continentally

Last Saturday!  Easter Saturday, as if I care.  No chocolate laden rabbits where I am.  As a holiday weekend, it's a little harder to get a beer fix if you haven't stocked up, too.  However, somebody is always willing to do a little extra work and today isn't technically a holiday here.  Circumstances have made it less likely for me to go to l'Europe for some time, so I figured I might as well revisit a past haunt.  Still on beer street/calle cervezera Cerdenal Cisneros 19, they offer a mix of craft and bigger import beers, as well as German-style wurst platters.  Every third Sunday of the month there's local artisan cheese and vinyl records, for the hipsters.  And important for the penny-pinchers, every day between 6 and 8pm is happy hour.  Half price drafts!

Order at the bar

I see a lot of familiar names on the draft board, but Arriaca Centeno has probably not crossed my palate yet.  At least it doesn't sound like one I've tried.  It's a rye imperial pale lager, so I'm confident that it will be tasty.  I find I prefer their light colored beers to their dark ones.  It's a good orangey color, just a little bit opaque, with a light, bright, white head.  The aroma is sharp and sweet, recalling typical IPAs, but the flavor leans toward plain bitter, harkening back to the lager.  It doesn't take long for a sweetness to develop, though, and the beer does have a tendency to hang around in the mouth.  It's not an unpleasant aftertaste, but perhaps not as clean as you might expect from the citrusy smell.  Centeno is a good representative for Arriaca, and a beer that leaves a pleasant mark.

Not German tapas

It got a bit crowded, even for an early Saturday evening, which might be because of the cheap draft beer, or might be just because.  The tables are still a little too close together for my comfort, which some accidental butt-bumping, and the place does tend to get noisy pretty easily.  Still, it's certainly not the worst place I've ever been, and if somebody suggests going I'll be happy to go along.