Juan Pablo Estevez
08/29/2021 6:01 AM
Clarín.com
Gourmet
Updated 08/29/2021 6:01 AM
In recent times, several Argentine craft breweries have made
the leap outside the country
in various ways:
some
have set up abroad
with their own factory
and others have used the traditional product export scheme.
The common denominator is that with both models they are obtaining good results and positioning themselves in the foreign market.
In Argentina there are currently 800 craft breweries
that generate about eight thousand jobs directly or indirectly, produce 70 million liters per year -according to a study carried out jointly by the Center for Beer Tasting and Hops Fever- and the sector , in which the majority of SMEs abound,
represents 3% of
beer
consumption
at the national level with respect to industrial ones.
The history of craft beer in the country
dates back
to
the early 1990s in Patagonia, with
the founding of the El Bolsón and Blest breweries.
It continued with
a turning point
when
Antares
opened its doors
in Mar del Plata in 1998 and had a great boom in 2015, when the sector grew to 30 percent per year.
Today,
several of the breweries that were on that wave dared to venture abroad.
Here are five examples that have a presence in Europe and Asia.
What are the Argentine craft breweries that are triumphing in the world?
Gorilla Brewing - Berlin
Ramiro Rodríguez Etchelet, brewmaster of Gorilla Brewing, at the East Side Gallery, Berlin Wall.
Photo: Gorilla Brewery
The
Gorilla brewery
was founded in Argentina by the brothers Ramiro and Nicolás Rodríguez Etchelet
, who started making beer when they were teenagers on their mother's balcony.
From that moment on, they never stopped with their passion and became more and more professional until they
opened the factory that they currently have in Avellaneda
, Buenos Aires, and in which they produce various styles.
During 2019 and with the desire to improve himself, Ramiro traveled to Germany
to take the brewmaster course at VLB Berlin, one of the most prestigious beer educational institutions in the world, and there the idea of taking Gorilla to the Old Continent began to germinate.
The project finished taking shape the same year at the traditional
El Bolsón
Hop Harvest Festival
, when Ramiro and Nicolás reached an agreement with their German partner David Peiferen to set up the Gorilla factory in Berlin.
Gorilla's partners, from left to right: Ramiro R. Etchelet, David Peifer and Nicolás R. Etchelet.
Photo: Gorilla Brewery
After
careful
planning,
Ramiro started cooking in February this year at the Scottish brewery Brewdog's factory outside Berlin
and the first two styles were ready and canned by March 17, St. Patrick's Day.
The first two Gorilla beers made in Berlin
were a Stout
called
Adiós Amigos
, whose name was put as a farewell to Ramiro's affections in Buenos Aires,
and the American Amber Ale
Borderline Hero
.
In parallel, the Avellaneda brewery led by his brother Nicolás continued to operate and for IPA Day a joint launch was held in Buenos Aires and Berlin when
the
Transatlantic Double IP
A
was presented
, which was
made with the same recipe in both countries.
The most popular styles from the Gorilla Berlin brewery.
Photo: Gorilla Brewery
Gorilla Berlin
currently
produces 11 styles -
Stout, American Amber Ale, NEIPA, Hazy Pale Ale, Mexican Lager, Summer Ale, DIPA, Pacific IPA, Session IPA and IPA - and produces approximately two thousand liters per month.
"That amount is starting to be too small for us due to
the great demand we have
. Therefore, at this moment
we are
already
cooking 10,000 liters
of Unfiltered Hazy Pale Ale, which was well received and will be ready by the end of the month," Luján Cordaro details. , the head of Marketing & Communication of Gorilla Berlin.
The craft beer scene in the German capital is still incipient
considering that the country's industrial and premium breweries produce a good product and that they are deeply rooted in consumers.
"
There are about 10 craft beer bars in Berlin and we are in almost all of them
, apart from the Beer Shops, which only dispense take out beer. The best known bars where you can find us are Protokoll, Manifest, Brewdog Mitte and Brewdog Taproom, Biererei Bar, Muted Horn and Hopfenreich ", says Cordaro.
Glück - Madrid
The Glück brewery in the Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid.
Photo: Glück Brewery
Glück
is a Mar del Plata brewery that began operating in 2013
and currently has three franchises in its hometown.
Also in Tandil, La Plata, Palermo (CABA) and Posadas (Misiones).
Its factory is in Mar del Plata and has the capacity to produce 200 thousand liters per month.
The idea of landing in Madrid began to take shape in 2018
, when the brewery began to obtain some awards at the continental level with its Irish Red Ale and its partners planned to expand outside the country to carry their beer culture.
In this context,
work began to open a Taproom
(a bar inside a brewery)
in the Las Rozas neighborhood of Madrid
, which began operating in June of this year and produces seven thousand liters of draft beer per month.
In October, when a canner arrives from Argentina, they will also start selling in can.
"
While people are having lunch or dinner they can see how we make beer and if they want, visit the factory
", explains Cristian Logambino, founding partner of Glück.
Currently on the taps of Glück Madrid the styles Golden Ale, Irish Red Ale, India Pale Ale, Robust Porter are played and the next releases to come are a NEIPA and a Witbier (Wheat).
Taking into account that Spain is a country deeply rooted in sugarcane and
tapas, in Glück they
put the Golden Ale to function as a "traditional
beer
"
since it is a very soft and refreshing beer and ideal to start in the craft world.
Glück has a Taproom in Las Rozas, Madrid, which produces seven thousand liters of beer per month.
Photo: Glück
The person in charge of the production of Glück in Spain is the
brewmaster Maximiliano Cruces
, who was the production manager at the Mar del Plata plant in the last two years and moved to the Iberian country to be one of the references of the brewery in the another shore.
Las Rozas
, the neighborhood in which Glück works, is an industrial estate that is having a large influx of gastronomic companies and also brewers and even some local media have called the place the
"new beer estate of Madrid".
Glück's idea is to continue expanding in Spain and
there are three cities that are targeted to disembark with the franchise system:
Barcelona, Valencia and Malaga
, which have an important community of Argentines residing in them.
Tantrum - China
Gustavo Schickendantz, Mariano Iturbe, Tomás Fellner, Miguel de Achával and Rubén Diciero, partners of Rabieta.
Photo: @rabietacerveza
Rabieta
is an Argentine craft brewery that has its factory in Pilar
and a Taproom in the Palermo Hippodrome
, where it makes special styles.
The brewery was created four years ago with the aim of bringing "the best craft beer to the homes of Argentines" and began with a monthly production of 12 thousand liters in Palermo.
Today, with the Pilar factory in operation for a long time
, it has a capacity to produce 200 thousand liters per month and produces 11 different styles.
Beer can be found in its own bar, in specialized stores and in supermarkets throughout the country.
Within the framework of this expansion process, one of the objectives of the brand was to export its product abroad and
in 2020 it sent its first three cointaners to China
, with a total of 150 thousand bottles.
Tantrum upgraded its labels to sell its product in China.
Photo: @rabietacerveza
Tantrum's adventure in China began in the cities of Shanghai
and
also in Hong Kong
.
For this year, the Pilar brewery doubled its exports to the Asian country: it plans to send a total of six containers and is also having a presence in two new districts: Henan and Canton.
Before starting to export to China, Rabieta carried out a market study and Gustavo Schickendantz, one of the partners, explains the reason for the country's choice: "There are 400 million more middle-class Chinese and 80 million more rich: it happened a consumer boom and we dreamed of grabbing a pinch.
Every number in China is huge and allows you to dream in scale
. "
With the passage of container shipments, Rabieta gradually adjusted its product to the idiosyncrasies of Chinese consumption and, for example,
had to develop a special 355-cubic-centimeter bottle, when in Argentina its containers are 710 cc.
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In China there is the peculiarity that the Tantrum cherry is mostly consumed in karaoke bars
: "We have a distributor that works with these types of places: in China there are many social gatherings in karaokes, which function as a kind of prior or pre-boliche. With this distributor we have a presence in three thousand points of sale ", adds Schickendantz.
The styles that Rabieta is exporting to China are Golden, Red Honey, Red Irish and Red IPA
-in the 350cc bottle format- and Miguel de Achával, another of the partners, highlights: "To have grown in 2020 and meet new goals in this context, it is worth double for us. We know that we have a product of excellent quality and flavor and we do not stop looking forward despite the difficulties ".
Rabieta's objective now is to continue looking abroad and the brand's strategic plan is to
reach Peru, the United States, Uruguay and Spain before the end of the year.
Lost Toys - Barcelona
Juguetes Perdidos is an Argentine brewery in Tres de Febrero that landed in Spain.
Photo: @jugueteseuropa
Lost Toys
is one of the best craft breweries in Argentina.
Its factory is in Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, and throughout its history it has won numerous medals in different continental and world competitions.
The brewery always had the intention of
setting foot abroad
and that
ended up crystallizing this year when one of the founding partners,
Ricardo Aftyka,
went to live in Barcelona.
"For several years we have had offers from distributors.
Our arrival in Europe accelerated from the medals we won
in 2019 at the Brussels Beer Challenge and from our participation in the Wild Ale Celebration by Mikkeller, in 2020. We decided then that in Instead of bringing the beer from Argentina, it would be more interesting to produce it locally, "explains Aftyka.
Ricardo Aftyka, the brewmaster of Lost Toys in Spain.
Photo: @jugueteseuropa
Lost Toys began to produce in Barcelona in May of this year.
They started in the factory
La Pirata, a friendly craft brewery with which they also usually cook together.
The styles produced in Barcelona are: El Matador Cookie (Banana & Cinnamon), Triple NEIPA, DDH NEIPA and Galaxitra (Imperial NEIPA)
.
The presentation formats are in KEG of draft beer of 20 liters and in cans of 33 and 44 cl.
depending on the style.
In addition to Barcelona, there are different Spanish communities in which Toys has a presence, such
as Madrid, Asturias, Andalusia, Galicia, Valencia and also in neighboring Portugal.
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"
As in Argentina, we are oriented towards the specialized market
: craft shops, specialized bars and festivals. The freaky public already knows us and knows where we come from," Aftyka details.
In Spain, Juguetes also collaborates with other breweries.
In addition to La Pirata, and at the beginning of July he produced a Double NEIPA together with Basqueland, which was crowned the winner at the Barecelona Beer Chalenge 2021.
Moncada Brewery - London
The Moncada brewery is run by an Argentine and is in London, England.
Photo: Moncada Brewery
Although
Moncada Brewery
is not a project born in our country, it does have a
lot of national imprint because its brewmaster and founding partner is Argentine
and is closely linked to craft brewers from these latitudes.
Julio Moncada is 44 years old and a globetrotter
: he was born in Santa Fe, as a boy he went to live in San Luis - he considers himself to be from San Luis -, at 18 he fell in love with Ushuaia and lived there for a while before traveling to Barcelona to study. design and computing for the industrial sector.
After these journeys, he arrived in London, the city in which he currently resides.
In
2011 he founded Moncada Brewery together with British colleagues.
At that time, there were only about 14 craft breweries in the London capital.
"My approach to beer took place gradually. I came from Argentina, where at that time there were only lager blondes.
In England I found that there was beer of all tastes and colors.
A boy gave me a book on the subject and at a short time we were getting together to talk about beer. Then Moncada was born ", explains Julio from the United Kingdom.
Moncada's line of regular styles is called "Notting Hill."
Photo: Moncada Brewery
Moncada Brewery is located to the northwest of London - away from the rest of the southern breweries - and
has a production capacity of 30 thousand liters per month.
It has a regular line of four styles called "Notting Hill", which includes Blonde, American Pale Ale, Stout and Pale Ale.
"We also have
a line of special beers that we call Beer Blueprint Series
, which is limited edition and in which we brew in conjunction with other breweries," explains Julio.
Collaborative cooking is a standard in the craft sector.
"We have made
collaborations with Gorilla and with Lost Toys. Several Argentine brewers also visit me and sometimes we set up some cooking.
The artisan industry is very collaborative and we are always willing to give us a hand," says Julio.
The Taproom de Moncada in London, where patrons can have a pint and see how beer is brewed.
Photo: Moncada Brewery
The Moncada factory has the bar adjoining
, so technically it is a Taproom: while people are drinking their pint they can look through a glass at the process of production and packaging of beer.
The Taproom de Moncada does not have its own food.
So that their customers can also enjoy a gastronomic offer, they usually invite food trucks that are installed at the door of the brewery.
In addition,
customers can order delivery from restaurants in the area
that are associated with the brewery.
Today Moncada is established in the craft beer market in London and has done a job of sustained growth, because
since it began in 2011 it has managed to double its production
and be available in various parts of the city.
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