May 17, 2009: Caguama

One of the less than favorable aspects of the 365brews project is the horrible dread that hangs around when you know you'll soon be forced to drink a beer that you've been avoiding. At some point, no matter how hard I've fought against it, it's inevitable that I will be forced by the factors of economics and convenience to swallow my pride and drink a beer like Caguama. As I'm writing this, I'm well aware of the snobbery that's coming across with this post, but frankly, I don't care. I am a self confessed, unabashed beer snob. I make no attempts to hide my beer snobbery, but instead wear it on my sleeve as a sort of badge of honor. My snobbery has led me to be a bit more selective than the average beer drinker, but tonight I've compromised my snobbish attitudes and lowered myself to drinking Caguama. Caguama is the one of the only beers that I have seen people routinely skip over at the market, even when it's being sold at thirty cans for $19.99. Thirty beers for $20? Sounds like the deal of the century! That is, of course, until you actually try Caguama and fully understand why they can sell their beer for so cheap. If a beer like Duvel is the Ferrari of beers, then Caguama is like the rusted out old Fiat parked behind the shed in your neighbor's backyard that hasn't been driven in a quarter of a century. Caguama is so bad that it's almost not even beer in my opinion. Sure, all of the ingredients that go into creating a pilsner are there (I don't know for a fact, but they must be, right?), but the end result is something less than beer. For only a $1.50 I had the displeasure of trying to finish a 32 oz. bottle of Caguama, but I failed miserably. I hardly drank even a quarter of this beer before my brother was gracious enough to spare my suffering and finish it off for me. If you are at the grocery store on a hot summer day and you see that case of Caguama going for only $20, resist the urge! You would be better off paying double for a beer like Budweiser than lowering yourself to settle for a cheap cerveza like Caguama.

Salud!
Ian

www.caguamabeer.com