Spain

Sixteen months into this blog, to the chagrin of my fellow contributors, there’s quite a big minority of Spanish reports. Apologies for that. There’s a couple of reasons. Firstly, when we’re on holiday we’re habitual bar hoppers. Secondly, the beer in these bars is nothing to stick around for – so hopping on seems like a good idea. The weather is normally conducive to this as well.

We tend to visit fewer Czech bars for the same reasons – the beer is generally worth staying for two or more, and the weather isn’t great.

What is consistent with beer in Spain and Czech, is that its… samey. The predominant beer in Spain is governed by where you are in the country (we tend to be in Andalusia, and therefore get to moan about Cruzcampo a lot). There are variations, but the best beer in the Czech Republic (and we’ve become devotees in recent years) is Pilsner Urquell. One is never far away, particularly in Prague, to a pub serving perfect Urquell…

That perfection informs my counter intuitive belief that English beer is best: perfect is boring, I like the fact the best pubs can serve up the odd dodgy pint. It’s lovely to come back from Prague and have a pint of ale which will probably taste lovely (after all that lager), but will certainly be different.