Madri is lying to you! Does it matter?

[@theculturebrewingchannel5619]

Estrella should do an ad campaign calling Madri out.

[@richardwilkinson77]

​@@mickeyfinn8956 But also in Spain. Madrí on the other hand...

[@yoann5934]

​@@mickeyfinn8956 estrella damm is brewed in Bedford, not Estrella Galicia (the one Johnny's drinking in this video) which is brewed in Galicia.

[@theculturebrewingchannel5619]

@@mickeyfinn8956 many beers are brewed away from their origin. If you drink Stone IPA in the UK is was brewed in Germany - but it's still authentically the Californian company. Madri is different, it's not a spanish origin story, it's a lie.

[@PointNemo9]

@@mickeyfinn8956 The Bedford plant was opened quite recently. The Estrella Damm in the UK was being brewed in Barcelona the last time I looked at a bottle a few months ago, but I certainly won't be buying anymore after the UK supply is no longer brewed in Spain.

[@xXxCatsnakexXx]

Generally such advertising campaigns are ineffective. Also, normies like madri.

[@RuboStars]

The real shame is that this Madrí is more popular in UK than Estrella Galicia, the actual most popular beer in Spain.

[@Macron87]

Why is that a shame?

[@RuboStars]

@@Macron87 idk, maybe read my comment again?

[@Calamancotrading]

@@Macron87because Spanish lager is excellent, not fake Carling crap

[@deanpulsford3502]

I can't stand Estrella

[@louisbeerreviews8964]

@@Macron87madri is Spanish

[@peterm7548]

Im fed up with what I call "fake foreign lagers" - foreign brands brewed in the UK. Mostly swill. It should be illegal to sell a British brewed lager and claim its a foreign beer. Quite different from brewing a foreign style. This should be called something like "Madri Spanish Style Lager". A lot of British brewers already do this with pilsner and helles style but they are clearly British lagers and they are good and honest.

[@Suspended4thYT]

Especially since a lot of these supposed "foreign" beers are brewed in parts of England where the water is a lot harder than their homeland - completely different taste. I wonder why they never used Scottish breweries where the water is much softer? When Heineken bought over S&N, I would have expected them to jump on the bandwagon🤔

[@sugerbear586]

@@Suspended4thYTdont they all use burtonised water so once you have the recipe you plug that into your brewing system and from then it’s basically brewing by numbers.

[@Linda-u5x]

Why don’t you just drink what you enjoy? That’s what I do, you see this is how it works,,,,,,you try a drink and if you like it you buy another one,, I like Mars bars, it was only a few years ago I found out they were really not from Mars but were made just down the road,, I still eat them.👍

[@lawman1965]

​@@Linda-u5x, because they aren't the same. Try a British brewed Staroprahmen and then try Czech brewed. Completely different yet its marketed as the same. Yes, I drink the British stuff, but only because the genuine original is not readily available (Lidl have it quite often). The original is so much better.

[@Linda-u5x]

@@lawman1965 Well that doesn’t seem fair at all, can you tell from the can which country it’s from?

[@oil_moon]

"classic ingredients like glucose syrup" made me giggle

[@jabonorte]

The image on the front says it all - looks like an estate agent from Reading on a night out, not at all like someone from Madrid. Victoria from Málaga is on sale now in Britain and is a really nice Spanish beer.

[@samsowden]

that is very much traditional working class madrid style. no one actually wears it anymore of course, but it is definitely accurate.

[@mattheweagles5123]

It's traditional Chulapos dress worn in May for the festival

[@clivejefferies]

'estate agent from Reading' 😂

[@Macron87]

So, you have no idea what that guy on the label is? Understood.

[@L.C.Sweeney]

It's called Vittoria and it's both horrendously sweet and bland

[@jacklacoste9026]

Madri is a dishonest beer. It is an absolute scam. Yes we should be avoiding it. It should be promoted as a Yorkshire lager. As a publican I would never sell it.

[@markjohnathanappleton8642]

The best brewed lager in the UK is Samuel Smith's organic pure brew lager,in fact all Samuel Smith's lager are excellent,Sam Smith brewery learnt how to brew lager back in the day from the Germans

[@bulletholeteddy9223]

​@@markjohnathanappleton8642it's sad that most the classic uk breweries are now just owned by Heineken, coors or Budweiser

[@jacklacoste9026]

@markjohnathanappleton8642 I think Track or Donzoko would probably argue about the best lager. Big Foam in particular is excellent.

[@mossy199]

It seems Breweries/pub chains are really pushing it though

[@sisi2484]

@@markjohnathanappleton8642 shame they don't know how to make good ale 🤭😉

[@SuperMrONeill]

I work in alcohol retail in Canada, and we got Madrí in recently and I did some bare minimum research (Google and Wikipedia) and saw that it was a British product... And in Canada it's brewed in Canada. So, you have a British macro lager cosplaying as a Spanish beer that's brewed in Canada.

[@jamesmatthews291]

And rumour has it, it's the original Carling Black Label recipe. So it's a British macro lager, cosplaying as a Spanish beer, brewed in Canada to a formerly Canadian recipe that became popular in Britain! 😂

[@Macron87]

We have Labat and Molson in the UK. None of those are brewed in Canada when you buy them over here.

[@darkoanton5]

I was shocked when I found out Innis and Gunn cans are being brewed in East York, Toronto.

[@darkoanton5]

​@@Macron87😂 they're crap in Canada too. Pe4haps Labatts Blue is barely passable as barely decent.

[@tyleritguy7378]

@@darkoanton5 People would be hugely surprised at how many "foreign" beers are brewed and canned at Brunswick Bierworks' East York facility (Omnipollo, Mikkeller, among others)

[@jesusmorafilosofia33]

Lovely video!! I'm actually from Madrid and have actively refused to buy the so-called "lager" Madrí just because of the stupid marketing that tries to lure you into buying just because it forcibly integrates typical Madrid iconography onto the label. I didn't know it wasn't even made by a Spanish company, but will spread the word, mostly because we've never had too rich of a beer culture and truly local craft brewers are making amazing efforts to fix that. Thanks for this :)

[@Macron87]

I’m not sure why people think marketing a beer as being related to Madrid is a good thing. Madrid is one of the dullest cities in Europe. Guess many of their target consumers haven’t been there

[@exetercitycubing408]

100% agree with you . Most people dont really care. Its the sort of beer you drink when you are on a caravan holiday in a rural location and you are complety snookered into drinking it.

[@kieranbarry8193]

its biggest crime is that its utter shite

[@BrokenVespaPhil]

Too true. It’s not good.

[@DavidWillis-s8k]

All lager (Chemical) type beers are shitte! If only Weissbier was more readily available in British bars!

[@benedictwallis1993]

I’m a dark ale guy but you’re wrong, for a larger, Madi actually has a very nice taste especially as a pint.

[@dannyk8768]

Never mind that, try Aldi's "Grande" if you're after a Spanish lager. It's imported, tastes better and is cheaper too 👍

[@Glinty_]

Beer needs to be geographically protected like Cornish Pasties or Welsh-cakes. It'd stop this issue quite quickly

[@iangelling]

The irony is that the ALDI knock-off is brewed in Spain. So which is the fake?

[@davephilip1069]

It reminds me of the craze among UK breweries in the 1980s for brewing terrible lagers with German-sounding names like Grünehalle and Hofmeister. Couldn't agree more with the video.

[@MarcDavison]

Even Estrella Galicia are being a little dishonest the version you get in Spain is 5.5% versus 4.7% for the version you get in the UK

[@grahamdrummond2412]

It really cheeses me off that they force weaker beers on the UK, it's all well under 5% in supermarkets now.

[@cycleSCUBA]

'Brewed in the UK under licence' in tiny print on the bottles. Different brands, same gnat's p**s !! Avoid.

[@viper29ca]

Brewed in multiple locations across Canada as well, hardly Spanish!

[@louisbeerreviews8964]

It’s brewed by a Spanish company and it’s still Spanish

[@viper29ca]

@@louisbeerreviews8964 LOL no it isn't. It is owned and brewed by Molson Coors (Canadian Company, not Spanish), in Molson Coors facilities all around the world. The only thing Spanish about it is the name on the bottle.

[@viper29ca]

@@louisbeerreviews8964 it may be brewed there for Molson/Coors, because they don't have a brewery there themselves, but it is a Molson/Coors product. However it is also brewed at multiple locations across Canada and the US in Molson/Coors own facilities. It's about as Spanish as Coors Light

[@viper29ca]

​@@louisbeerreviews8964 La Sagra isn't Madri, so you have your beer mixed up Madri is about as Spanish as Coors Light

[@elliotsmith3473]

Good ol’ Tadri

[@whosradl]

Your second camera caught the spirit of the video going in and out of focus on the Budvar sign in the background! It’s that kind of attention to detail in the production that keeps me coming back to CBC!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Yep totally on purpose.....

[@Draknareth]

To be honest I'm surprised that a lot of these companies haven't been done for false advertising. Most of them, as you say, aren't even really a lager (having not been lagered), and then they try to pass them off as the product of another country when brewed in the UK. It's shite, and in any other product it would be called out.

[@youtubewatcher703]

The only supermaket bottled lager I've bought that has ever tasted "premium" to me is Budvar. It went down very smoothy, the rest taste kind of similar to me. Is that just me or does anyone agree? Not claiming to be a beer expert but would like to find some nicer tasting pilsners and lagers after visiting Germany this year.

[@primemutton]

I was shocked to see it on sale somewhere in Madrid in late August. It was clear to me that it was marketed "skilfully" in the same way Somersby cider was.

[@Youaresmall666]

But Madri really pairs well with the aftertaste of the packet you just shared in the slug and lettuce toilets with Josh from the BMW dealership.

[@ilcorvo9559]

The classic Spanish ingredient “glucose syrup” made me laugh

[@andrewrossy]

Oh. This explains it. Not a beer connoisseur, but this is why all the British brewed foreign tastes like shite

[@ilcorvo9559]

@@andrewrossy they dye it sometimes to make it look darker as well

[@OnboardG1]

Halfway through this vid I got a Peroni advert explicitly invoking the “transports you there” trope.

[@00djferni]

“Uses classic Spanish ingredients, glucose syrup” I’m dying 🤣🤣🤣

[@DodgeeGamer]

At the end of the day, it's a supermarket lager - refreshing enough when chilled and much like the Danish/Italian/German/Belgian/other lagers it sits next too on the shelf, I've never bought it thinking "ooh, authentic Spanish cerveza". I've usually bought it thinking "ooh, 4 cans for £5 clubcard discount!" 😎

[@grahamdrummond2412]

I know what you're saying but some people do care about this sort of bullshit.

[@ppeaster]

Much as I dislike Madri for this reason it is a standard industry practise in the UK, sadly. We are sold inferior quality, lower strength imitations branded as continental lagers. People should stop buying them.

[@him050]

If Estrella did an ad camp again pointing it out, they'd kill them off overnight and Estrella would be the best selling beer in the UK. I can see the ad now. A load of bottles of beer come out of the factory in Barcelona with a Spanish flag and get shipped off to the UK. Then in transit they're joined by a bunch of beers from UK breweries but they're all holding Italian, Spanish, Belgian or whatever flags. The flag on the Estrella should be shiny and bright, but the others should be clearly pasted over a British flag and all dull. Then when they're on the shelf someone grabs the Estrella and the tagline "No imitations here. Estrella, brewed in Spain, always."

[@ppeaster]

@@him050 I love it but isn't Estrella an imitation too?

[@him050]

@@ppeaster Estrella Galicia is still made in Spain. I think Estrella Damm is about to start being made in the UK

[@TheTman257]

If it’s brewed in the UK but trying to pass as something foreign it’s usually trash. Cruzcampo is another offender. absolute dish water and has glucose syrup as an ingredient 😂. I just grab a 6 pack of pilsner urquell. It never misses. Budvar is very nice as well.

[@xwell320]

Urquell owned and brewed in UK by Asahi?

[@TheTman257]

@@xwell320 Inccorect do some basic research. Its Imported by Asahi group, brewed in czech republic

[@mikedee171]

Madri is like a hybrid car. Hybrids are cars advertised as environmentally friendly but are petrol powered generators on wheels.

[@jamiebee1231]

Fake news, it’s brewed in the incredibly Spanish town of Burton Upon Trent

[@ilcorvo9559]

It’s brewed in tadcaster in Yorkshire as well.

[@ELCNUmorFnaMehT]

Brewed in Costa Del Tadcaster

[@louisbeerreviews8964]

@@ELCNUmorFnaMehTit’s Spanish and it’s Spanish company

[@aviationlba747]

@@louisbeerreviews8964 No, it isn’t, that’s the whole point of this very video…

[@louisbeerreviews8964]

@@aviationlba747 La Sagra Brewery

[@ultrafasssst]

I'm originally from Madrid. At first, I was amused when I saw this lager at Waitrose. Now I feel a bit surprised that this Madri lager has nothing to do with Madrid. BTW, the chulapo outfit is perfectly correct. Except for the tattoo (Madrid is not a sea port by any means), I know a few Gatos (three generation Madrileños) that perfectly look like the guy in the picture. Mahou is our beer "Madrileña". I wish Mahou would sell the "0,0 tostada" in the UK.

[@christian1294]

I've lived in Madrid for about 15 years in total and here's what I think. The packaging for Madrí (stress on the second syllable) is actually pretty cool - the person depicted is a chulapo - like a pearly king/queen type equivalent. They've really got it right. and it looks as if it was made in Madrid. It tastes okay and they have tried to launch it over here but it has totally flopped. Why? Because the city is utterly in love with Mahou - either in it's milder clásica (green can) or cinco estrellas (red) guises. It's a symbol of the city in itself and most locals have drunk a swimming pool sized amount of it in their lifetimes. Other regional beers such as Estrella Damm can be found in the city, and i think the excellent Estrella Galicia has made inroads into Mahou's market share in the Madrid region in the past 10 years, but Mahou is very much still king here. There are old adverts in the style of murals for Mahou around the city and a handful of residential buildings that have giant Mahou signs that can be seen from motorways and main roads. It is to madrileño beer what PG is to British tea. Mahou is pronounced /mau/ by the way as in 'Chairman Mao'.

[@PhinClio]

I spent three weeks in the UK this summer, noticed Madri being sold, and thought, "that's funny...I've never heard of that Spanish beer...and I've been to Madrid!" Didn't try it, 'cause when I'm in England, I tend to drink cask ale. Very amused to discover Madri is a scam!

[@ozorna9401]

yeh I thought this too - it just *appeared* everywhere one day

[@ilcorvo9559]

@@ozorna9401 and was heavily marketed and aggressively forced into the taps of chain breweries.

[@mrb6094]

I read somewhere that it is Carling Black Label in a fancy bottle.

[@wentoneisendon6502]

And san miguel is from the Philippines

[@aviationlba747]

I didn’t even know this until recently!

[@stevehall2137]

I've been drinking and enjoying Madri quite recently. Had no idea there was this controversy of its origin or marketing. As a Yorkshireman, I'm now even more enamoured by it being a local brew!!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Haha really confuses our quite frequent line about "drink local"!

[@richharper8159]

Ha. Love this! ‘Drink local’.

[@katashworth41]

@@stevehall2137 I am generally a lager drinker, it’s perfectly drinkable. My favourite has the (channel appropriate) Northern Monk as their house lager. Though as a Lancastrian I am somewhat disappointed ;)

[@WigsyDoesSimRacing]

I’m in Spain atm drinking the Spanish domestic version of Estrella Galicia at 5.5% - genuinely one of the best lagers out there.

[@diskopartizan0850]

If you're still there try the EG 1906, it's lovely too.

[@WigsyDoesSimRacing]

@@diskopartizan0850 didn't get chance soz

[@Suspended4thYT]

I travel to Lanzarote at least three times a year, and my local has now jumped on the bandwagon, and installed Madri on tap, to take advantage of naive Brits thinking they are getting some authentic Spanish version of the stuff they get at home. Cheaper than UK prices, but still a full TWO Euro more expensive than the local lager, Dorada, that is brewed on the islands. So of course, at €2.50 a pint, I am happy to stick with the Dorada.

[@grahamdrummond2412]

Everywhere you turn they are taking the piss out of consumers.

[@heneganov]

Though Dorada is shite as well. At least you're paying €2 less.

[@Suspended4thYT]

@@heneganov I don't mind it. When I'm in a warm country, I'm only looking for something cool and refreshing anyway - and at €2.50 a pint (that's about £2.13), it's a no brainer.

[@xwell320]

Tropical might be better than Dorada

[@xwell320]

Always read the label before you buy. You can still get imported foreign brands in UK shops/supermarkets, but most will be licence brewed in UK, and are vastly inferior.

[@lummatravel]

La Sagra actually do brew a Spanish brewed Madrí lager and IPA these days. But it came after the success of the UK version

[@pauljohnson6849]

Great video. This is one of my hobby horses and it was great to get a shout out about it a few weeks ago on the pod! It puts me in mind of a story in our family that assumed the status of truth, although I’m not 100% sure. We were in Germany in the 80s and I do recall picking up a box of tea and I think recall it actually had the strap line “as grown on the banks of the River Thames.” Thinking back maybe it said “as drunk”. So at least there was some possibility of truth, unlike Madri which is neither drunk nor grown in Madrid!

[@WWCLife]

Interesting vid. Love your insight into this subject.

[@brendanpells912]

You have to wonder whether the only difference between these UK-brewed 'world' lagers is the label they happened to stick on the bottles that day.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Well as my blind taste test of macro lagers showed, there is a definite difference... just not one you'd necessarily spot unless they were next to each other

[@adamdavidson4089]

Surely if it’s made with a bottom fermenting lager yeast it is a lager (not necessarily a good one but a larger nevertheless).

[@danjohnsonspam]

Good news is, no one in Madrid actually drinks Madrí. Seen it in select hypermarkets, but never actually being drunk by someone. Source: I’ve been living in Madrid for last 7 years.

[@garyblinston193]

Well done for calling this out, actually lying to the consumer and should not be allowed to be marketed in this way, ASA anybody?

[@spiketyler]

Brewed in Yorkshire, red rose on lapel? Standards have slipped.

[@louisbeerreviews8964]

La Sagra Brewery

[@colonelshoe7916]

Of course it matters. It's the equivalent of Moe writing an umlaut on a Duff bottle and selling it to Homer as Düff from Sweden

[@plee4790]

Hong Kong's best selling beer "Blue Girl" has almost an identical story behind it (though the brand been around for as long as I remember) - it's a Hong Kong company faking a German beer and contact-brewing it in Korea.

[@solo_indiana6979]

Really interesting Jonny! Tadcaster is also home to Samuel Smiths Brewery isn't it? Love to see your thoughts on this brewery, their quality beers and the owners temperamental, sometimes manic behaviour!

[@bobdurham2120]

I live in Lanzarote and Estrella Galicia draught is one of the best lagers and comes from Galicia northern Spain and shouldn’t be confused with Estrella Dam from Barcelona.

[@kenbakie4590]

I've been buying M&S Spanish Lager frequently during the summer. Guess what? It is brewed in Spain and it knocks the spots off Madri. Unfortunately, Madri is not the only beer that is brewed in the UK using the brand name of a foreign beer. THere are plenty around, but perhaps Madri is the most blatant fake. I avoid them all and try to buy the authentic beers.

[@russ1046]

Completely agree - I'm not a beer ninja but I do like good beer. I assume all beers I don't know are macro-brewed in the UK and are just labeled to look like they're from Spain/Germany/Australia etc and I give them a wide berth. Still, as an unintended side effect I just learned that Estrella Galicia is realy spanish 👍👍

[@f.lapointe4343]

Thanks...another scam is the labeling of non-alcoholic "beers" that do not use yeast... sparkling malt drinks in fact.

[@jumpinallans]

Hi, I'm in Hong Kong & our local Heineken, Carlberg, San Miguel are all made across the border in Guangdong, China.

[@johnclark2310]

I heard that the madri recipe was the old Carling Black Label recipe, after Molson Coors got caught selling it under ABV

[@olderthangodsdog29]

Yes I have been told that too, also san Miguel is brewed in Wolverhampton for us in the uk

[@Macron87]

@@olderthangodsdog29San Miguel was brewed in Northampton.

[@olderthangodsdog29]

@@Macron87 I believe you, I suppose it's where you live? In the Midlands it's brewed in Wolverhampton and then I'm told San Miguel originates from the Philippines!? Either way I tried madri and I don't like it, for a larger I like staropramen as I think it still comes from the Czech Rep. BUT that maybe wrong now these days!

[@Azeria]

⁠@@olderthangodsdog29 Staropramen, at least for the British market is brewed in Burton upon Trent

[@aishyv1]

Sorry but I think you are mistaken. I've been on the Madrid brewery tour in Madrid, where Madri el alma de Madrid is from. Some times if you're lucky Snr Pedro Madri is there and greets the visitors. A true character, and truly Exceptional Cerveza de Madrid.

[@DG-rb7bo]

In Scotland we have Tennents , which gets slaughtered by anyone under the age of 25, but if you slapped a Spanish label on it everyone would lap it up

[@Andy_ATB]

Just avoid buying any UK brewed 'Continental lager' and you'll be fine. It's utter pish.......That many people buy it tells you all you need to know about a lot of drinkers in the UK.....They'll drink anything as long as they get pissed.

[@puffapuffarice]

I really many years ago, we got a versos of "Charington's TOBY Ale" here in Canada, & for the world it tasted like every other industrial suds. This beer brand is brewed in Canada as well, & I wonder if MC ships the Canadian version to the US so it can legitimately say "IMPORTED" on the label?

[@WhatTheFragrance]

What is the best beers to get in the pub then?

[@grahamdrummond2412]

That's a good simple question.

[@Elberto71]

San Miguel is brewed in Wolverhampton 😒

[@beefsuprem0241]

And it's awful and tastes nowt like the Spanish stuff.

[@discipleofkhorne9472]

​@beefsuprem0241 I'd hope not it's Filipino.

[@beefsuprem0241]

@@discipleofkhorne9472 😴😴 Spanish brewed

[@discipleofkhorne9472]

@@beefsuprem0241 😁

[@dominicbenson3246]

Great points. No time for this kind of dishonest marketing. When I drink a Verdant beer I think of the harbour in Falmouth and something about both Cloudwater and Track feels very true to Manchester. Couldn’t tell you why but it does to me. Just a couple of examples where provenance matters for me.

[@roverboat2503]

I wondered why I have never seen it in Madrid!! According to it's label it is 'La alma de Madrid' - the soul of Madrid.

[@louisbeerreviews8964]

Because it’s Spanish

[@aviationlba747]

@@louisbeerreviews8964 How?

[@laurencefromLondon]

I think the strangest one is the Sapporo imported which is brewed in Vietnam. Ive noticed the 330ml Heineken cans say imported on but not the larger cans.

[@KaiColloquoun-gt7kw]

When will someone bring the Trade Description Act against breweries? Not just Madri but all the other so called export beer which is actually brewed in the UK. Peroni, Sol, etc., etc.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

To be fair, I believe all Peroni is still brewed in Italy, but it's an exception in this regard.

[@andrewsteer8860]

Ironic that I got a Peroni UK add during this

[@SimonC.-bv5vl]

One could argue that at least 3 people in Tadcaster have heard of Madrid, thus strengthening the link between the two places. Also, one could argue it's statistically probable that at least one person from Tadcaster has gone to Madrid on holiday, enjoy tapas, and said rather ineptly in Spanish "Hay una rana en mi baño." One could argue, but one won't.

[@slightlyconfused876]

If I am correct of the beers we drink in the UK Fosters was never Australian, isn't Guinness brewed in England so what is new? If you like the taste what does it matter? I had Madri in Spain this spring, wasn't up to much anyway.

[@mattsmith_berika]

Madri Recipe is actually just the 2004 recipe for Carling with a upmarket label to then sell as a premium lager.

[@Macron87]

No, it’s not. I’ve just opened the spreadsheet for the bill materials from the 2003, 2004 and 2005 calling production schedules, and it’s simply not the same list of ingredients or brewing schedule. Oh yes, I do work for Molson Coors.

[@CrackaPackify]

Aye mate that right? ​@@Macron87

[@AlphonseWeebay]

@@Macron87thank you for calling out his BS

[@Coxy-b34]

No its not. That rumor is internet fiction.

[@Coxy-b34]

@@Macron87 The Madri is an old Carling recipe is doing the rounds on several KZbin beer review channels. Not an ounce of evidence to back it up.

[@nat2741]

Great video! - the trouble is 95% of people just don’t care what they are drinking. They just want fizzy lager. Sad! 😞

[@russellcarduk]

Pleased to say Madri lasted only a couple of weeks in my local. People seem to be increasingly aware of the deception and gave it a wide berth

[@robertsturt1926]

If you think Exeter Wetherspoons is rainy you've never visited the one in Aberystwyth when I once drank "world beer" about 18 years ago.

[@djscottdog1]

I know of a spirit that says on the lable , "made in the heart of london" with an address and the spirit is sourced from Scotland from another company and the address is just their office in london. Never mind

[@Robert-vw3od]

Timeout did an article on this. Remember “spirit of Madrid” that can mean anything. The guy who came up with it heard a girl in the pub say she was farting a lot because she had Tapas , or he remembered the family holiday he had to Spain when he was a kid, or Real Madrid were playing on the television while he was thinking about coming up with a new beer, he was at Manchester Airport. He saw some typical british getting off a plane from Spain and he thought “hey let’s do a Spanish lager” to make it look more up Market will have a picture of some Spanish hipster on the bottle. When you were talking about Wetherspoons, that’s the perfect example. British people go to Spain on sleazyjet or conair those places they go will be very like Wetherspoons just hotter. Irony is Aldi now do a copy of this lager and that is actually Spanish.

[@nickpage7333]

As someone who used to work in advertising and marketing; The front of the packaging is advertising the back is the truth. If a consumer can’t turn a bottle around and read then, they probably don’t care, or are too stupid to worry about.

[@jim586]

If you buy it on draft, there is no bottle to read. You shouldn’t ever admit to working in Marketing. 😊

[@theUnicornOfPower]

Simon from Real Ale Craft Beer says Madri is just an old Carling recipe from when it was higher in ABV. Do you think it's true?

[@mikedee171]

In Madrid Mahou is number 1.

[@bentleycreative]

Isn't Madri just the original Carling recipe, before they started watering Carling down?

[@kylereed9309]

I heard that as well, if it is just proves they created madri just to pump up falling sales of carling

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

I doubt it given the use of unmalted barley, wheat and glucose!

[@mikebate8647]

Fairly sure it's just Coors light with added hop flavourings.

[@34spooks]

I heard that too, is it true?

[@Coxy-b34]

Nope. Fake news

[@alexpiptom]

I’m trying to get past how you said “Galicia” 😂😂

[@him050]

I'm convinced if Estrella did a huge marketing campaign around the fact that it's imported and not brewed in the UK under license, it would become the top selling lager in the UK. I don't work in marketing, but I'm sure a tagline along the lines of "actually Spanish" would go a long way. The issue is most people just don't know that they're made in the UK. Imagine if they did an ad campaign pointing that out? The other brands wouldn't be able to counter it. It would kill off Peroni, Morreti, Heineken, Corona, and San Miguel almost overnight.

[@williammahley4876]

Another example of why the state of beer reflects social values…

[@kennyangel]

They do sell Madri in supermarkets in Madrid now though, have seen it in some Carrefours in the specials section...

[@PointNemo9]

For the British tourists

[@Macron87]

Molson Coors introduced Madri in response to Estrella Damm. Molson Coors were purchasing a huge amount of Estrella, to service their free trade customers. I know this, as I was there when they decided their response.

[@ilcorvo9559]

Chasing moretti’s success as well I’d suggest.

[@Macron87]

@@ilcorvo9559moretti had been around for a while. Molson Coors were the largest single on trade purchaser of estrella - became too frustrated at giving all that margin to the U.K. distributor of that brand, and growing its volumes. Took the volume for themselves, with a completely made-up beer

[@beefsuprem0241]

Wasn't this lager just made out of thin air by Carling to address it's non sales in pubs now. To take back some market share from peroni and morreti etc

[@Mikkogram]

I am a german brewer. I have to correct the fact that brewers in germany would not laugh about the highly stabilized and filtered nature of the MC beers. Most of german beers are brewed in under 2 week, are highly processed with silica sol (sedimentation aid), Silica Gel (Protein fraction stabilizer) and PVPP (polyphenolic fraction stabilizer) and filtered either through a membrane filter or by using diatomaceous earth candle filters. Those are allowed under the (actually not really existing) German Purity Law. those process steps are basically common practice, even for medium sized brewery (50000 hl and up...probably starting even smaller)

[@habi0187]

And that's the reason why I love Frankonia so much in my town of 10000 inhabitants we have two local breweries and the next brewery is about 5 km away. This brewery is over 500 years old and 400 plus years owned by the same family. None of these breweries has more than 5000 Hl output, more probably about 1000 to 2000. In my neighbouring town everyone is welcome to the Sudhaus and have a talk with the brewer every Tuesday when he is preparing his weekly brew. The most funny thing is that even this traditional beer is much cheaper than the beer in the UK.

[@Mikkogram]

​@@habi0187 I actually have nothing against all those things. What bothers me is that it is sold as Purity Law beer. By no means it is pure. The label Reinheitsgebot should be a choice but then a strictly regulated certificate. No water treatment, no technical aids, no filtration that interacts with the beer (Like DE is doing). The Reinheitsgebot implies quality which it shouldn't, because the beer regulations allow way too many aid chemicals. One hypocritical aspect of the Reinheitsgebot is the use of CO2 extract. A hop product by law mustn't be altered from its natural properties, that's why tetra hop product or iso-hop extract is forbidden. But due to the nature of the process of the CO2 extraction the alpha acids partially isomerize. Which changes the properties from its natural composition. But yet it is allowed. Why?

[@Mikkogram]

​@@habi0187 plus incognito and spectrum need permission by the federal institutions because extract can only be given during the boil, since in the 1950s they used methanol for extraction as well and it is still in the law, although methanol extraction isn't a thing anymore. And spectrum and incognito do not have the isomerization issue as I understand from their patent

[@habi0187]

@@Mikkogram I totally agree with you. I am not so deep in the brewing like you I just appreciate the fact that in the small breweries in my area most of this stuff and techniques are not used. In the brewery at my neighbour town each week the beer is tasting a bit different from the last week due to the use of only natural ingredients. The malt comes from a Mälzerei in Bamberg and the hops comes out of a big bag as pressed pellets but when you break the pellet you see the cut leaves in it. I don't know if it has been treated before pressing I just saw that it is marked as organic hops from the Hallertau. About 100 years ago hops were still produced in our area but unfortunately it has been given up. Personally I always buy the so called Zwickel Beer from this brewery because I like the taste of the yeast. The Reinheitsgebot has been watered down by the industry that's true and it's a pity but when you look outside Germany and read the ingredients list of let's say Indian beer you realise that things can get much worse.

[@sisi2484]

It shows the state of the UK lager market.. that they have no idea of pilsner ... copying a Spanish lager ??? And Italian lager is the best selling (have they started brewing in uk ,as yet?) .. ??! ... when in uk stick to bitter,Stout, ale ... if you want pilsner beers , helles ,try the beer where its made for centuries . Commercialisation killed the British beer industry.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

It did - though to be fair we never made good lager. Of course, now we have countless breweries making fantastic German and Czech style lagers

[@heneganov]

The big Italian lagers are UK brewed. We have plenty of excellent British lagers, widely available in pubs. Though maybe not in the industrial north.

[@sisi2484]

@GavJ_81 as it's the colder months try the Dunkel beers if you can. I was in Munich in January , and did get a taste for Augustiner Dunkel. V Nice

[@drewf64]

Why would you want to drink Spanish beer anyway? It's like asking for Belgian paella...

[@mattyctill]

The same as Cobra, doesn't exist in India, just Kingfisher.

[@AleANDFolklore]

Cobra at least has a reputation within India as a diaspora thing. The same can't be said about Madri.

[@MarkNeal75]

It’s a classic marketing strategy. Build the hype and throw money behind a brand. The sheep, sorry customers, that have no clue about beer and how it’s made or its ingredients provenance just drink what’s trending. Having worked in pubs for over 20 years and running a craft beer pub for the last 7 years I very much have my finger on the pulse of what is happening in the industry. Customers will just walk in and ask for that weeks ‘goto’ beer without even looking at our choice or even asking for a recommendation. It’s a sad state of the industry and pricing has gone through the roof too! We are charging almost the same for a mass produced beer like Peroni as we would for a beer made by a small brewery that hand crafts each batch of authentic beer.😢

[@OscarOSullivan]

Given it is in breach of consumer protection law yes it matters.

[@lawman1965]

I drank it before i realised it was not Spanish. I found it ok, not the best, but ok. I stopped drinking it because of the dishonesty in the marketing. I appreciate it was designed in collaboration with a brewer outside Madrid and call it a Spanish 'Style', but that still doesn't take away the dishonesty!

[@martinhowe1422]

I feel a Madri pump clip sticker campaign coming up as feminists did with underwear ads on the London Underground. They stopped those ads with a campaign, we should do the same with this lie....

[@notesfromafar]

Yes it matters and I will judge you for drinking Madri... ;)

[@LazarusWilhelm]

Madri is Spanish because it tastes like Holiday and Spain post-1975 = Holiday

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Don't all these macropilsners though?

[@antonycharnock2993]

I checked Cruzcampo out the other day. Get a free ceramic beer mat with every case. Brewed in the UK

[@coasterfest]

At least it is an actual top selling Spanish lager though. Yes brewed in England, with different water, and probably to a different spec, but so are most world beers. The point here is that Madri has never existed in Spain.

[@simonpike2625]

I live near Toledo in "La Sagra" (the area between Madrid and Toledo) and drive past the Sagra brewery every day on my way to work in Madrid (Their *real* beers are quite nice). Although it is in the province of Toledo (by about 4 km), it is only about 30km south of the city of Madrid and within spitting distance of the large southern Madrid suburban towns. It is probably closer to the centre of Madrid than any of the "London" main airports are to central London (except City Airport, I'll grant you) and is probably more akin to Slough / Ilford / Watford in terms of "outside-but-in-the-orbiit" than Swindon. That is my only quibble with the thrust of your argument, and a fairly tenuous / pedantic quibble at that.

[@jagz008]

They should have the same etiquette as wine makers, when I was on a wine tour in tuscany the guy explained that they could only name the wine based on where it was made. I.e chianti must have over say I dunno 90% grapes from tuscany region . So an English ale lager etc must have 90% 90% British hops and grain...

[@adamdavidson4089]

Do the German purity laws outlaw pasteurisation and filtering?