La Catedral de la cerveza

Medium sized place with a wide selection of locals, trendy crafts and classics. Average to high prices in some cases.

We visited La Catedral de la Cerveza Monday 9th July 2018. It is centrally located on the east side of the river and close to the large Mercado de la Ribera (Bilbaos huge indoor market, by the river. When we arrived it was probably quite close to lunchtime, it looked dark and appeared closed however a gentle push and the door opened. I think that we had just got here in time as the owner turned lights back on and seemed to suggest that he would hold off closing until we were done. It's a straightforward rectangular set up with beer stacked on shelves on both sides of the shop, the counter was at the rear.

Maybe there had been a rush on over the weekend but I noticed many of the shelves were a little sparse, I think that the owner did start to mention something in relation to stock but I didn't quite catch what he said. We felt a bit guiltily taking too long as the owner and an individual whom I presumed was his wife/partner (who was breast feeding their baby) probably wanted to shut up so we quickly scanned the Spanish Micros (left hand shelving) and picked up half a dozen beers. I never really took a good look at other beers but I did note that it appeared there were Belgian beers on the opposite side nearer the front of the shop. Prices were good, there was some great stuff from Laugar, Naparbier, Redneck and many others, however in terms of choice I tend to think that the beer shops that I had been to earlier on our holiday pipped this place. Más Ibus Despacho de Cervezas in Torralvega seemed better for Spanish beers and it had some taps and 3er Tiempo Tienda de Cervezas in Santander also had a decent Spanish selection but was streets ahead with it's excellent American selection, however please let me state this was a very nice shop and the owner seemed a lovely friendly and helpful person, I would have liked some further time here. As we paid I asked the owner for a suggestion of somewhere locally for a good beer and that would be open and thankfully he obliged with a suggestion that isn't currently on the site but was very handily literally just around the corner, I will add that in due course.

Nice little shop in the old part of the town. Rather impressive collection of Basque and Spanish micros, and a lot of well-known Belgian, Danish, German, American and Canadian brews.

Visited in June 2016 after a tip from Txus at Laugar. The beer range is excellent. I couldn’t believe they had an Alvinne Beer Geek Wedding Mes and Sim Edition. I got the last bottle. The stock supply is from Zombier so all super fresh craft beers. They import American beers and lots of interesting regional locals. The guy behind the counter was very friendly and polite. Note to raters to engage with the staff. Then they treat you well. I bought as much beer as I could handle back to the hotel and a t-shirt. I thought the prices were great considering it was in a higher renting area in a touristy part of the City. Excellent range. Great little gem!

Excelente trato y excelentes cervezas.

La mejor tienda de cervezas de Euskadi

Really solid selection of beers organised by country. Just as many Basque beers as from the rest of Spain. Other countries available were as expected with a surprisingly big selection of Quebecois beers. Service was nice and helpful and offered to ship my selection to me (shrewd move, as it meant that I bought more).

Great place centrally located in the old town. A wide selection of both international (mostly USA and Belgium) and local beers. For me the local craft beers where most interesting for obvious reasons, especially since it far from easy to find Spanish craft beers outside the bigger cities. Souvenir shops are often the only options and will normally just offer a couple from one local brewery. In this shop I found beers from a bounce of breweries I’d never heard about before. These beers where in addition categorized under Spanish or Basque. Since everything already where sorted out neatly and I’m able to read on the labels I did not find the need to ask for anything, so I can’t tell if the service where good or bad. Prices seem to be more than less similar to souvenir shops, and at least far from unacceptable. I was just happy to find this shop and just regret that I didn’t found it earlier.