A Craft Beer Lovers Guide to Barcelona

I’d been to Barcelona quite a few times before but prior to this trip I never realised that they had such a lively craft beer scene.  I’m not sure why but it’s just never something I’d have previously associated the city with but after being invited over to check out some of the local craft breweries by Four Points by Sheraton my eyes have been well and truly opened.

The first stop on my tour was to visit the Black Lab Brewhouse & Kitchen.  It’s located down at the marina, which is an area I know pretty well but miraculously I’d never passed this place before.  It’s run by Jenny and her American husband and specialises in (aside from beer) Asian/American food.  I sampled their new menu and it was delicious!

The main reason that I’d gone over was to check out the final of the Barcelona Four Points Best Brews competition.  They had searched the city for some of the best brewers and chosen to finalists to compete head to head in what I can only describe as a ‘brew off’.  The hotel’s events space had been given a boxing style makeover which Garage Beer Co in the blue corner competing against Edge Brewing in the red corner.  The winner was to be decided after a blind tasting by the audience in attendance.  Without a doubt, my favourite was blue – it was fruity and really quite distinctive.  Whereas red for me tasted nice but was a tad ‘safe’.

After some theatrics from both teams, the winner was announced (by quite a small margin) as the blue team aka Garage Beer Co.  As their prize, the boys from Garage will have their winning beer served on tap at the Four Points in Barcelona for the next year, so if you fancy trying it you know exactly where to go!

Before I left Barcelona, I had time for a whistle-stop tour of both the Edge and Garage breweries.  This gave me a chance to not only see how things are done but to also check out a few of their other beers too.  I really recommend popping into Garage if you’re over there as their brewery is actually a really cool brewpub that serves tasty food too.

fourpointsbarcelonadiagonal.com

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