SPANIARDS are drinking less beer in their beloved bars – and the industry is banking on tourists to bail it out.
Consumption outside the home has tumbled by 16.1% since 2022, according to the agriculture ministry’s 2025 food consumption report.
It is part of a wider collapse in cold drinks bought in bars and restaurants, down 9.4% over the same three years.
But beer is the biggest casualty simply because it is the biggest seller.
The average Spaniard sank 18.4 litres outside the home last year, down from 19.9 litres in 2024.
Beer still leads the market with a 36.1% share of everything drunk in bars – but that is down from 37.3% a year earlier.
Spirits have fared even worse, dropping 16.9% in three years. Bottled water is off 2.7% and soft drinks 4.2%.
Industry body Cerveceros de España insists the picture is not as gloomy as it looks.
Director general Jacobo Olalla told EFE Agro the ministry figures cover only residents – not the millions of visitors propping up the costas every summer.
Count in exports, production and what tourists drink, he says, and the total Spanish beer market is actually 2.7% bigger than it was in 2022.
Olalla called that ‘especially positive’ given the current squeeze on wallets.
He also pointed out Spain has gained around 1.6 million residents since 2022, keeping overall volumes steady even as individual drinking falls.
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Even so, the association admits the hospitality trade “is still suffering” – blaming tighter household budgets and a shift towards nights in front of a screen rather than out on a terrace.
The one part of the market growing is the one without the alcohol.
Cervezas MICA has gone all in, becoming the first Spanish brewery to produce nothing but alcohol-free beer.
Managing director Juan Cereijo said the switch was a “positive social impact strategy”, with the range also gluten-free and low in calories.
The sin alcohol category is growing at more than 4% a year in Spain, both in bars and at home.
And half of those reaching for one are doing so because they are driving.
Crucially, nine in 10 buyers are not teetotal at all – they are ordinary beer drinkers switching between the two depending on the occasion.
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