You’ve done Oktoberfest in Munich, taverns in Britain and abbeys in Belgium—but have you done beer and ham in Spain? Consider these itineraries when you’re planning your next beercation.
#1: MADRID
TOP-SHELF TAPAS: Barcelona-bred chef Tibor fuses the city’s finest selection of bottled and on-tap crafts with saliva-stirring seasonal tapas at Bar ANIMAL (tibordomenech.com/animal). Which beer to pair with your wild mushrooms a la plancha or langostinos in spicy romesco sauce? Ask Tibor. BREWPUB BLISS: Several moreish house brews served in serene wood and glass surroundings makes newcomer Fábrica Maravillas (fabricamaravillas.com) Madrid’s must-visit brewpub. Slip through the crowd and sip your imperial stout in the fuzzy, green, upside-down moss garden. BEST LOCAL PAIRING: Armed with a caramely Jamonera amber fresh from the fridges at bottle stall La Buena Pinta (facebook.com/quebuenapinta), savor ruby-red slivers of Spain’s national delicacy, Iberian ham, in the bustling San Fernando market. –James Blick
#2: SINGAPORE
BEST VIEWS: Bask in panoramas of Marina Bay while sipping European-style craft beer (think porter and Vienna lager) on the outdoor deck at upscale LeVeL33 (level33.com.sg), billed as the “world’s highest urban craft brewery.” A dining menu features tasty small bites, including deconstructed fish and chips. FREE FLOW: Discreetly situated in an industrial food distribution center, upstart microbrewery Jungle Beer (junglebeer.com) compensates for a remote location with bottomless pours of its award-winning beers every second Saturday evening of the month. BEST IMPORT BAR: Pints of Kinshachi Matcha Draft and Shiga Kogen saison headline the well-curated selection of Japanese microbrews served in JiBiru Craft Beer Bar’s (jibiru.com) open-air courtyard. The place doubles as a yakitori grill. GET STALLED: Head to sprawling hawker center Chinatown Complex for 50-plus bottles of imported craft brews and ciders at The Good Beer Co., the only stall serving anything but standard swill. Among bottles from Sweden’s Rekorderlig, England’s Wychwood and Australia’s Mountain Goat, you’ll find something to pair with the satays and noodles from neighboring stalls. –Brian Spencer
#3: SLOVENIA
CAPITAL CRAFT: Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital and largest town by a long shot, claims just a single craft brewery: Kratochwill (kratochwill.si), a warm pizza joint that brews micros to match—think dough-worthy dunkel, pilsner and porter. HOP AROUND: Northeast of the capital lies Slovenia’s primary hop-growing region, where the Styrian Goldings grow like weeds. Visit in August when the annual 8.7-mile Hop Trail Hike, anchored in the town of Žalec, winds through a bird sanctuary, past the Roman Necropolis and straight to the Eco-Museum of Hop-Growing and Brewing Industry (ekomuzej-hmelj.si). TAKE THIS TOUR: Slovenian megabrewery Union (pivo-union.si) brews its widespread pale lager at its Ljubljana plant, where it also curates displays on beer making, cooperage, cellaring and innkeeping at one of Europe’s largest brewery museums, in the attic of the brewery’s old malt house. Time your trip properly because the museum’s open only the first Tuesday of each month. BEST FEST: Each July, Slovenia’s other big beer maker, Lasko, hosts the five-day Festival of Beer and Flowers (pivocvetje.com) in the tiny town of, yep, Lasko. Go on Saturday night when the blooms and beverages get wild with the rowdiest concerts and marathon fireworks shows.
