Beer in Madrid

Jarra of Mahou Clasica from Cerveceria 100 Montaditos

The weather was unseasonably cold for my first visit to Madrid in March 2012 so we did not get the anticipated opportunity to sit outside a bar in the sunshine with a refreshing cool beer. However, we did go inside several bars, drink some cañas (small glasses) and jarras (glass tankards) of draught beer and take the occasional photo for this blog. The most popular beer in Madrid seems to be Mahou (pronounced like (Chairman) Mao) but we also spotted domestic beers originally hailing from Barcelona (Estrella Damm) and Seville (Cruzcampo). International brewers are also represented e.g. Amstel and Heineken.

Shelf behind the bar at Cerveceria Santa Barbara, Plaza de Santa Barbara, 8

Bars seemed to vary between the very small local bars, cervecerias - bigger and often brightly lit and atmospheric neighbourhood bars with subdued lighting that may specialise in cocktails and tasteful music.

The price of a beer would also vary accordingly from one euro at the 100 Montaditos cerveceria chain for a jarra (when purchased with food) to three euros for a caña at Cafe Belen, Chueca (served with complimentary nuts).

Cafe Belen - Calle Belen 5

Cerveceria Santa Barbara prides itself on the quality of the beer and the method of serving at its bars where the bar staff wear smart white uniforms. Cerveceria Santa Barbara - Beer webpage (English version)
However, in several bars the beer would be served with a big foamy head despite (mainly ineffective) efforts by some bar staff to get more liquid beer into the glass. Based on this experience, perhaps the best advice would be to choose an interesting bottled beer, when a choice is available.

Naturbier - Plaza Santa Ana

Some research before the trip revealed that Naturbier in Plaza Santa Ana brew their own beers and these are served unfiltered. Their website claims their beer is 'the only natural beer brewed in Madrid.' Naturbier home page (English) This square, which is quite near the central Puerta del Sol Metro station, contains several bars and cervecerias including Cerveceria Alemana and Cerveceria Santa Ana which are on the same side of the plaza as Naturbier. This makes Plaza Santa Ana a good place to aim for if you want to sample a variety of beers inside or outside in the plaza.

Helles & Dunkles beer with complimentary olives at Naturbier

Another area with several good cervecerias having space for outdoor seating that we visited was Plaza Santa Barbara, by Alonso Martinez Metro station. The original branch of Cerveceria Santa Barbara and one of the Cerveceria 100 Montaditos branches are on the east side of the Plaza. Just beyond the southern end of the plaza, Cerveceria Cruz Blanca, serving Cruzcampo beers, has a branch at Calle Horteleza 118. Large tiled brewery scenes decorate the walls of the bar (photo below). Cerveceria Cruz Blanca webpage (Spanish)

Their trademark is a penguin with a barrel marked with a cross and this is reflected in the beer font on the right hand side of the bar (photo below)

and the novelty figure just outside (photo below). 

A number of small craft breweries are establishing themselves in Spain and some of these concentrate on producing bottled beers. In Madrid you may come across draught beer or bottles from these new small breweries: 

Cervezas Las Cibeles (Madrid) Cervezas Las Cibeles webpage (Spanish)

Cerveza Sagra (Toledo) Cerveza Sagra webpage (Spanish) 

Calvin's Beer (Madrid)  Calvin's Beer webpage (English)

Fabrica Maravillas (Madrid) Fabrica Maravillas webpage (English)

Cervezas Lest (Colmenar Viejo) Cervezas Lest webpage (Spanish)

Loddon Brewery Re-Branding

Flying High - the new Loddon Brewery logo emphasises the dragonfly motif

and introduces a new font.

Chris Hearn (pictured above) and his wife Vanessa Hearn founded Loddon Brewery in 2002 at an old brick and flint grain store on the main site of Phillimore Farm, Dunsden Green, situated on the rural estate of Lord Phillimore. Chris and Vanessa were at the Bird in Hand, Sonning Common, on Thursday 2 February to welcome guests to the Loddon Brewery 10th anniversary celebration and brand re-launch.
Chris thanked Roger and Kay, proprietors of the Bird in Hand, Sonning Common, for closing their pub for the night in order to host the Loddon Brewery Re-Brand event.

Bird in Hand, Sonning Common

Head brewer (Steve Brown) and his assistant (Jordan) are pictured above. Chris Hearn had just presented Steve with a bottle of Bruichladdich single malt whisky as a mark of appreciation for his work with the brewery especially in the earliest months when there was no cash available to pay a brewer wages.

The redesigned pump clips (above) emphasise the dragonfly motif. The brewery were looking for a clean and crisp branding which would appeal both to current drinkers and also appeal to the younger generation.

David Rogers (above) the owner and creative partner of We Are Pure, 

a creative packaging agency based in Nottingham,

came up with the overall design strategy. 

This was part of a three month project to design 

new pump clips, bottle labels, beer mats, runners and glasses.

We Are Pure

The new bottle labels (above) include a separate dragonfly motif on the neck of the bottle.

Andrew Horner-Glister (left) of Nzime a creative / strategic digital agency 

based in Nottingham

Nzime

and Stuart Kellock (right) of Label Apeel Limited a self-adhesive label specialist 

based in Leicester.

Label Apeel

Stuart has supplied labels to Loddon Brewery for some time and put Chris Hearn 

in touch with David Rogers of We Are Pure. 

In turn, David put Chris in touch with Andrew of Nzime 

who designed and built the new Loddon Brewery website.

Luke Hearn (above) is the Sales Manager for Loddon Brewery. Whilst at university he first

met Katie and John, who went on to form a video production company - A Star Media.

Recently, Luke suggested A Star Media should provide the videos for the new

Loddon Brewery website.

Katie and John (above) of A Star Media, based in Nottinghamshire, produced videos 

 featuring Chris Hearn and Steve Brown for each of the Loddon Brewery beers.

In addition there are videos 

'What goes into our Loddon beer' and 'A quick tour of Loddon Brewery'.

A * Media

Loddon Brewery

The new website, designed by Nzime, emphasises social media channels 

like twitter and facebook and includes videos 

from A Star Media to get the personality of the brand across.

N.B. Copyright for New Loddon Logo, Pump Clips and Bottle labels belongs to Loddon Brewery. Copyright for photos belongs to Tim Thomas.

Spillo - microbrewery / bar - Palermo, Sicily, Italy

(Work in Progress)

I am grateful to www.mondobirra.org for listing Spillo in its list of microbreweries in Sicily.

It is situated at Cortile degli Eremiti near Via dei Benedettini, a short walk from the historic Norman Palace (home of the Sicilian Regional Assembly) in Palermo.

I phoned ahead to check that Spillo would be open on a Sunday evening. On arrival, I was immediately impressed by the modern style and large size of the bar / restaurant area. A waitress showed me to a table and brought a menu which included a 'Beer Food' section. When I asked for a translation of some items on the menu, she called Michele Caetano, to assist. He recognised me as the person who had telephoned earlier and suggested that I moved from the table to take a seat at the bar. Now sitting on a high stool, he recommended a dish of grilled pork, served with chips and sliced leeks.

A wide choice of draught beers was available and I ordered a Vestkyst (West Coast) named after the American hops used. It was brewed by Fanø Bryghus, based on the Danish island of Fanø. The beer was supplied in a non-returnable spherical 30 litre container and I was able to photograph an empty one of these.



Michele Cartaino introduced me to his colleague Sergio Raciti and I was privileged to be able to chat with them for the rest of the evening, when they were not occupied with serving other customers.



Michele kindly handed me an Italian book about beer 'La Birra' written by Antonino Pavone and published in 2010 which he and Sergio signed underneath the greeting 'friendly'. The book's subtitle 'storia, curiosita e tecnologia' needs no translation!

After my plate had been cleared away, Sergio invited me to have a look at the (mothballed) brewery located behind the raised 'cellar store' (visible behind the bar).



Beer has been brewed in this brewery but brewing is currently suspended.

Sergio also showed me into the temperature controlled 'cellar store' and I took a photo from the side entrance.




Now it was time for a second beer and this time I chose a draught Père Noël from Belgium’s Brewery De Ranke. Other draught beers included one from Badische Staatsbrauerei Rothaus, based in the Black Forest, Germany.

(to be continued)