On the weekend of the 28th of March Mo' Problemas and I went on a beer trip to Barcelona. The main purpose of this trip was visiting Edge Brewing, although of course we took the opportunity to explore at least part of Barcelona's craft beer scene. It was a short trip as we got to Barcelona at 6 in the evening on Friday and took the train back at 9 pm on Saturday, but it was definitely intense.
As I said, visiting Edge Brewing was the primary purpose of our trip. We got there at 7 in the evening, virtually straight off our train, and were greeted by Alan, the head brewer, who told us a little bit about how this project came into fruition.
For those who haven't read my previous post on their opening day party, Edge Brewing was born with the idea of brewing American craft beer in Spain. In order to do that, Alan, Scott and the rest of the team brought an American craft brewery to the country. Literally. They flew in their whole brewery and all of their equipment directly from the US, including hammers, screwdrivers, nails and screws.
The reasoning behind this is pretty sensible. As they told us, having to look for and explain what they needed in a foreign country would've made things that much harder. Since they were already flying in their brewery to ensure their brewing conditions were the same as in the US, bringing the rest of the materials needed to set it up was not that big of a step further.
Of course, Alan's zeal to ensure that his beer comes out as similar as possible to the ones he brewed in the US doesn't stop there. For one, he has brought with himself the water treatment equipment necessary to ensure that he gets the flavor profiles right for each type of beer. This is not that widely done in Spain and of itself will surely make his beers taste a little bit more American. After all, beer is mostly water. Having water with the same taste and mineral composition as the one in San Diego or Portland is bound to make a West Coast IPA taste more like a West Coast IPA than Barcelona water ever will.
Even more importantly though, he has also made sure to source his hops straight from the Yakima Valley in the State of Washington, getting American varieties to ensure American tastes and American levels of bitterness. He let us peak inside his hops cooler and I have to say it was awe-inspiring. Not only did he have an impressive amount of different varieties you don't always find in Spain, but he had the largest quantity of hops I have ever seen in person this side of the pond.
This sheer amount of hops in reality is a symbol of what Edge Brewing and Alan hope to do to further the craft beer movement in the country. As he loosely put it, there is no way that with their expected output in the next few months they could use all those hops. Those hops are there to share with fellow craft brewers, to promote the spirit of camaraderie intrinsic to craft brewing in the US.
Camaraderie and collaboration with other brewers are a big part of this project. In fact, they hope to team up with a host of other brewers, both from the US and the rest of the world and dish out plenty of collaborations to delight their drinkers. The first of these collaborations, which came out a few weeks before our visit, had Due South Brewing visiting them in Barcelona to brew the Taronja HoRyezon, an IPA made with rye, Valencia oranges and Catalan honey.
Another sign of their close relationships with other brewers is the flyer below for their "Meet the Brewers" event during the Barcelona Beer Fest, comprising breweries from a bunch of different countries.
Nevertheless, their spirit of collaboration doesn't stop with other brewers but spills over into the community, another trait of American craft brewers. Alan and Scott told us at length about their ideas to put the brewery at the service of el Poblenou, the neighborhood in which it lies. Some of it simply means giving back to the community in return for its support, but part of these projects will also involve making their big and beautifully designed tasting room a sort of civic center in which to organize events related to causes beneficial to their neighbors. You know, other than providing them with a place to drink great beers on tap, a hugely worthy cause in itself.
The tap room, in wood and exposed brick, is already very cool and inviting and promises to be an even more amazing space once it is fully finished, complete with a speakeasy in an old war bunker ensuring that if the city is ever under bombardment people will at least be able to drink at their leisure. It houses long wooden tables and a long wooden bar with gigantic windows overlooking the brewery area and is equipped with ten taps from which Edge Brewing's sweet nectars flow.
This is where we spent most time that day, tasting everything they had on tap and revisiting some to make sure that our first taste was accurate enough.
The first beer we tried was the Power Plant Saison, the first beer they brewed, a 7% ABV saison so named because of the power issues they were having at the time. It was tasty and incredibly soft and easy to drink considering its high ABV.
Then came the Barretina, an amber ale and one of Alan's favorites, named after a Catalan bonnet of similar color to the beer. Very flavorful and malt forward, it seemed to me like the perfect session beer... so much so that I had three of them.
Our next beer was the Hoptimista IPA a tasty IPA with a bit of a spicy touch to it and a very west coast smell to it.
Finally came the spectacular Padrino Porter. This Porter, a tribute to Xavier Galobart, a prominent figure in the Barcelona craft beer scene and adviser to the guys at Edge, is a perfect mix of roasty bitterness and creammy sweetness. Very easy to drink fast but great to sit back and flavor calmly.
Roughly seven beers in total and some four hours of great time with fantastic people made for a great start to our trip. It was getting late however and we were running on empty stomachs so it was time to say our goodbyes and head to our next stop, the Bier Cab, which will be the object of another post. As we left though we could not shake the thought that we were leaving one of the places which will brew some of the best beers in Spain in the near future. My hope is they will soon be readily available in Madrid.
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