Birraire - Beer Blog

Steve Huxley, happy. (Picture by Dani Ruiz) On a day like today, I could not go to sleep without first opening a beer and spend some time doing these two things that I love: thinking and writing. I think , about earlier experiences and the significance that the individual and collective action of people can have. I write , in memory and in honour of you, Steve, that have left us like orphans: all of us those who, directly or indirectly, have been your pupils.

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"

Matt Dick, brewer and founder at Boundary Brewing Coop ( picture was taken from here ). I still hadn't had the chance to get myself any beer from the rising scene in Northern Ireland. It was the same person who had enthusiastically told me about what was beggining to happen up there, fellow blogger  Steve Lamond , who at the last edition of the European Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference  in Brussels brought me three bottles from a young cooperative microbrewery based in Belfast:  Boundary Brewing . "For five years, the brewing scene has exponentially been growing, with more than twenty breweries today" 

"Craft beer is about people. Craft beer is about culture. Craft beer is about exchange of ideas" These were the words that Kjetil Jikiun pronounced in his intervention at the official video of the Barcelona Beer Festival 2012 . A true declaration of principles. I had no chance to talk to him in that distant first edition of the festival, but we could engage in small conversation at a presentation in BierCab, around two years ago. Those who knew him personally had already told me so, and it was exactly what I felt: a cordial and extremely humble person, willing to share every single detail about his beers, while showing kindness and self-confidence with his words and gesture.

Better than those famous Belgian comics: this is as true as life. Summer is almost over. Looking back to the experiences I have had during these melting-hot months, I can say aloud it hasn't been just another summer . At all. It started with the latest stages of Mrs. Birraire's pregnancy, followed by the birth of my baby daughter on August. It has indeed been an emotionally intense period: full of uncertainties, but with lots of calmed and quiet moments. It has actually been so quiet that I haven't even had relevant beer stories, beyond every single beer drunk. Well, to say the truth, there might have been a couple of worth-writing tales.     "An unexpected occupant had helped itself to a second home, to rest after all the hard work throughout the year"

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.