A vagabond is someone who leaves his homeland and travels the world without a permanent residence or base. An outlaw, a bon vivant who is not sedentary and stationary but rather unattached, independent and unconventional. A handful of brewers from the United States also identify with this description and have therefore given their baby the name Vagabund Brewery.
Matt Walthall, David Spengler and Tom Crozier actually came to Berlin to indulge their love of music. The three had formed a band and wanted to find their rhythm in the creative melting pot of Berlin. They rented a rehearsal room, gathered the necessary instruments and bought a few cases of beer to refresh themselves during breaks and to support the atmosphere. The craft beer-spoiled Americans had not expected that it would ultimately fail because of the beer. In 2009, the craft beer movement in Germany was still in its infancy, while in the States people were already enjoying pale ale, porter, stout and IPA. Our three musicians found themselves in a land of pilsner, and in Berlin, industrially brewed pilsner was largely served and sold. In order not to die of acute thirst for beer in this desert of nonexistent beer styles, the band decided to brew their own beer. Good music and tasty beer are a strong symbiosis that should not be underestimated, so this step was unavoidable. Matt's kitchen was converted into a microbrewery and the first pale ale from the pen of our three musicians saw the light of day, only to be drunk in hasty gulps shortly afterwards.
The newcomers' debut was like a drop in the ocean: thirsty Berliners welcomed the American Pale Ale with open arms and mouths. Soon the band was no longer known for their music, but for their fine beer. The final end of the music group was inevitable, but the next adventure was already on the horizon: in 2011, Tom, David and Matt founded the Vagabund Brewery and made their beer official. Exciting times followed with a crowdfunding campaign, the construction of first one and then the next location and the brewing of countless beers and beer styles. Today, the Vagabund Brewery is an established player on the Berlin beer market and has made a good name for itself far beyond Germany's borders thanks to numerous awards and medals in renowned competitions. The brewery is flourishing and enriches not only Berlin's beer scene with delicious creations that are anything but bland pilsners.
