Bavaria Dark (Costa Rica)

Brewed by Florida Bebidas (Heineken)
Style: Schwarzbier
San Jose, Costa Rica

Can brought back by my buddy. Okay, so I needs a beer after a hard night’s work toiling away for The Man. I’m not really looking for anything really complex or heavy, just a mindless brew to help me wind down. I figure this will do. I’m thinking a weak dark lager, like Amber Bock or something. Pours a dark red, thin in appearance. A nice lasting tan head forms. Then. . .the smell. It’s very unclean with notes of used, damp cleaning rags; corn, and some sucrose. This is awful, I wasn’t expecting something offensive, but here it is. The taste is awful. It’s like horrible creamed corn with a very unpleasant metallic pang and a finish of paper. Sadly, this papery finish is definitely my favorite thing about the "beer". Now to really relax after work I have to open something else since this is going down the drain. And upon logging onto ratebeer and discovering this is apparently supposed to be a schwarzbier, I’m shocked to the core The listed commercial description really amuses me as well.

Weak, sweet, pissy and nothing "dark" about it but the color. Schwarzbier? I think not. Horrible.

While it may be a Schwarzbier like beer, Bavaria Dark was a lot lighter and crisper. The label says that it only contains water, malts, cereals and yeast. I don’t know if they consider corn a cereal, but that is what the label says. Pours beautifully in the glass and has a thick, light tan head that holds up if the glass is clean. But most CR food is either greasy or the glass is not 100% clean, so the head will usually fall pretty quickly. I would say that it is the best looking beer in CR, but the flavor drops off before the beers potential is reached. Still not as good as a Negro Modelo.

Taste what corn does for beer. Sweeter than I liked, and didn’t work as well as the Imperial in Costa Rica’s heat.

Clear dark brown, with a big foamy beige head. Malty, toasty aroma. Hint og rye and toast, with a mildly bitter finish. Perhaps a hint of cola in the end, too.

The best beer I had during my stay in Costa Rica. Dark in color, tastes pretty light. No real offense tastes, save for some metallic hints.

Of my 1 week stay in Costa Rica this was my favorite local brewed beer. Poured a dark brown color with a small lite brown head, light carbonation. Little aroma perhaps a bit sweet. Certainly does not taste likes it looks (full bodied) pick up bits of caramel, roasted malt and a slight metallic taste (even though I was drinking bottlesd beer). Finish was short with no hops present to balance the light sweetness, watery texture. Overall nothing special but as I said above the best of the Coasta Rican bunch.

Well, this beer is a little sweet, not much, and the foam is great. BUt a little flavorless too. REally dark, similar to some bocks.