalent for this city; click here for details of this. After reading the Düsseldorf one you will not be able to resist such "if-you-have-not-been-in-here-you-have-not-been-to-Düsseldorf" places such as: the Kreuzherreneck (also known as Bobby) (Altestadt 14, corner Urselinegasse, www.kreuzherreneck.de), a Schnapps (Schnaps) bar that also has Frankenheim Alt (www.frankenheim.de).

The full title of Zum Uerige or Im Uerige, given in the place's website, is the "Uerige Obergärige Hausbrauerei GmbH", which means the "Uerige Top-Fermenting Brew-Pub Ltd". Most beer books refer to the place as Zum Uerige, which means "At the sign of the Uerige". Zum Uerige appears on the last beer mat (coaster) that I picked up in the place, see the reproduction below.

Uerige alone appears on the current beer mats (coasters) shown on the place's website, see the ones above. "Zum Uerige" is mentioned on the History (Historie) page of the place's website. Elsewhere on the site, there is mention of "Der Uerige" (The Uerige) and there is a slogan on every page of the site: "Im Uerige ist Düsseldorf" (In the Uerige is Düsseldorf). Empty glasses are automatically replaced by full ones, as is common in many bars throughout Germany, unless one gives a sign, such as putting a beer mat on top of the glass. Each time a Köbes delivers you an Ueriges, it is not immediately paid for; he puts a biro mark on a beer mat, as per in the photo to the left, or he chalks on the wall, if you are standing, which one often has to do. When you wish to leave, he counts up your tally and you are charged accordingly. The photo is from the Sticke Warriors' website, www.stickewarriors.com, see below.

In the Insight Guide to Düsseldorf (APA Productions; ISBN 0887296599), Zum Uerige is described in a write-up, far longer than one would expect for a pub in a general tourist guide, as a "life-enhancing pub". Once having visited the place, I am confident that you will agree. Before my first visit I was aware that it was a famous tavern, with many contrasting rooms, in one of which the brew house is plainly on view. Clearly I had a resolve to explore all the rooms, and then visit Düsseldorf's other brew-pubs. But once I got sat down, in the first room that I came to, I could not tear myself away; the end of the evening miraculously came and everyone had to leave, and it was too late to go elsewhere. During the evening, the locals who I was squeezed next to made me inordinately welcome. An old lady who was sat next to me pointed to the area of my kidneys, intimating that the Uerige's Alt was particularly good for them. The Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson (1942-) (www.beerhunter.com) tells a story of a similar encounter with an old man in Schumacher. He told Michael that his doctor had prescribed Alt for kidney stones, and that it had worked. My old lady in the Uerige also told me, or rather described in an animated way, that I would not get a hangover drinking the beer. She was right; I was a hundred percent next morning, although I had drunk heroic amounts of the stuff. This is easy to do: the beer is dangerously drinkable. It is quite rightly referred to in local dialect as Dat leckere Dröppke - The Delicious Drop. It is a 100% malt beer, brewed in accordance with the famous 1516 Bavarian Beer Purity Law, the Reinheitsgebot.

Having not had a complete look round on my first visit, I returned, this time first going in all rooms without sitting down, drinking only two Alts, and then completing the city's brew pub crawl. Each of the Uerige's many magnificent rooms are strikingly different: the Brew House Room (or Brauhausstube or simply Das Brauhaus) is a sensation. The brewing equipment is not stuck in a corner out of the way, as in many brew-pubs. Although behind glass, it seems to have been laid out such as to make it the major feature of what is a large room. It is most attractive, all gleaming copper, of course. Note the wonderful "Baudelot" Wort Cooler (called the Berieselungskühler on the excellent pictorial schematic of the brewery on the place's website). In some breweries these were the successor to open vessel wort cooling in "Cool Ships", although, here the Baudelot Cooler is fed by such a Kühlschiff. Baudelot coolers consist of rows of horizontal pipes through which cooling water flows. The wort flows down over them whereby it is cooled to fermentation temperature. In most breweries these have largely been superseded by the more efficient, but less attractive, Plate Heat Exchanger, the APV Paraflow brand (www.apv.invensys.com) being common in England. The wort is not exposed to the atmosphere in these, potentially reducing the risk of infection, although the hallmark, consistently high standard of the Uerige's beer demonstrates clearly that this is not a problem in the Uerige, since the wort gets two exposures: in the Cool Ship and when flowing over the tubes of the Baudelot Cooler.

Many other German brew-pubs, have very attractive Mash Tuns, Lauter Tuns and Coppers, etc, on display. It is a pity that the vast majority of brew-pubs in England have fairly utilitarian brewing equipment, which needs to, or should be, hidden away.

Other rooms include: Die Hans-Müller-Schlösser-Stube; Die Handwerkestube; and Der Rittersaal, this being on the first floor, there being a splendid wooden statue of Gambrinus, the King of Beer by the stairs leading up to it.

A striking feature as you wander round the Uerige is the great diversity of people who are in the place: from all walks of life, all ages. On going from room to room one has to go along narrow passages, progress often impeded by four-wheeled open bins full of lovely smelling, warm, spent malt.

The amount of beer drunk in the place is staggering. On a good weekend 300 Hectolitres is typical, i.e. 183 Barrels, which is 6,590 imperial pints! As can be seen in the photo above, the beer is gravity-fed from wooden barrels, perched on the many bars. Barrels are continually being rolled across the floor and lifted onto the stillage to replace empty ones. A good vantage point for this and the filling of glasses is the bar to the right on entering from the Bergerstrasse entrance; there is also an entrance on Rheinstrasse, indeed, down which, it is a short walk to the Rhine.

At most times, only two different beers, are sold, the Alt and a Wheat Beer, see below, and only two or three other drinks, including Apple Juice (Apfelsaft) at €1.35 for 25cl (all prices are for May, 2002 from the place's website). Once or twice a year, one-off brews that only last a few hours are made in Düsseldorf's four famous Alt brew-pubs, listed above. The special beers are called Sticke beers, local dialect for secret, in the Old Town pubs, and Latzenbier in Schumacher. They are meant to be a thank-you to regulars, since, although special - stronger, dry hopped in the lagering vessels, lagered for longer, or whatever - they are sold at the normal price. However, non-regulars are served with these special beers; they just need to know when they are available. In some establishments, the special beers are not made on specific dates: word of mouth, and adverts and posters warn of their arrival. This situation could change, for example, Zum Uerige puts on sale their Ueriges Sticke beers on two defined days each year, one on the third Tuesday in January and one on the third Tuesday in October, i.e. in 2004, the dates are the 20th of January and the 19th of October.

Ueriges Sticke posters usually feature a blind-folded man. The word morje on the posters is dialect for Morgen, which means Morning or Tomorrow; hütt is Heute in proper German, which is today. Note that the beer is often described on the posters as an "Extra" Delicious Drop ("Extra" leckere Dröppke), rather than just a Delicious Drop, as per the "normal" beer. The Sticke beers are higher in alcohol content than the everyday beer and are more heavily hopped.

As already stated, the photo above, of a glass of Sticke, is from Fred Waltman's Sticke Warriors' website, www.stickewarriors.com. Certain fans of the beer, such as the "Sticke Warriors", who are based in the USA, organise Beer Hunts to coincide with Ueriges Sticke days. The photo was taken during their visit on the October Sticke day, in 1998. Note that this Beer Hunt organisation also arranges tours to other classic Speciality Beer venues and events, such as the world-class Zythos Beer Festival, in St.-Niklaas, in Belgium. These are detailed in the Sticke Warriors' website. Note that the festival in St.-Niklaas is the successor to the famous Antwerp 24-Hour Festival that was organised by OBP, which has been replaced by Zythos (www.zythos.be), as Belgium's premier beer consumers' organisation. Click here for more details on Zythos and this festival. Fred has two other websites covering Germany: www.franconiabeerguide.com and www.germanbeerguide.com, and one covering his home town of Los Angeles, www.labeer.com.

Don't worry if a special beer is not available, since the basic beer (4.6%) is magnificent. A Michael Jackson world classic, it is the driest and hoppiest of the quartet of home-brewed Alts. Very unusually for a German brew, it is dry-hopped, i.e. additional hops are added to the beer after fermentation. Like all Düsseldorf Alts, it is served in a small, squat glass, typically holding 25cl, i.e. a metric half pint, which is slightly less than an imperial half pint, see the photo above. They are €1.40 in Zum Uerige. From its full title "Uerige Top-Fermenting Brew-Pub" it is clear that the brewery is immensely proud of the method of fermentation used in the production of its beer. In 1995 a Wheat Beer, Ueriges Weizen, was introduced. Such brews, although common in Bavaria, in Southern Germany, are a rarity in North German brewery portfolios. I got told off by the local sitting next to me when I ordered one, because " ... it is not as good as the Alt". In fact, it is an excellent example of the style, although far less gassy, which personally suits me; it has a slight haze, but not the dense cloudiness of some wheat beers. It is a draught beer, but is not gravity dispensed. It costs €2.95 (50cl).

I am someone who does not enjoy tobacco smoke. Apart from the health aspects of secondary smoking (speak to Roy Castle's widow and check out the "Roy Castle Lung Cancer" website, www.roycastle.org), I detest the smell whilst in the pub and on my clothes later. More than one website has remarked that the Uerige is very smoky. This has not been my experience in over five visits in any of the rooms, probably because of very efficient filtration/ventilation. However, in any event, in this day and age, they probable have no-smoking rooms, which I will confirm on my next inevitable visit.

Note the Uerige poem on the back of the pub's menu card. It was written by the Düsseldorf poet Hans Müller-Schlösser, a regular who died in 1956. One of the rooms is named after him.

It can be proved that the building in which Zum Uerige is housed existed in 1600. In 1785, a wine merchant converted it from a private residence into a Wine Bar, called the Heideleberger Fass (Heidelberg [Wine] Cask). However, in January 1862, when it was called Zum Bergischen Hof, it was bought by Wilhelm Cürten, who applied for a licence to brew beer, to complement his well-established bakery business. (Baking and brewing are related trades that were often carried out by the same person at this time, since they both use grains and yeast, to produce Bread and "Liquid Bread" (Beer), respectively.) Wilhelm's brewery was opened by the end of the year, the place's name having reverted to Heideleberger Fass, which is often quoted as its official name to this day. Wilhelm had a nickname, "uerigen Wilhelm", "uerig" being local dialect for "strange": most of the time he was quite humourless and somewhat disagreeable. However, such was the quality of Wilhelm's beer, that demand grew, despite his surliness. Wilhelm's successor, Jakob Lotz christened the place Zum Uerige, in reverence to the brewery's founder. After being very badly damaged in the 2nd World War, the place was rebuilt by its then owner Rudolf Arnold, a descendant of uerigen Wilhelm, and was back in production by 1954, ten years after the bombing; Rudi was in charge of the Uerige from 1937 to 1976. It has been further expanded since then; the present Brew House was officially opened on the 16th of October 1974, in celebration of Rudolf's 85th birthday. Note that the present owners, who took over the place in 1976, Josef and Christa Schnitzler, in contrast to its founder, are most amiable; they are usually to be seen in the pub. Josef, a sixth generation descendant of uerigen Wilhelm, is a Diplom-Braumeister, a Master Brewer, with a degree in Brewing. The actual brewer (2002) in the Uerige is Michael Vits. In rushing into the Uerige you may miss the statue of Rudi Arnold, high up on the corner of the building, and the elaborate hanging pub sign. Note that it is often stated, incorrecly, that the statue is that of uerigen Wilhelm, but Rudi Arnold had it erected in his own lifetime.

Food in Zum Uerige is mainly cold snacks, a number featuring sausage or salami made on the premises, however Pork Knuckles (Haxe) can be pre-ordered. (Both sausage and salami are Wurst in German.) On the back of the German menu is an English translation. Example dishes include, all prices being May, 2002 ones from the place's website: Uerige Black Pudding with Onions and Bread (Uerige Blutwurst mit Zwiebeln und Brot) at €1.85; Home-made Potato Salad with a Vinegar and Oil Dressing (Hausgemachte Kartoffelsalat mit Essig- und Öl-Dressing) at €3.90; The Small Uerige Platter, which consists of ten Open Sandwiches of Liver Sausage, Smoked (Hunter) Sausage, Pig Brawn and Gouda Cheese (Uerige-Platte klein - 10 Schieben Brot, belegt mit Leberwurst, Jagdwurst, Schweinskopfsülze und Gouda) at €24 (the Large/Gross with 20 sandwiches is €45); a Salted Pretzel (Laugenbrezel) for €1.25; and Mainz Cheese with Bread and Butter (Mainzer auf Brot mit Butter) at €2.20. Michael Jackson highly recommends the latter, stating that this particularly malodorous cheese is soaked in Alt for six hours, although this may no longer be the case, since such marination is not mentioned on the place's website.

On Saturdays, from 11am until 3pm, substantial portions of Pea and Ham Soup (Erbensuppe mit Eisbein-Einlage), at €3.10, are served in the Brew House Room. Note that the place's website, which is in English as well as in German, points out that it is a local (Rheinland) tradition to serve particular dishes on certain days, such as the Pea Soup on Saturdays. For example, on Wednesday evenings, from 6pm until 9pm, it is Rosenkränzchen (Fresh Fried Sausage - frische Bratwurst) which is €4.20 "on its own" (ohne Beilage). The extras available are a Bread Roll prepared from the brewery's Spent Grain (Treberbrötchen), at €0.80, and Cabbage cooked in Wine (Weinkraut) at €2.50. On Mondays and Tuesdays during the same period there are Potato Fritters (four of them cooked in vegetable oil), served with Apple Sauce (Reibekuchen mit Apfelmus) at €4.35.

Note that Schnapps is not sold in the Uerige. This "ban" dates from Rudi Arnold's time. After being told that he would have to pay tax on the Schnapps that he sold, Rudi put up a notice declaring: "The consumption of Schnapps is prohibited on these premises. It damages your health and my business!" However, should one like a Schnapps chaser, as many Germans do, then this is not a problem, since one can cross the road to Et Kabüffke, at Flinger Strasse 1. This is a famous outlet for Killepitsch (www.killepitsch.de), a herb liqueur; various Schnapps are also available. One can leave your Alt on a shelf or table in the Uerige, come into the Kabüffke for a quick short drink and then return to the Uerige.

Just drinking in the Uerige is entertainment in itself, but regular live music, mainly jazz, is put on. The schedule is to be found in the place's website: follow the "Events" (Veranstaltungen) link.

Zum Uerige is open seven days a week, from 11am until midnight. This includes most, if not all National Holidays.

Zum Uerige beers are available on draught and in bottle in three further outlets called "Uerige Treffs". There are two in Düsseldorf: one in the suburb of Keiserwerth, at Klemensplatz 2 (in der Passage) (tel 0211-479006); and another, in the basement of the Carsch-Haus Department Store (im Untergeschoss des Carsch-Hauses), the Carsch-Haus Treff (Delikatessa), Heinrich-Heine-Platz 1 (tel 0211-866990), this having an unfiltered version of Uerige Alt in bottle. In Oberhausen, which is thirty-two kilometres (twenty miles) from Düsseldorf, there is one at Friedensplatz 13 (tel 0208-808143).

John White (1945-), , May, 1997, updated in June, 2007.

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