Morena
La Selva Cerveza Artesanal

definitely one of the more dialed in recipes these guys have working right now. oddly, all their beers have widely varying alcohol contents from batch to batch it seems, so maybe they arent totally done evolving, but this is a nice beer, a bit richer and deeper than a lot of the browns we had from other costa rican craft operations, and although its super sweet and that limits drinkability for me, its also got more nuance than most of their others there is an almost cola character to this beer, honey and vanilla sweetness, slight mulling spice notes, some mild yeast element, and lots of cocoa in both aroma and flavor. what it also has is a nice deep garnet glow under the brown, and some lighter malt richness above the cocoa and roast aspects, its very well rounded on the grain side of things, and there is enough bitterness from darker grains and hops to push this close to balanced by the finish. it has a pretty good sized body but also lots of bubbles so it never gets too heavy. sweeter overall with some caramel in the finish, more than i could drink a bunch of, but one or two was fantastic. a beer with a lot more flavor than so many other lighter costa rican craft options, i craved a beer like this after awhile down there, and this one scratched my itch. a nice natural sort of carbonation to it, a real living freshness, and a great beer if the sweetness isnt an issue for you.