OnTap Magazine

Y ou’re not scared of crocodiles are you?" It’s not a question that usually gets thrown around before a collaboration brew. I’m in Costa Rica and before I join the team at Volcano Brewing for a collab, head brewer Oscar Rojas and I are heading for a surf. e only problem is that to get to the surf spot, we have to paddle across a croc-infested river rst. It’s our fth day in Costa Rica and I’ve lasted this long without brewing a beer. I didn’t manage to last very long without drinking one though. It’s hot in Costa Rica – really hot, so luckily craft beer here is a thing. It’s a relatively new thing though. For decades, Florida Ice & Farm Co had a near-total monopoly on all beer available in the country. eir beer menu, as you can probably imagine, consisted almost entirely of pale lagers. e country’s rst brewpub is thought to be Cabeza Grande, established in 1998 in San José. It was ahead of the curve and closed down, but was reincarnated in 2010 as Lake Arenal Brewery. at same year, the unimaginatively named Costa Rica’s Craft Beer Company launched and is largely credited with starting the craft beer trend in Costa Rica, with several microbreweries starting to appear in the next years. SURF, BEER, TRAVEL We had kicked o our trip by the beach - rst stop: Tamarindo. It’s the closest town on the coast to the airport and it has that typical tourist vibe with street-side bars, surfboard rentals and buzzing nightlife. I dump my bags and hit the beach for a two-hour surf. It’s not just the beach that’s brought us here though. Tamarindo is also home to Volcano Brewing Company. Nothing brings on a thirst quite like the rst surf of a brand new trip, so we pop up to their tap room. It’s attached to Witch’s Rock Surf Camp, smack bang on the beach. I feel like I’ve found where I’m meant to be. On tap are a brown ale, APA and of course, their agship IPA. ey’re all solid and very drinkable, especially in the heat and I’m glad I picked this brewery to collab with. I don’t think I have ever been this hot while brewing. I thank the beer gods I’mwearing slops instead of gum boots as I sweat when we mash in, mash out, and sweat even more through the boil. e beer is a session IPA with a maracuja fruit addition in the secondary (maracuja is a type of granadilla that looks a little like an orange but is all passion on the inside). I’ve never been happier to get to the cooling stage and we do our own cooling shortly after in the form of a surf and a fair few beers. With the beer bubbling away in the fermenters and a few more 6am surfs with Oscar under my belt, it’s time to hit the road. ANOTHER BEACH, ANOTHER BREW e next stop is Santa Teresa and it is craft beer bar time. La Birreria De Buenos Aires has 10 local beers on tap, so of course we opted for a taster tray. e beers are a mixed bag. First up is a blonde ale from Micro Bar – some honey sweetness on the nose going into a clean crisp mouthfeel perfect the for the 29 degrees we’re sitting in at 7pm. e sun- driedmango pale ale fromDry Season Brew Lab is great – just a slight spicy mango nose and a avor that reminds me of Safari dried fruit. e Micro Bar IPA is clean with a juicy mouthfeel but lacks a good hop aroma, while the double IPA from the same brewery is sadly a bit of a letdown. All in all though, the beers are solid and you can taste that this bar looks after their lines and cares for their beer. I don’t think I have ever been this hot while brewing Collab brew with the team from Volcano Surf, beer, collab ontapmag.co.za | Spring 2019 | 33