FORT Oatmeal Porter

Black with a small but long lasting head. Sweet roasted malt/oatmeal nose. Hint of hoppy bitterness. First impression was hoppier than expected for the style, lingering wet hops flavor but enjoyable. Didn’t notice the sweetness I expected from the aroma, basically I think because it was overpowered by the hops (sidenote, I fear that we are heading down a slippery slope with hops, where a decent ale is somewhat less decent because of our insistence on overusing hops). The oatmeal mellowed the beer though and in the end I thought it was an above average porter.  Would definitely drink another one, although at 6.1% (pretty much normal for the style) it's got more of a kick and is really less of a session ale and more of a post dinner kind of beer. 

Mandril Pale Ale - Beer review

In keeping with my desire to play catch up with my craft beer reviews (and in honor of the upcoming BFF), I'm going to be reviewing a few of the local beers I have had in the last few weeks. So let's start with Mandril pale ale, a bottle-fermented unfiltered ale.

At 5.4%, it presents a balanced easy nose and a pale gold color. It was served a tad too cold (a relatively common problem). Noticed the floral and spicy hops more than the malt, as to be expected with the style (Pale Ale all too often these days is an abbreviation for mild IPA), but the bitterness is persistent through the finish, which is dry and lightly hopped. It’s a very drinkable pale ale, correct and the hops was counterbalanced very nicely by the chocolate brownie I ordered with it. That said, it was a bit expensive for what it is, which is correct but nothing spectacular. I'd be glad to drink this at a slightly lower price though. 

Homosibaris - Sants Beer Bar

Yesterday we stopped at Homosibaris for the first time. We picked a great time for it, right in the middle of the Festa Major de Sants. First of all, parking in the area is... well, let's just say it's probably easier to take the metro  - the nearest stop is less than 4 minutes from the Plaza Osca, where the bar sits (It's probably a ten minute walk from Plaza Espanya). It's a narrow, reasonably unpretentious place, and it looks like a great little hole in the wall when you walk in. There are some tables in the back, after the short bar and decent selection of bottled beers along the wall. There's not really any room at the bar itself, so we headed outside to enjoy the plaza.

The beer selection on tap was pretty good. Jake and I had the Agullons Sant Joan pale ale, which was pleasant, well balanced and a nice choice for sitting outside enjoying the late summer evening. Sherman had a very citric-heavy wheat beer from England and Devon had a more standard wheat beer which was very refreshing. The second round included the local stout. A little disappointed in the stout, which had a great burnt chocoloate/coffee aroma, which was immediately noticeable in the first taste but disappeared almost immediately, leaving very little else to the beer. For a beer which promised much, it was a bit of a let down.

Overall, the prices are not cheap, but the selection is nice and the setting is wonderful for locals and visitors to the city alike.

La Festa Major de Gracia 2013 - 1st annual Vilabirra Microbrew Festival

La Festa Major de Gracia are one of the summer highlights of Barcelona. Every year the village of Gracia, which until 1897 was a separate, thriving town from the neighboring city of Barcelona, hosts a 10 day street carnival which turns the heart of the city into a maze of paper mâché decorations, stalls and activities for all ages. Locals mix with tourists among the brightly adorned buildings and squares. It really is one of the most interesting and festive celebrations of the summer in the city. 

This year, with the ever increasing craft brew revolution taking place across the peninsula, the festival is offering its first ever craft brew festival, VilaBirra. Hosted by the Cara B bar, the beer festival offers 14 taps with more than 30 different beers from around the world. Some of the local beers worth highlighting are:

• Sang de Gossa from Zulogaarden
• Suria from La Pirata (I haven't had this one, so it's on my short list to try first)
• Blat Raner from L'Anjub (probably my favorite wheat beer from Catalonia, one of the best I've had from anywhere in recent years)
• and perhaps the one I am most looking forward to: La Virreina, which is a beer made specifically for the Festa Major, only 850 bottles made according to the website. 

In addition to the beers available for sampling, there will be activities such as beer tasting courses, concerts, and a workshop on homebrewing. So if you needed another reason to visit Barcelona's most popular summer festival this year, may i suggest the VilaBirra Festival!

Dimoni Wheat Beer

Confession: I'm not a huge wheat beer guy. I appreciate the style, and on a hot summer's day or evening I do enjoy it, but it doesn't rank in my top 10 styles. In saying so, the following review is as objective as I can be. Having returned home from an evening run, I decided the time was ripe for a nice wheat. Today's choice: Dimoni's Wheat beer. A nice choice. For a while i've been meaning to drink more of Dimoni's beers. A local Badalona beer (The city pushed up against Barcelona's northern border, just across the Besos River), the brewers seem to have a firm grasp on what they are doing and how they are going about doing it.

With a nice wheat beer color, notes of vanilla and fruits in the nose, the beer poured nicely even with the bottle fermentation. It was a very solid beer, well done and balanced, and at 4.3%  not overpowering the way some of the wheat beers can be when it seems like the brewer is trying to prove something. Not this one, it just went down beautifully with a nice lingering aftertaste that was pleasantly zingy without being overpowering. Perhaps not my favorite wheat beer of the Catalan microbrews, but certainly a beer I will have no problem repeating or recommending to those who are fans of the style, or are simply looking for a nice beer to quench their thirst on a summer's day along the Mediterranean coast.

More beer festivals in Barcelona - Birrasec 2013 / July 13

This weekend in the Poble Sec district of Barcelona (on the Av. Paral.lel, in front of the el Molino cabaret)  there is another excuse to explore the lesser-visited sections of the city: the first annual edition of Birrasec, bringing together some of the regions' best known microbrewers like Les Clandestines, Marina and Popaire as well as a number of local brewers and some surprise kegs to be tapped, the event will take place on Saturday. Wish I wasn't going to be in Rioja, but I'm sure it's going to be a great time! Great to see all these neighborhood Beer festivals popping up, the tradition is growing and the beer is flowing.

Bleder - Handcrafted beer with a Mediterranean touch

Last week we had the chance to enjoy a dinner/tasting with the owner/brewmeister of one of the most promising of the Barcelona microbreweries: Fortiverd.

Salvador Rocafull gave a good, short introduction to beer, and confessed his lifelong passion. After spending 2 decades working with yogurt companies, his knowledge of fermentation is unquestionable. But more importantly, his desire to produce a great and distinctive beer is wonderful. As of now, there are only 5 microbrew styles (on the market, with number 6 on its way in the next few months. We got to taste all 5 of them over the course of the evening, and we'll get our reviews up here soon. But suffice it to say, if you can get your hands on a Bleder, give it a shot!

A visit to Glops

Just the other day the three editors of The Barcelona and Catalan Beer page had the chance to visit Glops microbrewery. So naturally, we all jumped at the chance. The brewmaster/owner of Glops, Alex, has a very down-to-earth style that makes it very easy to ask him questions about his beers. His explanations of how he started and how he makes his beers were clear and concise. The tasting at the end of the visit was great, as not only did we get the chance to sample three varieties, but with Alex on hand to explain exactly what went into to each beer it was a great way to delve a little deeper into what is fast becoming one of Barcelona's best-known microbreweries.

The three beers we sampled were:

Glops Blanca - White beer, cloudy and the spices with notes of coriander make this a particularly easy-drinking beer for the summer months.
Glops Fumada - In the Smoke Beer/Bamberg style, with notes of bacon and spices associated with the style, Alex said it was one of his favorites, and it's easy to see why.
Glops D'Hivern - Heavy notes of sweet spices, particularly honey and rosemary (he used a rosemary honey plus an additional dose of rosemary) for this one. It is an interesting beer, and a great choice if the mood hits you.