Friends met us in the park, but the café was closed. “Why don’t we go out to the dunas?” they asked.
Why not?
Every season’s different on the Duna da Cresmina, just up the coast from the town of Cascais, in Portugal. We’d walked the boardwalk in February, August, November, watching as the paths covered with sand. Marking where the dunes had shifted, inevitably in the constant wind.
This time, we skipped straight to the best part: A beer and a tosta mista in the café at the head of the trail. But instead of the usual Sagres or Super Bock, we found a new craft beer on offer: Perfect Peaks Red Ale. The brewer was, in fact, sitting a table away, and we asked him about his progress. He’d left his garage in Cascais, and found a co-brewing space in Lisbon.
The red ale had a touch of sweetness over its malts, and a light aspect, perfect for a summer day looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. The café also served up beers from local Pato Brewing. We clinked our bottles and surveyed the peaks of the dunes all around us.