hello,
I am making my first excursion to España this June-July.
I have a quick question for everyone; ¿What is your favorite type of beer from España? I would like to know the names so i can ask for them by name.
¿What beer is most often drank en España?

I am a 18year old from the States, i will be attending a language school for all of June and July.Then I will attend a colegio(high school)
en España for a semester this September-February.

Where would the best place be to go out to meet people that are my age in Madrid?

-Grant G. de South Dakota

Hello,
normally in Spain you don't have a great offer to choose, you just order a beer and the waiter brings you. In a few places you can choose.
The brand normally depends on the area where you are. In Madrid the most distributed and the best is Mahou , in some places you can find Voll Damn (higher graduation), Cruzcampo , Aguila (I don't like it too much), Heineken, Carlsberg ...
To find people of 18 years, probably the best places are Alonso Martinez and Tribunal, although it depends what kind of pubs do you like or if you prefer discos ...

Hey Miguelito, the fact that you're forgetting the very popular brand 'San Miguel' surprises me, specially considering your name!!!

Spain is the second world power regarding wine. I know this may sound
wierd since wine is not as refreshing as beer but then you have to
try a white wine called "Cava".

Regards,
André

P.S. I love Voll Damn beer

Grant,
The best place to meet people is in high school, it will be easy. And the best thing is your classmates will take you to the pubs/bars/discos/cafes....
The best beer? I LOVE Haineken and Coronita I don't know what is the difference between Corona (US) and Coronita (Spain) both taste the same to me

Hola Nuria (are you the one I met who works in the hostel or is that someone else?)

Corona was already taken as a brand name in Spain, so it's the only place where the beer is called Coronita. It's from México.

Yes Nuria, I agree with you, I didn't want to mention it before since it's not a Spanish beer (hay que hacer patria, ¡ja, ja!), but I love Coronitas, although maybe it's sort of a chick's beer 'cause it's mild flavored.

Yeah. They only serve (on tap) San Miguel in Madrid's El Brillante, but I understand you can order something else by the bottle. I like it, but much prefer a collllld Mahou . Mmmmm.. :p

It used to be, and not long ago, that beers were highly regional. You could ONLY get Cruzcampo in Andalucía[/url] and Mahou only in Madrid and so on. But now, you can get a Cruzcampo in Galicia, but I don't recall seeing a Mahou in Galicia.. Hmmm... curious. IT'S A CONSIPIRACY!!!!! hehehee..

Whatever you do, Grant G., while you are legally able to drink in Spain (or did they just raise the drinking age to 19?? ) don't overdo it. Don't fall into the botellón crowd. It may look cool to "hang out" and do the young, Spanish teenager thing, but it's really stupid. Don't do it. Don't OVERDO the drinking. (Why do I get the feeling that asking an 18-year old NOT to drink too much is like asking an 18-year old NOT to look at girls)

Asterault, this Nuria lives in New Jersey. You're thinking of the daughter Nuria of the Hostal López on Huertas in Madrid.

Good luck in Spain, Grant G., and have a wonderful time. This will the the experience of a lifetime.

Saludos, MadridMan

I'll echo MM's "fatherly" advice--I went to Spain at 20 (not legal to drink in the US) and tended to overdo it a bit during my stay there. Just remember that you're in a foreign country, not in your own, and that if you get into trouble (too drunk to find your way home, someone picking a fight with you, whatever), you're likely to be pretty incompetent to get yourself out of it.

I was really lucky that I had good Spanish friends who kept me from getting too far out of line, but a night of throwing up and having the spins outside my favorite bar made me realize it was time to back down a bit.

That said, I found that my Spanish was much improved with a single beer--it lowered the inhibitions just enough! Spanish beer is STRONG stuff to us Americans, though, and some bartenders mix LETHAL mixed drinks (including some horrible concoction of vodka and an orange drink like Tang--I still can't drink Tang without feeling ill after the liter of the stuff I drank one night!).

Just try not to make a stupid American of yourself--party and have fun, but you'll look (and feel) a lot cooler if your head's not in the toilet.

Hi Pim, sorry for forgetting the San Miguel, although it's not so easy to find it in Madrid.
They used to send me a letter with an invitation for a beer in San Miguel's day, and one day I tried to use it I couldn't find a San Miguel in all the neibourghood!!