Brewtal Box #4
Now yes. Summer is just around the corner and the desire to share and good vibes are here to stay. June's Brewtal Box pays homage to the senses: to the adventurer in us who wants to explore and savor new proposals.
For this edition we present an eclectic selection of craft beers that will make your palate travel. As the first stop on our tour and betting on local talent: we will explore an innovative brewery in the Osona region of Barcelona, with a couple of IPAs that will surprise you with their flavor and daring ingredients and the creativity in the design of their labels. Without a doubt, they will not leave you indifferent.
As the next stop we are going to Belgium. It never ceases to amaze us how this country, perhaps small in size, is one of the best and largest beer producers in the world. We start the tour with the Dupont brewery and its classic Saison. His proposal contains the art of tradition behind this type of beer.
From there, we will go to the beautiful city of Bruges, whose World Heritage historic center represented a great challenge for our last brewery to visit, located precisely in one of the cobbled streets from the center. We invite you to discover how the passion and ingenuity of these brewers made possible a transportation system that we still find hard to believe!
Want to know more? Keep reading. We wish you a brewtal journey!
Founded a little over 4 years ago, it is located in Osona and started as a project of friends who wanted to produce types of beers that they felt were lacking in the market.
As they say it themselves, they create beers full of taste and with a great presence of hops as flavoring, which gives their creations citrus, fruity, floral and slightly herbal notes and that find their perfect counterpoint in a base of malts with the Just the right sweetness to balance the characteristic bitterness of Pale Ales.
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Beer: Burning Benidorm Style: American IPA A fairly hoppy beer with a good balance between bitterness and sweetness thanks to the malts. Fruity aromas and tastes make this beer an easy drink to pair with. |
Beer: Voodoo Mambo Style: American IPA Sweet or spicy? Who would think of making an IPA with mango and habanero pepper? This beer is a bomb of aromas of golden color with a dense and white foam. |
How to pair an IPA?
These beers have very marked flavors and aromas, therefore they need dishes with a similar intensity. There are three basic flavors available for pairing:
- Bitterness: which has a cooling effect perfect to antagonize spicy food, it also amplifies salty and umami flavors.
- Hopping: which can be spicy, citric, herbal, among others; perfect to combine with spices or fruits.
- Caramel: Goes perfectly with sweet dishes like caramelized onions.
Finally, the acids from the hops and the carbonation of the beer serve to cleanse your palate, even after the fattiest dishes.
It may not be the first time you've heard the name Dupont and its traditional saison-style beer, which they've been brewing since 1844, although records of this style of beer date back to the 17th century.
The unique character of Dupont beers is partially produced by a slightly caramelized wort during the mash. We can also find a hop bitterness in their beers, which are also dry and well fermented. Dupont beers are not filtered and have a bottle fermentation process.
Now, saisons were traditionally produced during the winter months, when the field workforce was less burdened. After maturing in wooden barrels, this same beer made work in the fields less strenuous during the summer months.
If you visit the Dupont factory in Belgium, don't forget to stop by their bakery and cheese factory.
Beer: Saison Cuvée Dry hopping
Style: Season
This style was first made at Dupont in 2010, it is made in small batches and every year the hops used in dry hopping change, which is a technique in which hops are added during maturation to accentuate aroma and flavor .
This beer has the typical characteristics of a season, dry and somewhat bitter, quite refreshing, in addition the Styrian Eureka hops that come from Slovenia, have very marked fruit characteristics.
Enjoy it served at 12C, as an appetizer or for a more Belgian experience, with some mussels or asparagus.
How we would like to have a direct beer pipe to our house….
Well, in Bruges it's possible: De Halve Maan has been making beer since the 16th century, but in modern times a problem arose: the brewery is in the center of the UNESCO-protected city and the bottling plant is 3km away. To reduce the flow of trucks through the cobbled streets of the city, a highly innovative plan was devised, and in 2016 a pipeline was built between the two locations to transport a maximum equivalent of 12. 000 bottles per hour through it.
Beer: Straffe Hendrik
Style: Tripel
A tripel blonde with dense foam, with spaced aromas, a bit of black pepper, coriander, ginger and oranges are felt. This beer gets a good balance thanks to the use of Stytian Golding and Saaz hops, combined with a special blend of 6 malts.
This 9% alcohol beer goes very well with spicy fish or Camembert cheese, but for more adventurous palates, how about drinking it with fruits like pineapple or mango?
We want you to be a co-creator of the Brewtal experience: Do you know of any craft brewery in Spain that you would like to share with the club? Email us at hello@bebrewtal. com