The fabulous Parc de la Mar in Palma was the location for 2nd ‘Beer Palma’ festival held over 12 days in May in the Majorcan capital.

Beer enthusiasts of many nationalities enjoyed the opportunity to choose from around 100 of the world’s best beers, as well as a mouthwatering range of tapas and snacks from some of Palma’s finest restaurants and caterers.

What a great idea it was to hold Beer Palma in the Parc de la Mar.

Sitting in the late Spring sunshine tasting some of the finest beers from around the globe with Palma’s magnificent Gothic cathedral as a backdrop, well…life can’t get much better than that!

It was a lovely day in the Parc de la Mar when I visited. Entrance was free (good start) and visitors could purchase beer tokens worth one euro each. Each beer cost 3 euro tokens each, rather unfortunately, served in plastic glasses. (Beer, like wine, surely tastes much better in a real glass?)

A good mixture of beers on offer

The interesting thing about the 2014 Feria de la Cerveza was that there was a good mixture of beers to sample from both large international breweries as well as small artisan concerns.

Among the ‘big boys’ you could taste beers from breweries such as Heineken España S.A., Grupo Mahou-San Miguel, Carlsberg, Carling and Kronenbourg. However, I was more interested in the what the micro breweries had on offer, particularly artisan brewers from Mallorca.

Now Majorca is well-known for it’s increasingly popular wine industry. But in the last few years, several enterprising Mallorcans have decided to put the island on the map by creating some excellent designer beers.

And it was these small breweries that interested me the most.

Tasting Mallorcan beers for the first time

Under the branding ‘Cervezas Artesanales’ (Artisan Beers), there were around 30 beers to choose from, all the product of small Mallorca brewers dotted around the island.

Cervesa Des Plà (Algaida) and Talaiòtika (Felantitx) had a couple of beers each. Tramuntana (Palma) had four, including an IPA and a porter. Sullerica from Sóller brought along five. Forastera (Es Molinar) offered four beers including an exotic-sounding Mallorca Pale Ale. The enthusiastically sounding Beer Lovers from Alcúdia displayed five of their finest. And Sa Bona Birra (Ciutadella) offered four.

The first beer I tasted was a 4.8% Galilean American Amber Ale from Cas Cerveser. To my (unprofessional) palette it had a lovely rich, hoppy flavour.

My second choice was a was from the Alaró-based micro brewery of Myq Mayurqa. This was a 5% ‘whitebeer’ simply called Mayurqa and had a bright, refreshing taste.

My final choice was the 1561 India Pale Ale from the Sollerica brewery in Sóller. At 7% this was not for the fainthearted but was quite delicious all the same.

I must admit, I have never been that keen on Spanish beer as a whole, but after tasting such fine craftsman ales, I will certainly be on the lookout for Mallorca beers in the future!