Craft Beer Revolution Part 2
As previously highlighted in our blog, The Craft Beer Revolution Begins, Barcelona is now home to numerous of craft & microbreweries. In this region, it is better known as cervesa artesana. This is a relatively new development in the Catalan capital, especially when compared to its storied history. To put things into perspective, the city is home to ancient Roman ruins that predate the birth of Jesus and cathedrals from the middle ages. There are even restaurants, like Can Culleretes, that are almost as old as the United States. One can only imagine what that kind of longevity can do for the craft beer industry here.
In the last craft beer blog, we mentioned the history of one of man’s favorite beverages from its inception. This time we’ll focus more on the history of cervesa artesana specifically… For starters, Anchor Brewing Co. is considered the first microbrewery, according to Men’s Health Magazine. Surely there is some debate about the founding of a brewery that isn’t “mainstream”. Naturally, just like your favorite Indie band, at some point, if they are popular enough they grow out of their Indie shoes and become more mainstream. While it is difficult to pin down the start of the revolution, the fact is that it is here for good. For your entertainment:Here’s a little documentary that briefly explains the history of craft beer and the beginning of this epic movement around the globe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETnlrYq7btE
Craft Beer in Barcelona:The Revolution Continues
Multiple searches on Google yield little to no information about when the first craft brewery opened in Barcelona specifically. However, now there are over 150 breweries in Catalonia and the first is about 10 years old. To further embellish this point, CocoVail Beer Hall has only been around less than a year and is considered Barcelona’s first beer hall. Additionally, the first cervesa artesana festival, the Barcelona Beer Festival, is only 5 years old, and is growing in presence and popularity year-after-year. You can also enjoy the Biergarten Festival hosted in Poble Espanyol. Be sure to catch the following festivals in Spring of 2018!
Want to know where to get some excellent craft beer in Barcelona? A small list of possible craft beers to try while in Barcelona includes: Edge Brewing, Espiga, Barcelona Beer Company, BeerCat, Ales Agullons, Garage Beer Co., Birra 08, La Calavera, and AS Cervesa Artesana. Some of these breweries are featured in our selection of Best Craft Beers in Barcelona. We will be adding to this list over the coming years. Of course, you can knock out a lot of these samples with a trip to CocoVail. We always have a wide variety on tap for you to enjoy! As you can see, this culture is only starting to take hold in the area. Just like anything else in life, great things take time. While there are already phenomenal options around Barcelona, there can only be improvement and evolution as time progresses. It will be awesome to witness what delicious options for craft beer we will have in the future.