Spanish lager in Britain: which is actually Spanish?

The one with no original

Madrí Excepcional is the strangest entry on the list, because there is nothing to compare it with. The brand was created in 2020 by Molson Coors for the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is brewed at Tadcaster in North Yorkshire and Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, at 4.6%, and the pack carries a Burton address. There is no Madrí on sale in Madrid to be weaker or stronger than.

That is worth stating plainly rather than crossly. Inventing a brand with a foreign name is legal and common. What makes Madrí interesting is the scale of the success: a Spanish-styled lager that never crossed the Channel, now one of the biggest world lagers in the country, with the Toledo brewery La Sagra in the launch story and a Burton postcode in the small print.

The real brands brewed here

Cruzcampo and San Miguel are the opposite case: genuine Spanish brands, with real breweries in Spain, whose British supply is made in Britain. Cruzcampo reached the British off-trade in 2023 brewed by Heineken UK in Manchester, at 4.4%. San Miguel is brewed at Magor in south Wales and Samlesbury in Lancashire at 5.0%, against 5.4% in Spain, 0.4 percentage points weaker.

San Miguel also demonstrates how quickly the arrangement can change. It was brewed by Carlsberg at Northampton from 2009; from 2025 it is made by Budweiser Brewing Group at the AB InBev sites. Same can, different company, different county. The licence moves guide has the rest.

The two Estrellas, which are not related

A common confusion worth clearing up: Estrella Damm and Estrella Galicia are different beers from different companies in different parts of Spain. "Estrella" simply means star.

Estrella Damm is made by Damm of Barcelona, and its British supply is now brewed at the Eagle Brewery in Bedford, which Damm bought outright in late 2022 and has brewed at in its own right since 2024. The UK strength is 4.6% against 5.4% in Spain, 0.8 percentage points weaker.

Estrella Galicia is made by Hijos de Rivera in A Coruña, and the British cans really are imported from there. It is still not the same beer as the Spanish flagship: 4.7% here against 5.5% for Estrella Galicia Especial at home.

Imported does not mean identical

This is the point most easily missed. Being brewed in Spain and shipped here does not mean you are drinking the Spanish product. Rosa Blanca is brewed by Damm in Barcelona and imported, and the British cans are 3.4% against 4.8% on Damm's own Spanish shop: a cut of 1.4 percentage points, which puts it exactly on the British duty threshold described in the duty guide.

The honourable exception is Alhambra Reserva 1925, imported from Granada at 6.4%, the same strength it is sold at in Spain. If the test is "the same beer as they drink there", that is the one on this list that passes it outright.

The one nobody can settle

Mahou Cinco Estrellas is recorded here as a mixed supply, because the evidence genuinely contradicts itself: two listings for the same beer at the same supermarket give different countries of origin and different brewers. The UK cans are 4.8% where the Spanish specification is 5.5%, which is itself a hint. It has a guide of its own.

The whole group

Every figure comes from the beer's own page, where it carries a source and the date it was checked. The full group, including the alcohol-free versions, is on the Spanish country page.