Mashsee Brauerei Is Founded in Hannover

In 2014, brewmaster Kolja Gigla and beer sommelier Alexander Herold founded Mashsee Brauerei and opened the Craft Beer Kontor in Hannover, Germany. Mashsee began with TrainingsLager, a dry-hopped lager that combined Gigla’s focus on bottom-fermented brewing with the expressive hop character associated with the developing craft-beer movement. Mashsee developed its recipes on a self-built microbrewing system in Hannover before Gigla scaled them up at partner breweries. The accompanying bottle shop gave the founders a place to introduce unfamiliar beers directly to local consumers. This combination of contract production, experimentation, and local market-building exemplified one route by which small German craft-beer businesses emerged during the 2010s.