Is there good beer in Brazil?

When it comes to beer in Brazil, there is only one rule – the colder the better.

It makes sense right? Brazil is a hot country so what is better than an ice cold cerveja?

The problem is that often the temperature of the beer is the only consideration, and quite often that is at the expense of taste.

A typical way to serve beer in Brazil

Brazil is the 3^rd largest producer of beer in the world, but much of it tastes the same. The biggest beer brands in Brazil, Skol, Brahma, Bohemia, Antárctica, and the majority of the smaller brands are very light pilsner style lagers. They're pretty interchangeable with each other and as long as it is served cold, locals don't seem to mind which beer is served.

When I say cold, I mean really cold.

When you go to a typical bar here, you'll quite likely be served a bottle of beer that has been kept in a freezer, or at least in the fridge on it's lowest setting. To ensure that it stays cold when it has been brought to your table, your bottle will likely be served in its own cooler or a bucket of ice. To cap things off, you (and whomever you're sharing the bottle with) will be given tiny glasses to drink your beer out of, to make sure the warmth of your hand does not warm up your beer.

To Brazilians, cold beer is serious business.

While the big local brands dominate, some imported beers have made inroads in Brazil. Unfortunately, they're much the same as the local product. Budweiser, Heineken and Stella Artois are available in many bars, but much like the big Brazilian brands, they light watery lagers.

Tiny beer glasses

So is it all bleak for beer drinkers looking for taste in Brazil? Not quite.

Micro breweries and bars for more discerning beer drinkers are gaining in popularity and quietly producing some very good beer. Fortunately for me, much of this good beer production is based in the south of the country which is home to historically large German populations.

Blumenau in the neighbouring state of Santa Catarina seems to be at the heart of beer production in Brazil and hosts its own Oktoberfest every year which is the biggest of the Americas, and one of the biggest outside of Germany. Recently, Blumenau hosted the Festival Brasileiro Da Cerveja (Brazilian Beer Festival) where breweries from all over the country brought their best beers to compete and share the love of beer that is not only cold, but full of flavour and character.

Steilen Berg pale ale - a good local drop

With categories like Belgian Style Dubbel, Chilli Pepper Beer, Coffee Beer, Scotch Ale and even Australian Style Pale Ale, there were varieties to match any taste and shows what can be achieved when people make beer with passion.

In all, 226 medals were awarded throughout the festival and the good news for Gaúchos is, that 79 of those were awarded to beers from Rio Grande do Sul. Local beers like Tupiniquim, Baldhead, Lagom, Imigração, Perro Libre, Rasen Bier, IrmãosFerraro and Seasons, among many others, represented the state of Rio Grande do Sul and did their fellow Gaúchos proud by taking home numerous awards.

I've had the pleasure of tasting many of these brews personally, but I will endeavor to try as many of them as possible. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it!

Rasen Bier, one of many good reasons to visit Gramado (chocolate is another)

While it can still be difficult to find a bar serving some of these top brews (more on that in the coming weeks) its clear the people of Porto Alegre and Brazil as a whole are starting to rn to appreciate good quality beer – and that makes this Aussie Gaúcho a happy man.

Top Five Things to do in Porto Alegre

I've been in Porto Alegre for several months now and while I still miss home from time to time, there are parts of this city that I've truly learned to love and appreciate. I also think I'm now in a position to be able to make recommendations to new arrivals or tourists who visit the largest city in Brazil's south.

So here it is, the top five things to do in Porto Alegre (In no particular order)

Eat Churrasco

A lot of people have heard about how good churrasco (Brazilian barbecue) is. Giant slabs of meet skewered on to long metal sticks and grilled over an open flame. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

Churrasco in the park

What could be better? While Brazilian barbecue may be world famous, here in Brazil it's Gaúchos that are known for serving up the best Churrasco, so if you're in Porto Alegre you know you're in for a treat.

And it gets better. Most of the churrascaria's here in Porto Alegre are a flat price, with waiters constantly bringing around an assortment of Steak, sausages, ribs, pork, lamb, or virtually anything else that can be grilled over a flame. For fans of meat this is something close to heaven – sorry vegetarians. The only real challenge is pacing yourself so that you can get a taste of everything on offer.

List of available meat at a Churrascaria

Gaúchos are fiercely proud of their well earned reputation of serving some of the best meat in the world. If you're lucky enough to know some locals, or meet some while you're here (any Brazilians reading this using google translate will be confused by that sentence) they'll almost certainly invite you to eat churrasco. They may invite you to their favourite Churrascaia or more likely, cook one up themselves. Many homes and apartment buildings here have brilliant churrasco set ups built in, while many of the parks around the city have places available to be able to cook up your meat in the great outdoors.

As an Australian, barbecues are one of my favourite things in the world, and to be completely honest, Gaúchos seem to have the art form perfected.

Take a Walking Tour

One of the best ways to get to know any city is just by going for a walk. These days, free walking tours have sprung up in cities all over the world offering a good starting point when getting to know your new surroundings. Porto Alegre has joined in with Free Walk POA, who take visitors around the historic downtown part of the city for 2 hours every Saturday. Meeting at the historic Public Market, the guides not only show some of the most interesting buildings and locations of the city, but also provide some great context with stories and anecdotes about the history of the buildings and the city itself.

Igreja Nossa Senhora das Dores - one of the stops on the walking tour

The guides (of which there are plenty) are very enthusiastic about the history of the city and are keen to pass on this enthusiasm to people who most likely had never even thought about Porto Alegre as a tourist destination.

Tours are offered in both Portuguese and English, and the split between the two groups when I attended this week (a couple of dozen in the Portuguese group and just 4 in the English group) shows most foreign tourists still don't look past Rio and other beach side cities as destinations within Brazil.

Drink Chimarrão

After Churrasco there's nothing that the typical Gaúcho likes more than sharing chimarrão with their family and friends.

Chimarrão is a hot drink made of tea like erva-mate leaves and is typically shared between a group of people.

A Gaúcho's favourite drink, Chimarrão

It is made by putting the leaves into a special cup called a cuia and filling with hot water. A special metal straw, known as a bomba filters out the leaves as you suck up the mate infused water.

While out and about in Porto Alegre on a weekend you'll see groups of friends or families walking or sitting around with their chimarrão, passing it from person to person. Typically, each person will drink all of the water out of the cup, refill it with more hot water and then pass it on to the next person who will do the same. The process goes on and on until the thermos/flask full of hot water runs out, or the flavour starts to go.

Drinking chimarrão is very common in other parts of South America (where it is known as mate or yerba mate) but fairly unique to Gaúchos within Brazil, another thing that sets them apart from the rest of the country.

Gaúchos take their Chimarrão everywhere

A lot of countries have a strong history with caffeinated beverages. In Australia many of us need our morning flat white, while for many Brits tea is almost worth its weight in gold. The USA even used tea taxes as a symbol of oppression.

It's the social aspect of drinking chimarrão that sets it apart though. When seeing Gaúcho drinking chimarrão you'll see their cuia's decorated in many different ways. Some have traditional decorations, some with cultural symbols, while others will have logos of their favourite football team – it is Brazil after all.

Go to a Park

While Porto Alegre isn't blessed with beaches like other parts of Brazil, it does have a lot of great parks and other outdoor areas which the locals swarm to on weekends.

Farroupilha Park, known better to Gaúchos as Parque da Redenção is buzzing with life pretty much every day, but even more on weekends when it hosts an organic food market on Saturdays and a craft market on Sundays. The park also regularly hosts protests, festivals, buskers and concerts meaning there's pretty much always something going on there. The park is located close to the popular bohemian neighbourhood of Cidade Baixa and has some of the best cafe's and bars in town just walking distance away, meaning it stays as one of the more popular parks in town.

Porto Alegre has some beautiful parks as well as some nice tree lined streets

A smaller and quieter park is in Moinhos de Vento known as Parcão (big park) and is a good place to relax, read a book and drink chimarrão. Other parks, like Parque da Harmonia, don't have the same natural beauty of places like Parcão or Redenção, but have facilities like barbecue pits and covered areas which make them the perfect place for a part or a big group gathering.

The area around Usina do Gasometro (an old power station) is also hugely popular among the locals as a place to walk, drink chimarrão and listen to music. On weekends, the roads around the area, running along the Guíaba lake (called a river, or rio by the locals) are closed so people can enjoy the waterside areas for walking, skating and riding bikes.

Looking west over the river (er, lake, or...whatever) it is also the best place in town to watch the sunset.

Go to a football game

While there are some things that set the state of Rio Grande do Sul apart from the rest of Brazil, one thing that unites them is football.

Many people are familiar with Brazilian football teams based out of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, like Flamingo, Botafogo or Corinthians but wouldn't know any from Porto Alegre.

Fans of Grêmio at Arena do Grêmio

Porto Alegre's top tier teams SC Internacional and Grêmio FBPA, however, are currently both in the top half dozen teams in the country. Support for each team is divided between the population of the city and fans are fiercely passionate about their chosen club, with having family that have supported their given club for generations.

As I wrote about last week, Internacional's stadium, Beira-Rio, received a major upgrade prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup and as such their home ground is know truly world class. Based walking distance from the inner city, the stadium is a destination of its own, and on game days hosts parties outside heavily featuring Inter's famous red.

Inter fans at Beira-Rio

Not to be out done, Grêmio play out of the brand new Arena do Grêmio, completed in 2012. Based in the north of the city, the stadium is surrounded by bars and small churrascarias all featuring the black, white and blue “tri-colours”of Grêmio.

While both stadiums are world class, there is one thing they lack which is out of their hands – beer. Brazil has laws meaning beer cannot be sold at football games. It's not a huge issue though, as around both stadiums are merchants selling cold beers along with food options meaning its a good idea to turn up early and soak up the atmosphere.

Even if you're not a football fan yourself, the passion that runs through the vains of both sets of fans is infections. Through cheering, singing and chanting the entire 90 minutes of the game, football games can feel more like a festival than a sporting event. Though at the end of the day, if the home team wins the party will be better. 

Both teams play in the top division of the national league (Campeonato Brasileiro) as well as the Rio Grande do Sul state league (Campeonato Gaúcho) as well as various cup games, meaning no matter what time of year you visit, there is a good chance of being able to go watch some football. 

Estádio Beira-Rio - Porto Alegre's World Class Stadium

Over the years I've been fortunate to visit some of the great stadiums and arenas all over the world. From Madison Square Garden in New York City, Eden Garden in Kolkata, India or Melbourne's own iconic MCG. I've been one of 100,000 people at Neyland Stadium watching the University of Tennessee or one of 80,000 at Metlife Stadium watching the New York Giants, but at the end of the day, your favourite stadiums tend to be those where the best memories are made.

For me, Rod Laver Arena (RLA), which as part of Melbourne Parks hosts the annual Australian Open Tennis tournament has been a long time favourite. Aside from seeing some great tennis there over the years, it was also home to the National Basketball League's Melbourne Tigers during the league's golden era in the 90s.

While RLA will always be special for me, I've recently begun to love another stadium - Estádio Beira-Rio (Riverside Stadium) in Porto Alegre.

Supporting the Socceroos at Beira-Rio in 2014

Home to one of Porto Alegre's major football teams, Internacional, the stadium's recent renovation was one of the reason's I first came to Porto Alegre as it hosted one of Australia's matches in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

That match – Australia's second pool match against the Netherlands on June 18 2014 – proved to be the best possible introduction to the city and the stadium. In what was without question the Socceroos best game of the tournament, Aussie Superstar Tim Cahill scored one of the goals of the year with a wonder-strike volley levelled the game at 1-1. Incredibly, Australia took the lead on a penalty from captain Mile Jedinak and all of a sudden it looked as if “Gigante” Beira-Rio could be about to witness the Socceroos greatest ever moment. In the end, Australia couldn't quite complete the win, going down 3-2, but the memories of those moments will stay with me and all of the other Australians in attendance for the rest of our lives.

 Supporting Inter at Estádio Beira-Rio

While my time in Porto Alegre was short that first time, the incredible time I had at Beira-Rio – as well as the people I met – meant that I knew I was going to come back one day. And one day soon.

Upon returning to Porto one of the things I looked forward to doing was going once again to the stadium that saw the Socceroos take it to one of the world's best. Having adopted Sport Club Internacional as my Brazilian football team of choice it didn't take long.

Colorados supporting their team at Estádio Beira-Rio

In Porto Alegre you're either in red supporting Internacional, or the blue, back and white tricolours of Gremio, their cross town rivals. Both teams have incredibly passionate supporter bases and attending matches at either team's home ground is as much about the atmosphere and the passion of the fans as it is about the football.

Throughout the one Inter I've game attended so far, the Colorados (fans of Inter) did not dissapoint; singing, dancing and chanting throughout the full 90 minutes (and then some) while supporting their team towards an eventual win. Attending an Australian international football game in Brazil was amazing, but seeing the local fans support the local club they've followed their entire lives was another equally awesome experience.

Most recently I was able to attend the stadium for something completely different from football – a rock concert. It wasn't just any rock band either, it was one of the biggest bands of all time – The Rolling Stones.

Ready to watch The Rolling Stones at Estádio Beira-Rio

The Stones put on a show that will certainly stay in my memory forever. While at times the consistent rain throughout the show (I've mentioned before about Porto Alegre's weather) made me wish they'd considered a retractable roof in the stadium's renovations, Jagger and the boys went on like the 50 year professionals they are. The crowd was full of young fans and old (and both Inter and Gremio fans) united to see one of the greatest bands of all time. The Rolling Stones did not disappoint, playing a great mix of their massive hits while still providing a spectacle and enthusiasm that bands half their age struggle to muster. The rain might have been coming down, but the show went on.

Mick Jagger and the boys doing what they do best at Estádio Beira-Rio

While the Music brought people together for one amazing night, it didn't take long for things to go back to normal. Only minutes after Mick, Keith and the boys walked off the stage for the last time the Inter Vs Gremio chants started.

The Rolling Stones may be one of the biggest bands ever, but for Gaúchos this stadium of full of memories of supporting or hating Internacional. And in Brazil, what is bigger than football?