La Cerveceria Astilleros – Cara Cara Orange Safflower Blonde Ale
Overview
- Brewery: La Cerveceria Astilleros
- Beer Style: Blonde Ale
- ABV: 5.4%
- Format Reviewed: Can 473 ml
- Brewery Web Page: More info
La Cerveceria Astilleros – Cara Cara Orange Safflower Blonde Ale Review
In this series, Beer Me BC is pleased to preview an upcoming What’s Brewing BC feature on the North Vancouver brewing scene. This time, we feature BC’s first Mexican-themed brewery, La Cerveceria Astilleros.
After much anticipation, La Cerveceria Astilleros has opened smack in the middle of North Vancouver’s Shipyards district with four core beers. Their flagship is the El Valle Salado Salted Lime Lager.
Also available is the Acan “Chufa” Horchata Porter, which is a pretty tempting. Look for a review of that by our colleague and pal Ted Child, who beat us to the first review of a La Cerveceria Astilleros beer on this website.
For this review, we bring focus to Astilleros’ Cara Cara Orange Safflower Blonde Ale, billed with Wheat, Mandarina Hops, Dehydrated Orange and Safflower.
This ale poured a dark orangey gold. Depending on the light, it looked an appealing burnt orange.
On the nose, there was massive orange. Madarin orange, candied orange, just all kinds of orange. That followed info the flavour as well. The natural hop fruitiness was masked by the addition of dried fruit, and it was a bit saccharine on the palate.
So you might ask: was there just too much orange flavouring for us? One way to answer that is: we enjoyed this in our flight enough to take it home after. It falls into the category of “unlike any beer we’ve had before”, and it was easy drinking. We ended up pairing Cara Cara with some home-cooked Mexican food. Definitely a good call, and we recommend you do the same!
LINKS
https://untappd.com/b/la-cerveceria-astilleros-cara-cara-orange-safflower-blonde-ale/4214870/photos
About This Beverage
- Colour: Dark orangey gold
- Head Size & Retention: Some head, minimal retention
- Carbonation: Well Carbonated
- Clarity: Slight Haze
- Balance: Balanced Malt/Hop
- Drinkability: Easy Drinking
- Enjoyment: I thought it was fine
- Malt Characteristics: Light
- Hop Characteristics: Hop fruitiness masked by addition of dried fruit
- Other Flavours/Aroma: Orange, Saccharine
- Palate: Thin, Juicy, Crisp
Summary
We ended up pairing Cara Cara with some home-cooked Mexican food. Definitely a good call, and we recommend you do the same!
Pros
- Nice appearance and aroma
- Easy drinking
Cons
- Natural hop fruitiness masked by the addition of dried fruit
- A bit saccharine on the palate