Barcelona's new beer

A new Barcelona beer company has just been launched: Barcelona Beer Company. Its beers are made with top-quality ingredients, starting with spring water from the Font del Regas in the Montseny, followed by several varieties of roasted barley (malt) from Germany and the beer’s “secret” ingredient, the hops, which are carefully selected and blended to produce three very special beers:

Beercelona: a smooth beer (American ale), 4% ABV, with a very special label designed by Alex Truchut.

Cerdos voladores (Flying Pigs): a stronger beer at 5% (India pale ale). It has three different labels (which turn up at random) showing the three little pigs, now all grown up, who have discovered that what really matters in life is a beer with friends. Each little pig speaks a different language: one Catalan, another Spanish and the third English.

La Bella Lola: the lightest of the three, at 3% (American blonde), with a little wheat and very refreshing. The girl on the label is Lola.

And behind these beers are three founding partners, lots of enthusiasm and a real desire to do things properly.

Their aims with Barcelona Beer Company are to make good beer, to have fun with the project and, like any business, to make some money out of it.

The brewing process is carefully controlled at every step.

The spring water is mixed with the different malts and finally with the hops, which are what give the beer its bitterness. The mixture goes through a first fermentation of about 2 weeks, then the bottles are filled (by hand, for now) and finally there’s a second fermentation of about 3 weeks. A small machine makes labelling easier, and the bottles are boxed by hand. The beer isn’t pasteurised, which makes for a much tastier product with a more distinctive texture.

Every step follows a set protocol, always at a controlled temperature. All in all, brewing takes around 6 weeks.

Last week they started distributing through the hotel and restaurant trade (the HORECA channel) and a few specialist shops.

Funny story: on the day I met them, a man turned up wanting to buy the beer because he collected bottles. And they told me he wasn’t the only one to have dropped in out of the blue: collectors of bottle caps, labels, bottles and so on have already been through this brewery, which will soon be too small for them (for now they only produce 8,000 litres a month).

Many thanks for inviting me to visit Barcelona Beer Company, and the very best of luck!