OK, well it seems like sort of a joke to review the various Costa Rican beers that one would typically find in the markets and restaraunts here.....and the reason for that is because they are ALL brewed by the same monopoly brewery (Cerveza Florida S.A) so, they almost all taste the same. The main labels (again, I won't call them "brands" since it's all the same company) are Imperial, Pilsen, Bavaria, and Heiniken (yes they brew their own sad sad version of "Heineys").
Most places in Costa Rica only sell Pilsen or Imperial (the more popular of the two). Just so you know - these two beers taste EXACTLY the same and it's damn pretty funny to listen to locals discuss (and argue) which one is better. Cracks me the-fuck-up!
So anyway, seeing a new beer on the shelves here in Costa Rica is pretty damn exciting - like it's Christmas something.
Recently I had been eye-ballin' the "new" Pilsen 6.0 on the supermarket shelves - a higher alcohol version of the original Pilsen at 5.2 percent. The boasting of a higher alcohol content and new bad-ass black and red label had me hooked from the start. (side note: The only reason I drink "regular" Pilsen [with a white and red label] over Imperial is solely based on the design of the label itself)............ In fact, the new lablel Pilsen 6.0 label is SO much more bad-ass than all the other beer labels here, I wasn't so sure they were going sell it to me unless I was wearing a crazy eye-patch, a worn out leather jacket and had a half-healed machete scar across my temple. (I pulled it off with my current appearance)
The strangest thing I noticed about this "edicion especial" Pilsen was that it was actually like 25 cents a bottle LESS than the normal Pilsen........Que-up? I don't know what's up with that, but think I can guess. You know, we used to brew in college and it's not real hard to make a beer stronger than it should be - either you fuck up a recipie (like we did often) or you do it on purpose (like we did often). I'm betting that it was a little of both for Cerveza Florida S.A. ........somebody botched the recipie one time, the jefe tasted it and thought "man, this has a bit too much flavor - I'll bet we can sell this shit to gringos!"....and then Pilsen 6.0 was born.
So what the hell does it tate like? Well, (no surprise here) just like the rest of the beers in Costa Rica. Virtually NO hops are used in the brewing process but yes, it DOES have a BIT stronger flavor than the 5.2 version. Then again, than cool black label might pulling some subliminal shit on my gringo ass. Still, it's not that great of a beer.......better than Bud or Coors Light? - yes, but not by much. Better than PBR in the bottle?........well now, that's just crazy talk.
To be fair - all of these beers are great to slam on a hot summer day, which we have a lot of those here!
