From the whale watching cove of Dildo Newfoundland to the cosmopolitan coast of Vancouver, this is a Canada day weekend coast to coast toast. And the two beers in question are not only at opposite ends of our great country, but worlds apart as well. A Newfoundland Irish Stout plays bookend to a Mexican salted lime lager from British Columbia. Yes, today’s armchair adventure includes a stop in Spain for a shaker of salt from El Valle Salado then a tip of the sombrero to Mexico from Vancouver’s own La Cerveceria Astilleros.
El Valle Salado de Añana in Spain
An urgent message was sent to the COMDB translation department “Spanish detected, respond asap”. Their initial response was “No more Italian?”. Those guys love Italian. “El Valle Salado” translate to “the salt valley” * and “La Cerveceria Astilleros” translates to “The Astilleros Brewery”. Job done, I assume they logged back in to their daily Doulingo studies.
As for these salty citrus suds, they tell us that this beer was “conditioned on fresh Mexican limes” and brewed with Kosher Spanish salt (from El Valle Salado I assume). It’s also a Canadian Brewing Awards gold medal brewski. Interesting credentials, impressive resume, but the proof is in the quaffing.
A light golden approaching yellow pour favor. A white salt trim rim of a head. Definitely some serious citrus on the nose, lime time for sure. And first taste is lots of lime and a shaker of salt with some malt. The lime is in the limelight here. An easy non-existent finish, no hops bitters or any other of the usual backend suspects. The lime is definitely front, center and all points in between but initially not over the top, but close. Maybe bumping it’s head on the top. Let’s put it this way, if there was one drop more of lime there would be too much. Ok, who added a drop more of lime, this brew just crossed the lime line.
An easy drinking Mexican style lager, the salt is just right, the lime ranged from almost over the top, to too much, then back to a high but acceptable level. It is a salted lime lager after all so no surprises here, but a touch less lime would have been a welcome respite from the mid quaff lime overload.
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