Portuguese Beer

Super Bock
Sagres

bom dia from Portugal! I lie, actually, I'm 38,000 feet above the Bay of Biscay on my way to London from Faro on Portugal's south coast. 11 days of being a beach bum and a serious lack of internet hasn't afforded me any time to post about the beer situation here. I'll start of by saying that Portuguese beer is sickly cheap. it's one of those countries where beer and wine it actually cheaper than water or soft drinks. if you were to order a lunch that included a drink, the choice would be: coffee, tea, pop, half liter or beer, or a half bottle of wine. generally, at bars the two big local brews, Super Bock from Porto and Sagres from Sagres (...imagine that), are between 75 cent and 2 euro, depending on whether the bar is catering to tourists or not. in the supermarkets, we're looking as low as 25 cent per bottle or 80 cent for a 1 liter bottle.

I think that if I reviewed these beers in Vancouver, I would have some scathing comments about the lack of all of the elements I love about beer – sharp hops? not here. deep, nutty malt? heck no. how about an enticing aroma? maybe if you're cracking open a bottle at an assador (that's a BBQ restaurant, despite the imagery that the spelling conjures). basically, the three Portuguese beers that I tried all tasted very similar – basically, they were Corona's, but in different bottles.

Portuguese beers are definitely situational beers. you drink them in hot weather, at the beach, and on patios. by the way, beer is sold in snack bars on the beaches by the same life guards that will hopefully save your drunken ass from the Atlantic after declaring, “I'ma swim to Morocco!”. overall, the beer is extremely 'easy-drinking' and best served as cold as possible. Super Bock was the favourite between Daniel and I, although I declared early on that I preferred Sagres, earning me the names Sagres, Saggy, and Sags. Daniel of course became Super Bock, SB, and Supe. the adventures of Supe & Sag will be left for a different post. as well as our lengthy discussion about opening a restaurant in Vancouver that would only sell soup and grilled cheese sandwiches named Supe & Sag. the only real distinguishing element of Super Bock over Sagres was that it had slightly deeper malts. Super Bock weighs in at 5.2% ABV, while Sagres comes in at 4.8%. I didn't taste any added heatiness from Super Bock's slightly higher alcohol content. since the beer itself is nothing remarkable, let's look at the the Portuguese beer drinking culture a little bit.

it seems to me that there are little to no liquor laws in Portugal. every grocery store and corner store sell the full booze spectrum from beer to spirits. in fact, every store sells this spectrum. all coffee shops and snack bars (which are EVERYWHERE) sell liquor as well as most beach snack stands. when I was getting my morning coffee, there was always a good deal of Portuguese men getting their bica duplo and a shot of brandy. sometimes it was just the brandy. since it gets so hot in the earlier to mid afternoon, most restaurants and stores close from 1 to 3 pm. during this time, a lot of workers go to the snack bars and have a few bottles of beer before heading back to work. I read in my guide book that excessive drinking and drunkenness is frowned upon by the Portuguese, but daily drinking is the absolute norm. one thing I noticed at the snack bars during this 1-3pm 'siesta' was that the workers would drink mini-bottles. all brands seemed to carry these lil' 200ml mini bottles. my theory is that the minis will stay cold throughout the bottle instead of the bigger 330ml's or pints. i never once saw the Portuguese drink pints. these seemed to be saved for the chaves on the strip at the English bars. basically, you can drink whenever you like wherever you like – something that us Vancouverites are sorely missing.

okay – London is calling. maybe I'll try some good casks ales, but I struck out on my attempt to find good ones here a couple weeks ago.

ratings for Portuguese Beer:

Super Bock C+
Sagres C
FinkBrau C-
ratings for ice cold Portuguese beer while sitting on a 30C beach with friends: A
... I'm pretty sure that this is how the MasterCard marketing started.