Beer #252 - Espiga Blonde Ale

This week I cracked open another of the Catalan beers I picked up on my visit to Barcelona at Rosses I Torrado (you can read my review of the shop here). This Espiga Blonde Ale was recommended by the guy in the shop as the local beer to try so naturally I had to pick up a bottle. The brewery itself was set up by Arnau and Teresa who discovered a love of beer Denmark and Germany respectively, according to the Espiga website. It appears as though the English section is a victim of Google translate so it’s hard to make any more sense of it. Anyway…it seemed I may have agitated the bottle slightly as even with a careful pour I ended up with a huge fluffy white head. The aroma is glorious; a lovely grassiness with some tropical fruits too, really inviting. The taste is really dominated by bitter grapefruit hops. There are also some pine and floral notes amidst the citrus but I didn’t really pick up on any malt due to the bitterness. It’s a good beer and it’s entirely possible that I just don’t ‘get’ it but for me this wasn’t quite well-rounded enough and the balance was a bit off.

Brewery: Companyia Artesana Maians
Country: Spain
ABV: 4.5%