Craft beer is a term that most beer drinkers are familiar with. Everyone has heard of it and most have at least tried an IPA or stout. The craft beer scene has been in the forefront in the United States for decades, but the development didn't come to us until much later. Nevertheless, Germany now has a good number of young, creative craft breweries and Germans' taste in beer now includes more than just Pils and Keller. But for a craft beer pioneer, this is still too slow: Fritz Wülfing is the head of his own label Ale-Mania and was one of the first in Germany to drink and make craft beer.
Fritz's career in beer began more than 40 years ago when he did an internship at a long-established brewery. From then on, beer never left his mind and he traveled to Great Britain and the USA to see the world's brews. Fritz worked full-time for a large telecommunications company, but he devoted his free time to beer. After his first attempts at brewing in his own home turned out more or less poorly, he sought professional help: In the early 2000s, a young brewery from San Diego sold not only beer but also brewing kits for homebrewers and was there to give Fritz advice and support. With this support, the beer lover managed to brew his first really good brew and learned that brewing craft beer requires carefully selected raw materials and a skilled hand. Fritz proved the latter with all the brews that followed his first work. He began to brew and sell his beer in the hallowed halls of established breweries.
Since 2014, the brewery has been called Ale-Mania and its own brewing system followed shortly afterwards. Fritz no longer wanted to rely on the hospitality of other breweries and invested in his own brewing system. To help other young brewers get on their feet, he repeatedly invites cuckoo breweries to brew on his system. The focus of his own work is Bonn and the surrounding region: Fritz wants to brew beer for his fellow countrymen and therefore has regional specialties such as Wiess in his range alongside classics from the craft beer industry. Fritz himself prefers to drink the beers of our English neighbors. On his travels he got to know and love the beer of the British, but a hopped India Pale Ale or a sparkling fruit beer is also fine.
