Beavis Bar – First Craft Spirits Tasting Bar
When I travelled through Australia I explored some Distillery Bars. The idea of having a bar attached to a distillery, where premium spirits are hand-crafted from local ingredients straight to your drinks, is brilliant. How often do you take the time to think about the base ingredient of your cocktail? Can you taste the spirit out of your drink? Yes? No! Maybe because you can’t identify the flavour? Good news for those who have a thirst for knowledge.
What if there was a bar where you could only taste distillates? A bar dedicated only to handcrafted spirits? You can consider yourself lucky if you are in Berlin. A collection of over 900 bottles from small producers from Europe and around the world, including gins, genever, grappa, calvados, fruit brandies, liqueurs, whiskies and delicious combinations in stirred drinks and gin & tonics awaits you. Sounds like paradise? It is! Beavis offers a different bar concept and the possibility to taste spirits from all over the world at one place.
Beavis Bar is a craft spirits tasting bar and an amazing concept for connoisseurs. Innovative, unique, with love, heart and a lot of spirit.
The bar is helmed by Jon Cooper and Rik Lusing. Both initially had a different professional background, but their love and passion for spirits inspired them to open a tasting bar. Sounds logical. In-spired means “in spirit” and when you are inspired you are living in line with your spirit. And so they opened Beavis two year ago on Veteranenstraße near Weinbergspark in Berlin Mitte.
Pictured were provided by Beavis Bar and done by the photographer Dirk Lässig
Two years after the opening I finally made it and entered this wonderful place. Beavis offers a cosy environment in warm red tones and light wood. With shelves up to the ceiling divided into different cubes, it reminded me of a library. This impression was also reflected in the drinks menu, which is thick like a reference book. Everything is set in scene with a sophisticated lighting system. You will find two rooms: The front room offers around eight seats at the bar and a few tables. The back area hosts a large table reserved for regulars and tastings. All in all a place of well-being where attention to quality and detail translates into friendly and attentive hospitality.
The best way is learning by drinking
It is easy to get lost in the extensive menu. Everything is sourced and imported directly from small producers, that are rather unknown. The bar team is happy to help and supports you with pleasant and unobtrusive expertise. They are a human library.
The best way to drink and learn is a selection of flights lovingly curated by Jon and Rik, each comprising three thematically related spirits.
I opted for a Calvados, my companion for a Grappa flight. What an experience and surprise. I’d never tasted a grappa with such a spiciness and leather tone. The calvados collection includes around 30 fine calvas. Calvados is a French brandy made from apples but can also contain pears. The Domfrontais 3 years old I had is made from 100% pear and aged for 3 years in oak barrels. Delicious!
my gallery
It is very helpful to have something to soak up the alcohol after a couple of samples. Luckily, Beavis also offers some tasty bites. With the fine spirits, a nice plate of salami direct from the farm, cheese, and Schüttelbrot from Tirol goes so well.
And then a cocktail after all? Strictly stirred not shaken.
Beavis is by choice deliberately not a cocktail bar, but offers a small selection of classic stirred drinks, which are, of course, prepared with their fine spirits.
Pictured were provided by Beavis Bar and done by the photographer Dirk Lässig
And what about the crowdpleaser Gin & Tonic?
What would you expect? Something special, of course! Gin and Tonic to make your own. I am not the biggest fan of Gin & Tonic but Jon made my mouth water when he explained their philosophy on G&T. All the ingredients are served individually in Beavis Bar style. So you get gin, tonic syrup and water, sparking. You can try your gin first neat and then build your mix tailored to your very own taste. Let’s figure out next time if there is a variation I might like. This is a bar to visit more often. Maybe see you there.
Visit Beavis Bar Berlin