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Breweries — it’s beer and it’s brewed here
Beer homage to Catalonia in Barcelona at the Cervesera Artesana… On the northern outskirts, you will find the Damm brewery, whose mainstay is Estrella, a refreshing if unremarkable lager that vies for bar spaces in the city with the ubiquitous San Miguel. The company also produces Bock Damm, all coffee and chocolate flavours and aromas, though a little thin on the body — despite the name it has more in common with a Munich Dunkel than a bock. More enjoyable and interesting is Voll Damm — this is an amber-coloured strong (7.2%) variation on the pale bock style, bittersweet, smooth, well balanced and shorn of the harsh alcoholic edge that similar beers across Europe seem to be cursed with (Gayant’s Demon for a start).
Then there is a small brewery Moritz — they produce a full bodied, full blown golden Munchen lager that is refreshing but not exciting enough to mention on the postcard sent home. However, beerlovers eager for something off the beaten track and less predictable would be advised to head to Cervesera Artesana, a comfortable brew-pub that looks further afield for its beery pleasures. Hidden down a side street, not far from the smart and busy area around Diagonal station on the Metro, the bar’s interior is all exposed brickwork and warm bare stone, while the solid stone floor is embedded with old mosaic tiles. There are plenty of beer posters on the wall and a selection of dispensation fonts on shelves. A large selection of Belgian beer bottles is a statement of intention — this is an establishment where beer is taken serious. The choice might be unspectacular in a Belgian bar with Chimay, Gouden Draak, Piraat, Duval, draft Kwak and Leffe on offer, but this is still a celebration of Joan Barleycorn and for that let us be thankful. However, it’s what is at the back of the bar, proud and assertive, standing to attention behind panelled glass, that those with an interest in beer should turn their attention to. Beyond the glass windows sits the pub’s brewing equipment, a well-burnished copper, wooden-slat jacketed mash tun and brace of fermenting vessels. Beer has been the main business here for the last 15 years, with the pub’s owner and brewer Olaf Marti in charge of matters since 2001.
Olaf Marti: a beer man adrift in wine country Brewing in a wine country is not easy, he explains, as we taste his subtly floral honey beer, and early evening drinkers — mainly young and female — start to drift in. ‘In Spain it’s very difficult to have a microbrewery,’ he says, ‘brewing is very bureaucratic — for instance even though we are much smaller than Estrella I need the same documentation as them.’ Despite this challenge and what he says is a lack of a beer culture in Spain, Marti manages to brew two-three times a month on average, with more beer flowing through the pumps in the summer. ‘My inspiration is England,’ he says, ‘but the brewery is set up on similar lines to Californian breweries.’ Hops such as Fuggles, Goldings, Northern Brewer and Galena are used, while a top-fermenting yeast does the hard work of fermentation, even for the brewery’s occasional Pilsner — topsy-turvy or what! On the evening I visit, four of the brewery’s beers are available, all dispensed at the bar, coming straight from maturation vessels hidden in a temperature controlled room next to the brewery. As Marti explains that Spanish drinkers like a higher level of carbonation in their beer, he explains almost apologetically ‘it’s not real ale’. The beers I try are the Bronze, the Iberian Stout, a mint-flavoured beer and the honey beer. All are unfiltered and served slightly too cold, however there is a rough-hewn, honest, unsophisticated feel to them. The Bronze is slightly thin but still refreshingly attractive — it was served too cold for my liking but more flavour and aroma emerged as it warmed up. It had an earthy hoppiness with citrus fruit dominating the aroma. Even at a strength of 5%, I felt it could have done with a bit more alcohol — is the brewer having to deal with Spanish (or should that be Catalonian?) perceptions about strength?
At the business end of the bar The Mint Beer has a nose of extra strong mints plus a very pale green tint to the colour. It is very minty on the palate, with the first thought being liquid Polos. It is in good condition and pretty refreshing, though I wouldn’t be able to drink too much of it — it would go well with spicy Indian dishes such as chicken tikka or even dhal. The honey beer has a subtle honey nose, is refreshing on the palate, but not overwhelming in its honey flavour. According to Marti, local honey is used. However, I saved the best for the last. The 5% Iberian Stout is a gorgeous, roasty, full-bodied creature, with a blast of dry roast barley, coffee beans and a herbal hop undercurrent on the nose. The palate is challenged by its charred, tarry bitterness and chocolate and coffee bean softness. It is eminently refreshing and complex and the bar recommends it be served with grilled calamari. That sounds a sensible option, but for now I’m saving it to be drunk on its own. At the bar, when I return for another stout, a man on a stool asks me if I come from Oxford. He seems disappointed when I say no, but he then lifts his glass and says that he comes to the bar everyday, ‘to worship at this temple of beer!’ In a city where international lager and expat bar smoothflow rules supreme, it’s heartening to hear these words — Orwell, who was noted for his love of draught stout, would have approved.
Beer, beer, beer January 2008 © beeralewhatever.com
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