Damm

Damm operates as Barcelona's principal brewery and holds the title of Catalonia's oldest beer brand. Their flagship Estrella Damm became synonymous with the region, sponsoring the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and maintaining partnerships with FC Barcelona. The company expanded beyond beer too, collaborating with El Bulli's legendary chefs to create Inedit, a gastronomic beer designed for fine dining.

The alcohol-free range trades under the Free Damm name. The core product is a 0.0% lager brewed using conventional ingredients before vacuum distillation strips out the alcohol. Damm then reintroduces aromatic compounds lost during the process, a technique that preserves more character than basic dealcoholisation. The result pours golden with a light head and delivers grainy, toasted notes with floral hop hints. Free Damm Tostada offers a darker alternative with coffee and caramel notes, while Free Damm Lemon provides a citrus shandy option. All three are certified gluten-free and vegan.

Damm has invested heavily in UK distribution, acquiring Bedford's Eagle Brewery to establish their first production facility outside the Iberian Peninsula. Free Damm appears on shelves at Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Morrisons, Co-op, and Ocado, making it one of the more accessible European AF imports.

The Spanish heritage puts Damm in a different corner of the category from the Dutch and German brewers that dominate most supermarket shelves. Whether that distinction matters depends on the drinker, but it gives Free Damm a genuine character to stand on.