INTO THE HINTERLANDS
MONDAY OCTOBER 20, 2025
garage brewing
Garage Brewing was founded in 2013 by English and Italian expats who saw a niche in Barcelona for an international-style, edgy American-influenced neighborhood brewpub. Success came surprisingly quickly, and soon the company was able to expand to include not only an industrial production facility on the outskirts of town but also a pair of additional brewpubs in the city center. More venues are always in the works for these ambitious entrepreneur-brewers and the popularity of any edgy Garage outlet in Barcelona is assured.
Far more media-savvy and focused on the international market than most typical Catalonia-based breweries, Garage also founded Spain’s most important and internationally-recognized cutting edge beer festival, MASH. With its targeted focus on global presence and events, Garage has been active in the European festival circuit and exporting its crafty ales to the rest of Europe as well as the U.S., but in the latter case almost exclusively for handpicked events.
CERVESA MARINA / BLANES
Cervesa Marina (aka Brewers Brothers SL) was created by the siblings Josep (Pep) and Kevin Andreu in 2010, after several years of pioneering experimentation within the young Catalan homebrewing movement. From the beginning of its professional existence Marina has focused on its identity as a small, local family brewery associated strongly with its home city of Blanes and the greater region known as the Costa Brava, whose southern border is marked by a dramatic rock formation in the sea just a few yards from the beach in Blanes.
Located in a small warehouse in the hills above the town, Marina produces both lagers and ales, with a focus on supreme drinkability according to the traditional Catalan palate. But there are additionally specialties like imperial stout, sours and strong IPAs on offer for the more devoted craft beer fans. As one of the earliest established quality craft breweries in Spain, Marina has garnered awards at several competitions, and the Andreu brothers also organize and run their own successful festival, Birrasana, which has been presented at various Costa Bravan seaside cities since 2010, just as the brewery was creating its first professional batches.
COMPANYIA CERVESERA DEL MONTSENY
“CCM” is among the most well-established of the Catalan craft breweries. Following its humble beginnings as a hobby for a group of dedicated beer fans in northern Catalonia’s wild mountainous countryside, it offered its first, ahead-of-the-curve commercial products in 2007, well before there was any serious market for non-industrial beers in Spain. Just two years later, CCM became the very first Catalan craft beer company to export regularly to the United States.
While the American market was just beginning to be dominated by the explosion of local producers, sales for Spanish craft never gained much traction, but in its home country CCM’s tenacity saw the company go through a period of expansion amidst a steadily-rising recognition for quality and mainstream visibility. In 2016 CCM was voted Best Artisanal Brewery at the first Barcelona Beer Challenge, where it also was the top medal winner. Since then the brewery has gone from strength to strength, regularly racking up awards and also building a beautiful tap room adjacent to the brewhouse.
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