By The Merry Tippler
Not many people know this but San Miguel beer was first brewed in ….. The Philippines.
Yes, arguably Spain’s most famous beer started life in Manila, capital of Las Islas Filipinas, in 1890, while the archipelago was still a Spanish colony. Eight years later, in 1898, Spain lost Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico and The Philippines as a result of the Treaty of Paris which ceded independence from Spain to these countries.
Background to San Miguel
A group of Spanish “empresarios” who were settled in Manila decided to set up a brewery there in order to quench the thirst of the many colonialists living and working in the country.
The filipinos got to like it too.
And so did the rest of Asia. The enterprise was so successful that it became the most consumed lager in the whole of Asia by the middle of the 20th Century.
Launched on St Michael’s Saint’s Day, 29 September, in 1890, hence the name San Miguel, the beer was a sensation.
Development and growth
San Miguel lager first made an appearance in Spain when a brewery was established in Lerida, in Cataluña.
It went on to become one of the pioneering brands of internationalisation. In the 70s San Miguel’s rather smug advertising slogan told it like it was: “Por mucho que usted viaje, no necesitará cambiar de cerveza, si es San Miguel, naturalmente.”
San Miguel nowadays has a presence in more than 40 countries and plays a key role in the geographical diversification strategy of Mahou San Miguel (San Miguel had merged with the Madrid brewer Mahou).
The current plan is to double market share abroad from 7 per cent to 14 per cent by 2027. The focus will be on France, Germany, Italy, and Portugal.
The company has had a presence in the USA for a decade and has three production centres.
It is also to be found in Latin America, where the Mahou brand is to the forefront, where it is promoted as a premium beer from Madrid, the capital of Spain.
The biggest foreign market for the group is the UK, where it has been the market leader for foreign lagers for more than 30 years. Second is Germany, which this writer finds bizarre, when there are so many great wheat beers, dark beers and lagers available from German brewers.
What do I think?
Let me come clean. I love Spain. I’ve lived here for nearly 16 years and there is very little that I don’t like. Good quality beer is one of the things I have missed.
Coming from a real ale background; a CAMRA member for many years before I emigrated; discovering and trying out different real beers from different brewers was a pleasure.
As a graduate in German and a frequent visitor to that fine country (I felt obliged to write that, as my German wife is reading this over my shoulder! - only joking), I appreciate the variety of great beer there, especially in the south of the country, eg Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.
Czech beers also have that extra something (eg Budvar, not the pale imitation Budweiser from the USA!).
I haven’t mentioned Belgian beers. I honestly don’t like very many, and why are they so strong? Many have an ABV strength (alcohol by volume) of 10 degrees or more.
And why do the monks feel the need to add fruit? The hops are sufficient!
I digress.
The Spanish Beer Revolution
Back to Spanish lagers. If you drank them ice-cold, they were always tolerable. But in recent years the big brewery companies have introduced new beer styles and there has been a trend towards small micro-breweries, producing very tasty ales, beers and lagers.
Cruzcampo (Sevilla)*, which I always hated, has upped its game since being taken over by Dutch brewery group Heineken. Strange that, because, I swear to God, Heineken is the worst beer I’ve ever tasted in my very long drinking life – approaching 60 years of “legal” drinking.
Try Alcázar (Jaén), Alhambra (Granada)*, Cibeles (Madrid), El Águila (Madrid), Estrella Damm (Barcelona), Estrella del Sur (Sevilla), Estrella Galicia (A Coruña), La Concha (San Sebastian), La Sagra (Toledo), Turia (Valencia), Victoria (Málaga) or local brews around here, such as La Rondeña. All great beers in their own right.
Several of these local and regional brewers have been swallowed up by Cruzcampo/Heineken but the conglomerate has not interfered with the recipes – yet!
Good places to find a great variety of beers are the German discount chains Aldi and LIDL, and the French-owned supermarkets Al Campo, Carrefour and Supeco. Spanish chains Día and Mercadona also have a respectable range on offer.
***
Notes:
* Cruzcampo have switched their brewing to Faro in Portugal. The Sevilla brewery is now a distribution depot. Perhaps that’s why the beer has improved - Portuguese water?
*Alhambra (Granada) has been taken over by Mahou San Miguel Group.
© The Merry Tippler
Acknowledgements:
Estrella Group
Wikipedia
Links:
CAMCAC - Campaña para Cervezas de Alta Calidad | Facebook
CAMRA Experience
Photos:
Amazon.es
Carrefour
Facebook
La Vanguardia
San Miguel Brewery
Tags:
1898, 29 September, Alhambra, Amazon.es, Carrefour, Cruzcampo, Cuba, Facebook, filipinos, Granada, Guam, Las Islas Filipinas, La Vanguardia, Mahou San Miguel Group, Manila, Puerto Rico, San Miguel, San Miguel Brewery, Sevilla, Spain, The Merry Tippler, The Philippines, Treaty of Paris