IPA Cumaru
Cervejaria Amazônia Ltda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

330ml bottle served in a mug.

Brazilian brewery located in Belem do Para, Amazonian area. The idea is using native Amazonian ingredients in their brews. This one, uses Cumaru, a tree with quite red wood that smells like vanilla and cinnamon.

A: Pours a dark orange to Amber colour forming a small tan head with low retention and only few pointy lacings in the glass

S: Sweet and spicy. Strong notes of Cumaru, which means: strong smell of cinnamon and vanilla. Notes of caramel and crystal malts. Wood. Flowery hops

T: Sweet upfront. Strong notes of caramel, crystal and pale malts. Dark fruits, wood, cinnamon, vanilla. Becomes quickly quite bitter. A dry bitterness which is maybe too sharp

M: Light body. Media to low carbonation. Cinnamon and wood in the aftertaste

O: Medium drinkability. Strong character, for sure, it's most probably the only beer in the whole world that is tempered with Cumaru. IMHO, the Cumaru overwhelm the palate making difficult to believe that this is an IPA

 

 

 

Amazon Beer with one more beer brewed with indigenous Amazon ingredients. I know that this is brewed as an IPA, however I have not tasted cumaru before. I'll find out. 355 ml bottle from srbcurti (thanks again Sergio!), on to the beer:

At first impression is its copper orange color with a thick, bone white head which retains well on top and leaves good quantities of lace around. The aroma is where the fun begins. I get my first whiff of cumaru; it smells like a spiced tree bark with ginger dough. A kiss of vanilla and a little fruity esters round it out.

The IPA base is solid by Brazilian standards, a little bit of hops with more of a malt dominance. Some tree leaves, vague bitterness, and some resin create the canvas to the beer. Out comes the cumaru which adds a dominant gingered bark note with vanilla extract. In fact, it tastes more like a spiced beer than an IPA. Somehow, the cumaru and IPA aspects offer a little workability instead of fighting each other and bringing a horrid mess to the palate. The beer is medium bodied with pleasant bubbles.

Amazon Beer seems to have found its niche in the beer market; beers brewed with Amazonian ingredients. Cumaru IPA is just that, and a beer that's unique in its own to be worth a try.

 

Amber color with lots of thick head with good retention and leaving laces all over it.
Nice aroma of flower and piney hops and likely what is cumaru seeds smell.
Surprisingly bitter with notes of grapefruit and perfume. Dry and bitter aftertaste.
This ended up to be a good faithful to style IPA, not sure if the cumaru added something to it. They could exclude it from the recipe, though it would lose the marketing appeal and its differential. So far this was the best of their beers, though I haven’t tried the Stout one.