Region & History

Where does Estrella Damm come from? From Barcelona, where in 1876 August Kuentzmann Damm, who hailed from Alsace, founded a brewery together with Joseph Damm. Both had left their homeland after the Franco-Prussian War and brought the craft of bottom-fermented beer to the Mediterranean.

A second Alsatian family had already shaped the city earlier. Louis Moritz Trautmann ran a small brewery in the Sant Antoni district from 1856 and bought another one at Ronda de Sant Antoni 39 in 1864. This operation is considered Spain's first industrial brewery, and by the late 19th century Moritz was Barcelona's leading beer brand.

In 1910, Damm merged with two other Spanish breweries to form S.A. Damm and grew into a major corporation. Moritz, on the other hand, had to close in 1978 due to the energy crisis. Descendants of the founder brought the brand back in 2004, and the old factory building on Ronda de Sant Antoni reopened in 2011 as Fàbrica Moritz, following a renovation by French architect Jean Nouvel.

There is no protected designation of origin for Catalan beer. No Spanish name appears in the EU beer register, and "Estrella" is simply a brand name — the Spanish and Catalan word for "star." The German Purity Law has no bearing on Spanish brewers anyway.

Since around 2013, a craft scene has emerged alongside the big names. Edge Brewing, founded by two Americans in Barcelona, was named the world's best new brewery by the review platform RateBeer in 2014, just a year after opening. Garage Beer Co. runs a brewery with a taproom right in the heart of the city's craft district, and other small outfits have followed.