Penguin Tour Cancelled, Brewery Tour Substituted

Yes, I know this is wine country. Yes, I know I did not visit a single winery this trip.
Excuse: It's really good beer.

The penguin tour I had booked for today was cancelled. The penguins are out on Isla Magdalena, about a one-hour ferry-boat ride from Punta Arenas, across the Straits of Magellan. Reason: it was too windy for the ferry. It was windy (and bitter cold) here in town, so I'm guessing the excuse was legit. Maybe Friday for the penguins.

I was planning on visiting La Cervecería Austral on my free day in town. Turns out: today was the free day. I really enjoyed my Austral dark ale on Easter Island. I saw that it was brewed in Punta Arenas and thought: "Hey! I'm going to Punta Arenas next!" Yes, my thought did include the exclamation points. Anyway, I googled to see if there were brewery tours and, vacation magic in action, there were tours. Twice daily. Reservations strongly requested.

I, of course, had no reservations, either literally or figuratively, so I just showed up. La cervecería was locked, but there looked to be life inside. Google said it's open from 10:45 to 11:00 a.m. for the two-hour morning tour. A group of four, three Frenchmen and one Belgian woman, showed up a bit after me, also without reservations. I was getting discouraged when, at a couple of minutes after 11:00 a.m., someone came out to let us in. Let the tour begin!

 

This is where the magic happens. This is where the barley ferments to become wort. Austral uses only Chilean-sourced barley and no filler grains (like rice) (like the mass market beers that taste like what you need to do after drinking the beer, only those beers taste that way going down), with yeast and hops imported from Germany. Austral is very light on the hops, so you IPA fans will not like. The beers range from 15 to 21 in IBU's (International Bitterness Units) (yes, that is a thing), while an IPA typically will be in the low triple digits.

The operation is small, hemmed in by the local neighborhood. But Austral will not leave Punta Arenas because the pure glacier-melt water is essential to the beer's flavor and character. But that limits the amount of beer that can brewed. Solution? A new Austral brewery south of the city, out in the middle of nowhere, which is set to open in 2027.

This is the "taproom" for the current cervecería.

Our tour guide -- the Vice President of Experiences or something like that was his job title -- said that the most tourists he's ever led on tour at any one time was 16. So our group of five was the perfect size.

He led us through the history of Austral. Its second incarnation, after the brewery's founder German immigrant Jose Fischer sold the company because his heirs were not interested in being brewers, was under the name "Polar."

Cool bottle. So I got to see penguins today after all. Here is the same logo on a wall mount:

That is the most muscular penguin I've ever seen. He's definitely been working out. That is a King Penguin. I was going to visit Isla Magdalena which has the much smaller Magellanic penguins. I now want to visit the King Penguins. And drink their beer. Hey, if Jeremiah who was a bullfrog could have some mighty fine wine, King Penguins could have delicious beer.

Here I am, bellying up to the bar for my beer tasting.

And here is my beer assortment. Starting from the bottom left, and going clockwise -- the order that we drank the beers in the assortment -- was (1) the lager, (2) the Patagona 508, (3) the Calafate, (4) the Yagan dark ale, (5) the Torres del Paine, and (6) the mystery beer.

Verdict? The lager tasted like a good lager. Put it up against a Coors or Corona or Budweiser, and it would be great. Compare it to the beers to come? Why are we bothering? The Patagona 508 is a little darker, a little sweeter, a little more flavorful. Less bitter. The lager was 16 IBU's. This was 15 IBU's. Next was the Calafate, Austral's biggest seller. What is Calfate? It is a berry, much like a blueberry in appearance and flavor. It grows wild locally and cannot be cultivated. Next was the Yagan, my favorite. A dark ale with flavor and very little bitterness. Then came the Torres del Paine, with the three mountains of Torres del Paine on the label. This was a little higher in alcohol (6% instead of 5% like the rest) and a little higher in bitterness (a whopping 21 IBU's). Apparently it is a thing to go to the mountains in Torres del Paine national park, with a bottle or can of this beer, and take a selfie holding the beer next to the mountains pictured on the label.

Finally, what was the Beer #6, the mystery beer? Ruibarbo! Rhubarb-flavored beer. Austral is discontinuing it because it did not sell. I thought it was beyond awesome. My second favorite. It actually tasted more like strawberry, which is weird because in the US rhubarb is usually paired with strawberries. Oh, by the way, strawberries are indigenous to Chile and the strawberries down here can be described in three words. In. Cred. Ible. They are beyond awesome. They taste like every strawberry sold in the US wishes it would taste like.

All in all, a great substitute for the penguin tour. And speaking of tours, let's walk the city of Punta Arenas some more. Next stop: Cerro de la Cruz.

This is the view from high atop Cerro De La Cruz.

The prime selfie spot was ocupado.

This is at the Sara Braun house.

Foreshadow: I will be eating dinner tonight at the Taberna on thr grounds of the Sara Braun house.

Wandering aimlessly, snapping photos of Punta Arenas:

You know how I said how good the strawberries are here in Chile:

They even look delicious.

Speaking of Chilean cuisine: I give you a wall of mayonnaise.

Have you ever seen a grocery store with such a huge mayonnaise section? I came into this supermarket to buy Chilean alcohol for souvenirs for myself, and I could not believe the mayo section.

I walked to the Croatian Club of Punta Arenas.

It was not open. Punta Arenas has a huge (relatively speaking) Croatian community. Probably the biggest in Latin America.

This is the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.

It was open, so let's take a look around.

As I said, dinner was at the Taberna.

I had the salmon ceviche for an appetizer.

Fantastic! The salmon was fresh (and local) and the sauce was appropriately tart.

I had a sandwich for my main course. The milanesa.

A milanesa is a thin piece of beef breaded and pan-fried. It was very good. I was it down with an Austral. It had all the Austral flavors on tap (except the rhubarb) (which, inexplicably, did not sell). I got my old favorite rather than venturing out and having the Calafate.

Dessert was a calafate panna cotta.

The custard of the panna cotta tasted buttery, which I thought was unusual, but good. Busy day tomorrow. I'm off to Torres del Paine national park. But without my Austral beer for selfie-taking.