Best Craft Beer Bars in Tenerife for Serious Beer Drinkers
Words by
Carlos Rodriguez
The Best Craft Beer Bars in Tenerife for Serious Beer Drinkers
I have spent the better part of six years chasing pints across this island, from the misty pine forests above La Orotava to the salt-crusted promenades of Santa Cruz. What I found is that the best craft beer bars in Tenerife are not the ones with the flashiest signage or the most Instagram-friendly interiors. They are the ones where the bartender knows the brewer by name, where the tap list rotates faster than the trade winds shift direction, and where you can taste the volcanic terroir in a glass of locally hopped pale ale. Tenerife's craft beer scene is young, scrappy, and deeply tied to the island's identity as a place that has always looked outward, absorbing influences from Latin America, mainland Spain, and the Atlantic shipping routes that once made its ports among the busiest in Europe. If you are a serious beer drinker, this island will surprise you. Not because it competes with Berlin or Portland, but because it does something neither of those places can: it makes you feel like you discovered something before anyone else did.
La Casa de la Cerveza in Santa Cruz de Tenerife
La Casa de la Cerveza sits on Calle de la Marina, just a few blocks from the port where ships once loaded Canary wine bound for the British Isles. The bar opened in 2016 and has since become the unofficial headquarters of the local breweries Tenerife movement. The owner, a former IT engineer named Roberto, quit his job after a trip to Belgium convinced him that Santa Cruz deserved a proper beer bar. He was right. The tap list here runs to 14 handles, and at least half of them are dedicated to microbrewery Tenerife producers on any given week. I have seen taps from Cervecería Isleña, Volcan, and the now-legendary Goyo Brewing all on the same board.
What to Order: The Volcan Teide Smoked Porter, brewed with barley dried over local pine wood. It tastes like a campfire on a mountain ridge, which is essentially what it is.
Best Time: Thursday evenings after 9 PM, when Roberto hosts informal tap takeovers and local brewers show up to pour their latest batches. The crowd is almost entirely local, and the conversations get technical fast.
The Vibe: Narrow, dimly lit, with exposed brick and a chalkboard menu that changes daily. The only real drawback is that the single bathroom gets backed up on busy nights, and there is no outdoor seating whatsoever.
Insider Tip: Ask Roberto about his "reserva" shelf behind the bar. He keeps a rotating selection of barrel-aged and bottle-conditioned beers from small Canary Island producers that never make it to the tap list. He will pour you one if he likes your questions.
El Caletón Brewing in Puerto de la Cruz
Puerto de la Cruz has always been the more cosmopolitan of Tenerife's northern towns, the place where European travelers first arrived in the 18th century to study the botanic gardens and marvel at the Orotava Valley. El Caletón Brewing fits that tradition of curiosity. It is located on Calle San Felipe, the pedestrian street that runs downhill from the old town square toward the fishing harbor. The brewery opened in 2019 and operates a small three-barrel system in the back, which means everything on tap was made within sight of your barstool.
What to Order: Their house IPA, which uses Cascade hops grown experimentally in a greenhouse in Icod de los Vinos. The citrus notes are sharper than you would expect, almost tropical, and the finish is dry enough to make you order another.
Best Time: Saturday afternoons between 2 and 5 PM, when the lunch crowd has thinned but the dinner rush has not yet arrived. This is when the brewer, a quiet guy named Dani, sometimes comes out to talk about what he is working on next.
The Vibe: Bright and open, with large windows facing the street and a long communal table made from reclaimed teak. The downside is that the space is small, maybe 30 seats, and on summer weekends you might wait 20 minutes for a spot.
Insider Tip: Walk five minutes downhill to the rocky swimming spot also called El Caletón after your beer. The natural volcanic pools there are where locals actually swim, and the combination of salt air and a fresh IPA is something I have never experienced anywhere else.
Cervecería Tasca La Sabina in La Laguna
San Cristóbal de La Laguna is Tenerife's old capital, a UNESCO World Heritage city of colonial architecture, university energy, and narrow streets that were laid out in the 15th century as a template for cities across the Americas. Tasca La Sabina sits on Calle Obispo Rey Redondo, the main commercial artery, but it feels like a secret. The front room looks like any other Canarian tapas bar, dark wood and tiled floors, but the back room has a dedicated craft beer fridge with over 60 bottles from local breweries Tenerife producers and beyond.
What to Order: Anything from Cerveza Goyo, which is brewed in a tiny facility in Tacoronte and distributed almost nowhere outside the island. Their double IPA is aggressively bitter in the best way, and their saison uses wild yeast captured from La Laguna's own microclimate.
Best Time: Weekday lunches, when the kitchen serves traditional Canarian food, papas arrugadas with mojo rojo, at prices that are half what you would pay in the tourist zones. Pair the food with a lighter beer and you have one of the best value meals on the island.
The Vibe: Split personality. The front is a traditional tasca with older locals drinking wine. The back is where the beer crowd gathers, and the energy shifts noticeably. The Wi-Fi in the back room is unreliable, which is either a feature or a bug depending on your perspective.
Insider Tip: La Laguna's university means the city has a deep culture of tertulia, long conversations over drinks that can last hours. If you sit at the bar and show genuine interest in the beer selection, you will likely be pulled into one of these conversations. Say yes. Some of my best nights on the island started this way.
The Irish Rover Craft Bar in Playa de las Américas
I know what you are thinking. A craft beer bar in the heart of Tenerife's most tourist-heavy resort strip? But hear me out. The Irish Rover on Avenida de los Pueblos has quietly built one of the most impressive craft beer taps Tenerife has to offer, with 20 handles and a commitment to rotating at least a third of them weekly with Canary Island microbrewery Tenerife products. The owner, an Irish expat named Declan who has lived on the island for over a decade, treats beer with the same seriousness he once applied to running pubs in Galway.
What to Order: The rotating guest tap from Microcervecería del Norte, a tiny operation based in Icod de los Vinos that produces fewer than 500 liters a month. Their barleywine, when it appears, is rich, warming, and clocks in at over 9 percent ABV.
Best Time: Sunday afternoons, when the tourist crowd is at its thinnest and the local expat community drinks in for the weekly quiz night. The atmosphere is relaxed, almost sleepy, and you can actually hear the person next to you.
The Vibe: Comfortable and unpretentious, with dark booths, sports on the TV, and a genuine sense that the staff cares about what they are pouring. The downside is that the location means you are surrounded by all-inclusive resort energy, which can feel jarring if you came to Tenerife for authenticity.
Insider Tip: Declan keeps a "black book" of rare and limited-release beers behind the bar. He does not advertise it, but if you have been in a few times and shown that you know your stuff, he will pull it out. I once drank a three-year-old sour from a La Palma brewery that I have never seen before or since.
Bodegón El Trinquete in La Orotava
La Orotava is the kind of town that makes you understand why northern Tenerife has always been the island's cultural heart. The valley is lush, the architecture is ornate, and the pace of life is measured in siestas and Sunday masses. Bodegón El Trinquete sits near the town's main plaza, on a side street that most tourists walk right past. It is primarily a wine bar, a traditional bodegón serving local Valle de La Orotava wines from volcanic soils, but the owner's son, a young man named Alejandro who spent two years working in craft breweries in Barcelona, has been quietly building a craft beer selection that now includes eight taps dedicated to local breweries Tenerife producers.
What to Order: The Cerveza Isleña Witbier, brewed with coriander and bitter orange peel sourced from gardens in the Orotava Valley itself. It is a beer that could only come from this specific place, and that is rare.
Best Time: Friday evenings, when the plaza fills with families taking their paseo and the bodegón becomes a gathering point for the town's younger crowd. The energy is festive but never chaotic.
The Vibe: Rustic and warm, with stone walls, wooden beams, and the smell of slow-cooked stews drifting from the kitchen. The craft beer taps are a relatively recent addition, and some of the older regulars still look at them with mild suspicion, which I find endearing.
Insider Tip: Ask Alejandro about his homebrew experiments. He has been working on a beer that uses water filtered through volcanic rock from the Cañadas del Teide national park, and while it is not yet commercially available, he has been known to share samples with people who ask the right questions.
Cervecería Volcan de Lúpulo in Adeje
Adeje is in the south, which means sunshine, resort hotels, and a landscape that looks more like the Canary Islands of postcards than the misty north. But Cervecería Volcan de Lúpulo, located on Calle Grande in Adeje's old town, is proof that craft beer culture has penetrated even the most tourist-oriented corners of the island. The brewery opened in 2020 and operates a five-barrel system that produces exclusively for the bar and a handful of local accounts.
What to Order: Their Volcan de Lúpulo Red Ale, which uses a small amount of gofio, the toasted grain flour that is a staple of Canarian cuisine. The result is a subtle nuttiness that rounds out the malt backbone in a way I have never encountered in any other beer style.
Best Time: Wednesday evenings, when the brewery hosts a "meet the brewer" session and you can tour the small production facility in the back. The tour is informal, maybe 15 minutes, but you get to see the entire process and ask questions.
The Vibe: Modern and clean, with stainless steel fermenters visible through a glass wall and a minimalist bar top made from local stone. The space can feel a bit sterile compared to the rustic bodegas of the north, and the air conditioning is aggressive in summer.
Insider Tip: Adeje's old town is worth exploring on foot after your beer. The town was one of the last areas conquered by the Castilian crown in 1496, and the street layout still reflects its pre-conquest Guanche heritage. Walking these streets with a fresh pint gives you a sense of the island's layered history that no museum can replicate.
La Cervecería del Puerto in Los Cristianos
Los Cristianos has transformed over the past two decades from a sleepy fishing port into one of the south's busiest tourist hubs. But on Calle General Franco, just inland from the waterfront promenade, La Cervecería del Puerto holds its ground as a place where locals and visitors drink side by side. The bar opened in 2018 and has 12 craft beer taps, with a strong emphasis on microbrewery Tenerife producers. The owner, a Tenerife native named Marta, grew up in the town and opened the bar specifically because she was tired of having to drive to Santa Cruz every time she wanted a decent IPA.
What to Order: The rotating sour tap, which features whatever tart, fruity, wild-fermented beer Marta has managed to get her hands on that week. She has relationships with small producers across the Canary Islands, and the sour selection here is the best I have found in the south.
Best Time: Early evening, around 7 PM, when the light over the Atlantic turns golden and the terrace fills with people watching the fishing boats return. The sunset from this spot is genuinely spectacular.
The Vibe: Casual and open-air, with a terrace that catches the sea breeze and an interior that is simple but clean. The noise from the nearby main road can be intrusive during peak traffic hours, and the service slows noticeably when the terrace is full.
Insider Tip: Marta sources some of her food from the same fishing boats you can see from the terrace. The fresh grilled sardines with a cold sour beer is a combination that sounds odd until you try it. Trust me on this one.
Taberna La Cuadra in Tacoronte
Tacoronte is wine country, full stop. The hillsides above the town are covered in trellised vines that produce the majority of Tenerife's denominación de origen wines. So it takes a certain audacity to open a craft beer bar here. Taberna La Cuadra, located on Calle del Cristo near the town's baroque church, does exactly that, and it does it well. The bar opened in 2021 and has quickly become a gathering point for the small but passionate community of craft beer enthusiasts in the island's agricultural heartland.
What to Order: Their house collaboration with Cerveza Goyo, a dry-hopped lager that bridges the gap between the town's wine culture and the newer beer scene. It is crisp, clean, and low enough in alcohol at 4.2 percent ABV that you can drink two or three while working through a plate of local cheese and membrillo.
Best Time: Saturday mornings during the weekly farmers' market in the plaza next door. Grab a beer, browse the stalls selling avocados, mangoes, and honey, and then settle in for a long, slow lunch. This is Tenerife at its most unhurried.
The Vibe: Small, intimate, and deeply local. The kind of place where the bartender remembers your name after two visits and where conversations between strangers start easily. The limited seating, only about 20 spots, means you might have to stand on busy days.
Insider Tip: Tacoronte's wine trail, the Ruta del Vino, passes within walking distance of the bar. I recommend spending the morning visiting a couple of the local bodegas, drinking wine, and then finishing the afternoon at La Cuadra with beer. The contrast between the two beverages, both born from the same volcanic soil, is an education in itself.
When to Go and What to Know
Tenerife's craft beer scene operates on island time, which means things open late and close according to the owner's mood as much as any posted schedule. Most bars do not fill up until 10 PM or later, and the craft beer taps Tenerife venues tend to draw their biggest crowds on Thursday through Saturday nights. If you visit between November and March, you will find a quieter, more local atmosphere, and brewers are more likely to have time to chat because the tourist season has not yet ramped up.
The local breweries Tenerife scene is still small enough that most producers know each other, and tap takeovers, where one brewery takes over all the taps at a bar for a night, are common events. Follow the bars on social media to catch these. They are where you will find the rarest and most experimental beers on the island.
Prices for craft beer in Tenerife range from about 3.50 euros for a half-liter of house beer to 7 or 8 euros for an imported specialty pour. This is slightly above what you would pay for a mass-market lager but well below craft beer prices in northern Europe or North America. Tipping is not expected but rounding up the bill is appreciated.
One practical note: public transportation on the island is limited outside the major towns, and the craft beer bars are spread across Tenerife from north to south. Renting a car is the most practical way to do a proper beer tour, but if you do, remember that Spain's legal blood alcohol limit is strict at 0.5 milligrams per milliliter, and enforcement is real. Designate a driver or use taxis, which are reasonably priced on the island.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Tenerife expensive to visit? Give a realistic daily budget breakdown for mid-tier travelers.
A mid-tier traveler in Tenerife should budget approximately 80 to 120 euros per day, covering a hotel or guesthouse at 40 to 60 euros, meals at local restaurants for 25 to 35 euros, transportation by rental car or bus at 10 to 20 euros, and drinks or activities for the remainder. The island is noticeably cheaper than mainland Spain's major cities, and eating at local bars and markets rather than tourist restaurants can cut food costs significantly.
How easy is it to find pure vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based dining options in Tenerife?
Vegetarian and vegan options are increasingly available in Tenerife, particularly in Santa Cruz, La Laguna, and Puerto de la Cruz, where dedicated plant-based restaurants and cafes have opened in recent years. Traditional Canarian cuisine is meat and fish heavy, but dishes like papas arrugadas with mojo, gofino-based stews, and escaldón are naturally vegan. Outside the main towns, options narrow considerably, and travelers may need to rely on grocery stores and self-catering.
Are there any specific dress codes or cultural etiquettes to keep in mind when visiting local spots in Tenerife?
Tenerife is casual, and no formal dress code applies at bars, restaurants, or most public venues. Beachwear should be reserved for the beach and not worn in town centers or shops. When entering churches, covered shoulders and knees are expected. Tipping is not obligatory, but leaving small change or rounding up the bill at bars and restaurants is common practice and appreciated.
Is the tap water in Tenerife to drink, or should travelers strictly rely on filtered water options?
Tap water in Tenerife is technically safe to drink and meets EU safety standards, but it is desalinated seawater and many locals and visitors find the taste unpleasant due to its mineral content and slight chlorine treatment. Most residents and restaurants use filtered or bottled water for drinking. Travelers should plan to purchase bottled water or use a filtered refill station, which are increasingly common in public spaces across the island.
What is the one must-try local specialty food or drink that Tenerife is famous for?
The one must-try local specialty is papas arrugadas con mojo, small unpeeled potatoes boiled in heavily salted water until wrinkled, served with two sauces: mojo rojo, a spicy red pepper sauce, and mojo verde, a fresh coriander and garlic sauce. This dish is found at virtually every traditional bar and restaurant on the island and represents the essence of Canarian cuisine, simple ingredients transformed by technique and local flavor. Pairing it with a locally brewed craft beer is an experience that captures the old and new of Tenerife in a single meal.
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