Barcelona Beer Festival celebrates 10th edition with 10 local cask ales

The 10th edition of the Barcelona Beer Festival, southern Europe's biggest celebration of craft beer, pays special homage to cask beers.

From October 14-16 in La Farga in L'Hospitalet, thousands of artisanal beer fans will enjoy the finest brews from both local and international brewers in an edition that promises to be "bigger and better" than ever. The festival was presented on Monday at La Textil, a brewpub located in the Eixample district of Barcelona very close to Plaça Universitat. 

To celebrate the milestone of reaching 10 editions, a 'Cask Revolution' will take pride of place at this year's festival, featuring ten cask ales made by breweries that are considered "friends" of the Barcelona Beer Festival. 

Cask beer, also known as "real ale," particularly in the United Kingdom, is a style of beer that is brewed and stored in a traditional way, maturing naturally, and not chilled, filtered, or pasteurized. It's typically flatter than standard keg beer that most people are familiar with, without the same bubbly texture, and is most popular in the UK. 

This year, some of the biggest names in craft beer in Catalonia and Spain will be bringing specially made cask barrels to the Barcelona Beer Festival to celebrate this ale tradition, including Dougall's, SanFrutos, Península, La Pirata, Cierzo Brewing, Les Clandestines, Baias, Ales Agullons, Laugar Brewing, and Naparbier. 

All in all, the festival will have 168 different taps pouring 600 different beers made by 250 breweries from around the world. 

There will also be six food trucks on the site spanning 8,500m2 to enjoy alongside the beers. 

The festival will be open Friday and Saturday, October 14 and 15, between 11am and 11pm, and on Sunday, October 16, between 11am and 8pm. 

To find out more about the buzzing craft beer scene in Catalonia, listen to the episode of our podcast, Filling the Sink, from last year, taking a look at the booming industry.