The new summer graze
Susan Nowak looks at ideas for matching Spanish tapas and beers
Spanish food is the new big thing and so right for summer, bringing flamenco flavour straight into the bar — or even the garden because some dishes can go on the barbecue.
The whole concept of Spanish tapas — little dishes, from simple slices of air-dried Serrano ham, hot chorizo sausage or crusty bread with garlic mayo up to kidneys in sherry sauce or slices of tortilla — could have been invented for pubs.
This is fun food for sharing. And if traditionally Spaniards pour a powerful Rioja to accompany such gutsy fare, many are also now savouring Spanish beers big enough to meet the challenge.
Recent arrivals in some of London's tapas bars and Spanish restaurants feature a selection of distinctive beers from Granada's Alhambra Brewery* established in 1925, brewed with water from the snow-capped Sierra Nevada.
Its biggest volume brand is Alhambra Premium Lager at 4.6% abv; it's mid-gold in colour, with a creamy, citrussy feel and a touch of malt. It certainly has a bit more character than many Continental lagers from hot countries and would go well with barbecued tiger prawns flavoured with chilli, garlic and lemon juice or the plates of marinated anchovies and deep-fried calamari you find in most tapas line-ups.
Moving up a notch in strength is their surprising dark lager at 5.4% abv - surprising because you normally expect to find dark lager in Austria or Bavaria. This one is dark indeed, with a ruby glint; it's malty on the nose, with discernible liquorice and chocolate on the tongue. Choose something bold with a touch of spice, such as thick slices of barbecued chorizo, or little red peppers stuffed with cream cheese.
Alhambra Especial is a premium lager created the year the brewery opened. With sniffs of sweetcorn and honeyed malt, this is ideal for Spanish bar snacks like habas fritas (a sort of Spanish crisp), papas bravas, that's deep-fried wedges of potato in a thick, tangy tomato sauce, or slices of lovely, buttery sheep's milk cheese Manchego.
At 6.4% abv, the Reserva 1925 undergoes a slow, 39-day fermentation to emerge from its embossed bottle a dark amber with a thick, fluffy head. A powerful aroma with earthy notes leads to a clean flavour with chicory in there somewhere. This is the beer for an octopus salad, and two classics: the tortilla (Spanish potato omelette) and, of course, a saffron-yellow paella.
Top of the range is red beer Mezquita (Spanish for mosque), dramatically different for a Spanish beer. At a daunting 7.2% abv, it is almost Belgian in concept, with that vinous Trappist feel, an immediate toffee aroma and taste; it's the most complex of the range.
Savour it with something robust like a rich Catalan beef stew flavoured with black pudding and broad beans, or grilled pork loin with parsley and garlic. Remember, flavours are big, dishes are small. Ole!
*Alhambra beers are available from all major wholesale operators.
