Tiny ice crystals floating in a crisp lager

A bottle of Guatemala's Gallo enjoying a candlelit view
What's food without beer? Or no food without beer?  I sampled every
county in Central America's national beer(s).  I have a theory:  if you are drinking beer in
a hot place and the beer is cold, they are about the same, good.  As a matter of fact, in Central America they like their beer really COLD.  Little tiny ice crystals floating in the beer is commonplace.  Peter, our friend from Australia was in heaven. Apparently the beer down under is not so cold.

Countries with hot climates seem to have very similar light lager beers.  I
remember the beers of Southeast Asia such as Thailand's Chang, Indonesia's Bintang and Singapore's Tiger.  All these places are hot and the beers taste like the beers of Central America.  I'm probably missing and forgetting a few but here are the ones we tried and never had to pay much more than a $1 for one.  The first beer listed per country was our favorite:

El Salvador:  Suprema, Bahia

Guatemala:  Gallo, Moza, Victoria

Honduras:  *Salva Vida, Port Royal, Barena

Nicaragua: La Victoria, Tona

Costa Rica: **Bavaria, Imperial, Pilsen, Agua Dolce  

Panama:  Balboa, Atlas, Panama

*Best name hands down, translation: Life Saver.  It never saved my life, but I would think there are certain situations where it's possible.

**The only dark(ish) beer we found in Central America and it was tasty.

Central America Beer

Posted at 1:46 pm in
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3 Responses to Tiny ice crystals floating in a crisp lager

  1. Amy says:

    I really like the analysis of beers from different parts of the world (and the pictures), this Travelogue is really neat!

  2. Love the beers. However, you can get my favorite, Carlsberg, in Panama too.

  3. An excellent account of how it really is if you visit and travel around Costa Rica. My own recent adventures have started in San Jose which is my base camp within a base camp. Like it rather a lot here so not at all sure when I will be moving on!