PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

When one travels in the Dominican Republic, one quickly learns the importance of beer. The Dominicans take great pride in serving ice cold beer to sweat drenched tourists needing to quench their thirst. You need a relatively light brew that will not bog you down. Their own national brand is Presidente. It is brewed in Santo Domingo by Cerveceria National Dominicana. There are a few other brews in this small country but this one is most prevalent.

I quickly learned that one merely needs to order a “cerveza frijo”; to be satisfied. Then merely designate whether you want pequena or grande. If you're a man, do yourself a favor and order grande. Pequena is small and might shock the macho sensibilities of Dominican men. You will be brought a very cold bottle of brew and a glass.

They label the beer as tipo pilsner; which means typical pilsner. The Czechs would likely argue that point but that's another story. This is not a world great beer by any stretch of the imagination but it can hit the spot in the appropriate circumstances. As it is quite ubiquitous in the D.R., I quaffed quite a bit of it.

It is an easy pouring beer. It's well carbonated but the head quickly dissipates. One gets the standard golden hue for this beer. It is also a light bodied beer. One will get an aroma that is mostly grain and grass. There is not much in the way of hop presence in the nose. This would probably be more correctly billed as a pale lager rather than a pilsner.

The beer has a relatively light flavor. I was picking up some nice malt character but it is not overly distinctive. It works mostly because it is served ice cold and it does quench thirst. As I noted, this is largely a beer that serves a very specific function.

It is very smooth and better than most of the mainstream lagers I have tried. Of course, that is not really saying all that much. The beer has a slightly sweet a quality. This is not a characteristic that I would normally associate with a pilsner. It does not become cloying but there is not that nice hop finish to dry the beer out. It's a clean beer that is very quaffable. This is basically what might be classified as a ;lawnmower beer. It also works quite well when sitting at a beachfront cafe in Cabarete or Sosua.

Presidente is a solid beer and it does work well as a stand by beer. I think drinkers of mainstream beers will not be intimidated by this beer. It is a step up from most of the American macros. It's not going to engage the geek but it is a nice beer when you simply want to turn off the computer and quaff a few. It's only 5% abv so it's average in strength. I must admit that I did greatly enjoy it during my vacation. I would recommend trying it but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it. I will most likely not drink this beer again until I return to the Dominican Republic. Of course, if there is a store with a limited selection, I might likely enjoy it again sooner than that.