Brewing in Valencia

 Our field trip to the local craft brewery was out of town in a industrial district.  Ostia Brewing was created by a Alberto, a PhD chemist, who wanted to put all that chemistry knowledge into a better local beer.  It's a super small operation.  They bottle every three weeks.  During COVID, they lost a lot of business when Heineken offered pubs cash of 5000 euro of more to only offer their beer.  

During the tour he talked about buying the best hops in the world from Yakima, WA.  We originally told him we were from WA State but it clicked when we all were so enthusiastic about beers with 'local hops'. 

We tried three of their beers.  The most unusual one was a cardamom flavored beer.  It was very pungent with a smell like Christmas cookies.  It's quite popular here.  Couple sips was enough for me.

The most recent beer they developed was an IPA.  Alberto says everyone these days has to have an IPA whether they want one or not.  It was good, much like what you'd find anywhere.  

He shared the history of the IPA, which I did not know.  When they would ship beer to India it would spoil.  So they loaded up the barrels with hops and by the time the beer got to India it was still fresh and the hops imparted a new flavor, not fruity, but more bitter, that has become today's IPA.