The scene of those who don’t pay too much attention to the Purity Law is growing steadily. Micro and nano breweries specializing in craft beer have been popping up in Munich for years. This also includes the “Higgins Ale Works” microbrewery on Karlstrasse, which has been in operation since 2018.
What is new, however, is that there has been a brewery’s own tap room right next door since the middle of last year. In the small taproom in Maxvorstadt, ale lovers and those who want to try a beer refined with chocolate or elderflower will get their money’s worth – even if, strictly speaking, the latter can no longer be called beer.
The operators, Paul and Jen Higgins, have lived in Germany for many years but are originally from New Jersey. When it comes to brewing beer, even after a good two decades, the focus is still on the USA, where the craft beer movement began in the 1970s. After many attempts in private, the Higgins opened their own small brewery almost five years ago – and, as luck would have it, in the middle of the former Munich brewery district. Tradition meets innovation.
Everyone knows each other in the scene, and the Higgins beer was probably only known to real craft beer fans, at least until last year. Hardly surprising, since unlike Augustiner and Tegernseer Helles you can’t get the nicely designed 0.33 or 0.75 liter cans in just any supermarket, but only directly at the place of origin on Karlsstraße and in the shops of friends of craft shops. beer brewer.
If you want to know who counts, all you have to do is go to the toilet: stickers from BrewsLi, Fresh Beer or Hop Dog are stuck to the white doors and walls. Paul Higgins also has a QR code that takes you to the homepage of Craft Beer Munich leads. All the outlets and bars that serve craft beer are listed there on an interactive map.
In the “Higgins” people mainly speak English. According to operator Jen Higgins, there are often six nations in the room on one evening.
(Photo: Lorenz Mehrlich)
What has just been freshly brewed comes out of the taps.
(Photo: Lorenz Mehrlich)
The decoration leaves no doubt that the small pub is all about craft beer.
(Photo: Lorenz Mehrlich)
Anyone who, despite the rather unfavorable location, gets lost in Higgins for walk-in customers or who specifically visits the bar in search of tasty Pale, Cream or India Pale Ales, will find a small, almost square room in which almost exclusively English is spoken and which is next to the Love of beer testifies to the love of the two Munich residents for the mountains. Two maps of the Dolomites hang on the walls next to the three large letters A, L and E, on which the Higgins logo is also hidden: what looks like a shoeprint at first glance turns out to be a hop cone on closer inspection.
The motto at Higgins is appropriate: “Follow the flavor trail”. Heeding this advice and letting the unassuming but knowledgeable landlord Higgins guide you, you might start with a Secret Idaho NE IPA and eventually progress to a Coffee Stout via an El Dorado Gold Blonde Ale (prices from $5, 50 euros), which was created as a special in cooperation with the Unterhachinger roastery RD Coffee. The latter actually has very little to do with beer. But it tastes great.
Higgins Ale WorksKarlstraße 122, 80335 Munich, telephone: 0152/57513113, opening times: Thursday 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday 3 p.m. to 11 p.m