Barcelona Beer Company

I feel like it's pretty easy to wander about and find a pretty good bar. I say that I 'feel' like it is because over the lunch I just had, I tried to think of random bars that I've just found while walking/biking/whatever around.

The first one that jumps out at me is Sunswick 35/35 in Astoria, Queens. I moved to New York in 2011, and settled in to an apartment over in Astoria near Steinway Street. I walked past a bunch of spots on my way to the subway, but the first place I found while just roaming was over on the corner of 35th and 35th. It was early fall, the big windows were still open, they had 25 taps to choose from... I went there a number of times over the years I lived in Astoria, but I was always looking for the next spot so I never became a regular.

One of my favorites from my two years at FSU was The Leon Pub - I wrote about it back in my newsletter (that letter isn't public at the moment, but maybe will find its way here one day).

I just returned from a week in Barcelona with my wife as a way to celebrate my birthday, and while we made a daily plan while there, we did a lot of wandering. We did so much wandering that we did one of those double decker bus tours so it would drive us around and show us all the places to wander. It was on the third day there that we were wandering toward a bus stop to get back to the hotel that we walked right by the Barcelona Beer Company. 

The craft beer scene in Barcelona is still relatively small, but it's coming in to its own. Interestingly, the first thing we saw upon leaving the airport in a taxi was the Estrella Damm brewery - a massive campus of fermentors and tanks right next to the highway. All the other places that we visited/saw made their own beer on site in very small batches. When we happened upon Barcelona Beer Company we decided to give it a try, if nothing more than just to sit down a bit. We sat at one if their sidewalk tables to enjoy both the weather and the beer, which came in "choose your own adventure" flights of 4 beers:

Barcelona Beer: their flagship pale ale, checking in at 5% ABV and 20 IBU's. Strangely this was the only beer of the four served almost room temperature; the rest were all served cold. Not sure what the reason was for the temperature difference, it didn't help. Also, why is everyone's flagship beer the most boring of the lot? Rating: 3.25 out of 5.

Cerdos Voladores: this was their regular IPA (which was pronounced "eee-pa" at one brewpub we went to) at 6% ABV and 65 IBU's. It was a very dank, earthy IPA. It kinda actually tasted dirty, if you can believe that in a beer. This dirtyness was the only discernable difference between this beer and their pale ale, which made it not as good. Rating: 3 out of 5.

La Niña Barbuda: this was a brown ale, 7% ABV, 46 IBUs. For a brown ale it looked very much like Yuengling in the glass; more of a light brown than a dark, rich brown. This smelled malty sweet and was a super smooth, clean finisher. Easily could have had much more of this. Rating: 3.75 out of 5.

Miss Hops: they called this beer a "high IPA," which I think meant that they wanted it to be an imperial, but it only clocked in at 6% ABV and 70 IBUs. However, this was by far the best beer of the bunch. It was a very nice citrus forward IPA that was clean drinking/finishing. This was their most awarded beer, though I didn't write down what the awards exactly were and they're not on their website. Regardless, if you're in Barcelona, get one of these beers. Rating: 4.5 out of 5.