Review: La Tape, Madrid Spain

LA TAPE, MADRID SPAIN
Towards the end of our trip to Spain earlier this month (January 2015), we were riding one of the many tour busses around Madrid in the afternoon and decided to get out a little early and walk around some as we made our way back to our hotel and we discovered this little gem. La Tape is a beer bar and restaurant (full service upstairs) that provides seven different local, regional, and international drafts, a full service bar, and lovely tapas made to order. The location is a beautifully set bar with seating at the bar, along the wall and in the back. They do have some cool art on the walls. We were there mid-day, which is not typically when people eat and drink in Spain, so there were only a few other people there sipping coffee and using the free WiFi.

The servers were excited that we were wanting to explore their beer menu and offered us some samples before we ordered pints. I have listed the draft beers we tried below. They do have their own draft ‘beer’ called La Mixtape, an American Brown ale that was brewed by a local brewery Dawat for them in collaboration. As with all of the other bars and tapas places we went too, we got LOTS of free tapas during our beer drinking. Most of it was seafood oriented, so if you aren’t keen on that, you have to let them know before they start dropping off plates of tapas for you.

www.latape.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/La-Tape/273832312734510?fref=ts
Brewery, Mediterranean Restaurant, Café
C/ San Bernardo 88 Madrid, Madrid
ph: +34 915 93 04 22

Madrid Lager La Virgen • Dortmunder / Export Lager • ABV: 5% • IBUs: ?? Belgium style Helles with yeasty esters present on the nose and front. Bright white head does stick around and leaves nice lacing on the glass rim. 5% ABV, lands this as a mid range lager. Decent to sip without strong clove or estery aftertaste.

IPA Garage Espiga • American IPA • ABV: 6% • IBUs: ?? Super hoppy east coast style IPA from Spain. Extremely strong astringent of pine and grapefruit. Back fades quickly.

La Mixtape Dawat • American Brown Ale • ABV: 5% • IBUs: ?? This brown is really sharp with bitters on the front and mid. Over carbonation brings along the hop esters and grain build to the palette.