In the centre of it

It had been over a decade since my previous visit to Madrid, during which time the Spanish capital, like lots of places, had developed a thriving beer scene. The city still likes to go out-out of a weekend evening, but now there is a wide selection of places you can drink decent beers while doing it. The biggest thrill for me was finding day drinking to be a thing here, in a way that the rest of southern Europe hasn't quite got the hang of yet. This week's posts are all about what I found on a weekend in late October while in town on EBCU business.

At a loose end before the first engagement, m'colleague and I headed for Plaza de Santa Ana, mainly because that was the drinking centre the last time I was here. The Naturbier brewpub is gone, suffering the indignity of transformation into a Five Guys, but Cervecería Santa Ana next door is still on the go, an airy oak-clad beer hall in proper Madrid style.

There's a house beer too: Santa Ana IPA, brewed I know not where. It's 6% ABV and made with Vic Secret and Cascade. The unpleasantly murky appearance is offset by a lovely aroma of honeydew melon. The flavour is a crisp lemon foretaste with a spicy fennel bitterness behind. This is odd, and a little rough, but tasty with it.

The other one is La Canaria, under the Chelis 94 brand -- another one of unknown provenance, and which doesn't seem to be available outside this pub. It's a 5% ABV pale ale, single hopped with Amarillo. Hazy again, it has some pleasant stonefruit notes but also too much yeast bite, turning almost sour because of the sharpness. The peachy aroma is probably its best feature, otherwise it's a good recipe executed poorly.

There's also a selection from the Ribera del Duero brewery. I began with La Profecia, a dubbel. Still no escaping the murkiness, and the ABV is a low 6.5%. The aroma was unexpectedly spicy, offering a pinch of pink peppercorns. It's understandably light-bodied for the style but does have the raisin and chocolate elements one would expect, with a smattering of red cherry and marzipan. It's a fun and frivolous dubbel, freed from the cloisters and having a laugh.

Beside it, La Iberica, an amber ale. This is just 4.8% ABV and a hazy dark orange colour. There's an aroma of orange pith and a similar Belgian mix of fruit and spice as the dubbel, but muted. It's plain otherwise, lacking the hop kick or malt sweetness I look for in amber ale. It's refreshing and easy-going, but just a bit dull with it.

While I was here, I took a punt on Ambar Especial: one of the common industrial lagers but one which I don't think I'd ever had. It has a lot in common with San Miguel, I thought, being a full-on 5.2% ABV and a dense dark golden colour. It's similarly sweet too, with a brown-sugar crunch which builds as it goes. The saving grace, and something San Miguel doesn't have, is a long dry breadcrust finish. There's very little need to drink macro in Madrid these days, but if you had to, this one is the least hardship.

Not far from the square is the first of the new wave beer destinations we visited: Brew Wild, a cramped little place on two levels, specialising in beer with pizza. First up here is Llipa! from La Quince. This is a thick west-coaster, dark gold in colour and all resins and big citrus. The ABV is kept modest at 6.4% and it balances its flavours well, not going for the extremes. This is a good European reference for the west coast resurgence.

The nostalgia couldn't last, however, and next is Cosmic Trip by Girona brewery SOMA, a New England-style double IPA, all Mosaic and 8% ABV. You know the drill by now: this is an emulsion yellow colour, opening on a smack of garlic and alcohol. There's a mild vanilla note next, then a vague presence of tropical fruit. Again it doesn't go overboard and I found myself quite enjoying it a few mouthfuls in. There's nothing special or different about it but it gets the job done.

The brewer from local contractor Panda Beer was in the house, passing out glasses of his Panda Garden. This is quite dark and smoothly textured, tasting of light toffee with a dusting of juicy fruit -- tangerine, nectarine and tart raspberry -- tailing off into a bitter citrus kick. An amber ale, I thought? It has the very accessible features of this retro style. I almost dropped my glass when I found out it's a 10% ABV triple IPA. As well as being an excellent beer, this is also a masterful feat of illusion.

If Brew Wild is cramped, El Pedal is a broom cupboard, albeit one doing a roaring trade in dinky bottles of Estrella Damm of an evening. There are plenty of other options, both local and international classics, and there's even a house beer: Pedal Stout. It's a fizzy one but also has lots of chocolate or cocoa powder, with an edge of freshly roasted coffee. 6% ABV adds a richness to this, and while it's not massively complex it is well-constructed and deftly balanced. Excellent house beer material all round.

From there we went to the cringeworthily named Craft Against the Machine, which isn't particularly small but was packed that evening and we just managed to wedge ourselves onto corner barstools to enjoy...

Four Cougars for me: a collaborative Berliner weisse from two Spanish brewers, Redneck and Four Lions. It's a bit of a silly one, with raspberries for a raspberryade effect. There's a fun candy flavour and it's not too sweet, though far from sour too. It's zingy and spritzy and refreshing; very easy drinking at 3.8% ABV with an effervescent texture. I was charmed by its eccentricities.

This was the first time I saw a beer described as a Pastry Sour, but so number 30 in Stu Mostów's Art series was. They've added pink guava, pineapple and passionfruit to this, but it's yellow rather than pink, looking thick and hazy. The aroma is pure passionfruit but the flavour shows elements of all the fruit with a dash of lactose, of course. It sounds like it should be a cloying mess but I think it all worked together rather well. Enjoying two non-sour fruited sour beers in a row? What's wrong with me?

To bring me down, a quick taster of a session IPA called Hedoné from client brewer The Flying Inn. Big caraway and a hard, harsh bitterness are the calling cards here: absolutely not my sort of thing.

We move on, and at last a bit of breathing space at La Tienda de la Cerveza, a long narrow pub that seems well tucked away from the hordes of nightlifers. I'm guessing it shares ownership with CAtM as it serves beer in their branded glassware. First up a straight Berliner weisse called Xina Xano, from Barcelona's Cyclic Beer Farm. This is a very pale and clear yellow, dry hopped and brewed without boiling. That gives it a fresh lemon tartness, sitting next to a gentle floral lavender note. They make it as a spring/summer seasonal and I can see it working well as an easy-going thirst-quencher. It was perfectly fine on a warm autumn night in Madrid too.

To follow, a session IPA from local outfit NIB Brewing, called Khyber Sky. And once again it didn't suit me, being harshly bitter with too much savoury and not enough hop fruit. At least the finish is quick. There's not a whole lot to it, and what's there I didn't care for. Maybe that's just the way session IPAs are constructed in these parts.

Oso Brew Co runs a pub in Madrid I didn't get to, but I did try their Oso Porter, a 6% ABV number. This has been C-hopped up to black IPA levels while also retaining a distinctive brown-malt coffee kick. The smooth sweetness should not work well against all the bitter grapefruit but somehow it does, creating a complex harmony I absolutely adored. Go figure.

More dark stuff followed, in the form of Nori Stout by Cierzo Brewing from Zaragoza. This is a very Irish 4.2% ABV and has a briney aroma. The name suggests they used seaweed in this, though there's no mention of it on the ingredients listing. It goes big on milk chocolate in the flavour and not much else, giving it a straightforward classic taste with a pleasing softness of texture. Understated and very nicely done.

My days of chasing novelty beers are long behind me but I couldn't resist finding out what something badged as a "Cherry Coke float sour" is like. Step forward Northern Monk with Rock the Float. It's both sharp and sweet, with a lot of milkshake lactose hitting the palate from the off. Then there's cola nut, a wheaty chocolate cereal effect and a spark of phosphoric spice. The sugar builds as it goes, making for quite a cloying finish. The cherry side is largely absent, as is any sourness, but it definitely delivers on the cola. A lighter touch on the lactose might have helped with the worst excesses of this one, but it's just about acceptable as-is.

With the first crawl done, it's time to go look at a brewery.