Jo and I are not long back from an extremely enjoyable week in Tenerife (where, as you can probably tell from the title of this post, we didn’t spend much time learning Spanish… sorry). In amongst all the sunbathing, swimming, reading (lots of reading) and tapas dinners, I also managed to sneak in a beer or two. Nothing desperately interesting – all pretty much lager-themed, as you’d expect – but I thought I’d do my bit and write them up anyhow…

I mostly drank Dorada, a local brew from Compania Cervecera de Canarias (who are based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and are a subsidiary of SABMiller. The basic version is about 4.7% and is quite quaffable. Hoppier than you might expect, which was pleasant. They also do a stronger (5.5%) version: Dorada Especial, which was a fair bit richer and more flavourful. We found a bar (but not until the second-to last night, of course) which was selling 330ml bottles of the Especial for €1.50 a pop, as opposed to €3.00 for a pint of the regular stuff. No competition there.

I also quaffed a fair amount of Cruzcampo – which is brewed up in mainland Malaga – and discovered that it wasn’t a bad drop either, given the warm weather and the chorizo in spicy tomato sauce it accompanied. It had a slightly more citrusy tang to it than the basic Dorada, which again was nice.

I tried a pint (just the one) of Estrella Galicia, another mainland brew and far more ‘typical’ Spanish cerveza. Nothing much to write home about, I’m afraid: wet, cold, vaguely beer-flavoured, it ticked the essential holiday bevvy boxes but given a choice of any of the other three, you’d be better off picking something with that little bit more flavour, I reckon.

Oh and at one point (third-to-last-night, before spotting the Dorada Especial bottles in the fridge) I was drinking bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale. I kid ye not. It used to be my staple drink of choice right through University, but I hadn’t actually touched a drop for about 12 years or so, by my reckoning. And you know what? On a warm evening in Tenerife, with only uber-chilled Dorada on tap (or so I thought) it’s not a bad alternative. Sweeter than I remember from way back when and with a definite roast chestnut flavour, it actually went down a treat, although at €4.00 (£3.15) per bottle it was a treat I’m glad I didn’t have to drink for the rest of the week.

All in all, not quite the beer wasteland I feared. Good job, seeing as we’re probably going back to the same spot next year…