Cervezas La Balluca – Let's Learn Beer!

harvesting

by Ceit
August 7, 2025August 5, 2025

I didn’t see any leakage on the bottle, but this La Balluca Weissbier also had a lower level of liquid than you would expect to see. I’m going to trust that it is also still in drinking condition, having been kept from light and heat (for the most part). It looks like a pretty standard weiss, very short ingredient list, all natural. Things are really heating up these days on the street, so it would be nice to have something to cool down with on an August evening.

A little hissy under the cap, but looks good pouring and has a little wheaty tang to the smell. The head is fluffy, white, and does collapse into a manageable amount within half a minute. The beer is clear gold, showing off a lively amount of carbonation. The taste is stronger and heavier than I would expect from a wheat, with a little graininess but a big dark bitter spot. It has a crafty feel thanks to that roughness, not as sweet and effervescent as more industrial or at least bigger brand wheats. It’s less summery and refreshing than many of them are, but it’s true that a lot of wheat beers do have some pretty hefty body to them. There is a little sediment in the bottom, so the last bit of pouring should be done with care.

exploded

by Ceit
August 6, 2025August 4, 2025

Sometimes people like to help you in your hobbies. When your hobby involves food and drink, it’s always easy to pick up a little something on a trip as a gift. Even now, there are local microbreweries and craft breweries working along steadily, supporting local hop farms and bars. I have not heard of La Balluca, maybe if some of the old beer stores were still open they would have had a few bottles. As it is, a pack of three bottles was gifted to me by a friend who was taking a trip through Guadalajara. They all looked like pale ales at first, but on opening the package I saw that there was an English brown, a wheat, and, yes, one pale ale. The brown and the wheat seem to have had some mishap occur; both of them were missing some liquid and the brown had some residue around the cap where some leakage must have happened. In spite of the loss, it’s mostly there, and probably still perfectly fine, so into the shitty fridge with 5 Maltas brown!

It is certainly a brown ale, cloudy with an off-white head, and a sweet-and-sour aroma. It’s like a lemon glazed cinnamon roll. The head dies back pretty quickly, but not completely, leaving a little cap. It has a strong malty flavor, with a little bit of gritty texture. The sourness is also there, very light, just balancing the bready, grainy taste. It has the hallmarks of its style, the warm roundness, the tingles on the tongue, it hits high notes for summer and low notes for times of less oppressive temperatures. As expected, the shitty fridge did not cool this beer way down, even in a bottle over a couple of days, but it works well with the style. It’s a soothing beer for the evening, probably not one that would take center stage, but it’s a welcome accompaniment.