Speak the Culture: Spain: Be Fluent in Spanish Life and Culture

Spanish beer

Who wouldn’t turn to cold beer with a climate like

Spain’s? Consumption here is high: Spain stands (with a

slight wobble) at 12thon the international beer drinkers’

list.They get through more than 80 litres of beer per

person each year, usually supped in a smallcañaglass.

In fact, even though Spain is essentially a wine culture,

they actually drink more beer. And, while wine

consumption falls year on year, beer drinking continues

to rise. Most Spanish beer is of the effervescent lager

variety, sold home and abroad by large brewers like

Cruzcampo and San Miguel. However,negra(dark)

beers are growing in popularity, some produced by

artisan microbreweries or breweries secreted within

bars. Whatever your beery tipple, it’s likely to be

stronger in Spain than your regular sup – strong beer

isn’t taxed as heavily here as elsewhere in Europe, so it

tends to be sold as standard. For something less

fortifying there isclara, a shandy of beer and sweetish

soda water.Clara con limónis the same thing with a

twist of lemon.

Sangríatosidra: alternatives to beer

Sangría, another great drink for hot climes, slips down

so easily, a bit like malevolent fruit juice. But beware,

under the tranquil surface of fruit, lemonade and

sweetener lies a deep pool of red wine, and often it’s

the rough stuff that gets used.The Spanish tend to

make their ownsangríafor parties, but if you see other

people drinking it in a bar they’re probably tourists.Zurra

is a variation onsangría, usually made with white wine.

The Spanish barfly is more likely to go fortinto de

verano, red wine drunk with a mixer like lemonade or

sparkling water and taken with ice.Calimochois a drink

that mixes red wine with Coca Cola, as per a Basque

tradition (where they call itkalimotxo) that seems to

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Mahou-San Miguel

Spain’s biggest brewer,

based in Madrid but

selling beer to the world.

Llúpols i Llevats SL

Barcelonan microbrewery

making pale, dark, wheat

and even smoked beers.

Damm

Independent Catalan

brewing giant making all

manner of beers. Estrella

Damm, a lager, is the most

popular.

Estrella Galicia

Large brewer based in A

Coruña and duly popular

in Galicia.

Magister Cervecería

A rare Spanish brewpub

serving lager and darker

beers in the Plaza Santa

Ana, Madrid.

Booze brothers

Ernest Hemingway

apparently used to enjoy

acañaor four with his

bullfighting buddy, Luis

Miguel Dominguín, at the

Cervecería Alemana bar in

Madrid’s Plaza Santa Ana.

Five Spanish

brewers

7.2.3 Fromsangríatohorchata: Spain’s other tipples