Cerdos Voladores Brown Ale

Our Rating: 2.50 / 5
Cerdos Voladores Brown Ale from Barcelona Beer Company presents a restrained, caramel-leaning brown with low carbonation, soft sweetness, and minimal roast. Aroma stays muted and slightly metallic, while the palate remains thin and gently bitter. Easygoing and inoffensive, it favours approachability over depth, structure, or flavour development across the glass.

Beer Name: Cerdos Voladores Brown Ale
Brewery: Barcelona Beer Company
Beer Style: Brown Ale
Alcohol: 5.5%
Taste Notes: Light caramel sweetness, toasty, mild roast, metallic, bitterness, thin body
Serving: Can
Serving Size: 330 ml (11.16 fl. oz.)

The black can keeps the pigs, the wings, and the jokes, but swaps the pink overload for something darker and calmer. Same cartoon energy, just dressed for a quieter mood. This version is a 5.5% Cerdos Voladores Brown Ale from Barcelona Beer Company, brewed simply with barley, hops, yeast, and Montseny water, and packaged in a 330 ml can.

In the glass, it pours a mid-brown colour with reddish highlights, closer to early caramelised sugar than any caramel pushed to a dark browning.

Foam appears briefly, then collapses into a thin ring, leaving the surface mostly bare. Carbonation looks low from the start. The Aroma is very subdued: light caramel, toasted malt, and a faint metallic note that sits closer to a tin can than to coffee or cocoa, roast or caramel. Nothing jumps out or is in your face, but the sweetness is clear.

The palate mirrors that softness experienced from the aroma. A Light caramel sweetness leads, paired with a thin body that struggles to carry much weight. Low carbonation flattens the texture further, giving the beer a smooth but slightly lifeless feel. There is a roasted note underneath, but it stays gentle and never develops into defined chocolate, dark caramel or coffee. Bitterness lingers longer than expected for the body, mild in intensity but slightly awkward against the thin sweetness. As the beer warms, caramel becomes more dominant, and a subtle metallic sourness grows clearer in the finish.

Untappd averages around 3.24, which fits a brown ale built for easy, unobtrusive drinking. It fits very much the role of a big brand trying to enter the specialty market without hitting craft-levels.

• Picture from Untappd

My lower score comes from the lack of structure and progression: flavour remains narrow, texture stays thin, and the beer moves from sip to sip without adding new detail. The can promises personality; the liquid keeps things polite and quiet.

Final Score: 2.50 / 5