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Fabrica Maravillas

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Opening Hours
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+34 915 218 753
+34 915 218 753
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8 reviews of Fabrica Maravillas

One of Madrid's Best Pints

The Fabrica Maravillas serves one of the best pint's in Madrid's hip Malasaña neighborhood, and is one of the leading figures (as James mentioned in his wonderful post above) in Madrid's fledgling craft beer scene. What sets Fabrica Maravillas apart is that rather than offer a constantly rotating and head-spinning array for imported craft beers, it brews its own right there in the shop, experimenting and perfecting varieties like hoppy IPAs, sweet amber ales, refreshing wheat beers, and a creamy stout.

The place itself has a cosmopolitan vibe where you're as likely to meet an American or Australian as a local Madrileño.

The spotless white-brick and stainless steel atmosphere gives the place a modern feel, and the servers couldn't be nicer in helping you with your selection (basically, they don't give you any of the preachiness that's so common in other craft beer spots popping up!). I'd suggest a pint of "Malasaña" if you're looking for something light and sweet on a hot say, or the FL(IPA) Imperial Pale Ale if you're looking for something with more bite.
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Freshly-brewed beer while you watch

Waltz into Fábrica Maravillas bang on opening time and you’ll notice the faint, sweet whiff of fermentation. It’s a warm, yeasty welcome to the best of Madrid’s two brewpubs (the other, Naturbier, in Plaza Santa Ana, only does a couple of beers and the faux German beer-hall decor really rubs me the wrong way). By day American brewmaster Dave works his magic amongst the stainless steel vats (visible through the big glass walls) and by night the factory transforms into a bar, filling with a curious mix of beer-geeks, beautiful people and anyone else who’s washed their hands of Mahou.

“We wanted to create a space where people – even occasional beer drinkers – feel welcome and comfortable,” Hernando, one of the six owners (all of whom are local to the barrio), told me the week they opened. Old-school beer bars – dimly-lit wood-lined caves, crammed with a dizzying array of difficult to pronounce beers – are intimidating to the uninitiated; to the non beer-geek. And the last thing the Fábrica Maravillas team wanted was to intimidate Madrilenians, most of whom have been raised on light, industrial lagers. What they’ve achieved is almost zen in its minimalism. With pale wood benches, ivory walls and white-washed exposed brick, Fábrica Maravillas is an inviting, luminous and utterly beautiful place to drink.


But – most importantly – the beer is excellent. Dave brews three flagship beers: the pear-infused Saison Valverde, the fresh Malsaña Ale and, my favourite so far, the FL(IPA), a tarty tongue-smack of an IPA. Alongside those three perennials, Dave will be cooking other brews to match the season, with heavier beers (like the Cabrona – a chocolatey quadruple) for the nipple-biting Madrid winter, and lighter, thirst-busting brews for Madrid’s fry-an-egg-on-your-car summer months.

Prices are pleasingly low, because, well, they’re making it four feet from where you’re drinking. And – in a canny move – they serve their creations in the traditional caña glass size. It melds Madrid beer tradition with the city’s beer future and no doubt makes craft beer a little less alien to wary locals. But if you like to settle into your brew, don’t worry, half and full pints are also on the menu. And if you do fall for any beer in particular, grab a Growler (a half-gallon bottle) to take-away (whether it’s back to your room at the Ritz or the park for a picnic).

As wonderful as Fábrica Maravillas has turned out, brewmaster Dave told me that pulling the whole operation together wasn't easy. They struggled to find architects who understood a brewpub’s needs and were forced to do bloody battle with Spanish planning officers (turns out it’s not simple getting permission to open a beer factory in the centre of Madrid). By contrast, starting a similar setup in the States (where there craft beer boom is now 30-years-old) is almost as easy as dialing 1-900-BREWPUB. I ask Dave what it's like launching a craft beer business in Madrid in 2012 after having lived through the American renaissance. “It’s like going back in time,” he says. “Like being from the future. You kind of have an insight of the things to come. Because right now it’s year one in the Madrid craft beer scene... It’s an exciting time; you’re seeing everything take off.”

Happily, you don’t need to be a local craft brewer to experience that giddy feeling of being at the birth of something cool. Just sitting in Fábrica Maravillas, or one of Madrid's few other craft beer bars, you can feel the thrill of an industry – and a local culture – lifting off. Or maybe that’s just the beer talking.

Last thing. If you’re reading this over a pint in Fábrica Maravillas, you might be wondering what that furry green thing climbing up the wall in the corner is. It’s the infamous vertical moss garden, of course. It brings a flash of colour to the bar’s snow-white digs and – for the time being – is about as close as you’ll get to a biergarten in Madrid.
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