We pass by doors that frame what must have been fishermen’s cottages, back when Ericeira, Portugal, was the town of pescadores, not surfistas. Now the main praça on a Friday afternoon is lined with stalls, the keepers of which sell knick-knacks. Around every corner lies a board shop, or a café selling vageuly Portuguese favorites from an English-language menu.
We find a bar that has bottles of local craft beer lining the counter…Mean Sardine, Oitava Colina, Musa, Dois Corvos… and a new one to me, “+351” in either IPA or lighter form.
I choose the IPA, and find it a reasonable balance of pine aroma, grapfruit peel, and lingering bitter. Box standard. But at least someone’s trying to go beyond Sagres and Super Bock on these wave-pummeled shores. I google the brewery and find nothing…until I figure out that a plus sign in Portuguese translates to mais, or “more.”
We’d be wise to keep the sage words in mind that we saw in azulejos on the rocks near the beach: “When you navigate without a destination, no wind is favorable.” Our destination: Mais cerveja, claro!
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- Billy surveys the shoreline at Ericeira
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- The door to a fisherman’s cottage in the surf town of Ericeira
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- The quote in the tiles: “When you navigate without a destination, no wind is favorable.”
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- The +351 IPA has piney aromas and bitter grapefruit peel to taste
+351, or 00351, is what you dial on your phone to make a call to Portugal…
Cheers!