There are archaeologists who are sure that it was not laws nor literature that created the first civilizations. It was beer. Thousands of years before English or Spanish were languages, before England and Spain were countries, before the first Romans spoke the first Latin words, even before the first scribes took down the 10 Commandments and said, “Gosh, this would make a good book someday,” there were farmers who grew grain so their communities could host celebrations.
Grain by itself isn’t edible. It has to be mashed and fermented to make the most of it. Sometimes that process results in bread. But sometimes, with a little less fire and a little more time, it makes beer.
“Beer is sacred stuff in most traditional societies,” said Canadian archaeologist Brian Hayden in a Live Science interview. “Because you need surplus grain to put into it, as well as time and effort, it's produced almost only in traditional societies for special occasions to impress guests, make them happy, and alter their attitudes favorably toward hosts.”
(Courtesy Cervecería La Tropical)
The Cuban-style beer of Cervecería La Tropical has roots in a Viennese lager from 1888, made lighter for the Caribbean climate.
The oldest reference to beer-making goes back 6,000 years, in the form of a Sumerian poem that describes the beer-making process on a stone seal dedicated to Ninkasi, the goddess of brewing.
With that kind of history, it’s hard to find a way to do something new. And yet, under the South Florida sun, any Biscayne tippler knows there’s always something unexpected happening somewhere.
You can never tell when you can taste something new, even if it comes from a very old tradition. In this case, Cervecería La Tropical has just released the world’s first distilled-beer cocktail.
They’re selling it, or really, them – there are two ready-to-drink cocktails already out, with another two being released sometime this month – under the name “La Tropical Mixología.”
SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
(Courtesy Cervecería La Tropical)
The Havanito is modeled on a mojito, while the Pasióntini has passion fruit sweetness with a vodka-like kick from a different kind of spirit.
This is not a Michelada. It’s not even a shandy. Those are cocktails made with beer in place of the primary spirit. Some might even argue that they don’t count as cocktails – a shandy is refreshing, but it ain’t hard liquor.
The Mixología line takes beer and turns it into a spirit.
Ah, says the spirits fan. But that means they’re making whiskey. Well, no.
Whiskey is fermented grain that has been distilled. In fact, the stuff that goes into a still for a whiskey run is called “distiller’s beer.” But beer, regular beer, is fermented grain with the addition of hops.
Or, as Ken Klehm, head distiller of the 450 North brewstillery, told Biscayne Times: “Single-malt whiskey is made from a hopless beer. Hops and distillation can be tricky to not get nasty flavors.”
Hops, a member of the same hemp family as cannabis, gives a fermenting brew a touch of acid, a bit of a floral aroma, and a balanced dose of bitterness. The tricky part is that distilling essentially means boiling, which – if you’ve ever oversteeped your tea, you’ll know – tends to make bitterness that much stronger and floral notes that much weaker.
(Courtesy Cervecería La Tropical)
The first Pasióntinis were made with ordinary spirits blended with La Tropical beer and passion-fruit mixer.
What the creators at Cervecería La Tropical have done is tweaked and prodded and distilled run after run until they made a spirit that has the recognizable flavor of La Tropical’s Cuban-style beers, but with a lot more kick.
“It took a lot of experimentation,” said Cervecería La Tropical’s owner and CEO Manny Portuondo. “We finally figured out that we can brew a high-gravity beer, so a beer brewed at very high concentrations of alcohol, and we can … there's not even a word, but just to describe it … we can super-hop that beer. We can put in more hops than normal, because distillation, in many cases, kind of neutralizes flavors and aromas.”
It took them a couple of years to get the technique right. The result is a spirit that’s a whopping 168 proof in its purest form, but with the flavor and mouthfeel of a beer.
“Once we triple distilled it, we came out on the back end with something very clear that looks like a beer vodka, almost, that still had a floral hop aroma,” said Portuondo. “You’ve got to be careful with 168 proof – you can't, like, drink it. You can stick your finger in it, you know, to taste it. But you can feel a malty backbone to it.”
(Courtesy Cervecería La Tropical)
The Havanito and Pasióntini were the top sellers at the Cervecería La Tropical taproom
With that ultra-high-proof distillate as a foundation, it was possible to start diluting to something smooth and drinkable, and mixing with flavors that made the most of both the familiar beer freshness and the novelty of the boozy kick. Bartenders at the La Tropical taproom started seeing what worked best for their regular customers.
WORTH A SHOT
Experimentation like this is in La Tropical’s DNA. In its current incarnation, the brewery’s taproom has become a Wynwood fixture, but when it opened its doors four years ago, success was anything but assured. The pandemic was still in full swing. Customers tended to stay home for their own good, and Cervecería La Tropical first built a reputation as a craft brewery.
Or, it’s more accurate to say, rebuilt a reputation. Cervecería La Tropical might have been new to Miami, but the name – and the beer recipes – have their roots in Cuba.
(Courtesy Cervecería La Tropical)
Cervecería La Tropical’s first beers, like the Havanito and Pasióntini distilled-beer cocktails, were made with subtropical climates in mind.
“The first beer ever brewed in Cuba was actually La Tropical Original,” said Portuondo. Back in 1888, Cuban businessmen were looking for a way to bring beer to the Caribbean, a region that grew plenty of sugar cane but not so much barley and hops. They turned to Europe, and brought over an Austrian brewmaster. Within a few years, he was creating Vienna-style amber lager, but tweaked for the warmer climate. The lighter lager started gaining international recognition, so the island brewery followed it with a crisp, refreshing pilsner that was perfect for the subtropical climate. To this day, light lagers and pilsners made in that style are recognized as “Cuban beers.”
Portuondo speaks of the category with pride.
“We are the original founders of the Cuban beer industry that lost their brewing brands in the revolution in 1960,” he sad. “So, obviously, we’re not brewed in Cuba, because we're here, right? But we lay claim to our past.”
The Miami incarnation of the brewery has also maintained a spirit of innovation. Two years ago, they started playing with what they called “crafted beer cocktails,” first with their draft beer mixed with conventional spirits.
“One great thing about our taproom is that it's like having a live focus group every day with consumers ordering what they like, right?” said Portuondo.
The crafted beer cocktails took off, with two in particular standing out: a Havanito, based on the mint-and-lime of a mojito, and a Pasióntini, which was like a martini flavored with passion fruit.
Those ultimately became the first two Mixologia cocktails. But there was one early obstacle to overcome.
“We hired what I call a ‘beer attorney,’ someone very knowledgeable in how the law works, taxation in the United States,” said Portuondo. “The first salvo in our beer journey was, ‘It's illegal. You cannot mix beer and spirits in a commercial package. Can't be done.’ Long story short, we fired the beer attorney.”
Instead, Portuondo started researching distilleries, not just for the science of spirits-making, but to learn the laws surrounding their packaging and sale. As far as the law is concerned, distillation is a form of magic. Beer that goes through the still is so transformed, it's no longer illegal to mix into a prepackaged cocktail.
“What excites me every day is that we seem to have invented a new spirit,” says Portuondo.
La Tropical actually has three patents in process: one for preparing the high-quality beer for triple-distilling, one for the product of that triple-distilling, and one for mixing that spirit into what Portuondo admits are “pretty cool flavors.”
The Havanito and Pasióntini should be joined by two more flavors this month, available not just at the La Tropical taproom, but in liquor stores and 180 Publix stores across South Florida.
Ultimately, Portuondo wants to see the beer spirit itself on store shelves alongside bottles of whiskey, vodka, schnapps, or any other spirit.
“It’s something that can be mixed with anything,” he says.
Grant Balfour is a Miami Beach native, writer, editor, traveler, musician, bon vivant and our official Biscayne Tippler
