Another Year in Spain - September 2008

Real Ale Brewery in Almeria?

As I went to market I saw a pig..... well, we were taking the first of this year's crop of almonds to the wholesaler... what price for almonds this year? Barato – cheap he says - not because the crop in Spain is good but because the crop in California is superb....

And the pig? I had just fallen over one of these entrepreneural types on a spanish poligono industrial who is making real ale in Almeria and selling partypigs, a plastic pressurised container with newly brewed real ale. Apart from any thing else we were invited in to try the wares.

Testing and tasting the pig...

Enter Ian and his two worthy assistants. A lover of real ale he decided that someone ought to fill the gap down here in the Andalucian region and he has set up his own brewery. Hence the

AngloSajon or Anglo Saxon Brewery which is fermenting quite nicely in Velez Rubio, Almeria

 AngloSajon Brewery

Home of the Shaman and the Indalo now Yorkshire type beer. The science of making your own brew and wine etc I had left behind in UK. My rhubarb wine and elderberry wine had been to die for.

Not a connoisseur of beer myself I first met Ian's brew at a neighbour's birthday party recently – and I rather liked it. What I was trying to describe I was told was covered by the word “hoppy”. And yes that was it.

It also had a powerful memory attached from my childhood. I had loved the smell of naturally occurring hops which we picked from the hedgerows and twisted into crowns and so on for various little playlets and dramas for ever being performed during long summer holidays.

So Ian, a very persuasive promotor of his “pig” ,invited us to come and see just how this hoppy ale was being produced on the same poligono industrial as the almond wholesaler. Camera always ready to go I have been finally spurred into this little research and article on real ale.

The hops and The malt

The coolroom and the pig.... and the product....

What is it? Good old Wikipedia defines it as follows:

Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasturised beer which is conditioned (including secondary fermentation) and served from a cask, usually without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure.

Primary fermentation takes 48 to 60 hours in the fermentor, before transferring to casks.

Ideally served between 10-14 C to appreciate the subtle flavours......

His plan, and I guess his start up costs must have been quite heavy, is to produce two types of ale:

The first is Fiesta.

He describes it as A Pale Ale 3.8% using Maris Otter and Crystal Malts. Sovereign and Fuggles Hops. Apparently reminding one of Boddingtons to those out there who know their stuff.

The second is Olympic Gold. Described as a bitter beer (4.0% using, Marris Otter, Dark Crystal and Chocolate Malts, Sovereign, Fuggles and Cascade Hops.)

Now enter the “pig” again - 10 liters in size and will sit happily in the fridge for about six weeks. He now has a website called partypig.com but his intention is to get bigger barrels into local bars. Interesting comment he made is that there is a difference in the preferred temperature that Spanish drinkers like and UK drinkers like. This is really pulling back all that Jancis Robinson stuff for me and the pros and cons of real ale. My comment on one was that it was quite perfumy and that was a compliment. I think this was the pale ale and I know when I had had draught beers in UK my preferences had been for pale ale.

As ever chasing paper work to go into full production is an on going chore and he will need to move to more purposeful premises but really wish him lots of luck - he has all the other attributes he needs already.

Did a bit of googling on real ale in Spain and found a thread on “Can you get Real Ale in Spain” on an expat site. I hope Ian has been doing a bit of surfing 'cos there appears to be quite a market out there to “tap “into ..... Thinking laterally how far does real ale travel? Oh well no doubt Ian will tell me.