Destinations

For many years, beer options in Madrid weren’t great. The average bar typically had one or two beers on tap—and if thereweretwo options, usually the second was alcohol-free. Mahou was the usual choice, and if you were unlucky, its uninspiring cousin San Miguel. In Spain, people didn’t drink beer to savor the flavor; they consumed it primarily to cool off during Madrid’s notoriously hot summers. A few times each year, if you were a connoisseur, you could attend one of Spain’s beer festivals, but that was about it.