Birraire - Beer Blog

La Farga, a spacious and well-equipped venue for BBF 2017 5 days left! The sixth edition of the Barcelona Beer Festival is very close, and the whole organisation team is very busy with the late details to ensure that everything goes well again. The change of location adds an extra layer of difficulty, as it requires us to change the mental comfort of knowing the terrain beforehand and adapt to a new space: La Farga del Hospitalet . It is undoubtedly an ideal venue for the BBF thanks to the many additional facilities that we can offer to our public , specially an increase on capacity and the comfort associated with a place that was designed for large events –e.g. toilets, air-conditioning. But today there is something else to talk about. Less than a week away from hearing the bell tirelessly ringing whenever a new keg is tapped, it is high time for me to present the Parallel Activities Grid of the 2017 Barcelona Beer Festival here in the English version of the blog. "...

For one more year, the Barcelona Beer Challenge has held its evaluation weekend in the taproom of Edge Brewing, in the Poblenou neighbourhood. This is the second edition of the contest, which has experienced a 51% growth in terms of participation compared to 2016, with 756 beers from a total of 203 breweries : ' a huge success ', says Àngel Tarriño, director of the contest. The most optimistic estimates foresaw an increase of about 20%. One can therefore take for granted a good competition to reach the individual awards of the different categories, and a tough battle to win the prize for best brewery, obtained by  Cervesa Montseny  last year, and best new brewery. "The result of the contest will be presented on Saturday March 25th, at the Barcelona Beer Festival 2017"

So here's the third instalment of this yearly post series, whose goal is to make  good recommendations  to people living in or coming to Barcelona with beer thirst. Since I have never liked to give my personal tastes too much importance when writing, I came up with the idea to make a selection of good local beer according to the taste of people I trust. Hence, two years ago the  Barcelona Beer Locals' Choice  was born - you can read more about how I organise the whole thing in the tab 'What to drink in Barcelona', from the menu above -. "The list comprises a selection of 19 local beers, highlighted by distinguished Barcelona drinkers"

  Believe it or not, the BBF team has been working for months already, on what will be the fifth edition of the festival: Barcelona Beer Festival 2016. Following our main aim to spread the culture of quality beer among the public, our efforts focus on preparing an inclusive event for everyone to enjoy, as always collecting the valuable feedback we receive from our demanding but appreciative visitors, who always look joyful in the pictures. We have done lots of work, but we still have plenty of things to do. For now, we can already announce that we have the definitive venue and dates for the festival. And yes, I guess we can also announce a new huge newness for this year: the  Barcelona Beer Challenge .     "Today, terms like "craft" are not sufficient to position the quality of the product"  

I remember the day I met Nereo  Garbin . We had arranged to meet at the offices of the Instituto de la Cerveza Artesana ( ICA - Institute of Craft Beer ) in the neighbourhood of Poble Sec, also with Daniel Fermun , whom I had previously met in Madrid, at the extinct pub Animal Picar & Beer. We had a long talk in which we could know each other, exchange views on the local beer scene and drink some beers. They told me about their long career in the brewing industry and their future projects. They showed me a black, greasy store in the basement of the same building, in which a car workshop had operated in the past, and where they planned to locate their brewery . " Lots of work ahead! ", I thought. "Abirradero is the retail extension of ICA, with 40 rotating beer taps and a well-equipped kitchen"

Today's  Beer Blogging Friday , so it's time to post my contribution for The Session, an initiative by Stan Hieronymus from Appellation Beer . The current one is the 96th edition, the third one in which I take part. You can check out my past sessions here . This time is a bit more special for me, as I am the one hosting the current call. I had attended two different Welsh beer festivals during the summer, and after my vacation I was pondering about the role that these events play on different beer scenes. It was quite clear that it was not the same in Swansea than in Barcelona, but then again even the two festivals I attended while in the UK had a completely different approach. So I decided to write an email to Jay and Stan to suggest a topic for The Session of February 2015: " Festivals: Geek Gathering or Beer Dissemination? ".

You could say it was an intense Friday. At 4:30 am my computer was already on at full throttle to buy some time. I had 2 recruiting interviews ahead and an important report to finish (and to start). The theoretical last working day of the week promised lots of fun. I also had tickets for the theatre at 8 pm in Barcelona. It was a productive morning, though. No doubt, at midday I could even foresee that I would have some spare time before meeting my friends for the play, near Les Rambles. Conveniently enough, there was a presentation of a new brewpub at 6 pm just near there. Impressive to see how beer-related businesses have been growing in l’Eixample lately.

Some weeks you feel like a truck has run you over. I guess last friday I felt this way, and that's why I was hoping for 7:30 PM to arrive. No external factor, nor even the almost impossible mission to park a car in a neighbourhood like Gràcia, was going to prevent me from having a great time at the first BeerStorming, an event organised in Barcelona by my mates from  BrewHome . I reached the place with some spare time. Last preparations and the attendees, most of them gastro-bloggers, were called in to grab a sit. Two long tables were perfectly set with 4 half pint glasses for each person, along with a collection of small glass containers with the same malts and hops used to brew the beers that we were about to taste. All in a nice, cozy room with some homebrewing machinery and materials, red brickwork and wooden furniture. Great setup for an event that won our sympathy from the very beggining.