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.

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.