The flavour of German beer in Andalucia

The 19th century was marked in the history of Cadiz not only by the withdrawal of Napoleon and the famous La Pepa Constitution, but also by the cultural splendour and economic prosperity of the city that followed. It was at this time that Carlos Maier decided to leave Bavaria and settle in this Andalusian city on the Atlantic coast.

To his Bavarian surprise, no craft beer was brewed in Cadiz. So Carlos decided to set up a brewery, producing beer as well as soft drinks and sparkling water. In 1867, the Gran Fabrica appeared on Zorrilla Street, which since has been considered to be the most beer-centred in the city due to founding breweries and beer bars.

Carlos Maier’s project was successful. His brewery grew and soon changed locations. There is not much information about that period. It is known that later his heirs merged the company with La Austriaca, a prosperous brewery in Cantabria at the time, which eventually merged with La Cruz Blanca. In 1961 they opened a brewery in Cadiz, being one of the last places to retain the La Cruz Blanca brand, which still gives its name to many establishments in the city specialising in beer.

Morerecently, now in the 21st century, three friends had the idea of setting up a craft brewery. They also wanted to present Cadiz as a city with a beer tradition and create additional tourist routes telling the city’s history of beer-making. They also planned to run courses and sell equipment that customers could use to brew their own beer at home.

In 2011, the friends' plans became reality and a small craft brewery was launched. It was called ‘Maier’ in honour of Carlos Maier. At first, they brewed 50,000 litres a year of ‘cannon beer’ (as it was advertised), in reference to the brewery's logo: a cannon, like the ones placed on street corners in the old town.

The founders did their best to make sure the beer was of high quality and in line with local drinkers' tastes, or better still, not bitter at all. To make it more palatable, they added some honey from the Sierra de Cadiz to the recipe, which softened the product. The beer makers also travelled to the UK, one of the places where craft breweries are most developed. In Germany, they took a course at a university to gain knowledge and to be able to experiment with their product.

The first beer produced by the Maier brewery was a Pale Ale with a light bronze colour, though darker than the light beers. No additives were used in its production; only malt from barley was added (four times more than in industrial beer). The flavour was more intense because the beer was not pasteurised.

Additionally, it was lighter because no gas was added to the beer. The alcohol content, however, was the same as industrial beer - about 4.5 degrees. Besides, Maier beer was not filtered, so to prevent it from being cloudy, it was recommended that the bottle be held upright before drinking so that suspended particles would sink to the bottom of the bottle.

All these characteristics of Maier beer produced in Cadiz have been described in the past tense, as the beer no longer exists. As SUR in English was told by a person involved into the production, the people of Cadiz were not happy to pay more for craft beer, being able to buy even two bottles of industrial beer for the same money.

To make matters worse, the pandemic caused sales to plummet and the young company, which was trying to immortalise the German brewer's name, was forced to cease production, perhaps until better days. The only reminders of Carlos Maier in Cadiz now are the tourist apartments located in the old town, which keep images of Maier beer in their interior.