Beer hunting in Portugal seemed like an exciting journey. But that’s because I didn’t do my homework.
I chose Portugal over many other potential European destinations because of its literary history (Pessoa, Saramago, etc), rustic landscape, and isolated culture compared to the rest of the Mediterranean and Western Europe. And all these hopes proved true. But what I didn’t account for was how this might affect the beer culture. Also, it turns out that decades of rule by Salazar’snationalistic regime wasn’t great for beer culture either.
That’s not to say that Portugal doesn’t care for beer. In fact, they’re one of Europe’s biggest producers.
Beer in Portugal has a long history, going as far back as the time of the ancient Roman province of Lusitania, where beer was commonly made and drunk. Portugal is among the 11 largest beer producers in Europe, and is the 7th largest European exporter of the product.The word for beer in Portuguese is cerveja, coming from the Latin word cerevisia. Modern Portuguese breweries were started in Portugal in the 19th century. Portugal’s Estado Novo regime, headed by António Salazar, protected national industry from foreign control, including the beer sector, during his time in power. Brewing in Portugal was long dominated by two companies — Unicer - Bebidas de Portugal, S.A. and Sociedade Central de Cervejas, S.A. They were created from the remains of well-established Portuguese brewers after the 1974 military coup, when the industry was nationalized. Both were privatized in the 1990s. Between them, they control more than 90% of the Portuguese beer market.
What this very productive history of beer in Portugal lacks, however, is a fundamental lack of innovation and basic variety. In short, there’s a suspicious love of the norm. There’s just no romance (http://goodbeerhunting.tumblr.com/post/5532815242/beer-hunting-in-portugal-the-wisdom-of-the-hunt).
Portugal was tijdens mijn bezoek enkele jaren geleden geen bierwalhalla. Toch vond ik wat speciaalbier. Een lokale winkelier met souvenirs zoals keramiek en olijfolie en wijn, brouwde zelf bier. Het was een leuke ontmoeting. Iemand die een jaar of at later het land bezocht vond meer speciaalbier. Het is er dus wel degelijk te vinden!
Portugal was tijdens mijn bezoek enkele jaren geleden geen bierwalhalla. Toch vond ik wat speciaalbier. Een lokale winkelier met souvenirs zoals keramiek en olijfolie en wijn, brouwde zelf bier. Het was een leuke ontmoeting. Iemand die een jaar of at later het land bezocht vond meer speciaalbier. Het is er dus wel degelijk te vinden!