While cases of C-19 continue to rise here, they’re rising more or less steadily at the same numbers every day. Have we plateaued? Hard to say yet, but our fingers are all crossed. The mortality rate overall is going down… slowly, but going down, and the recovery rate, obviously, is rising in tandem. They’re still not doing any sort of widespread testing, or contact tracing here, which is destined to not have good results, and for some reason, the Argentine government just doesn’t seem to think either of those is important. More important to them seems to simply be restricting movement for everyone.

There was even a vaguely tearful announcement by the president last week when announcing stricter controls nationwide of, “while the outbreaks are limited to certain areas, all of our population must suffer together” – or something to that effect, followed by a critical newspaper article in one of the local papers that basically said the reasoning was “the middle class needs to suffer like the poor so that they’ll appreciate our social programs more down the line”. Very Peronist sounding.

It’s no longer going over well, with businesses openly defying closure orders and banding together to resist attempts to close them, and the police, more and more, seem to be in sympathy, and are doing little to nothing to enforce many of the quarantine strictures. Even the city of Buenos Aires, while the president is murmuring on and on about going back into stricter lock-down, is openly putting together a plan to start reopening restaurants and bars that have outdoor spaces, and sports activities that are not “team” style, like golf courses, tennis courts, etc. I foresee some battles of political will and a lot of macho chest-puffing coming up soon.

So, another round of craft beers that were on special at the market last week. And following, I actually am putting together another post on some restaurant fare that we’ve sampled via delivery, including a couple of new spots. And then maybe a new recipe or two.

This time, another domestic brewery, Peñon del Águila, from La Cumbrecita, in the province of Córdoba.

Honigbier (Honey Beer) – Just a hint of honey, but a fair amount of fruitiness, leaning towards under-ripe peach and apricot. Nicely done, and I definitely prefer this style to some of the honey beers that are overwhelmed with honey flavor and/or somewhat sweet. 133 pesos.

Waldbier (Forest Beer) – Wow. Now that’s a hit of raspberry, which is what this beer is – a raspberry lambic. Intense, intense raspberry flavor, in fact, Henry’s response was to look and see if it was a soda rather than a beer. Not overly sweet, which I appreciated, though the finish has a bit of a cloying sweetness to it. I liked it – while it was fine drinking it with a big bowl of ceviche, I think I’d pair this up with a chocolate dessert and it’d be a perfect match. 172 pesos.

Kolsch – A Kolsch is a style of beer that’s sort of a hybrid between a lager and an ale, at least in the techniques of fermenting it. I generally like them quite a bit and this one is no exception. It’s smooth and easy drinking, but still has a nice hit of bitterness. There’s a background note of something like under-ripe apple or pear, and a sort of blended spice edge to it – hovering somewhere around allspice sort of flavor. Perfect paired with a Korean stir-fry of spicy rib-eye steak and onions atop a bowl of kimchi rice. 133 pesos.

IPA Beta – I wonder if there’s an IPA Alpha? This is a pretty classic style IPA. Heavy on the bitter hoppiness, but not so much that it becomes a chore to drink it. It was good, but didn’t wow me. I’ve had better, I’ve had worse. It paired nicely with an online session of Everquest. 197 pesos.

Cacao IPA – Fairly similar to the IPA Beta above, a little lighter and a little less hoppy. When first out of the fridge, if you didn’t tell me it had cocoa in the mix, I’d have probably not picked it out. Knowing about it, I could sense the flavor, but without that info, I’d have been hard pressed to identify it. However, as the beer warmed by a few degrees, the cocoa flavor really comes out and is quite prominent. I really liked this one, even more than the previous IPA. 133 pesos.

Schwarzbier – I do like a good dark beer… if… it’s not sweet. Too many of them lean way too far into the sweet realm and at that point it tastes like drinking a cloying soda. This, thankfully, is not one of those. It’s dry, with notes of lightly burnt caramel, coffee, and spices. All around a really nice drinking “black beer”. 133 pesos.