Planet Berlin: A Belgian at the tap
At Herman bar in Prenzlauer Berg, Belgian Bart Neirynck wants to make his guests intimate with the diverse beers of his homeland.
Doing it his way
At first, Bart Neirynck wanted to make experimental films. He studied art in Ghent and underground filmmaking in San Francisco. Back in southwestern Flanders, Neirynck worked at his grandfather's carpet business before moving to Rome, where he landed behind the counter of a Swedish bar — and learned to pour beer.
Special charm
In retrospect, opening a beer bar in a land of beer was a special challenge. He wanted to inspire Germans to try foreign brews that are very different from the mass produced industrial beer they traditionally consume. Tourists, however, were the first customers.
Teacher tribute
In Berlin, Neirynck finally dove deeper into the restaurant business and worked for a few years in an Irish pub until opening his Belgian beer bar in Prenzlauer Berg at the end of 2012. He named the pub after his former German teacher.
Simply beer
Today, the Herman Belgian beer pub offers its guests around 100 different beers. Meanwhile, Germans are among the regulars. Incidentally, Neirynck doesn't refer to these special brews as craft beer. In Belgium, the very best is simply beer.