• Navigation icon for News

    News

    • US Food
    • UK Food
    • Drinks
    • Celebrity
    • Restaurants and bars
    • TV and Film
    • Social Media
  • Navigation icon for Cooking

    Cooking

    • Recipes
    • Air fryer
  • Navigation icon for Health

    Health

    • Diet
    • Vegan
  • Navigation icon for Fast Food

    Fast Food

    • McDonalds
    • Starbucks
    • Burger King
    • Subway
    • Dominos
  • Facebook
    Instagram
    YouTube
    TikTok
    X
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
TikTok
X
Submit Your Content
San Miguel isn’t actually from Spain and people can’t handle the truth

Home> News> Drinks

Published 10:50 5 May 2025 GMT+1

San Miguel isn’t actually from Spain and people can’t handle the truth

There’s all manner of difficult realities waiting for you on Wikipedia.

Rachael Davis

Rachael Davis

It turns out that popular lager San Miguel isn’t a Spanish beer, with its origins found some 7,000 miles away.

If this is news to you, you’re not alone.

It’s a classic holiday bevvie, as likely to be seen on a Catalonian beach as a Wetherspoons pub garden, and it comes courtesy of one of Spain’s biggest brewers: Mahou San Miguel.

San Miguel is synonymous with Spain (Bloomberg/Getty Images)
San Miguel is synonymous with Spain (Bloomberg/Getty Images)

The company itself is based in Málaga on the Costa del Sol, further confusing the origins of the beer bearing its name.

Of course, it’s not uncommon for international beer brands to have myriad brewing spots around the world. Carlsberg, for example, is brewed for us Brits in Northampton despite hailing from Denmark.

Mahou San Miguel has eight brewing facilities in Spain and another two in the US.

The first San Miguel brewery, however, was founded under the name of La Fábrica de Cerveza San Miguel (The Factory of San Miguel Beer) in the neighbourhood of San Miguel in Manila, the Philippines.

(Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Enrique María Barretto de Ycaza y Esteban applied for a royal grant from Spain in 1889 to set up a brewery in the Philippines, at which time it was a Spanish colony.

It began exported in 1914, but didn’t make its debut in Spain until 1946.

Spanish rights were spun-off by the brewery in 1953, spawning Mahou San Miguel Group.

The history lesson has bamboozled boozers around the world. “Just learnt San Miguel is from the Philippines and not Spain,” said one commenter. “Head's on a wobble now. Reality doesn't make sense anymore.”

San Miguel was first brewed in the Philippines in the 1800s and didn't hit Spain until 1946 (Bloomberg/Getty Images)
San Miguel was first brewed in the Philippines in the 1800s and didn't hit Spain until 1946 (Bloomberg/Getty Images)

“Blows my mind that San Miguel is from the Philippines and not Spain,” said another.

A third mused: “You really have to question your existence when you realise San Miguel is from the Philippines and not Spain.”

“I have found out tonight that San Miguel is not... I repeat not from Spain... who the hell knew it was from the Philippines?” chimed another.

You’d think that centuries of European colonialism would make these surprises somewhat… unsurprising. Anyway, go forth with this helpful pub quiz knowledge and prosper.

Featured Image Credit: JAY DIRECTO/Stringer/Getty Images

Topics: Alcohol

Rachael Davis
Rachael Davis

Choose your content:

10 hours ago
11 hours ago
  • 10 hours ago

    Food company pleads guilty after worker died in smokehouse

    The company has admitted to failures in ensuring employee safety.

    News
  • 10 hours ago

    Chinese national park advertises bizarre 'wild man' job that involves eating raw food

    Professional NPCs walk among us.

    News
  • 11 hours ago

    Capri-Sun launches giant 15-inch pouch with poignant reason behind it

    Pagan rituals meet lunchbox classics.

    News
  • 11 hours ago

    Friends shocked over price of meal after realising what three-letter word on menu actually meant

    Don’t order something if you don’t know the price, kids.

    News
  • People were asked why they stopped drinking and they all had similar answers
  • The 'wine rule' that has allegedly helped people to live past 100
  • It turns out that the red liquid oozing your from steak isn’t blood
  • People shocked to find out what paprika is actually made from