Germany is famous for its beer, but centuries-old traditions have put it well behind the US and other countries at the forefront of beer experimentation. Thanks to changing consumer tastes and some maverick brewers, though, the country is slowly catching up.

On the last day of September, students of brewing from all over the world celebrated in a quiet corner of central Berlin, spending the afternoon at picnic tables filled with mugs of India Pale Ale and plates of German food. In Munich, hundreds of kilometers to the south, the country's most famous beer festival, Oktoberfest, was in full swing. But these revellers were far away in both spirit and distance.

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