Beer in South America

Soon I will be traveling to Venezuela and The Dominican Republic for work. Does anyone have any beer tips? I am not big on the light lagers and know that skunky Hinnycan can be found in almost every country. Are there any Pilsners of note ?

Bill

Reply to
William Harley
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In general, light "American-style" lager is the rule for South America. E.g., Venezuala has (had?) Polar (poe-LAR), which is forgettable.

Reply to
Joel

Don't know of any good pilsners, but there were enough German immigrants to parts of South America that I'd think there'd be a couple. If all else fails, maybe you can get some Xingu? Great schwarzbier.

Reply to
Dan Iwerks

Yeah, but that's Brazilian.

Reply to
Garrison Hilliard

And what I understand from Brazilians who study here, it's virtually unknown in Brazil.

Reply to
Joel

Reply to
Arthur Davidson

Garrison Hilliard wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I know, but it's also the only decent South American beer I can name. I figured it might have some decent distribution?

At any rate, there has to be some kind of German brewing tradition with all the krauts living down there, right?

Reply to
Dan Iwerks

How long has Xingu/Kaiser been owned by Molson Coors?(which one was it?)

Reply to
Bill Becker

Reply to
Bill Becker

Yup. It sees most success as an export product. The domestic market in Brazil - as in most South American countries - is dominated by pale lagers. Some of them are made by the largest brewing companies in the world. Brahma? Comes from InBev. Xingu is brewed by Kaiser, which is owned by Molson Coors.

Reply to
dgs

Markets tend to be fairly national in South America. Folks don't have the kind of purchasing power they have in the USA, Canada, and Western Europe, so if they drink beer, they buy the relatively inexpensive local stuff. And that stuff is almost always pale lager, more or less based on Pilsner beer.

There's plenty of German brewing tradition in the USA - look at names like Budweizer, Schlitz, Pabst, Haffenreffer, and so on. Most South American breweries have Germanic roots, but like their North American counterparts, beers have tended to get lighter in flavor. You don't go to South or Central America expecting much besides pale gassy lagers when it comes to beer.

Reply to
dgs

Not to be pedantic (heaven forbid!), but Brahma comes from AmBev. Is no InBev no more, is now AmBev. I admit, it's hard to tell the players 'thout a program.

Reply to
Lew Bryson

Waitanotherfrickinminnit. I thought that AmBev was the company that merged with Interbrew to create InBev. No? Methinks you have it backwards.

But what do I know? I've been drinkin'. Cask Dick's Tripel, and La Rulles blonde on tap. And samples of Dick's Barleywine and Scuttlebutt Old #1 barleywine. Ah, Thursdays at my local.

Reply to
dgs

Jesus, you're right. I gotta -- GOTTA -- start drinking more when I post. Of course, it would help if these bastids would come up with more significant names.

ObYouSuck: You suck.

Reply to
Lew Bryson

There is plenty of Brazilian microbreweries, and you can find local microbrews in most supermarkets there, so there's no need to drink macrobrewed, mass marketed Xingu when you can get the good stuff. As for Dominican Reublic - nope, nothing whatsoever. It's a complete beer desert (at least in 2003). I have no idea about Venezuela.

Cheers / Per

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Reply to
Per Samuelsson

The Dominican Republic has a nice beer bar called the Bier House. It is somewhere in Santo Domingo (The Capital) unfortunately I went with some locals and they drove but I am sure any hotel can tell you where it is. They had Belgians, American Micros European beers. Pretty good considering nobody else carries anything like that that I ever saw in the DR.

Reply to
AndyH

Hey, I started this thread. Anyway, I am back and both Caracas VZ and the Dominican Republic are both beer deserts. I did find a Belgian Bar near my hotel in Santo Domingo. A nice, but very expensive diversion.

considering

Reply to
William Harley

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