Here's a beer from the fourth and final Puerto Rican brewery I tried on my vacation there: Old Harbor Kofresi Stout. I have to say that I enjoyed all the beers I tried save for one which was infected, though all of the others beers from that brewery were very well made. I had my heart set on Residente Maibock and Tripel as well, but did not see those beers anywhere I went.
To be fair, where I went was the resort where we stayed (El Conquistador) and the airport. There was no draft beer at either of those places, so everything I had was in cans or bottles. There were a number of bars and restaurants in the resort, and they all had local craft beers that I enjoyed. There is also a convenience store in the resort as well, and they actually had a large selection of four-packs and singles. You will pay for that convenience, though, as the singles were selling for $15 each.
One of the ones I picked up was the Kofresi Stout, which was in a cooler and I took back to my room to enjoy. I sat before our 8th floor window and admired the view out over the Atlantic and overlooking Palomino Island. This was the only beer that I drank that night, and it was a very good one.
Ingredients from the website:
HOPS: EKG, Cascade
MALTS: Pale, Roasted Barley, Chocolate Malt
YEAST: English Ale
Old Harbor Kofresi Stout has an alcohol content of 5% by volume with 45 IBUs. My bottle was marked 09/26/25 (happy birthday Hot Stuff!), which I think is the bottling date. I drank it in May, so a little aged, but I am sure that has to do with the high singles prices. My bottle paired well with an order of beef empanadas with a spicy jalapeno cream sauce and a veggie pizza straight from the outdoor wood fired oven.
About Old Harbor Brewing
Old Harbor Brewing opened in 1996 as Puerto Rico's first craft brewery in Old San Juan. The brewery filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and went out of business, but reopened in 2018 with an investment from Destileria Nacional. In 2022, they became part of Miramar LLC, and remain so today.
Tasting Notes
Old Harbor Kofresi Stout pours jet-black in color with a thick creamy tan head and a nose of roasty chocolate and coffee notes. Taking a sip, the beer is medium in body, just right for the style, and roasty as the nose promised with roasted malt and chocolate. `bursting with coffee and licorice and undertones of caramel. It all leads into a delightful dry roasty bitter finish.
Value & Verdict
I paid $15 for my single. I do not see this beer listed for sale at Pueblo Supermarkets, but they do sell a range of other Old Harbor beers for $11.29 to $17.79 for six-packs of cans or 4-packs of bottles.
A toss up for me between this and the Ocean IPA for best beer I enjoyed in Puerto Rico, but if I lived here, this would be a regular inhabitant of my beer fridge.
