The village of Castro Marin near the Spanish border is dominated by a Medieval castle and is the home of the Senescal Brewery. Owner Gabriel Silveira got to know about British real ale when living over here. The brewery produces a range of real ales in a bottle, otherwise known as bottle conditioned living ales. Gabriel worked in a pub in Buckinghamshire, where he learned to look after real ales.

Having moved to the Algarve with his wife, he started brewing in March 2021 and he sticks rigidly to the German beer purity law, using only pure water, hops, malted barley and yeast.

He uses English yeast and hops to brew two quintessentially British ales, Royal IPA, 5.2% and Marshall Porter, 6%

The modern brewery plant is seen in this image

The brewery sells beers to many bars on the Algarve coast, which is popular with British tourists.

REAL ALE ON THE ALGARVE : Article and photos supplied by branch member Len Wainwright