Where to buy good beer in Porto Alegre

A few weeks ago I wrote about the beer available here in Porto Alegre, and Brazil in general. As I noted then, the majority of beers sold here are a very light watery lager served stupidly cold and for a real beer lover like myself, that simply will not work. I gave a list of good local beers from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, but today I am talking about where to get it.

The search if on for great beer in Porto Alegre

Most bars here will only offer you the basic national brands, with a few equally bland international lagers (think Budweiser and Heinekin). Like any city there are a number of Irish bars who do tend to have a wider range of beers, but they're still often limited to the big name breweries and quite often very expensive. For the record, I think the best Irish pub in town is Shamrock Irish Pub (Rua Vieira Castro, 32). 

Fortunately, there is an ever growing list of pubs serving craft beers, good quality international beers and even some doing their own brews.

Here are some places I have been impressed by so far.

Dirty Old Man Cocktail Pub

Rua Lime e Silva, 956

The moment you walking into this Cidade Baixa favourite you know you are going to get a good beer. Space may be at a premium, but it is worth fighting for. Dirty Old Man has a beer and chopp (draught beer) list that includes Baldhead, Seasons and Whitehead. As you can expect by the name, the bar also servces a wide range of cocktails and has some good food as well – I recommend the batatas rústicas.

A Virgem

Rua Olavo Bilac, 251

When you walk into A Virgem – again in Cidade Baixa - the first thing you notice is how beautiful it is inside. Great artwork is all over the walls, while a very beautiful beer garden awaits out back. The menu is just as beautiful, featuring a large range of craft beers – both bottled and and draught. Regular happy hour specials mean that not only do they have great beer, but also some great value beer. They also have a great range of cocktails (with non alcoholic options) and pizzas making it a great option for a group catch up.

Penz Bier

Rua José do Patrocínio, 366

A Cidade Baixa newcomer, Penz Bier serves a selection of its own specially made craft beers, including the award winning Porter Alegre, as well as some other local brews. The owners work in the establishment and it is clear that they put their love into everything on the menu. As well as the quality beer, Penz Bier serves up some very good food, with the highlight being the Penz Burger.

Great beer goes with great burgers at Penz Bier 

Locals Only CB

Sarmento Leite, 1086

Yet another Cidade Baixa favourite, Locals Only stocks only local beer from Rio Grande do Sul - hence the name. Serving their beer in jars gives it an inner city Melbourne hipster vibe, and while I generally prefer something bigger than their 300ml serves, it does give you the opportunity to sample a bigger selection of their beers on offer. 

A Tasty beer served in a jar at Locals Only CB

Bier Markt Vom Fass

Rua Barão de Santo Angêlo, 497

This German style beer hall, based in Bairro Moinhos de Vento has an enourmous list of beers available, both bottled and on draught. Even stocking one of my all time favourite beers – English ale, Old Speckled Hen – it is virtually impossible to try all of the beer on offer. With regular specials and different offerings there is almost always something different to try each visit to Bier Markt. They have a good range of food options including the exceptional brie burger and have some spicy mustards to add to your dish – just be careful with the extra hot. I learned that from experience.

Enjoying a Guinness at Bier Markt's St Patrick's Day event

Bairro Anchieta

Sometimes you have to go to the source, and when it comes to craft beer in Porto Alegre, that souce seems to be the Achieta neighbourhood in the north of the city. Within just a few blocks are several small breweries where you can try many different kinds of brews. Baldhead Craft Beer recently celebrated their five year anniversary with an event on their premises featuring music, food trucks – and of course great beer. Other breweries in the area include Seasons, Távola, Tupiniquim and Vintage.

Enjoying an "Australian Pale Ale" at Baldhead's birthday celebrations

The search continues 

I'm always on the look out for the best place to buy good beer in Porto Alegre, and my friends, I'm very dedicated to this project! 

I've had some suggestions that I've yet to check out, including Malt Store, Lagom Brewery & Pub and Apolinario Bar, so I hope to try them soon. 

If any of you know of another great bar or brewery let me know and I will give them a try.

Cheers!

Coffee in Porto Alegre

I've mentioned before that people are often disappointed that I don't live up to a lot of the Australian stereotypes. I'm not a tall blond surfer, I would never drink Foster's lager and I can't play cricket to save myself.

One stereotype – particularly relating to my home city of Melbourne – certainly does fit though. Yes, I am a coffee snob.

One of the things I love about Melbourne is that you can be anywhere in the city and still only be minutes away from a genuinely great coffee. The Southern European immigrants of the 50s and 60s brought a lot of great things with them to Australia, but nothing is better than their love of great coffee.

Good coffee can be found in Porto Alegre

Melbourne has developed a reputation for being one of the best places in the world for coffee, which is something to be proud of – but it does present some problems when we go abroad. In 12 years of travel I've found some great coffee around the world, but more often than not I'm left buying something I wouldn't take for free in Melbourne. As I said, I'm a coffee snob.

In Porto Alegre it has been a case of hit and miss. The cultural differences here mean that Gaúchos generally prefer their caffeine in the form of Chimarrão, something I've also developed a taste for. Having said that, nothing will ever replace coffee entirely for me.

Aside from being fans of a different beverage, those that do drink coffee have different habits in Brazil. Many restaurants serve cafezinho after meals, but quite often it isn't great. Others serve a kind of personal drip filter coffee which is ok (and looks great) but again the coffee quality tends to be lacking.  

An old style coffee filter

Even when it comes to cafes specifically serving espresso coffee, things can be very different. Peak service time for cafes in Australia is 7am to midday, as people file through to get their morning fix in a take away cup before work or on a morning tea break.

By contrast, in Porto Alegre many cafes open later and quite often don't have take away options. Cafes here seem to do their best business in late afternoon or even early evening. Some don't open until lunch time and others aren’t open on weekends, or at very least far fewer hours. In Australia that would be almost unheard of.

Despite all of this, there are good places to get coffee in Porto Alegre. Thanks to a very patient wife (who's not even a big coffee fan) I've been able to sample drinks at a bunch of different cafes all over town and I have some definite favourites.

An "Australian Style" coffee from Valkiria Cafe

There are some cafe chains around such as Z Café and Bella Gula which have locations all over the city, but as usual it is the smaller independent cafes that deliver the best coffee and best experiences.

I previously wrote about Valkiria Cafe, whose owner was inspired by Australian style cafes after living there for sometime. They do some good coffee - and strong too - for those who need that morning kick. 

On Rua da República in Cidade Baixa, Café República was one of the first places I tried that had genuinely good coffee. The Espresso Latte could easily be something bought in any corner café in Melbourne and has been a go to for me when I am in the area. Another good choice in Cidade Baixa is Agridoce Café (Rua Sarmento Leite) which feels as hipster as an inner north Melbourne café. It has to be said, one thing hipsters do well is coffee.

Café do Duque (Rua Duque de Caixas) is the best I have found in the downtown area and also has some tasty snacks. Meanwhile, also in the downtown area, Café e Confeitaria Matheus (Av. Borgias de Medeiros) has the closest offering I've found to an “Australian style” Iced coffee with their Coffee Milkshake. With Porto Alegre so often being so oppressively hot, it is a welcome relief. 

Latte art competition

While these places are all very good, my favourite café in Porto Alegre so far has been Baden Cafes Especiais (Avenida Jerônimo de Ornelas). In addition to serving the best coffee in Porto Alegre, they also sell their various blends by the bag, grinding up their specially roasted beans so you can enjoy it every day at home. They also often serve different beans, meaning you have a chance to sample different flavours without ever sacrificing quality.

Even my wife likes the coffee there.

Baden also does a good job of spreading the love for the coffee culture within the city, offering work shops and events for people wanting to learn more about coffee. Just this past weekend Baden hosted a “Latte Art” competition where baristas from many of the above cafes coming together for a friendly competition and appreciation of the of coffee and culture of serving it. They also recently served a special blend made from beans that had passed through the Jacu Bird, showing they're more than willing to experiment. 

While Porto Alegre is still a long way from Melbourne's cafe culture, it seems to be coming along and for me it's good to know I have some options for good coffee! 

How big is the mess in Brazil?

It is said every four years that the Olympic Games brings the world together. With less than four months before the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, it looks as if it wont even succeed in bringing Brazil together.

There's a lot of news coming out of Brazil at the moment, and none of it seems to be good. Between the economic troubles, political scandals and the zika virus there are a lot of concerns about the future of the country.

The political situation is making Brazilians all over the world embarrassed and angry with around 60% of the national elected officials facing some sort of corruption charges, mostly related to kickbacks from the state run energy company Petrobras.

Finding out that politicians aren’t the beacon of virtue they often describe themselves as is not surprising. There are politicians all over the world who've left office in disgrace after being found doing the wrong thing. Australian politics was hit by it's own series of scandals in the last few years, with members of parliament found to be abusing their travel privileges to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Brazil, however, is on another level right now. And what seems to be make it even bigger, is that these kinds of allegations and charges don’t seem to have a negative impact on their political careers. Former president Fernando Collor de Mello left the position in disgrace in 1992 – resigning only when impeachment was an absolute certainty. Yet in 2006, Collor (as he is known) was elected to national office once again as a senator.

What exactly does it take for a Brazilian politician to be considered unelectable?

President Dilma Rousseff (known simply as Dilma) is facing impeachment in the coming weeks, and with her base of allies shrinking it looks as if that motion may be successful and that the mud will stick. The problem being, however, is that with so many of the people bringing these motions facing their own corruption allegations, how can their calls for impeachment carry weight?

If the old saying is, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, then it seems the whole political system here in Brazil is one giant glass house.

It is so easy to see why so many people in the country are angry and disillusioned with the whole process. Every day there are protests against president Dilma, but also in support of her and her new chief of staff, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) - who, of course, is currently fighting his own corruption charges from his time in office. By becoming part of the government, Lula is now unable to be charged in all but the highest court in the country, making his appointment nothing short of suspect.

All of this political turmoil is happening while much of the country is suffering from the worst economic downturn in a generation – which many predict will turn into a full blown depression. Unemployment is at around 10%, the currency is about half of what it was a few years ago and yet the politicians are arguing over which of them is the most corrupt. In a country where income and wealth inequality is already so large, it is easy to see why so many are fed up with the ruling classes spending so much of their time battling for their own futures, rather than that of the people.

Adding to the list of problems in Brazil is been the outbreak of the zika virus. While scientists have yet to clinically prove that the virus causes the issues in new born babies that many suspect, research suggests that it is only a matter of time. At this stage the best that authorities have been able to do is warn Brazilian women to not get pregnant and for pregnant foreigners to consider not coming to the country.

All of these issues are leading to a feeling of the whole country falling apart and it appears to be having an affect on the year's big event – the Olympics in Rio. With under 120 days until the opening, less than half of the tickets for the Games have been sold, leading some to suggest that another disaster is looming.

As I said earlier, these problems are far from unique to this country it is just that they seem to be the biggest here right now. I don't want it to seem like I'm hating on Brazil. I do love it here. The people are genuinely friendly (almost too friendly!) and so much of the culture here has been great to discover. I just feel that the people aren't getting a fair deal by the people who they've elected to run the country.

Knowing Brazil though, the biggest looming disaster will be if their football team fails to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. They're struggling at the moment only just managed to pull of a draw against lowly Paraguay last week.

Brazilians appear to be able to put up with corrupt politicians, but I'm pretty sure they draw the line at a failed football team.

*I promise I wont do any more political blogs