About a month ago, a Meetup group that I am a member of had an event where the co-founder of the Zeta brewery came by to talk about their beer in Cologne, Germany. The Zeta Brewery is a Spanish beer hailing from Alboraya, Spain and in a country that is traditionally more focused on wine, craft beers are just starting to pick up.

The event was held in an interesting shared living and working space called Wertheim where you could rent out office desks, rooms, and/or residential apartments. They also had a bar which one could rent/use at the ground level, which is where the event was held.

The event ended up coming to fruition because one of the organizers of the event knew somebody who came from around the Alboraya area. Said Spaniard gave the Meetup organizer one of the beers, and he liked it so much that he went to the Brewery himself, which sparked a collaboration between him and the brewery.

It was decided to “import” some Zeta beers to the Wertheim bar where we were at, which meant that we were part of the first German import of their beer!

The evening was pretty relaxed and after a while, a presentation was given by Carlos, the co-founder of the Zeta brewery. He had come all the way out to Cologne to give a small presentation and to let us sample some of their various beers, which was a very nice gesture.

Zeta Brewery presentation

He basically talked about how he got involved with the project, where they were today, and what their plans for the future were. We then got to the good stuff and we got to try various beers that they had.

I believe I managed to try everything that Carlos had, but in any case, I managed to try the Hell, Hop, Zenda, Nublar, and a coffee stout, the name of which I have unfortunately forgotten.

In general, I liked the Hop (an IPA), the Zendra (a rauchbier) the most. The Nublar (an amber ale) was also pretty decent, and the Hell (a German helles) was alright. I wasn’t a fan of the coffee stout, but I don’t like coffee stouts (or coffee at all for that matter), so no surprise there and it was more me than the beer, of that I am sure. I went there with a friend, and she said that the coffee stout was her favorite, so to each their own.

It was a cool event, and it was neat that Carlos came all the way out to Cologne to show off their beer. I would gladly drink them again once I can find them in more local stores, and I definitely plan to check out their brewery once I get to Spain!