I went to the Estrella Damm Factory today.
I first found out about Estrella Damm when I was watching the football game at Camp Nou with FC Barcelona vs Manchester City. There was a large commercial on the large digital TV screen.
The visit began in the central section of the building with the old brewery tanks.
The tour guide told us about the history of the company and how it began and that the building in Barcelona is mostly similar to how it was in 1876. The section in the left wing is identical and the central part has been remodelled as she stated many times to reflect the modern present. The section of the right wing has been expanded from the past.
The tour of the brewery continued on the inside with the archive building. In it were ancient pictures of the brewery, of commercials during the past, of various machines of the brewery. Machines used to brew the beer, beer taps from bars, refrigerators, and various machines and tools that were part of the brewery. They had large signs of Estrella Damm and their Club de Futbal Damm, various barrels and their football promotions and tables where football players would have dinner. They had various beers and one yellow tangy appearing one called Keller.
I had a lot of fun and took a lot of pictures of this space. I took pictures of everything that I could.
The tour guide explained the entire history of the factory. She explained that it started with a brewer from France, August Küntzmann Damm and his cousin, Joseph Damm that had fled to Barcelona during the Franco Prussian war. August Küntzmann Damm had passed away after and his cousin Joseph Damm developed the factory further with investment from a rich person in Barcelona.
After the early beginning, the brewer had children and they developed the brewery more in time. Still to this day the family is involved in the brewery and in the ownership.
The first factory was called La Bohemia in 1905 on Carrer Rosello in Barcelona. The beer was called Strasburger Bier in the beginning and was after renamed to Estrella Damm. People had problems remembering the name of the beer.
The tour guide talked about the development of Barcelona and the hard time of the civil war of 1936. She also talked about how the building was expanded in section and several of the newer breweries that were open. The second brewery that was opened farther from the centre of Barcelona and the third near the El Prat airport.
She talked about the interesting part of the first brewery, that Barcelona expanded so much that many builidings and houses were built around the factory. The street in font of the factory became so busy that many cars passed in front of it everyday. Since they had to transport the beer across the street they built tunnels under the street to transport the beer. However, she said this continued only for a couple of years.
She also talked about the second world war and the hard times of Spain and of the economic downturn until a later time when more and more people continued coming to Barcelona and it began to expand in development near to 1975.
She also talked about the building during the second world war and that the sound used even today for shift changes, the sirens, would be used during the bombing of air planes during the war to alert the workers to hide in shelters. The shelters were also open to the people nearby if they needed shelter.
After this tour we were guided to the beer tasting.
We were given several beers, Malquerida, Inedit Damm, Estrella Damm, Voll Damm, Complot IPA, and Bock Damm.
All of the beers were amazing. The Malquerida beer was an amazing beer that looked to me like a mix of a rose wine and a beer. It tasted like a light beer with all of the aspects of a beer and was slightly lighter. It appeared rose in color and like it could possibly have had the rose wine added but the taste did not taste of a wine. It was slightly tangy.
The second beer Inedit Damm was similar to the beers from Netherlands and the famous beer Heineken. It was a lighter beer and the lager was of a flavour similar to the famous beers from Netherlands. It was as if it was a lighter beer filled with the white wheat or flour. It was light, it was tangy similar to the beers from this region and it was refreshing. It was a really nice beer and I loved drinking it.
The Estrella Damm is the famous beer and I received it in its original bottle. It is a beer that is full of flavour and in every aspect the best lager of the company. It had all of the characteristics of a good beer, the taste of the malt, of the strength, mid-grade bitterness, it was refreshing, and it was full of flavor. It is to me as I remember best of strong beers drank during football games. The beer is similar to the main and popular beers of countries like Austria but more refreshing and slightly more tangy.
The Voll Damm beer was a darker beer and similar to a Guinness as it appeared. It stated it had double the malt and it was darker. It was stronger and darker than the Estrella Damm and felt similar to what I would guess of the famous dark beers. It was somewhat lighter and not as heavy as the darker lagers but the taste was rich and full of flavour of a darker beer. The tour guide stated it had a caramelly taste, what they called candy in the factory, of sugar that was heated.
The beer Complot IPA was amazing in flavour and tangy. I had not drank a beer similar to this before. It had 8 hops added and they listed their flavours on the bottle. The taste was of mangos and passion fruit added to a normal standard lager. The taste was only slightly more bitter than the Estrella Damm but the taste was amazing. I had not before drank a beer that tasted the same to the lager of many beers with the tangy flavour of passion fruit and mangos. It had a label that was similar to something people modern and possibly more conscious of the earth would like.
The last beer was a dark lager Block Damm. It was the darkest beer of all of them. It was black in colour and slightly see-through in the glass. It was not thick or cloudy. The beer tasted slightly more bitter than Estrella Damm but the IBU rank was 25. I liked the taste a lot and I had not drank a beer like this that was this dark before. The taste was of a strong beer and of a dark beer.
We were also given a bowl of mixed treats to eat. There was chips, large almonds and small dried sausages. They were amazing, full of flavour and hand sized. The taste was full of the fats of sausages along with the spice and flavour.
I loved the beer tasting a lot. The room was full of people and everyone had a lot of fun.
The building was also amazing and looked onto a balcony filled with palm trees and green wines. It was pleasant to look at. Our chairs were Estrella Damm fan chairs with their emblems on the back.
I loved the tour of the Estrella Damm Factory and I would greatly recommend it to everyone. It was full of fun and information and the beer tasting at the end was the most fun for me.
I love the beer a lot and I cannot wait to try more of it. I cannot wait to try Estrella Damm again, Malquerida , Inedit Damm, Voll Damm, and the Complot IPA. I loved all of them a lot.
