About a year and a half ago I realised that there was a massive demand in Zürich for a bar with a large selection of good beers from around the world, so I decided to open one. (OK, I have 2 partners and some private investors too)

The International Beer Bar will open its doors in the next week or so and will have over 100 beers. 50% of these will be Swiss beers from, mostly, small breweries including Trois dames, BFM, Bier Factory Rapperswil and Brull!. The other beers will come mainly from Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, Holland, the UK and the US and Canada.

We will have 8 taps (but they're running late, for the first week or so we'll have just 3 or 4) and the rest in bottles.

This is not intended to be an "Expat" pub, it's a Swiss beer bar with an international menu. Some of our beers we hope will be amongst the cheapest beer in town, but some very special ones might also be the most expensive. But there'll be something for everyone for sure!

Our plan is to have a constantly evolving menu, most weeks there will be something new, and some beers, particularly from small breweries, will be temporarily sold out. Our tap beers for the first couple of months will be:

Appenzellar Quollfrisch
Appenzellar Swiss Stout
Rappi Gold
Brull! Double IPA
Pilsner Urquell
Peroni
Punk IPA
Duvell

But we plan that every month or so one of these will change. In fact, we're hoping to make space in the spring for a further 8 taps and a "Hand Pump" to serve a British style Bitter Ale brewed over here exclusively for us.

Other bottled beers being delivered this week include more from Brewdog, a few Czech, about 10 German beers from small breweries as well as a range from Belgium. US beers include Rogue Brutal IPA and American Amber.

We'll also have some wine by the glass and bottle (great wine at very fair prices) including Champagne and 6 rare single malts.

We don't have a kitchen but we will be serving snacks such as cheese and charcuterie boards, grilled sandwiches and Pies from Meat Pie.

The bar is in a brand new building right next door to the Riff Raff Cinema on Neugasse, just off Langstrasse. It is quite small but we do have a terrace (the whole glass wall on that side slides down into the pavement) which we will have a license for in the spring.

Cool and funky music (not too loud) and no TV's will create a great atmosphere for beer lovers to chat and enjoy our brews.

We'll also host regular "Meet the Brewer" evenings and trips to breweries in CH and Germany.

Here's a few photos of the bar nearing completion, I will update this thread with news of the opening (we're just waiting for final approval from the City/health/police/fire depts etc.) but there will be more detailed updates, including in the future of new beers etc, on our Facebook page.

We look forward to serving you!

The International Beer Bar
Luisenstrasse 7
8005 Zürich

Home page (still being finalised)

Facebook

Twitter

__________________
Mike

Monger of fine British Cheeses

we wish you all the luck in the world I'm sure you'll make a huge success of it

Nice one grumpy, do you have a firm date yet, and for the none purists any chance of some John Smiths Extra Smooth.

We might be allowed to open this weekend..... but I'll let you know.

And no.

can you also post up the full address for those for us who only know where HB is

Great.... and bummer

Thanks, I've edited the OP and added the address. It's just 4 or 5 minutes walk from Limmatplatz (trams 4, 13 and 17) and one minute walk from Röntgenstrasse bus stop (32 bus).

I was wondering how this was going? Glad to see this nearing fruition.

Are you going to have some normal, mass produced, tasteless cooking lager? You don't have to have it on display, we could just make it an "under the counter" thing

If I see feldschlosschen in there I'm firebombing the place

What are your closing hours?

Good luck grumpy, look forward to drinking here.

Explains all the arsons

That's my favourite.

The nearest we will have for you is Quollfrisch... but there will also be a few other Hell / Lagers that I will educate you with.

For the first few months:

Tue/Wed 16.00 - 23.00pm
Thur/Fri/Sat 12.00 - 24.00
Sun 11.00 - 22.00

But these will expand in the new year

Why so early if I can ask? Normally we get out there after 23pm as it is.

Do you plan to sell beers from "down our way"? A friend of a friend runs one of the local microbreweries and I reckon their beer is deserving of a wider audience.

We get an automatic license until midnight, to stay open later we would need to apply for an extension. After midnight though sales go down, staff costs go up as does likelyhood of trouble. We decided to stay at midnight closing for the time being, plenty of other bars around there with some beers who cater for the early morning drinkers.

Send me details of them, if the beer is good and different, we would certainly try them

Sounds like a great place, we will definitely be visiting!

I'll also throw in a request for a sour ale....a Belgium Lambic or the like?

Best of luck!

Bostin! Good luck!

Good luck with your new venture. I'm sure that you will have it all sorted by the time I visit in February