Beer O'Clock: Bárbara
It was the first beer offered to us. It became the beer of our vacation.
On our first night in Costa Rica, DW, our friends, Bee and Marc, and I drove from Liberia to Bijagua, about an hour and 15 minutes from our rental location. By the time we arrived at Finca Verde Lodge, the four of us were tired and hungry.
After checking us in, our host for the lodge, Kendall, showed us to our cabins and directed me to where I could park the SUV. But before doing this, he took our food orders and told us that our meals would be ready once we settled in to our rooms and returned to the restaurant.
As soon as we were seated at the Hummingbird Café, Kendall asked us if we'd like something to drink. He could make various cocktails and had wine, but he also offered us beer. He had the national brand, Imperial, in bottles, but he also said that a local beer on tap: a pale ale by the name of Bárbara.
Because Bee's full first name is Barbara, Kendall didn't need to say more. The four of us all opted to try this local craft ale.
It came to our table in a cold half-liter mug with the lodge's name and logo. And it was exactly what all of us needed.
Colors Brewing Company
Bijagua, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Appearance: pours with an unfiltered, dark resin colour, with a foamy, white head that settles to a full lace. At least, that's how it appeared coming out of a tap. We also had this pale ale from a can, but I'll have more to say on that version, later.
Nose: grapefruit rind. Perhaps because the ale was served cold, other aromas were closed, but that's all I got.
Palate: bitter grapefruit and tea—the flavour was somewhat tannic. The brew holds a medium body, where the tannin lasts into a lingering finish. It's a highly sessionable beer.
We liked Bárbara so much—I mean, we love Bee—that we had it any time we found it. We had it every time we were in Hummingbird Café, and when we stopped at Restaurante y Pizzería El Barrigón, in Bijagua, for lunch, we enjoyed some more over our pizzas.
It went perfectly with pizza.
We also stopped in at the brewery, Colors, to sample more of what this small brewery had to offer. The brewery was along the main road through the town, which is tiny in of itself, and is about 10 minutes away from our lodge.
There, we met the owner and brewer, Marcos, a lovely person who was excited to show us his other brews. In addition to Bárbara, we tried a blonde ale, a Christmas spiced ale, and a stout.
The blonde was light and refreshing, but there was nothing that made it stand out: it was what it was, which was a good, clean ale. The stout was tasty, dry, and had hints of coffee, but it too didn't stand out (I really liked the first few sips, but the more I drank of it, the more I found it to be an average stout).
I didn't really care for the Christmas spiced ale, but because Marcos seemed so proud of it, the four of us nodded our approval.
But we all agreed that Bárbara was his best creation and we each asked for a can to take with us. Marc also asked if he could have a label of the beer to take home—I ended up sticking it onto Bee's water bottle, at her request.
Marcos poured Bárbara from his tap into new cans and sealed them up, and we were on our way.
Back at the lodge, we told Kendall that we had visited the brewery and were impressed with Marcos. Kendall asked us if we had noticed the vine tattoo that Marcos had on the left side of his head, and told us that he had done that work for the brewer. We knew that Kendall was an artist but didn't know that he was also a tattoo artist.
A man of many talents.
We didn't open the cans of Bárbara until about a week later, when we were at our rental condo in Puerto Potrero, on the Pacific coast. It was during this time that I compiled my tasting notes, though I had already thought about this ale throughout the many times I had in in Bijagua.
Mind you, this brew was poured straight from a keg into the can, and it sat for a couple of minutes before Marcos had sealed it closed. I suspect that during his normal canning process (he had several cans of his other beer in a fridge but was out of the Bárbara), the time from filling a can to popping a top on is much faster.
Still, the canned version held the same flavour and aroma profile with which I had become familiar, and it was still an enjoyable brew.
The one thing that stands out for me, in meeting with Marcos, is that he loved what he did but he felt that other brewers were his competition, folks that he had to beat. I felt that in his description of the other brewery in Bijagua, there was a lack of community and cooperation between the other brewers, and that was sad.
In Ottawa, the many brewers seem to have a camaraderie in which they share their successes. They even collaborate on new creations. That's what I love about the craft-beer community.
We visited the competition, Blue Rivers Brewery, which makes an outstanding porter and a decent IPA. I could only imagine what wonderful beer that these two brewers in Bijagua could make together. But they should celebrate each other's strengths.
Bárbara is an excellent pale ale. Not only did I love it but so did DW and our friends. It was a flavourful, easy-drinking ale that I could never say no to.
Beer O'Clock rating: 🍺🍺🍺
For anyone who travels to this part of Costa Rica, I would highly suggest that you seek this beer out. It'll make your stay in this region so much better.
Cheers!
Comments
Post a Comment