REVIEW - Estrella Galicia Premium Lager (In Spain)

Beer - Estrella Galicia 1906 Reserve (draft)
Brewery - Hijos de Riviera Brewery
Strength - 5.5% (before export)
Type - Premium Lager

I´m on holiday - it was bound to happen sooner or later - and I thought of many marvellous ways to continue to spread the beer tasting revolution across the world. But the best was to try some international beers while here (in Barcelona) and tell you how they compare to some of our English beers, and most importantly how they compare to the imports of similar styles.

Estrella Galicia may sound familiar to anyone who has had Estrella, but it´s not the same company - Estrella (the red coloured bottle we often see in England) is by a mass-production generic beer company of the same name, whereas Estrella Galicia is produced by Hijos de Riviera Brewing, a company that is and always has been 100% family owned. It must be noted that I am reviewing the 1906 Reserve version, as it is draft and so much fresher than many of the slightly warmer beers that are available here.

The first thing to note about the beer is the smell. It holds fruity notes with the double malts sneaking in afterwards, and it´s this smell that properly describes the flavour - sweet and fruity, with a refreshing initial taste but a full malty flavour to back this up. I´ve often had a dislike of many "fruity" beers, feeling that when the fruity flavour is overdone the beer´s flavour suffers as a result. far from this, the beer is complex and enjoyable. Hints of cheery barrels slip into the aftertaste with the malts to leave a smooth finish on the pallat.

I had this beer while eating a steak dinner and found it to compliment the flavours of dark meats much better than it would anything in the lighter end. Sweet and light with a small fluffy head, this beer is well worth trying. It cannot achieve the perfect score, however, because despite using the double malt technique it does not taste as malty as you would expect from a double malt beer. None the less, this beer ranks highly for me. Definitely worth a try, on it´s own or with a meal.

GDBS - 8

(N.B. apologies for the horrible formatting and any spelling or syntax errors, I´m not used to using an international keyboard!)