Bariloche Beer 101: Antares

I have to admit, beer was the last thing on my mind when I was planning the South American part of this journey. Being a craft-brew fanatic, it was with heavy-hearted resignation that I steeled myself for months of decent, but not exciting, beers of the Corona variety—thin and watery. Good for a hot climate, but not so much for the palate.

Enter Antares. I suppose in retrospect it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that chilly, mountainous Bariloche—home to generations of homesick Europeans—would be an ideal place to spawn a craft beer culture. What I didn’t expect was the sheer number, and shockingly high quality of breweries. More about that in following posts.

Hands-down my favourite beer of all South America though, is made by a brewery named Antares. Found accidentally in a grocery store in Buenos Aires (I basically bought everything I didn’t recognize!) I was ecstatic to find that Antares had a small chain of brewpubs around the country, including Mendoza, Palermo and Puerto Madera in BA, and Mar del Plata.

Even better: they serve better than decent food, have free WiFi (more than a couple of blog entries were written while quaffing), often have live music and oh, what beer. A f*^&ing revelation, my friends. For all lovers of quality beer, Antares should be a mandatory stop. Get a flight so you can try them all.

Global Nomad picks: Scotch ale and Cream stout
Runner up: the lighter Kölsh (their newest addition) is nice and thirst –quenching.

Antares Bariloche
Calle Ada M. Elflein No 47

Antares Mendoza
Arístides Villanueva 153

www.cervezaantares.com