MASH Craft Beer Festival

September 8, 2017

We waited impatiently for the first edition of MASH Craft Beer Festival to land in the Condal city. Taking place on the week-end of the 2nd and 3rd of September, under the Barcelona sun, Mash promised to gather the world’s top craft beer brewers with live music and local food. It didn’t disappoint us.

THE ORGANIZATION

Mash Craft Beer Festival is organized by four different breweries – Garage, Edge Brewing, Brewski and What’s Brewing – and is located at the wonderful location of La Nau Bostik. On their first edition, they invited about 40 breweries.

What makes Mash stand out from other festivals in Cataluña is its internationality. About 32 of those 40 breweries were from outside Spain, many coming from Northern Europe, England, Italy and a couple from the United States.

The entrance cost was slightly higher than what we are used to: € 12,50 for one day (€ 22 for both days). The entrance included the glass (15 cl) and 2 beer tokens (1 token = € 1). Each brewer was serving only two beers on tap, most of them costing between 2 and 3 tokens.

Lastly, the food was served in form of food trucks parked across the festival site. You could find all types of international food.

THE LOCATION

La Nau Bostik is a location on the rise in Barna. Away from the busy city centre, located near Sagrera.

It is made up of former industrial buildings which have been re-designed originally to showcase the work of local artists, but has been recently hosting all genre of events, such as flea, second-hand and food markets. It has this industrial, underground feeling which is rare to find in the city nowadays.

The different breweries were divided into three different areas (buildings), which led people to walk around and getting lost across the site. We attended both days and never had the feeling there was too many people.

There was also some music with two different DJs playing in two of the areas of the festival during most of the day. We were lucky as Miber was invited to play on Sunday for an afternoon set.

THE BEER @ MASH CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL

The beer was spectacular. The brewers on site were offering quality beer in diverse styles. Many of them categorized as sour and fruit beers, which we appreciated a lot since they are (still) not so easy to find in the city. Also, it reminded us of our trip to Brussels last year, the land of the Lambic.

Of all of them, we would like to highlight the following beers and breweries:

Cowboy Ligthning from Beavertown, a Golden Ale of 5,4%
Saison De L’Ouvrier Cardosa from LoverBeer, a Sour Ale of 5,8%
Wild & Juicy from Brekeriet, an American Wild Ale of 7,2%
Coolship Plum from Lindheim Ølkompani, a Lambic fruit of 8%
Hobo Chic from Dry & Bitter Brewing Company, an Imperial Double IPA of 8%

Made for craft beer connoisseurs rather than beginners (our opinion), Mash really elevated Barcelona to the next level for its craft beer scene. One of the best craft beer festivals so far!