porter day

Baltic Porter Day was announced as January 18, so it wasn't that big a surprise when I went to pick up something for the occasion and there was just a space on the shelves.  As you can see, I missed the 18th, but I have also seen the holiday listed as the third Saturday in January, so I'll take this loophole.  Unfortunately, I also need to find a loophole for the Baltic part; plenty of stouts around (for next month), but not a lot of porters.  I did have a regular but spiced porter presented: BBNO 03's 10th anniversary collaboration with Amundsen.  It looks quite complex, flavored with chocolate, orange and cinnamon.  The Holidays might be over, but this holiday looks like it has a tasty drink to go with it.

Not especially thick pouring out, but the beige head is pretty fluffy.  Spicy and slightly citrusy aroma, only the barest hint of chocolate lurking.  It's very toasty, still not strong chocolate, but with just a little bit of sweetness.  It's not actually very bitter, more smoky and earthy, so a smoother beer than expected at first.  Even the sweetness is subdued, so the taste is quite clean.  There's no aftertaste to speak of and the beer itself has a light and smooth feel.  After settling for a few minutes a more obvious flavor of chocolate starts to come through, but the beer remains drinkable and gentle, not as thick and warming as some I would choose for the season, but still delightful.

Supplier: La Mundial

Price: €7.60

wake up

Oh yes, there had to be at least one more!  Guineu and Mala Gissona give us a porter now, Txoko.  I'm hoping that that's a hint of chocolate or cacao, but a regular, rich porter would hit the spot really well right now.  The November rain has been delayed until winter's door, so it feels like a good time to sit with good dark beer and unwind.

A little thin looking, coffee smelling.  Nice head at first, but it fizzles away quickly.  The taste is much bigger than expected based on the color and aroma:  it's an extra chocolate and vanilla syrup shot in the morning brew.  While slick, it does have a bit of a sticky feel.  It's a little strange for a mid-week beer for some reason, it feels like something you should be having on Friday night before going out for some real fun, or Saturday afternoon to wake up completely.

cosied up

One of the other dark beers pulled off the shelf at Hop Hop Hurra, Pohjala's Cosy Nights Vanilla Porter.  The shopkeep was impressed with the choice, saying he was just blown away by it.  Pohjala is a very respectable source of beer, especially the dark beers I've found, and it looks like there will be some drizzly days ahead.  Perfect for a porter at home!

Good color and fizzy head, looking on the slimmer side for feel.  It has something of a vanilla ice cream aroma.  The first sip is oddly tickly, with a tiny feeler of bitter, but then it smooths out into something more candy-like, and the vanilla is definitely leading the way.  It has something more of a coating feel in the mouth, not a beer that slides on and disappears, although not sticky at first.  There's a shadow of licorice and coffee boiling up in the middle, fortunately for me the licorice remains just a whisper.  It has a definite warming effect, very appropriate to being a winter porter, and just the thing when you're suffering a little cold.  After a while there's some kind of banana flavor sneaking in, giving it even more of a pudding sensation.  In the end, there's much to recommend the beer, it's tasty and it's calming, it goes perfectly with its own name.  A fine choice indeed.

Supplier: Hop Hop Hurrah

Price: €5.75

in the shadows

So finally we had some rain yesterday, a good day for sitting in the window and sipping on a nice dark beer.  I kept my porter until today, though.  When I was browsing, there it was, sitting proudly on the shelf, all in its brown bottle, like a cone of chocolate.  Onso porter might not have that chocolate touch, though, being porter rather than stout.  There will probably be a little fruitiness to it, which is acceptable.  Now that it's not 100 damn degrees out, even a little black beer stickiness won't be so bad.  Cerveza Rodonda, show me what you got.

Extra foamy, and I'm a little surprised the bottle didn't overflow on opening.  The head is barely tinted beige, but the beer carries a pretty good dark color.  It's dark brown, not black, but good enough.  There isn't a strong puff of aroma at first, but letting it sit out allows just a hint of pickled plum to waft out and settle over the area near the bottle.  In the glass there's more of a light raisiny scent.  The taste also has a lot of dried fruit rather than fresh, prunes and raisins over plums or apples.  As a porter I would expect it to have some fruit to it, and along these lines.  It's a very subtle and unassuming flavor, displaying a little heft in the mouth but going down softly and not leaving hardly anything behind.  Left to its own devices, the beer develops a wisp of smoke in the aftertaste, adding some interest and complexity to a solid but otherwise simple brew.

Supplier: Birra Y Paz

Price: €3.70

new sights

Usually I see posts about beer fairs that are in places I would need to drive to or spend a long time on a bus for, and I am just not that dedicated.  But then, every once in a while I'm surprised by one sneaking up on me in an accessible spot, like just down south on a nice metro ride.  I don't have many reasons to go that far down anymore, no classes to speak of, so why not put a little variety into my city experience?  Bulevar de Vallecas, here I come!

Being who I am, I go down early, on a weekday, to avoid the crowds.  It works out pretty well, there aren't many people wandering around, although there are a few.  A small collection of stands with a good variety of beers and easy to get to without a crush of people?  Off to a good start.

I get started with Go!, called over check out the wares.  They have a stout, but I get convinced to start with Madroñera, a brown ale.  It's a nice fuzzy brown, not a lot of head or aroma.  There's a slightly toasty, clean beery flavor at first, later a pop of caramel.  It's clean drinking, only a low level of sweetness, a nice stand-alone beer.  A good start indeed.

I must have a real black beer for my second round, and I stop over at Cosa Nostra where two black beers are on the board.  I wonder if the porter or stout would be better, but the chocolate in the porter is what clinches it in the end.  Porter Choco it is.  It's a very good color, again little head - this one is from a bottle, not the tap - and a good amount of chocolate in the aroma.  The taste surprises with the chocolate sneaking up on you; it starts out as kind of a flat porter bitter, but suddenly a ball of chocolate breaks through.  And it is very good chocolate, no cheap-o milk-chocolate-Hershey crap, it's dark smooth flavored of the earth, not of sugar and factory.

Yeah, not sitting in the carrier, dad

A little nostalgia with your beer?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now time for The One to wash down the last of the Käsekrainer.  It's pretty much all ales and lagers over there, so I ask for a recommendation and come away with another brown beer, Celta.  It's supposed to be an old style beer, with some barrel aging to give it more character, and it's definitely interesting visually.  It's exceptionally thick looking, really opaque, with a huge amount of tiny bubbles, much like Guinness boasts of itself.  Not very aromatic and only a vaguely sour taste at first, but light and swiftly disappearing down the gullet leaving no distraction behind.  Given a minute, more flavors emerge - woodiness, herbalness, a little bit of mint.  It doesn't quite get to sweet, but it hints at it a little.  It does start to develop an alarming amount of licorice, which I hope my last few fries will soak up.  As I near the end it gets fruitier and figgier, probably what you might have found in traditional beers without a modern load of hops.

I think I have the head for one more, and I see a couple of breweries that I do not yet know.  Both are local, but finally it's the logo that gets me to Bacterio.  And their English porter Black-terio.  It sounds like a pretty standard brew and it does start out with a standardly malty and grainy aroma, and a standard little cap of foam on a handsome black beer.  There's lots of grain and bread in the flavor, not sweet but substantial.  It has a very smooth body, not sticky or prickly at all.  Although it's easy to drink, it has a certain weight behind it that leaves the feeling of having a good frenemy sitting across from you.

So, only a short visit, but well worth the trip.  Well done Vallecas!  See you again some time!

not the black forest, but ok

Más Que Cevezas had a shipment of Sibeeria a while ago, a brewery I haven't had the pleasure of coming across for quite some time.  Since the Sweet Baby Jesus incident, in fact.  It's exciting to see new beers come in, but an old friend is also nice to see.  I thought they would fly off the shelves, but there were a few left, of a couple of styles.  A couple of IPAs and a porter.  Ohhh, we all know which one I went with.  It's a vanilla and coconut porter, at a very mild 4.7%, and I was told a very easy drinking brew. 

It has a fairly thin appearance when poured, although the beige head is pretty frothy to start.  It does diminish quickly.  The strongest part of the aroma is definitely the coconut, it's almost like a piña colada.  Even the underlying scents are slightly sour and tangy, giving the beer a tropical feel in the nose.  The flavor is less tropical with the vanilla coming on strong, but the coconut still has a dominating presence.  It's smooth although it feels almost...oily?  Like coco butter I guess.  It remains constant in flavor balance all the way through, a nice light but filling drink, at home under a beach umbrella or shabby chic bar chair.

Supplier: Más Que Cervezas

Price: €5.07

remember the empire

Still preparing for another quick round of beer culture, although it will be a different area.  Probably even less complete too.  I need something for today though, so I popped down to Birra y Paz for something nice.  Oh man, there were too many nice things to choose from.  In the end, I couldn't resist black beer and chocolate, so I came away with Náhuatl Xocolatl Porter.

It's not super dark, but definitely dark chocolate.  The head ends up being a thin cap on top, resistant.  I get a good whiff of chocolate aroma.  It's similar to a lot of chocolate stouts and porters I've experienced.  There's an oddly powdery feel to the beer, and it ends with a slightly salty tang that I wasn't expecting.  Overall, though, it's like a spiked hot chocolate, except, you know, cold.  It has a sweetness to it, but it's certainly not excessively sweet.  It's very smooth at first, before the finishing tang kicks in, giving the beer that dairy drink feel.  There is oats in the ingredient list, so that might be what's smoothing it out.  This is definitely a beer that you could have year-round, although for most it might be nicer with temperatures under 80.

Supplier: Birra y Paz

Price: €2.80

supernatural solutions?

About 11 months ago Madrid clamped itself down in an almost hysterical attempt to prevent an major viral outbreak.  It did not work.  Not only did a lot of people get sick then, but plenty of people are getting sick now, causing weekly changes to restaurant hours and times for free movement.  It's a better time than ever to drink at home.  It's also a good time to have some darker beers to go with darker moods.  The days are getting lighter now, but that's really not a lot of help to most of us.  Black Magic seems like the kind of thing we might be turning to at this point.  But, this Black Magic is an unfiltered chocolate porter, not some ritual that requires animal or human sacrifice.  I don't know if the gods are going to do our bidding just for a porter. 

It's a nice roasted brown rather than black, which promises the chocolate.  There isn't much chocolate aroma, although it is a little bit smoky.  Quite resistant head, a nice fluffy beige.  It's much more sour than I was expecting, with a quick move into woody flavors.  It's like a barrel aged beer, but without the added alcohol.  After a few sips I think I'm starting to get a little bit of chocolate out of it.  It's a very light feeling beer, not sticky and really not very sweet.  It doesn't have a bitter baking chocolate twist to it either.  I'd say it's a toasty flavor with an underpinning of hops - there is a mild kick that I would attribute to them.  While it is a nice beer, well suited to a cooler evening, I still have my doubts that it would work as a divine libation, wresting the action of higher beings after dousing an altar.  'S fine for me though.

Supplier: Labirratorium

Price: €4.80

from the north

Since we still have to be careful of distances, a lot of places encourage take-out and delivery still.  That includes bars.  While some bars back home are prepared to just can away and send off their product, there aren't that many bars or brew pubs in Madrid that picked that up.  The only one I know that cans is Fábrica Maravillas, and they don't can for you from their taps as far as I know.  Several bars started giving out growlers as soon as they were allowed to reopen their doors, keeping up contact with the clientele.  Welcome it was, and a little hampered by space restrictions, they've kept doing it.  Cervecería Drakkar is a small space to begin with, in a corner of Mercado Vallehermoso.  It's a place to keep in mind if you're looking for a good black beer, since they commonly have Scandinavian or Baltic stuff on their taps.  There was only one this time, a Norwegian porter, Dark Orbit.  One's enough for me though!

It might have been jostled a little on the way home, so the head was extra thick, but there was no spray or explosion.  No waste!  The aroma is a mix of nutty and smoky, with a touch of sweetness.  The taste has a lot of smoke, however, ranging into the barbecue buddy beer.  No nutty flavor, but there is a small hint of sugary aftertaste.  It's remarkably light for the strong flavor, no syrupy bogging down at all.  It's one of those porters that doesn't go so nicely with a sweeter snack, though, I would want something saltier.  Might bring out a little nuttiness then, more complexity.  While fine for sipping and movie watching, it's also workable for keeping conversation animated.  A beer much more to my taste than the last one.

look forward to winter

Back to my black beers!  And this one is a more special example.  Pohjala, like many northern breweries, is pretty damn good with stouts and porters, and Must Kuld does not look like it should disappoint.  It's one of those porters with something extra, chilli and chocolate.  It might not beat The Mayan, but I don't think I'll be sorry about picking it up.

There's the lightest of portery aromas when the cap comes off, and the beer is rich and chocolatey looking.  Not too much head, although a fine cap of dark beige suds remains on top.  A good sniff reveals a little smoky chilli, and perhaps a hint of black beer earthiness.  It has a touch of sour in the taste, like a lighter style of chocolate might, and no chilli up front.  It takes a while for a slight burn to rise up from the end of the swallow.  It's not overwhelming or in your face, like some chilli beers that rely a little too much on the feel than on the taste.  It's only a mild warmth that doesn't really interfere with the somewhat chocolatey flavor of the beginning.  The chocolate part is fortunately not too sweet and stays light and easy, no syrupiness.  Perhaps not a popular choice for a summer beer, but quite the treat for me.

Supplier: Be Hoppy

Price: €4.55

ah, memories

Yeah, when I saw that label I knew that beer was coming home with me.  It's a happy coincidence that it's a Baltic Porter to boot, but Naparbier's Horse Rider could have been anything and that punny image would have been worth it.  I don't know if the reverse centaur riding on a regular centaur would have been funnier...nah, probably not.  This is just the right WTF when you look at it.  It's also a little fitting for me after V day, since it reminds me to do things I love so I can love myself.  All love starts with the self, really.  And who wouldn't love riding off on a horse like that?

Yeeee-hah!

It's just perfect looking in the glass, all dark and heavy, like liquid pudding.  The pudding part is only enhanced by the aroma, slightly sweet, chocolatey, but with a little bitter kick.  So a dark chocolate pudding, I guess.  It's more nutty and smokey than I expected, but definitely thick and mouth-filling.  While the typical coffee is clear in the background, I am pleased not to find the hint of licorice that has been so common.  It's a very solid and regular beer, maintaining the flavor profile and weight throughout the glass.  While sometimes it's fun to have some discoveries in the middle of a bottle, it's also quite nice to have something you enjoy be the same kind of enjoyable from start to finish.  Just a simple good porter, here.

Supplier: Birra y Paz
Price: €4.50

i've had weirder

I've said it many times, dark beers and dark nights go together like nothing else.  Of course, I also say dark beers go with bright afternoons.  And twinkling early mornings.  My tastes are no secret, or surprise by now.  I'm pretty sure I have actually had Flying Dog's Gonzo Imperial Porter before, but not at home.  Maybe not even from a bottle, since the label isn't that familiar.  It's a good bet for me, though, that it will quench my thirst and make my evening worthwhile.  Porters don't often disappoint, and Flying Dog has a good reputation.  I guess it says something about the local mistrust of black beers that it was one of the few left!

There's a slightly piercing aroma when opening the bottle, but nothing unusual among porters.  It pours very dark and smooth looking, with one of the darker shades of beige in the head.  The scent gains in sweetness in the glass.  While the head kind of folds in on itself, it maintains a certain solidness.  I am reminded of the kind of foam you get with floats, when everything is starting to blend together.  No beer floats around here recently though (sigh).  The flavor is sharp, kicking around a number of elements at once.  First is a good mouthful of coffee, which rounds itself out into licorice.  I could have stayed with coffee myself.  There's more fruitiness in the aftertaste, something plummy.  It's scratchier than I expected from the aroma, but it's a strong porter, good for cold winter evenings. 

Shoulda tried a raspberry peppermint sour maybe

Supplier: Cerevisia
Price: €3.70

no open fire

It's a time for fires and smoke and dark things, like a nice porter!  Since some porters have that fruity bite to them anyway, a cherry wood variety sounds like a solid bet.  Blazin Sandals, made at Brew York Brewery with the help of Anspach & Hobday, does not have a name that I would associate with porter of any kind, even a smoked one, but it's always good to challenge your assumptions I guess.

The color isn't very dark, like it's been watered down a little bit.  It has sort of a puckery tangy aroma, like many porters with that touch of fructose in them.  The head packs a good amount of bitterness, but the beer is quite smooth with only a hint of smokiness.  It's not very sweet, actually, the fruitiness being mainly in the scent.  It even has a background of chocolatey-ness, a kind of dark chocolate blend.  It's on the thin side, again like a somewhat watered down drink, although the flavor remains at a pleasing level.  It is far from sticky and the balance of tastes remains stable, not veering into syrupy sweet or crinkly bitter.  It's not a beer that needs any help from snacks, and strongly flavored ones would take away from it.

Supplier: La Buena Pinta
Price: €5.80

the gloaming?

Something creepy?  Something dark?  Something tasty?  A porter from La Pirata could hit all three of those!  The label for Deep Inside porter has a pretty stern looking wolf in a dusky looking woods, so certainly appropriate for the season.  Actually, now that I look at it, the pink sky is a little more sunrise-y than sunset-y, but maybe there was a volcanic eruption somewhere that affected the colors.

Can't get much head out of it, but it has a nice color.  The nutty, smoky aroma is also just what I'm looking for.  The flavor bounces back and forth between bitter and nutty, finally leaving a hint of licorice.  The beer itself isn't very heavy, but the wealth of flavors make it seem thicker than it is.  I get a little bit building up and hanging around on the back of the tongue.  It's not too distracting, although it develops an odd sourness.  In the end it calms down to a mild bitter, still easy to suck down, not sticky even with that little aftertaste.  It's better than a lot of Halloween candy, I'll say that much.

Supplier: Labirratorium
Price: €3.50

right side of the tracks

There is nothing like outdoor beerfests.  Last time people had to pay to get in, and it was covered, but the most recent Beermad was free to enter and open to all elements.  Fortunately, the elements were favorable.

It's a little difficult to decide sometimes, with so many beers from so many places, so I thought I'd rely a little on fate.  The first beer I came across was Vulturis, and there was a Saison con Lavandra, which is something different.  First time I've seen that, it's a good start for me!  At 6% it's heavy for a saison.  Cloudy orange, fizzy head, not very perfumey, which I would have expected from a lavender beer.  There is a touch of perfume in the flavor, a sort of clover honey, but it's really more bitter than anything.  Kind of tough on the throat after a while, but I guess the roughness could be pointed out as "natural" or "herbal".

Doing a little beer roulette, my glass was empty near Peninsula.  It's a good brewery, so no regrets there.  I ended up with Hop On Pale Ale, a little darker orange and with more citrus aroma than the last beer.  Not so much citrus in the flavor, though.  It's a definite ale but with a deeper bitter, and cardamon or something.  A little sticky, but summery and refreshing flavor without being too light for a rainy day.

There's a definite lack of dark beers, although that's not a new thing.  There are a few though, like La Morena Stout.  It's a little light in color, more of a dark brown, slightly sour smell, bitter-sour taste.  It's earthy without any chocolate or heavy malt, a tickly and summery sort of stout.  It's like some German darks in feel, but with the bitter flavor of a good black beer.

Walking roulette left me in front of Ebora, where they had Suomi Baltic Porter.  I hesitated at first, since it is barrel aged, but it is really quite a subtle sort.  Light in color again, weirdly toasty for a bourbon beer in aroma, and just a touch of bourbon in background flavor.  If you didn't know it was there you might never guess.  This beer does have some whispers of chocolate or vanilla, and is less bitter by far than the last one.

Ziva 5.0# is in the same line as a barrel aged stout from the last edition, but this is a "normal" beer.  It's Russian Imperial Stout, again not quite black, but with a beigier head than the others.  There's a more typical stout aroma, dark, a little smokey and a little sour, the taste is definitely sweet though.  I would guess this is a bourbon porter before Suomi, but there's a weird grassy grainy aftertaste that i could actually do without.

I was thinking of heading out, so I though a lighter beer might be good to end on.  I found Oso Brewing Cerveza de Mesa and hoped that it would fit the bill.  It's very light, like a kölsch or radler, with kind of a weird sweety citrus smell.  It's vaguely bitter and vaguely citrus, a real palate cleanser, but not a real mark of ending.  So...

The real last drink was La Verbena 2nd Hand Ale, an amber.  The appearance is typical of amber and red ales, but this is one of the more balanced ones.  It's a little touch of light, but with a fairly substantial body, slightly citrus but more ale.  It's a smooth drink, easy down the throat, with a good level of bitter.  Not a sweet beer in fact, a strong ale sort, just enough sour to give it something interesting.  Now this is a good one to end on.

*pop* top

Still looking for my porter/stouts, although with summer coming I might have to let my strategy evolve a little bit.  In any case, Porterhouse's Plain Porter is there for me today.  I have to admit it was the little pull-tab cap that was the final decision maker, but at the same time you can't say no to an Irish porter.

The cap pops off super smooth, with a satisfying little *tok*.  While dark, the beer is not quite black or opaque, letting a little milk chocolate light be seen at the bottom.  Portery, slightly sweet aroma, mildly lactose.  The taste is a bit startling, not sweet at all despite the smell.  It's on the sour side at first, in fact, and eventually winds down into bitter.  No chocolate here, no way.  It's not one of those smoky black beers either, it's earthy if anything.  It's not an especially smooth drink, a tad on the rough side, but enjoyable.  A nice choice for a colder evening, but light enough for year-round savoring, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Supplier: Espuma
Price: €3.20

looking back a week

I don't get down to the center of town much, partly because of the crowds and partly because even in good public transportation it takes a while I could be using to watch Youtube or drink beer.  But, when there are beer festivities, I can see my way down.  It was a week long to-do, but I only made it down a couple of days, since I have to, like, work some mornings.  On Tuesday I visited La Buena Pinta and El Pedal.

There was a birthday party or something with little kids flying around the center of the market, but La Buena Pinta was more or less out of the action.  I got a NEIPA, Mad Brewing Yellow Mood, which looked for all the world like the most typical NEIPA there should be.  Maybe that's just my approach to them, though.  It looks just like a fresh-squeezed glass of orange juice, even looking like there's some pulp floating around the top.  I suppose it must be the light carbonation giving that impression because there's certainly nothing actually in there and there isn't any head to speak of.  The aroma is also orangey and a little bit peppery.  The taste comes out with more banana, oddly, with a kick afterwards.  Like a citrus banana I guess.  The initial sharpness dies down over the drinking time, but the tropical sweetness is enduring.

Down the street, El Pedal was also quiet in the first hours of the evening.  My Aeromancia wheat IPA from Zeta was very carefully poured.  This was also quite cloudy, but more typically beery with a good head on a golden brew.  Not too much to the nose, although it's rather spicy for a wheat beer.  Starts with a little bittersweet, but leaves a robust bitter behind, heavier on the IPA than the wheat.  None of the grass of, say, Franziskaner, not ruthless like Peninsula, or tropical like a passel of IPAs I could name.There is a sweetness that comes and goes and gives a little weight to the beer, although not quite to the extent of barrel aged beers.  Aeromancia stands well on its own, carving out its flavor niche.

Just enough energy for a quick beer on Friday, unfortunately it's a common feeling.  I walked by several places that were stuffed full of loud drinkers, and a few even had the outside tables occupied in spite of the threat of rain.  I ended up at La Fuente de la Virgen, where Madrid's great ex-craft is offered, but they also have a "guest" tap, filled today by Yakka.  That's a little more promising.  It's Hoppy Pils, which I think I have come across before, and have no bad memories of.  It looks light and thirst quenching if not substantial, and boasts a rather citrusy smell for a pilsner, more like and IPA.  There's a definite sweet note right up front, bitter only trailing in at the end.  It's not unbalanced and very bright for a pilsner, although it's a little bit heavy around the middle of the tongue.  Otherwise, it's light enough to vanish in seconds.  It's a rather summery beer, and would have been more appropriate the week before, but now it can be a kind of celebration after a surprise snow/hailfall.

I seem to have forgotten to take a picture of my beer, but for some reason I do have the sign

Why does it make sense for shoes to be churchy?

Saturday evening I crammed myself into La Misa de 8:00 for Tito Blas Brewing's Pa' Bro Dry Stout.  Despite the frantic clientele I managed to find a nice corner to squeeze into for a little while.  The beer is not really black, but a nice dark brown.  There's a dirty chocolate smell, maybe a little smoke in there too.  The flavor is very woodsy, bitter, kind of a licorice aftertaste but not exactly sweet.  After the first sip, which is a bit rough, the beer is really quite smooth.  Not too heavy either, and actually a bit thin for the aroma.

I felt like hunting down a little supper and ended up at Café Viralata, where there was an offer of Mad Brewing beer and a toasted sandwich.  Well, alright.  The beer is super hoppy and super citrusy, an IPA no doubt.  It isn't bitter at all, much brighter than that stout.  It goes nicely with the sandwich, adds a little sharp flavor to the mellow cheese and meat, and even the onions and peppers are subdued in comparison.  It turns out the beer was Camarillo, and when I asked the waiter told me there was a tasting of seven (7!) Mad Brewing beers starting in minutes.  Free!  How could I resist?  My camera did not resist, so the beers in question are only pictured on Instagram.  The list was: Wheat, Pale Ale, Camarillo, Red, Granny's Cake, Holy Smoke and Galactic Nuts.  Three black beers!  Huzzah!

I headed out early on the last day and found Emói Cocktail Bar to be in quite a civilized state.  Not too many people, music not too loud, quite nice to sit and relax in.  They had Nómada Beermuth, which I was not quite sure about but willing to try as something different.  It certainly looks like a spirit with that watery tan.  Maybe the wateriness is just the ice.  It also smells definitely orangey, which is definitely the garnish.  It has an extremely bitter orange flavor, I'd say mediciny, with a touch of tangy sweet at the end.  The bitter kind of fades out after a while, leaving an alcohol crisp with a mild orange coat.

There was also an unfiltered wheat? from Nómada on tap.  A golden, cloudy beer with a mild flavor and a dusty feel.  It's slightly grainy and definitely bitter, refreshing and certainly for summer drinking.  It develops a sweetness and oranginess after a couple of sips and gets more interesting and nuanced with a little time on the table.

Around the corner was Casa Zoilo with Basqueland for the public.  First, the IPA.  It's very aromatic, easily whiffed just from the glass sitting on the table.  With good head and color, it's a Euro IPA, lacking in tropical fruit.  While there is a hint of sweet, bitter is the most evident flavor, with a touch of pepper in the background.

There was also Jumper Kitten barrel aged porter.  Gotta have at least one dark beer a day, right?  So there it is, heavy, sneaky, sweet and desert ready, chocolate and fruit in a glass.  Kind of syrupy, but a nice beer to finish a meal with, or enjoy by itself.  It would have been nice to have some cake with it, but we were still a bit early in the day for cake...or just in the wrong establishment for cake.  Half a leg of ham was carved up and devoured while we were sitting there.

Those bottles aren't for my beer, good Bacchus

Como Vaca Sin Cencerro wasn't too crowded when I walked past, and I determined to have the very last one of the celebration.  After that porter, an IPA seemed like the best idea, something strong flavored but shiny.  Eterna IPA was there to fit the bill.  It's fruity and tropical, the typical craft IPA, with weight and presence.  It's not overly bitter and the flavor stays balanced.  While it's not exceptional or unique in the IPA crowd, it is very pleasant.

A poster of wishful thinking perhaps

 And now we wait for May...