Getting Beery in Madrid: Stuyck in the Middle With You

A little throwback to a craft beer session in the Spanish capi!

So, back in my Madrid days before moving on and all this lockdown palaver, here's one cheeky outing to a great craft beer place and sampling some of their delights!

The picture above is what adorned one of the walls. The watering hole in question is The Stuyck Co and I recommend having a sneaky look if you're ever in the area (hopefully they'll still be going!).

I've been there before (and surely will again) and it's right in amongst one of the coolest barrios of Madrid, Malasaña. This neighbourhood is where I found myself quite often and would ideally like to live somewhere in the vicinity if ever back there.

Craft beer in general is really taking off in Spain and there are more of these kind of places, vast selections of beers and people taking more of an interest. It also adds a bit of an angle to your evening which has to be a good thing.

The board above displayed the options of the day. I took it strategically, working my way down the left-hand side. A good mix as ever, something for all tastes (unless you don't like beer, then it would be terrible).

One thing to mention is that it is far more expensive drinking in these kind of places… and also some of those beers are fairly hefty in strength. There's a stout, bottom right of that board going at a whopping 15%! And no I didn't.

The beer above is a pic of my first of the evening. In fact, it's the only picture! This was as I was waiting for the others to arrive and the least exciting in terms of 'something new'. Pilsner is a very common beer and the most 'lagery' of the bunch, so a good'n for those looking for a regular beer/lager and not want to get involved with all the weird and wonderful concoctions. It was first on the list, a fairly light 4.4% and the cheapest.

I won't divulge how far I made inroads into the list. Suffice to say there were a couple of tasty dark beers in the middle.

My favourites were probably 4 and 5. You may not see from the pic, but number 4 is a 'doppelbock'… which is a style of beer of German origin. This particular spicy number had a dark and rich taste and weighed in at an attention grabbing 6.1%.

Number 5 was a Belgian dark ale. Those Belgians make a good ol' beer… but be careful as they tend to be on the strong side. This also had a deep taste and it looks on the board to be a 'difficult to write an article on the next day' 8.3%. I'm not so sure about that, and it looks like someone has scribbled over it, so I don't know what to believe. Perhaps they were drunk on Belgian beer.

I should also mention number 2, a smooth pale ale called Santo Cristo which is perhaps the best 'all-rounder' of the bunch. A noteworthy but not overpowering 5.5% with a pleasant aftertaste. I would probably point to this one as a starting point for others delving in to the scene and not sure where to start.

We also had a bit of food which was quite good if not spectacular. I think we know what the priority product is here but always good to get some snacks on the go too. I wouldn't go there specifically for the food but you can get a decent bit of scran to accompany your boozehoundery. A good vibe and the staff were cool too, which is always worth a mention.

As I said before, there is a big trend around the world for craft beer at the moment with Spain getting in on the act. There was pre-pandemic anyway and I'm sure the resurgence will continue after.

Well there you go. I hope we can all enjoy a beer together, wherever we are one day soon. Until then…

Cheers! 🍻

~ Adam

* Images my own

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