The doors open today on Barcelona Beer Festival for its twelfth edition, which will be held this weekend in the Hall2 Pavilion of the Fira de Barcelona, a larger and more open space than the previous edition. Thanks to its history and magnitude, the festival has become the benchmark event for the craft beer industry not only in Spain, but also in southern Europe.
Liquid gastronomy is the mainstay of the Barcelona Beer Festival. You can taste about 400 local craft beers and beers from around the world, of which approximately 40% will be of Catalan origin, 30% from the rest of Spain and 30% from around the world. In addition, there will be fifty that will premiere exclusively at the festival. All of them can be consulted via mobile phone with the Untappd application and there will also be a team of waiters who will guide everyone who needs it to find the beer that best suits them.
Solid gastronomy will also play a prominent role in the festival thanks to a selection of eight local restaurateurs who will offer tapas and dishes paired with beer. This year’s Gastro Show will feature international flavours such as Italian Il Birrino and Mama Pizza with an artisanal focaccia filled with homemade porchetta and Margherita pizzas, respectively; the Japanese Osaka Barcelona with the traditional takoyaki; and Rooster & Bubbles, which will offer roast lamb in pita bread. Catalan cuisine will also be present with El cau del vermut, which will have Catalan yellow chicken wings with spicy barbecue sauce, and with the Al Karbon urban grill, which will have roasted Catalan yellow chicken croquettes with caramelised onion. There will also be desserts from the Arka Delicatessen pastry shop that will offer a chocolate sacher with a touch of strawberry, and oysters from the Ebro Delta at the Craft Brewery stand. All dishes will be perfectly paired with the style of beer that best generates a sensory and surprising experience.
The Barcelona Beer Festival also creates a space open to all attendees thanks to a series of activities designed to introduce them to the world of craft beers, whether they are just starting out or are experts and want to continue delving deeper into them. There will be around twenty tastings of different beer styles, pairings with cheeses or chocolates, and various showcookings by Jordi Esteve (Nectari), Carlota Claver (La Gormanda) and Toni Romero (Bart Gastroburger) and the sommelier Edgar Rodríguez (Dejàvins). In addition, the festival has also scheduled DJs every afternoon and live music on Friday with Koko-Jean & The Tonics.
It is also worth noting that the Barcelona Beer Festival has a parallel initiative aimed at the professional beer sector, the InnBrew: The Brewers Convention, the only professional beer convention in Spain, which will be held on the 22nd and 23rd also at the Fira de Barcelona and which It expects to have more than a thousand accredited professionals. The international Barcelona Beer Challenge awards are also held for the best and most innovative craft beers. The awards gala will take place on Friday at 6 pm.
Historically, in each edition, the Barcelona Beer Festival has produced an official limited edition beer. Until now it had been a collaboration with international breweries that made their interpretation of Barcelona in beer format. As a novelty, the Barcelona Beer Festival will now present a special edition beer sponsored by a public figure. The first to sponsor the new official beer of the Barcelona Beer Festival was the journalist Samanta Villar. Playing at the La Pirata brewerie in Soria they have made “Agosarada by Samanta Villar”, a Gose personalised by the journalist.
Gose is an original style of beer from Lower Saxony, specifically from the mining area on the banks of the Gose River, a stream of water loaded with metals, minerals and a lot of salt. As this beer was traditionally brewed with water from this river, it has a salty aftertaste. The “Agosarada by Samanta Villar” was also born in a very salty mining town, Soria. The result is a daring, unique, special and brave Gose, like Samanta Villar, and with a citrus touch of orange and lime, which is inspired by the Valencia where the journalist grew up.
For three days, the Barcelona Beer Festival will once again place Barcelona at the world epicentre of craft beer, an industry that has around four hundred producers in the state and has a turnover of around €140M annually; Catalonia alone has more than a hundred producers that invoice approximately €40M.
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