If there’s one thing the Boltz’ love as much as eating and beaching – it’s craft beer! You may have noticed our love for beer in previous posts, or if you follow us on Instagram. Moving to Costa Rica has changed some things, but our love of craft beer is not one of them!
Back in Colorado, we spent quite a few Saturday’s trying new breweries. It wasn’t hard since Colorado has the second highest number of breweries in the US! And every year – even when we lived in Iowa – we would go to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and try to sample thousands of brews 1 ounce at a time.
Yet, with all of that amazing craft beer in Denver, we never had a brewery we could walk to! So you can imagine how stoked we were when we moved to Costa Rica and there was a brewery within walking distance. The Cerveceria Independiente has become one of our favorite spots. Even Bosco loves their beer!
Then this past weekend, as if the craft beer Gods had smiled upon our little town in Costa Rica, the Costa Rica Sailing Center hosted a Craft Beer Fest! It was combined with a Chili Cook Off, which we did not partake in, but we heard all good things.
Before we headed to the Beer Fest, though, we took a little detour to Playa Grande for an end-of-season sale at the local surf shop, Frijoles Locos. They had some great deals, a food truck, and – happily – some craft beer. Afterwards, we went to a great little restaurant on the recommendation of a friend, called Geckos. The restaurant itself is a shipping container with various picnic and other make-shift tables in front of it. You probably wouldn’t notice it if you drove by… we hadn’t the dozens of times we passed it. But it was fantastic! We ordered a veggie sandwich and nachos to split, and the meals came with complimentary fruit juice!
With a solid base, we went home to grab Bosco and then walked to the Sailing Center. The Beer Fest was awesome! While it didn’t have the 2,000 breweries that the GABF has, the handful of local, Costa Rican breweries that were there, were awesome!
Some we had heard of, like Volcano Brewing Company – which was one of our first stops when we first drove into Costa Rica.
Others we had not heard of, but became instant fans of, like the Honey Blonde at Guanaca Brewery. Unfortunately, their brewer is from Nebraska, so I was too busy talking shit about the Huskers and how much better CU is to snap a picture. So this will have to do.
We were finally able to try Numu Brewing Company. They have a taproom in Liberia, where we have to go every month or so for “big” shopping trips. We’ve passed it many times, but haven’t been able to get in. After trying their beers, though, we’ll get there soon for sure!
We also had a couple of samples from Costa Rica Craft Brewery. We went to their taproom during our first trip to San José, and were happy to see them again.
Treinta y Cinco Brewery, and our “home” brewery, Cerveceria Independiente were also present and pouring great stuff. The day was filled with meeting new friends, drinking good beers, and – as always – lots of laughter.
Hands down, the craft beer fests in Costa Rica beat the US any day… because (although it is hard to tell in this picture), that’s the beach back there… And beach + craft beer = happiness.
We can’t wait to continue trying craft beers in Costa Rica! Do you have a favorite craft beer? Leave it in the comments! If you don’t, tell us where you live and we can recommend a great spot! Cheers!
One response to “Costa Rica Craft Beer!”
Very cool. Somehow the coasters didn’t make it to Baja. I don’t care about leaving a ring on the table. I want to put it on top to keep the flies out.