Birraire - Beer Blog

Belgium. Surely a great part of those of us who nowadays love beer above the average started our affair with those Abbey and Trappist beers that one could find in supermarkets and some bars. Same places where 15 different beers on bottle was regarded as something truly ground-breaking.   Since then though we have experienced the rising of our local microbreweries, the influence of the American craft breweries, the revolutions, the punkies and the regrettable IBUs war. All this has lead to an excessive obsession with one of the four main ingredients in beer. In beer circles, hops have ousted beers with a sweeter than bitter profile, as well as most of those with a nice and complex yeast influence. Let alone those light and subtle bottom-fermented brews that no one seems to be paying much attention nowadays.

There was no date, nor even a medium term intention. There was an obvious disagreement about the best time for it, though, It was in my previous life in Madrid when it was first brought up to me. Let's say I was not at all receptive. But a couple of months later, in the little village of Saignelégier, I jumped right in when I summoned the celebration of that same future event as a reason to convince Mrs Birraire that buying a 1.5 liters bottle of beer was completely necessary. Effective move: after sampling some beers at the little bar of the Swiss microbrasserie , I left the premises with a nice box full of BFMs. And a smart magnum bottle of √225 Twin Porter. I was unsure whether it would be appropriate or not to wait all that time before drinking it, but I made a mental note to renegotiate the deal with my wife some months after. I couldn't wait for a little one to be born.

No, I've never been very keen on those "best beers to try before you die" compilations. Nor do I like to publish beer ratings or rankings: the greatness of beer depends on far too many things, and I don't really want to give my tastes some kind of definitive superior status. But even when I frown and permanently wrinkle my brow at this kind of stuff, I must admit that it sometimes can be useful. Let's put an example. Imagine you're travelling to Barcelona -yay!- and you want to try some of the local beers on offer. Maybe you're one of those adventurous drinkers who would try anything they find. Good luck, lad. Or, maybe you'd love to have some local perspective, suggestions on which beers you should really try to find and drink, given that your time, money and liver productivity are actually finite.