The Daily Penguin

Beer in bed

Some things change and some things stay the same. Bathing nude in glacial melt and supping seal meat aside, a year and a half on the road and we always seem to end up in the same place: drinking beer in bed and patiently awaiting the end of days. It’s all just a week away they say and we all still can’t just chill out; a pilfered copy of the daily penguin brings tales of woe, brutal muggins and tearful beatings. A world gone mad.

The final hour.

What will it bring? What does it all mean?

Does it matter?

We’ve breached Chile now, and again, and are chilling out in Punta Arenas. Not a bad place to spend some time, whittle away a few kopeks and cut some whale teeth. There’s something of a craft beer revolution going on here and not since Quebec have we seen such a menagerie of different and delightful brews lining the shelves in the local supermercado. The local brews have got something going on indeed and Cerveza Austral presents with a quartet of impressive entries.

Cerveza Austral: Zounds, this may be the best Latino brew yet! A true surprise! Costing no more than a dusty Quilmes, Chile’s Cerveza Austral is a steal. A wheaty, meady taste that’s hearty indeed. Why, you could have one for dinner. The best of the lot so far of all of continental South America, it’s a shame we had to wait this long. Like drinking a glass of delicious bread. 

Cerveza Austral Calafate Ale: Legend has it that any manchild who ingests the prized calafate berry will return to the land of their dreams: Patagonia. Can the same be said for cerveza Austral’s Calafate brew? We’ll just have to wait and see but maybe this is the stuff of legend indeed. A delicious brew at the end of the world? Sure, why not and Calafate Ale delivers. Delicious and delightful, notes of the calafate berry are felt, and blueberry-like is this particular brew. Fantastic. Que rico. Damela. Puta. Ahora.

Cerveza Austral Dark: Not bad, not bad at all. A dark brew indeed it is, but nothing too impressive. Another round for reppin’ the windblown Patagonian tree, knarled and shaped by the relentless winds which sweep and below across the continent. 

Cerveza Austral Pale Ale: Not disappointing. Pale aley, nothing more. Not as hoppy as one might imagine. Nonetheless, it’s a real Pale Ale and at the end of the earth no less. To the Austral brewery and it’s delicious brews, and to the end of the world. And to the end…

King Crab empanadas abound in Chilean Patagonia