Crafting New Lifestyles and Urban Places: The Craft Beer Scene of Berlin

Abstract

The paper is concerned with the development of the craft beer scene in Berlin. Collections of people, spaces, places and practices form this vibrant cultural scene. Products and services emerged around craft beer over the last decade have become part of new urban experiences and shared social, economic and cultural practices in Berlin. These practices and consumption spaces present a particular understanding of esthetic, taste and lifestyle. They are part of an urban transformation shaped by global and local strategies of urban revitalization and gentrification processes. It is argued that the study of craft beer phenomena helps understand the processes of urban change and the ways in which new urban identities are constituted around social class, lifestyle and cultural consumption. By focusing on a case study of Brlo brewery and a current urban development project, the Urbane Mitte in the central districts of Berlin, the paper explores the impact of craft beer phenomena on its physical and social surrounding, processes of urban change and the formation of new urban communities in the context of Berlin.