How Cuba’s oldest beer was reborn at Wynwood’s newest brewery
Manny Portuondo spent 23 years looking for a partner to bring Cuba’s oldest beer back into production.
His vision: To create a modern-day version of Cerveceria La Tropical, the brewery founded in 1888 in western Havana on land his ancestors sold to the original owners. More than half of the island’s beer was once brewed there, tucked within a 100-acre wood.
Portuondo found that willing partner in Heineken. And they built that brewery in Wynwood.
Cerveceria La Tropical has opened a massive, corporate-backed brewery and taproom in a new corner of Wynwood, brewing a modernized version of the original Vienna-style amber lager recipe first made in Cuba. Running the production is one of South Florida’s most-respected brewers, with one of Miami’s best-known chefs turning out Cuban and Caribbean-inspired dishes from its full kitchen.
“This goes beyond beer,” Portuondo said. “La Tropical was something that was culturally relevant in Cuba. If we do it right, this is something that can bind us through generations.”
Cerveceria La Tropical is now the fifth brewery in Wynwood, the birthplace of Miami’s craft beer movement. All but one, the independently owned J. Wakefield Brewing, are now backed by large corporations.
No expense has been spared in La Tropical’s 28,000-square-foot brewery, which will be pumping out cans of its La Original and Nativo Key “suave” IPA for sale from Palm Beach County to Key West as early as March. A high-octane double-IPA, Gasolina, is offered in the taproom only for now.
That taproom is the stage for introducing an old beer brand to a new Miami audience. A breezy room decorated in warm colors, tables made of slabs of wood and Cuban tiles opens to a tropical garden of South Florida trees, a ceiba, a sausage tree, guava and five-spice.
A wall of orchids, installed by Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, encloses the beer garden (recalling the original Cuban gardens) and a stage where bands will play nightly. And everywhere there are colorful murals by the artist Rigo Leon, paintings with Easter eggs such as the image of Cuba’s Our Lady of Charity and a red-white-and-blue tocororo bird, which was the inspiration for Cuba’s flag.
Cuban brand becomes Miami beer
Portuondo’s own story is intertwined with the brewery.
His great-great grandfather, Federico Kohly, developed the western Havana neighborhood that included the site of La Tropical brewery and its expansive gardens, Los Jardines de la Tropical. In 1998, he partnered with six others, including a descendant of the Blanco-Herrera family, which owned Cuba’s Cerveceria La Tropical, to buy the trademark.
He tracked down the last master brewer at the Cuban brewery, which was nationalized when Fidel Castro’s government took control of private businesses in Cuba, and detailed the original recipe.
Portuondo is a Florida International marketing and business school grad, who developed franchises, including as CEO of Burger King’s Canada operations. He knew La Tropical’s name had value.
Over the years, he brewed versions of the beer, including in 2016, when he signed a one-year deal with the Samuel Adams-backed Concrete Beach Brewery to bring the recipe back to life.
“This is Manny’s baby,” said Ramon Blanco-Herrera, 75, a partner in the new brewery, whose father was among the last of his family to help run the original La Tropical in Cuba. “He has a bigger vision for the brand. They’ll probably take it international.”
Heineken bought a 70-percent stake in the name a year later and invested in making Miami the center of its Cerveceria La Tropical business. The Dutch company bought the Wynwood land in 2018 for $10.5 million and kept on Portuondo as La Tropical’s CEO to run the operations.
“They gave me the ability to take this dream and make it a reality,” Portuondo said.
Beer and food with history
Portuondo turned to Miami experts in beer and food to make the brewery more than a factory. He wanted it to be a destination.
He hired Matt Weintraub, who founded FIU’s brewing club and taught beer making at the hospitality school, to run the brew house. And he brought in the chef couple Cindy Hutson and Delius Shirley, who helped define Miami’s tropical cuisine at the recently closed Ortanique on the Mile, to build the menu as its executive chef and general manager.
Weintraub has developed more than 20 beers the brand will eventually release.
“Here we have a beer with history, and we’re trying to keep it historically accurate,” Weintraub said.
Hutson’s tapas-style menu is her first foray into Cuban cuisine. The plates, most priced from $5-$17, incorporate beer often, including croquetas with beer-cheese dip, chorizo sausage with La Original mustard, and beer-steamed mussels.
Service keeps in mind coronavirus precautions, including limited contact in the gardens and taproom, with industrial fans and virus-killing UV lights in the air conditioners. Meals will be available for takeout and delivery.
“This is the future of dining for the foreseeable future,” said Shirley, who will manage the restaurant side.
For Portuondo, it’s more than an end to a 20-year journey. It’s a new beginning for a name closely tied to his Cuban roots.
“You can’t copy an original,” he said. “This was an investment in keeping a piece of our heritage alive.”
Cerveceria La Tropical
Address: 42 NE 25th St., Wynwood
Hours: 4-11 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday; open until midnight. Friday. Noon-midnight, Saturday. Noon-11 p.m. Sunday.
More info: Cervecerialatropical.com
This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
