Portuguese beer
Portugal is a wine country, and beer with character is a recent arrival there. The new brewers work mostly with IPA and sour beer, and those are also the styles you'll find here from Ophiussa and Dois Corvos. On this page you can see all the Portuguese beers we currently deliver.
- In stock now4 beers
- Breweries2
Breweries from Portugal 2
All beers in stock 4
A wine country gets to know specialty beer
Portugal is a wine country. It has a long culture of making and drinking wine, and beer traditionally wasn't really part of it. Per head of population, Portuguese people drink more wine than in any other country.
For a long time, beer meant two brands: Sagres and Super Bock. Both are pale lagers, and anyone who asked for a beer in a bar simply got one, with no style or brand name attached. That explains why the choice stayed so one-sided. The country's first modern microbrewery only opened in 2011. In 2014 the first craft beer bar followed in Lisbon with Cerveteca, and after that came, among others, Cerveja Musa in Lisbon (2016) and Fábrica Nortada in Porto (2017).
Two lagers and a young craft scene
Sagres and Super Bock are still the standard. Sagres dominates mainly in Lisbon, Super Bock in the north and around Porto. They are simple lagers, and they make it clear why craft beer in Portugal still feels new.
The new brewers work with styles you know from elsewhere. In Porto, one visitor found sours, stouts, IPAs and saisons. Fábrica Nortada poured a lager, a Vienna lager, an IPA and a weissbier, with the ambition of bringing craft to a broad audience. If you come from a country where craft has long been normal, you might find some of these beers a bit tame. For Portuguese drinkers, they are a way in to more experimentation. It is not yet a scene where you can get a specialty beer everywhere: you have to look for it on purpose.
Portuguese beer at Hoptimaal
With us you'll find Portuguese beer from Ophiussa and Dois Corvos. Together they mainly supply IPA and sour beer, two styles you also come across in the Portuguese craft scene. If you want to taste a hoppy IPA next to a sharp sour beer, these two breweries already let you put together a complete Portuguese tasting round.
From Ophiussa, Eos, Corvus and Lechia are favourites among beer lovers on Untappd. From Dois Corvos, the same goes for Weekend and Creature IPA. Start there if you don't know what to choose. Each brewery has its own page with us, with that brewery's full range.
Frequently asked questions
What is typical Portuguese beer?
Traditionally, it's the pale lagers from Sagres and Super Bock, which dominated the country for a long time. The new craft brewers also make IPA, stout, saison and sour beer, among other styles.
Which Portuguese breweries are well known?
Sagres and Super Bock are the big brands. Within craft, Fábrica Nortada in Porto and Cerveja Musa in Lisbon stand out, among others. At Hoptimaal you'll find Ophiussa and Dois Corvos.
Why is craft beer in Portugal still relatively new?
Portugal has mainly a wine culture, and beer was not a traditional part of the eating pattern. The first modern microbrewery only opened in 2011, and the first craft beer bar in Lisbon in 2014.
Beer from other countries
- Dutch beer 175
- American beer 71
- Belgian beer 68
- Canadian beer 54
- German beer 37
- English beer 37
- Spanish beer 21
- Romanian beer 17
- French beer 16
- Swedish beer 15
- Norwegian beer 14
- Estonian beer 17
- Polish beer 11
- Irish beer 8
- Finnish beer 9
- Hungarian beer 7
- Latvian beer 8
- Croatian beer 8
- Danish beer 8
- Welsh beer 5
- Scottish beer 4
- Brazilian beer 3
- Ukrainian beer 2
- Greek beer 3
- Slovenian beer 3
- Czech beer 3
