There is a nice variety of local beers available at any supermarket in Porto Alegre. Imported beers are available too, but may be very expensive (for example - a 500 ml can of Irish/English beer may cost 10 to 15 R$). Some of the international beers are produced in Brazil, what make them available with local prices (Heineken, Miller, Budweiser). I found that the local beers can actually be very good and I, as a "dark-beer" addict, could even find few nice dark and bitter Brazilian beers.
The Brazilians prefer lighter beers (Brahma Extra is my preferred beer in this category). Simple popular beer (Brahma, Bohemia, Polar, Skol...) price may vary from 1.20R$ to 1.70R$ for a "long neck" (335 ml bottle). What I consider as the best dark beer for this price range is Xingu. It can be found also as a draft beer ("chopp") in some of the pubs and even served in Gol flights.
My favorite Brazilian Brewery is definitely
Eisenbahn (they have an English website!!!). It costs a bit more than the common local beers (2.50 - 3.00R$) but in my opinion - it worth every cent of it. Eisenbahn has a nice variety of more than 10 different beers and i will mention the most interesting ones:
Dunkel - Dark Lager, with roasted and chocolate malt character. Medium bitterness. Rich and complex.
Pilsen - Light color beer - Pilsen style. Clean and dry, brewed only with natural ingredients.
Weizenbier - South German style wheat beer, unfiltered, with banana and cloves aroma
and flavor.
Strong Golden Ale - "killer beer". Golden colored with high alcohol content (8.5%). This powerful beer presents hops flavor, besides spices. The yeast for this high fermentation beer is imported from Belgium
Pale Ale - A Belgian style pale ale, medium bodied but very complex, with hints of cloves and some citrus. Amber colored with medium bitterness.
BTW - the Eisenbahn brewery is located in Blumenau (SC) and they offer brewery tours. I'm still looking for the opportunity (and the partners) for this visit....
We have lots of birds coming to drink sugar water everyday from our bird feeder that is hanging in the balcony. We see a lot of Bananaquits (left photo) and humming birds (=beija flor). There's another visitor - a bigger black bird that we don't know it's name yet.
Bird feeders are fun and can be purchased at the bigger supermarkets, pet stores or bazar stores. If you have a net around your balcony (for children safety) you can also have a bird feeder - the birds are clever enough to fly in and out of the net.
The Parcão is a nice small park, located in Moinhos de Vento neighborhood. In the middle of the park there is a small pond(well... maybe more like a big puddle) with turtles, water-birds and ducks. Next to it there is a nice windmill ("Moinho de Vento") that during the summer is open for craft work and children activities. In the upper side of the park there is nice playground and an opportunity for the kids (and parents) to meet new people and make friends. Around the park there are two marked paths for jogging - the shorter one is 650m long and the longer is 1 Km long.
Living just few blocks away from Padre Chagas st., I frequently take the opportunity to walk few minutes to Mulligan Pub, sit on the bar and have a nice pint of Guinness (or two) with the simple-yet-fantastic "Boxty Gaelic" - potato pancake filled with meet in whiskey and mushroom sauce.
Mulligan is a "fancy" place, located in the heart of Moinhos de Vento, and therefor is not cheap (a pint of Guinness will be around 13R$). Yet - I like the atmosphere, the service is great and the professional beer pouring (Fabinho - the bartender is "Guinness certified") is well appreciated.
Among the many clubs around Porto Alegre, we like to go to Sgt. Pepper's or Abbey Road to listen to live music. They're owned by the same person. Both places have their "home band" that sings the Beatles songs on weekend nights. On other nights they have other shows as well, also from international bands (Stanley Jordan was at the Abbey Road recently for the 3rd time). The program is available in their website. The clubs have a very nice atmosphere and you can enjoy a good meal and show at the same time.
There is a nice variety of local beers available at any supermarket in Porto Alegre. Imported beers are available too, but may be very expensive (for example - a 500 ml can of Irish/English beer may cost 10 to 15 R$). Some of the international beers are produced in Brazil, what make them available with local prices (Heineken, Miller, Budweiser). I found that the local beers can actually be very good and I, as a "dark-beer" addict, could even find few nice dark and bitter Brazilian beers.
My favorite Brazilian Brewery is definitely Eisenbahn (they have an English website!!!). It costs a bit more than the common local beers (2.50 - 3.00R$) but in my opinion - it worth every cent of it. Eisenbahn has a nice variety of more than 10 different beers and i will mention the most interesting ones:
and flavor.
