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.
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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.
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.”
“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.
Topics: Alcohol
Rachael Davis