Estrella Galicia

Estrella Galicia is the flagship lager of Hijos de Rivera, brewed in A Coruña since 1906 and prized among Spanish drinkers for tasting like a brewer's beer: noticeably hoppier and more bitter than the national norm. In a market long dominated by giants, it is the independent that became a connoisseur's default.

The founding story is a classic of Galician emigration. José María Rivera Corral left for the Americas at fifteen, prospered in Veracruz, Mexico with a business called La Estrella de Oro, and returned home to open a brewery and ice factory in A Coruña in 1906, naming it La Estrella de Galicia in a nod to his Mexican venture.

More than a century later the company — now Corporación Hijos de Rivera — remains wholly owned by the founding Rivera family, a rarity at its scale in European brewing. The beer's identity is tied to Galicia's table: it is the standard pour beside the region's seafood, and its independence is central to how it markets itself across Spain and abroad.

Noticeably hoppier than the Spanish norm: crisp grainy malt, a firm dry bitterness, and a snappy finish that flatters seafood and cured meats.