Beer Styles

What is a Spanish lager? A pale, bottom-fermented beer that the BJCP's international style guidelines classify as "International Pale Lager." It's golden, light, lightly bittered, and meant to be drunk ice-cold. Estrella Damm and Moritz belong to this category, as do beers from Mexico or Japan.

How does this differ from a German pils? Pils is noticeably more bitter and paler, with a dry finish and plenty of hop aroma. Spanish lager, by contrast, feels rounder and a touch sweeter, and is meant to be drunk in bigger gulps. This isn't a shortcoming by comparison — it's simply a different goal: quenching thirst, not contemplation.

The second style is the India Pale Ale. The IPA is a top-fermented, heavily hopped beer that originated in England and became a cornerstone of the American craft movement. In Barcelona, nearly every small brewery makes one — sometimes clear and bitter like a West Coast IPA, sometimes hazy and fruity as a Hazy IPA.

The third style is witbier, a Belgian wheat beer brewed with spices, pale and lightly cloudy. In Catalonia, it mainly appears in the blend that makes up Estrella Damm Inedit, which was developed to pair with food.

Edge Brewing's Hoptimista shows what a Barcelona IPA can sound like, while Estrella Damm Inedit represents the witbier. The figures in the table come from the BJCP style guidelines, a competition reference. Individual beers may differ, and the information on the label always takes precedence.