La Companiya Cervesera del Montseny — CCM
We’re in the ugly uphill climb of the holiday beer-shipping season, but we must take a little time out to announce the U.S. debut of a brand new brewery that we’re excited about.La Companiya Cervesera del Montseny — known to friends simply as CCM — is Spain’s first bona fide craft brewery. They’ve sent us three of their beers, which are available now.
This June we traveled again to a sleepy farming village about an hour from Barcelona to visit the 4th annual Spanish Craft Brewer’s Festival. We are pleased to report a great deal of progress since the festival of two years ago. Then, the festival was a gathering of well-meaning but clearly not-ready-for-Prime-Time homebrewers — all with big dreams of a Spanish craft-brewing future. This year at least four breweries seem prepared to burst on the international scene. The first one out of the blocks is CCM.
Just two years ago, Pablo Vijande and friends founded Spain’s first commercial craft brewery in the small town of Seva, at the foot of the Montseny mountains north of Barcelona. For years Pablo has been the odd man out in wine-drinking Spain, where no hops or barley for malting are grown. He sold home-brewing materials, ran an instructional brewer’s festival, and even worked as a volunteer in an English ale brewery for a spell — all the time saving up money to start up CCM.So far, the brewery has focused primarily on three year-round beers, and these three are the first to arrive in the U.S. They are all in English styles, naturally, all made with great care and the best ingredients, and all brewed to the sound of Flamenco music reverberating through the small, spartan brewhouse in Seva.The province of Catalonia is the epicenter of true beer appreciation in Spain, and that’s where all of Pablo’s beers have been sold — until now, of course. For the U.S., the CCM beers have been outfitted with new labels based on the painting of Joan Miro, whose work is emblematic of Barcelona and Catalonia. We at Shelton Brothers love the simple things in life: art and beer.
Just two years ago, Pablo Vijande and friends founded Spain’s first commercial craft brewery in the small town of Seva, at the foot of the Montseny mountains north of Barcelona. For years Pablo has been the odd man out in wine-drinking Spain, where no hops or barley for malting are grown. He sold home-brewing materials, ran an instructional brewer’s festival, and even worked as a volunteer in an English ale brewery for a spell — all the time saving up money to start up CCM.So far, the brewery has focused primarily on three year-round beers, and these three are the first to arrive in the U.S. They are all in English styles, naturally, all made with great care and the best ingredients, and all brewed to the sound of Flamenco music reverberating through the small, spartan brewhouse in Seva.The province of Catalonia is the epicenter of true beer appreciation in Spain, and that’s where all of Pablo’s beers have been sold — until now, of course. For the U.S., the CCM beers have been outfitted with new labels based on the painting of Joan Miro, whose work is emblematic of Barcelona and Catalonia. We at Shelton Brothers love the simple things in life: art and beer.
If the gods are with us, there will be more good beer emerging from Catalonia soon. Pray for it, and keep an eye out. If you don’t see CCM beers on shelves near you, ask your favorite shop to bring them in. They are characterful, refreshing, and well-hopped.
