Beer #352 - Dougall's Haiti

This 'Imperial Stout' is brewed by Dougall's, a Spanish brewery located in Cantabria in the north of the country. I picked this one up on my trip to Barcelona earlier in the year largely because I think the label is absolutely wonderful. But as a stout it's been sitting in my beer cupboard since then alongside a host of other dark beers which are finally beginning to see the light of day now the weather has turned here in London! This is a very decent stout with a light body that belies its 8% ABV. It pours as a stout should - pitch black with a decent tan head. As I say the body is quite light especially for the strength and it's very drinkable. The beer has a decent sweetness to it and some lovely roasted malt notes of coffee and dark chocolate. A pretty good beer that it is very drinkable. I'd be quite interested to know how much dark beer gets sold in Spain, but if it is all as good as this perhaps its more than I think.

Brewery; Cerveza Dougall's
Country: Spain
ABV: 8.0%

Beer #262 - BeerCat Barcelona Blonde

This one is another Catalan beer that I picked up on my trip to Rosses i Torrades in Barcelona last month. BeerCat was established by a couple of former legal professionals, one from Irish and one from south London, which is pretty awesome. Living the dream or what? Barcelona Blonde is one of three beers produced by the brewery and is a decent, hoppy golden ale. It pours a clear golden amber with a white head. The aroma is grassy, bitter citrus fruits with a hint of honey sweetness. The flavour is super hoppy, again bitter citrus fruit, grapefruit dominating, but it's quite smooth and very drinkable. Very good indeed.




Brewery: BeerCat
Country: Spain
ABV: 5.0%

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%

Beer #246 - Fort India Pale Ale

Fort is another Barcelona brewery and I picked up their IPA during my visit to the excellent Rosses I Torrades (you can read my review of the shop here) and drank that evening. This is another excellent beer from the Catalan region and brewers around there clearly know how to handle their hops. The beer pours a lovely hazy, deep amber colour. The aroma is floral with citrus fruits in evidence too. The taste is quite bitter with grapefruit the prominent flavour although it’s nicely balanced and smooth in the mouth. A really strong effort at an IPA that I polished off in next to no time, certainly up there with some of the better IPAs I’ve had.

Brewery: Fort Cervesa Artesanal

Country: Spain

ABV: 6.0%

 

 

 

Beer #245 - Catalan Tølv Ulfhednar

As mentioned in my last few posts I spent last weekend at a stag do in Barcelona. I drank some excellent beers en route to my flight but subsequently spent my time there drinking San Miguel Especial. As it was my first time in the city I had decided to stay for an extra couple of days to do a spot of sight-seeing (and beer shopping) before taking the train back to London. Thus, last Monday having checked out the Sagrada Familia and Park Güell I headed to Rosses I Torrades, a super ‘celler de cerveses’ a short walk from the main tourist sites. I plan to write a short review of the shop in the next couple of days so won’t go into too much detail now, but my plan was to pick up a few Catalan beers to take home with me. I’d read that the area had a burgeoning craft beer scene and the shop seemed to attest to that with a decent selection of locally brewed beers. I picked up five bottles to take away and back at my accommodation I cracked a couple of them open. The first was Tølv Ulfhednar from Catalan Brewery. Now I’ve had to rely on Google translate quite a bit in the production of this blog post, but apparently Catalan Brewery has been in operation since 2011 with the brewer inspired by a trip to Scotland. Indeed the brewery seems quite taken with Northern Europe, this beer somehow being inspired by Vikings. Enough of the speculation. This was an APA brewed with Centennial, Cascade and Citra hops. The pour was an attractive, hazy deep amber. The aroma and flavour were both robust with bitter, citrus hops dominating. The beer tasted extremely fresh and was very drinkable with a lovely smooth mouth feel. It disappeared very quickly and I was soon reaching for another beer, impressive stuff.

 

Brewery: Catalan Brewery

Country: Spain

ABV: 5.2% ABV

Beer #244 - San Miguel Especial

Having arrived in Barcelona for my friend Rob’s stag weekend last , I spent most of the time drinking San Miguel Especial. I normally wouldn’t touch a lager like this at home, however I do recognise that it has its place and can serve a purpose. For a nice, refreshing, easy drinking beer in sunny Catalunya you could do far worse. Okay, once the beer starts to warm up a bit you start to notice the overpowering sweetness that dominates but when they’re chilled they’re actually not too bad, do a good job of quenching your thirst and don’t result in getting you too drunk, despite the fact that its supposedly 5.4% ABV. There isn’t much in the way in the flavour of course, but sometimes it’s nice not to worry about that.

Brewery: San Miguel Spain

Country: Spain

ABV: 5.4%