Valencia: beer prospects

I lived 18 years near Valencia and go back there about 5 times a year, either to see my folks who are expats and still live near there, or to support Valencia CF, my football team. I run the 200+ strong Valencia fanclub here in the UK, as it happens. Good result on Sunday, wish we'd got rid of Ranieri sooner... he completely mucked around with a championship-winning team.

Anyway, back to beer. I'm not a real ale drinker (my attention was brought to this post from someone else), so I can't help there. The only place you're likely to find any kind of ale is going to be in one of those ghastly Irish or British pubs that litter the European landscape like sores. Valencia has a fair few of them, and I guess what they have on tap is going to depend very much on the barman.

As for local beers, Mahou and San Miguel are your best lagers. Estrella Damm and Cruzcampo are readily available. Aguila (=Amstel) can be a tad gassy at times although it's OK on tap. Sadly, Valencia's own lager - Turia - is not one of my favourites and tastes a bit like Skol. Guinness and Murphys though are becoming readily available in a number of Spanish bars.

One interesting note: San Miguel bottles of 1/3 litre are 5.4%, whilst the litre bottles are 4.9% or even 4.5%. No idea why this is, but important to remember. Personally, I think Mahou is pretty hard to beat!

Thanks, Tristan.

I will be avoiding such places. Why go to Spain to drink in an "Irish" pub?

I have had Damm in Barca and really liked it; same with Mahou in Madrid.

Bruce