BierCaB, Barcelona

Location: Carrer de Muntaner, 55, 08011 Barcelona, Spain

Year of Inscription: 2017

Venue Type: Craft Beer Bar /Beer Hall / Modern

Go to Spain page

EBG Rating:
7.7/10
Choice/Quality of Drinks
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Style/Décor
⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere/Character
⭐⭐⭐
Amenities/Events
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Value For Money
⭐⭐⭐
Description
The exposed industrial chic + street food template for the Craft Beer pub is past its sell-by date, and so common now as to almost defeat the principles upon which many bars and breweries of that oeuvre were founded.

BierCaB is another bar which has studied and aped the concept successfully, meaning if this is your sort of thing it will be right up your street regardless of my pernickety existential grumbling.

I prefer, by some distance, bars with unique character and a more natural sense of communal socialising, meaning these craft beer bars have to go some distance in other ways if they fail on these scores.

BierCaB manages to clear the bar by taking the multi-tap concept to almost unholy levels of detail and precision, boasting by a clear distance, despite much competition for this award, the best kept, most varied and well chosen selection of beers on tap of any bar I can think of visiting.

It is nice when bars select their beers carefully as often these beers define a pub. I like the fact some pubs have 2 or 3 staple beers. However, past a point, simply letting you have at it is liberating and invites you to treat the bar area as a sampling board (something which they also cater for). Not only does the place sell the usual craft ale styles but if you want a wild yeast fermented Belgian Lambic, a Doppelbock from a medium sized Franconian brewery, or unfiltered, not just unpasteurised but unfiltered Pilsner Urquell, this place does it.

On top of this the staff were very friendly and seemed to bounce off my enthusiasm for the beers above.

Everything else? Well, there’s a street food fan, the décor is inoffensive, and the place feels pretty generic. The lights are too bright, and the seating fails to provide any kind of communal pub feel, leaving it feeling like a hip bar restaurant rather than pub.
It’s a shame as with a few tweaks they could still keep their beloved industrial chic and the food element but also build an atmosphere and venue you want to base your entire night around. As it is, it’s a beer mecca you’ll want to visit primarily for the tasting of delicious beers; in this regard at least, they fulfil their purpose with panache.