Perhaps not many beers are earth-shattering, but some are certainly weird – and essential. From curry sausages to four-legged friends and tremors of the Earth, this is what’s on my beery mind right now.

When meeting beer colleagues from around the world, I sometimes hear of strange beers. For instance, one friend told me about a beer that upon pouring was pulled through a chamber with sausages, for added flavour. And actually, during a competition I had the chance to try a currywurst beer, as in a beer made with curry sausages. Yes, it was delicious!

Have you heard of dog beer? This is another strange and also not new phenomenon in the beer world. Not long ago, a beer friend told me that she was going to host a dog beer tasting. This reminded me of a beer writer who dedicated a podcast episode to four-legged friends finding the best dog beer. For sensitive readers, dog beers obviously don’t contain alcohol (or dogs), they’re just nutritious, vitamin-rich beverages for dogs.

And recently, I experienced my first earthquake beers. Well, my first earthquake, and then beers. Arriving in Granada one evening, the first tremor hit within the hour. Later that night I woke up by what felt like a train driving through the bedroom – it was a 5.2 magnitude full-on earthquake. And then just days later, a relatively big earthquake made itself noticed, followed by another one, a third one, and even a fourth one within a couple of hours.

With shaky legs, I decided to go for a walk – as movement has a tendency to stop thoughts from spiralling. I happened to start chatting with a local guy, as you do, who explained that earth tremors are common in this area. “What you need to do is stay calm, move your body, have something to eat, and go for a beer,” he said. At that exact time, a friend living near Granada texted, “make sure to go for a beer.”

“Fine, I’ll go for a beer then,” I thought to myself. Perhaps it’s the locals’ version of having a cup of tea when things get turbulent. The beer was good, and even better was chatting with the staff and the other customers. A big plus: in Granada, you always get something to eat with your beer. If in luck, these small dishes are so good, or perhaps you had so many beers, you don’t even need to go out for dinner later.

Malin Norman Booking.com

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