We celebrate the lustrum of this award in Casp street in Barcelona, thanks to the good work of La Tèxtil which welcomes us in its premises to carry out the tastings of this fifth edition of the Molina for Brewers Innovation Award.
We would also like to thank the 4 judges, coming from different fields that allow us to analyse the finalist beers in all their angles: Pablo Martín representing Molina for Brewers, Edgar Rodríguez sommelier from dejavins, Elisabeth Garcia Iborra, food journalist and Mikel Rius, director of Beer Events.
Five finalists previously selected by a specialized jury among the beers that were presented to the Innovation Award within the international competition of the Barcelona Beer Challenge. Here are the 5 finalists for you to discover the variety and great creativity that exists in the sector.
ANDRÓMEDA by OCTAVO ARTE
Andromeda started out as Tom&Cherry, a black cherry Sour in collaboration with two other breweries (Bacterio and Castreña). It was not very acidic and got stuck at the brewery.
In view of this bottleneck and its fast best-before date, a decision had to be made whether to get rid of it or find a new shelf life for it.
That is why we chose a local wine barrel (Bodegas Garcia Serrano) and placed this hard-to-sell beer to include the new (BR8) Brettanomyces in dry, isolated and non-sporulating form.
After 4 months with this brettanomyces, a much more elegant beer appears, with an exponentially higher preferential consumption.
RHUBARBE BY LES INTENABLES
This beer comes from a foeder aged saison series. We were inspired by the solera technique and applied it to a foeder.
Each year during the fruit and grape harvest season (april to september), we take small amounts of this foeder to make macerations, taking care of never remove more than the half of the foeder.
At the end of the season in october, we fill it again with a base saison whose fermentation in tank is stopped before the end and finished in the foeder, thanks to the naturally present flora. Then we let it rest until the next spring. As this foeder is more than 50 years old, came from a winery located just 3km from us and as we use only grapes and fruit from our region, Alsace, the purpose of this series is to show that beer can also promote the terroir, not only wines.
THIS BEER WAS THE WINNER OF THE 2024 INNOVATION AWARD.
SAUCE MAGIC BEAU GOSSE BY BRASSERIE IRON
We worked to create a liquid kebab. We didn’t want to use any artificial Flavours, and we couldn’t use meat. However, we aimed for this beer to evoke the essence of a kebab, as if we were eating one.
To achieve this, we explored numerous methods to replicate the flavours and aromas of meat, specifically capturing the essence of a kebab, all without using actual meat. For this endeavour, we collaborated with a French kebab maker, known as ‘le Magic Beau Gosse, aiming to capture the essence of one of the most iconic dishes.
The challenge was to transform a complex dish into a beer, without meat, while capturing the sensation of eating meat. We experimented with proportions and brewing methods to balance the flavours and textures, resulting in a beer that surprisingly evokes a real kebab.
RISPA RICELAGER by Rispa
It is a lager with 25% of rice in maceration. The rice comes from the rice fields of Pals (Girona) 40 km away from the brewery.
The mashing has been different from normal where we did a cereal mash with rice and water at a higher temperature (85 °C) for 30 minutes to get the starch out of the rice and then a normal mash with the other 75% malt at 68° for conversion into sugar. The beer will have low or no gluten content (at the time it is bottled we will make analysis) and it is in countertrend with the current market presenting itself accessible at an economic level and helping the market and the local rice production
ARRIACA COCINA DE LEÑA by Arriaca
The first beer on the market designed specifically for the kitchen, not so much for pairing, but as an ingredient. It stands out for its contribution of smoky touches of wood, ideal to enhance various recipes. With a moderate alcohol content (4.5º) and low number of hops (legal minimum of 5 IBU), it avoids long cooking and bitterness in preparations. The smoky touch comes from malts smoked in beech wood during brewing. It is ideal for these and other culinary functions.
Years of experience brewing beer and searching for gastronomic pairings give us a knowledge in the treatment of these raw materials and ingredients that, with the appropriate modifications in the brewing process, allow us to obtain this product focused as a kitchen complement