Costa Rica, Part 4 (Brew Day)

We hadn’t visited any breweries in the first several days but that was about to change. It turns out Costa Rica has a fairly lively craft brewery scene and we were moving into an area rich with them. Several fell within our direct path between La Fortuna and Tamarindo and that let me grow my lifelong brewery list and map more than I expected.

As noted previously, it usually takes longer to cover any distance in Costa Rica than elsewhere. So in this case it was 220 kilometers in about four hours. That’s an average of about 55 kilometers per hour or 35 miles per hour. Some segments went faster (a brief portion of Route 1 at highway speeds) and others went slower (getting around Lake Arenal).

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Lake Arenal

However, I didn’t mind going slowly around Lake Arenal because it was the most scenic part of the drive. A dam at the southeastern end greatly increased its size and now it’s the largest lake in Costa Rica, filling a valley ringed by mountains. Every twist and turn along the lake’s circumference — and they were pretty much continuous — featured impressive views.

Lake Arenal Brewery

So we spent about an hour dealing with that twisting and turning until we reached the farthest end of the lake. I’d planned our arrival for lunchtime so we could stop at Lake Arenal Brewery. It’s nestled on a hillside above the lake and it’s both a hotel and a brewery (map). There are all sorts of lodges scattered around Lake Arenal although this is the only one that also has a brewery. It might be worth keeping it on the list for future reference.

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Liberia

We continued on our journey and the path brought us through Liberia (map). This is the largest city in Guanacaste Province and it presented the only real traffic we saw other than San José. Liberia didn’t seem to offer much from a tourist’s perspective although it was a busy place. Even so, it’s quite popular for its international airport. Lots of people use as a shortcut to the Pacific beaches and other nearby attractions. We drove right past it as we pushed onward.

Liberia also had something of personal interest to me, a remarkable concentration of breweries given its size. However this also posed a dilemma. A blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05% or higher is considered drunk driving in Costa Rica. That’s considerably lower than the United States and it basically equates to about one beer every two hours. So how could we possibly visit a string of breweries within that limitation?

Numu Brewing

We found two breweries in the modern, gleaming Solarium Business Park across from the Liberia airport. The first one was Numu Brewing and it had a nice tap room directly inside its entrance. It also had plenty of cans in a refrigerated display case for off premise consumption. Bingo. That meant beer-to-go for our own personal tasting when we got to our next destination. BAC at 0.00% after this visit.

Papagayo Brewing

Papagayo Brewing was just around the corner. Maybe we could pull a similar trick. Well, no. The brewery doors were open but nobody was serving any beer. One of the workers came over and kindly explained that this was a brew day and everybody was focused on production. The tap room was closed.

So then I had to play the game of whether this “counted” as a brewery visit or not. Papagayo had an ancillary retail outlet near the beach in Tamarindo and I decided that if I tried a beer there I could combine the two visits into one and it would count. Rationalization is weird. Anyway, BAC still at 0.00%.

Monkey Head Brewing

So then we continued onward to the outskirts of Liberia, and away from the ultramodern business park. We had one more place in mind, Monkey Head Brewing. This one was quite different; not much more than a couple of shipping containers on a dirt patch along the highway. Hey don’t knock it. I’ve been to plenty of nano breweries in unexpected places that brewed nice beers. And we did enjoy a beer while chatting with one of the owners who was an American ex-pat. We also got a crowler to go. Three breweries down in quick succession and BAC still well below 0.05%.

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Tamarindo

Volcano Brewing Company

Tamarindo was our final destination for the drive, and our home base for the next few days. We unloaded our collection of cans and bottles into the refrigerator for leisurely sampling later. But we had one more brewery on the list for the day and it was a restaurant brewpub within walking distance of our condo. We had to eat dinner somewhere after a long day winding our way from La Fortuna, so why not Volcano Brewing right on the beach (map)?

Papagayo Brewing Re-Do

Oh, and I did get to that Papagayo place in Tamarindo later in the week and I enjoyed a couple of beers. So now it officially counts.

Thus ended a wonderful day, capped by an amazing sunset over the Pacific Ocean in Tamarindo. It was nice to get out of the rain for awhile.

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Articles in the Costa Rica Series

1. Intentions and Observations
2. In the Shadow of the Volcano
3. Exploring La Fortuna
4. Brew Day
5. Relaxing in Tamarindo
6. Beyond the Beach
7. On To Monteverde
8. Completing the Circuit

See Also: The Complete Photo Album on Flickr