There are high hopes that Spain may become a centre for craft beer, but things are clearly very much in the early stages. Spaniards do not seem averse to consuming a few pints with gusto but you will only find Spanish-brewed craft beers in a few outlets. Bar crawls are popular with a beer and a tapas being taken at each port of call. Although beer is popular it is not given much prominence on menus, often being lumped in with cold drinks. Most bars have only one beer plus a non-alcoholic version, and customers ask for beer by the name of the glass e.g. caña or jarra rather than the name of the beer. One bar did offer national beer (Amstel) or international beer (Heineken)! Upmarket bars may feature Belgian or German beers, which hopefully mean taste buds are being cultivated. The owners of the Spanish chain of gift boutiques, ‘Ale-Hop’ are clearly unaware of the significance of their name in the English-speaking market. You won’t find any beery gifts for sale.

I made a couple of visits to Spain in the autumn of 2015, and my first port of call was Salamanca which houses 40,000 University students and entices them with offers such as ‘buy six beers and get a free tapas’. There appear to be a couple of new microbreweries but there are no brewery taps and I only saw their beers in bottle. The Bizarra brewery Black IPA was impressive. I drank this in Vinodiario, a tasting bar which takes great care with its wines and (a few) bottled beers, and has excellent food. Erasmus is the craft beer bar of Salamanca, with a house beer Orgasmus which is a blonde ale (it’s unclear  who brews it) - and various bottles from Spanish micros – Aribayos (Zamora), La Loca Juena (Valladolid), Zeta (Valencia) and Kadabra (Leon). Molly’s Cross is an ‘Irish’ pub with a good range of Belgian beers but the Spanish beers were limited to bottled Alhambra Reserva 1925 from ‘the leading craft brewery of Spain’ but be aware Alhambra is part of the Mahou/San Miguel group.

Madrid with its lively night life and thousands of drinking and eating establishments only has a handful of places where decent beer can be found. Otherwise it’s the usual ‘factory’ beers served ice-cold. Mercado San Miguel, the old market hall off the Plaza Mayor is no longer a market as such but showcases many upmarket food and drink establishments but no microbrewery beers can be found. The place to go is Irreale a bar which is outstanding by any standards with twelve taps. On my visit the serious considered selection featured four beers from Mad Brewing (a new set-up from Madrid), also La Pirata and Dougall’s from Spain plus Mikkeller, Pohjala, Weird Beard, Weihenstephan and Brewfist. An amazing bottled selection is also featured. A notice declares ‘no crap on tap’ and ‘no hay birra industrial’ which needs no translation.

I did not visit the brewpub Fabrica Maravillas but it is well-recommended, but the Animal brewpub has apparently closed. For bottled beers there are a number of bottle shop choices and the two Corte Ingles department stores in the centre of Madrid both have a good selection. El Pedal in the Lavapies district and La Tape in Malasana are two other craft beer bars.

Seville is another improving beer destination and has a few places worth visiting though it’s a challenge to find them in the maze of narrow streets in the old city. Beoda is a new (2015) tapas bar with Cartujana APA (from Seville) and (I think) La Loca Juana Hermosa Saison on tap along with Chimay and Weihenstephan, and a good list of 30 or so bottles. La Jeronima is also new and combines bar and bookshop with sale of a few craft items and paintings. Abril Zeurda Golden (US Blond) Ale from Seville was OK but La Axarca,’tropical pale ale’ from Frigiliana (a pretty village between Nerja and Granada) was lushly full of the expected tropical fruits. Seville has the Maquila brewpub, where the SON brewery makes Nara APA, 1800 Stout and Sloth pumpkin beer which was powerfully dry and subtly spiced. There are other beers on tap and a small but considered selection in bottle, and the food is very good. Taifa which brews in the Mercado de Triana – a very attractive market - was unfortunately closed when I visited, with no indication of when it might open. The beers of various other local micros were encountered: Lost Horse is an American Pale Ale (APA) style beer brewed by what appears to be a new Seville brewery, the Hecatombe Brewing Co. Beer and Dreams produce Desiderata, a filtered ‘aromatic pilsener’ and Libre produce unfiltered American Amber and American Wheat.

According to Stephen Beaumont and Tim Webb in their new 2014 Pocket Beer Book, Italy is now a hot-bed of craft brewing with over 600 microbreweries operating. Although Italy is primarily a wine-growing and wine-drinking nation, there has been an interest in craft beers for some time, with Belgian beers in particular having a niche in the market. However, beer is much more expensive than wine, with even the eternal Peroni going for two Euros or more per 0.2 litre in bars and restaurants. 

In June 2014 I flew to Hamburg and visited Germany’s Baltic coast. The Hanseatic ports of Stralsund and Wismar were part of the old DDR and suffered many years of neglect to their old buildings (the brick-built churches are magnificent) but since the Wende this has been remedied and both cities have gained recognition as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

‘Have some Madeira, m'dear!

Last year the North London branch of CAMRA announced its 40th anniversary, to be celebrated with a gathering of veterans at the Penderel’s Oak in High Holborn one Saturday afternoon, so we dusted off our beards and sandals. What better an event to illustrate the changes that have happened in the London beer scene since 1974. I was not an active member then, but I worked in an office nearby. To hold such an event then might have been difficult. Not only did pubs then close in the afternoon due to licensing laws of 1916 vintage, but most pubs in this area did not open at all at weekends! There was only a small resident population, and the tourists who stayed in the hotels of Southampton Row could get the ‘London experience’ anywhere by trying to get a beer between 3 and 5.30pm. As for the pub, we occupied the basement bar but the rest of the pub was heaving as they say. Actually, North London branch had only one beard and sandal devotee at that time. He’s still around although he didn’t come to the reunion. They don’t allow sandals at CAMRA beer festivals these days – ‘Elf ‘n’ safety, you see.