It's been a long, soggy, gray winter this year, although the variety of winter ales is up and helps to dispel the gloom. However, the itch to wander needed a little scratch and I just came back from a week in Guatemala. Got some natural Vitamin D and a taste of craft beer in the old colonial city of Antigua, a few miles from the capital, Guatemala City. The stucco walls come in all sorts of pastels and the brewery, a couple of blocks from the main plaza, contributes a bright blue.
This operation started up a couple years ago, brewing on a small system that looks to be capable of making three or four barrels at a batch.
The pint I tried poured real pretty and tasted like a well made pale ale. They sell at forty quetzals (around six dollars) a pint, closer to U.S prices than what the locals would be used to getting their Gallo cervezas for. Indeed, the other customers I saw on a Thursday afternoon were turistas like me, speaking English.
The treat here was the roof patio, looking out over the town and several of the volcanoes that surround it. The mountainous part of the country is mostly made up of volcanoes, like our Cascades, but considerable more active. The most recent activity came out of a volcano called Pacaya, which blew in 2010 and again in 2014. (Visited 02/08/18)
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| Volcan Agua, not erupting, just catching clouds |
