While Portugal is better known for its wines (read our guide here) than its beers, they’ve come to develop an experimental confidence and shouldn’t be dismissed. Beer, or cerveja as it’s known in Portuguese, dates back to Roman times in Portugal, when it was produced in the country alongside wine.
Centuries later, in the 19th century, modern production methods started to be applied to Portuguese breweries, with arguably their most famous, the Unicer Brewery behind Super Bock, being opened in 1890. The other big name in Portuguese beer, Sociedade Central de Cervejas, the name behind Sagres, began in 1934. Under the Salazar dictatorship, Portuguese beer was proteceted, leading to no foreign intervention until he was toppled in the 1970s. This was a closed beer society, a hermit brewery, but the beer scene today is outwards-facing and eccentric.
The two major beer companies were finally privatised in the 1990s, although they still dominate the Portuguese beer industry today. Despite this history of nationalisation, nationalism and lack of desire for foreign influence, today Portugal is looking outwards for influence in beer, taking it from everywhere from the UK to Germany and mixing it with a Portuguese twist, with the rumblings of a craft beer industry in the trendy cities of Lisbon and Porto. Good names to check out if you wanted to experiment beyond the old guards of Sagres and Super Bock (although o be fair, these names both produce a range of styles from dark ales to stouts and recognise a change in tastes) are Lisbon’s Dois Corvos (they also produce a range of styles, from IPAs to porters) and Porto’s wine barrel aged Sovina.
The best place to discover Portugal’s nascent craft beer scene in Lisbon is in Cerveteca Lisboa, with knowledgeable and passionate staff ready to welcome you to Portugal’s beer revolution.
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