Beer in Ecuador

Most of you will remember the days in the U.S. when each region of the country only had a half dozen or so choices of beer, and they all tasted basically the same. When I was in college in the 70s in Texas we had Pearl, Lone Star, Miller, Falstaff, Schlitz, Jax, Bud, and maybe a few more. Coors, which we could not get, carried a mystique, such that kids from my college would drive a few hours to the west to buy a case. Go figure.

The beer situation here in Equador reminds me of that. Daniel and I have only encountered two beers, Pilsner (apparently part of the international Miller conglomerate) and Club. Pilsner comes in a "grande" bottle pictured here. Club comes only in the smaller, regular size. Our friend Irene from Quito told us that Club is an upper class beer and Pilsner is a lower class beer. We have observed that. They cost about the same (between $1.50 and $2 in a restaurant). They taste about the same though Daniel thinks Club tastes a little better. We mostly drink Pilsner. There apparently is another beer called Biela (an Ecuadorian slang term for beer) that we haven't encountered yet. That's it. Irene told us that she and her friends love to go to places that sell imported beer so they can have something different.

Here's an informative post I found if you'd like to learn more about Ecuadorian beer.