You don't come to Spain for the beer. That much is a well-established truth. In fact, you tend to forget about beer altogether during the first few days of your visit to Spain. That's because their wine is so good and so well priced. When you can get a marvelous bottle of Tempranillo while sitting al-fresco in a medieval plaza over a dish of black paella, then beer takes the back seat. Mainly because the said bottle of marvelous Tempranillo costs the same as a glass of plonky house wine back home.
The bar at Bee Beer in Madrid's trendy Chueca neighborhood.
And yes, I chose to ignore the hordes of lager-louts that regularly hit the shores of La Costa del Sol in my opening statement. But that's because said lager-louts don't even know they're in Spain, but instead in some alternative universe where Blackpool got relocated to the Med.
The truth is that Spanish beer is terrible. Whether it's San Miguel, Mahou, Alhambra, or Estrella, the runny lagers that fuel the Costas and wash down tapas all over Spain, are nothing more than yellow water.
In their defense, they are not as bad as Miller light; nothing can be. But that's a crime of a different sort, and mercifully, no one comes to Spain for Miller light either.
There comes a moment during each visit to Spain however (around day 7 or so) when you start to seriously wonder what it would be like to live like a local. But since you really can't ever live like a real local, you begin to think about the next best option: What would it be like to live like an ex-pat in Madrid?
Once you run through your list of ex-pat needs and wants, one item floats to the top: Craft beer. As beer snob ex-pats, how could we survive in a world of crappy beer?
That's when the burgeoning Madrid craft beer scene comes to the rescue. While no San Diego (not even Tijuana), Madrid's craft beer scene is spiritedly quirky, and it's not going anywhere but up.
Enter Bee Beer in Chueca. Madrid's Chueca neighborhood pretty much defines spirited and quirky. Long established as the city's gay epicenter, Chueca has evolved into a sophisticated (but still quirky) foodie mecca where all are welcome. After reading about the top five craft beer bars in Madrid, we decided to head to Chueca because it has at least two breweries/taprooms and also a trendy food market with an open-air terrace for sophisticated après-beer soakage.
#BeeBeerMadrid
Bee Beer is owned and managed by a Venezuelan ex-pat. He picked up a thing or two about the beer business by working at Polar Beer, Venezuela's top-selling lager.
Once inside Bee Beer's cozy bar, you know you're in good hands. The hands of a beer connoisseur. The tap list, while not extensive, is expertly curated, giving you the feeling of a relaxed neighborhood bar with an excellent rotating tap selection.
The curation and love for craft beer extends to Bee Beer's growing list of house-brewed beers. When we were there, we tried a house brew called "Coronel Mostaza" which turned out to be a wonderfully crisp ale with a touch of coriander (or was it mustard seeds?).
The rotating tap selection at Bee Beer includes all the classics you would expect from around Europe (Belgium and Germany have a strong presence), while also including American craft beer staples like Lagunitas and Sierra Nevada (cold stored and transported all the way from California).
Bee Beer's charm is enhanced by providing two artisanal cheese boards and cured meat options, sourced from producers in the Castille area.
So the next time you're in Madrid, head down to Chueca and check out Bee Beer and enjoy craft beer like you would at home.
Max Milano is the author of Hollywood Expats: A Story of Hollywood, Death & Love, available on Kindle Unlimited