A Tale of Two Breweries
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of Craft Beer, it was when I traveled there, it was the epoch of disbelief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of the Pandemic and yet normalcy was just around the corner… or so we all thought… but let me tell you a tale of two very different breweries and may it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out.
Okay… I got my Charles Dickens out of the way. I promise not to wax poetically… too much more.
I just wrote a piece on a small brewery in the south of Spain called Cervesa Montmirà and I have an upcoming piece about a much larger brewery and wanted to do a piece about the two of them. Being able to see the two extremes in the Spanish Craft Beer market… was extremely fascinating. A good amount of people say that the Craft Beer market in Spain is around five to ten years behind the United States. Since I have experienced how Craft Beer has grown and changed in the past twenty years… first hand… I think it might be fun to apply what I’ve seen to what I saw overseas.
Since the start of the Craft Beer movement… you can see how the Industry has changed. At the beginning it was just fighting for people to try these new kinds of beers. In Spain… they are absolutely still fighting for people to try Craft Beer. Big Beer is king and lord over there and has been for far longer than any beer company in the U.S. This creates a very hard war for Craft Beer over there… especially if it wants to thrive. It is taking extremely long for the shift to Craft Beer to happen. It is happening… but it is very much still in its mid to early days. When you have a brewery in this kind of environment… there are a couple different ways you can approach it. I got to see both. It was quite fascinating to see first hand.
First… you can carve out a region and then you are good to go. This allows you to lock down a loyal customer base and be successful in your region. The second approach I saw is with the much larger brewery I was talking about earlier, Basqueland Brewing. Basqueland is really putting the fight out there and is expanding and educating people about what Craft Beer can be. Let me be clear… there is nothing wrong with either approach. When I was living in Los Angeles… one of my favorite breweries was Eagle Rock Brewery. This was one of the first breweries in the city and is your friendly neighborhood brewery. They have carved out their niche in the market and I love how they keep it small and true to themselves. So this happens everywhere in the world.
So to be able to see these two philosophies at work was really fun. Montmirà was eleven years old when I visited and Basqueland was just turning six. I hate to say this but this is the truth… Montmirà comes from an older school of thought when it comes to Craft Beer and Basqueland is all about the new school. Hazies for days. Extremely well made Hazies! And meanwhile Montmirà makes very traditional styles and doesn’t make any Hazy IPAs. Again… this is not a slight or anything… it's just a matter of observation. It was honestly quite refreshing to have been able to taste extremely well made traditional styles. The new trends in the Craft Beer market can sometimes be a bit much. How many hops can we throw in this Hazy Milkshake Smoothie Kviek IPA? Every once and a while it's nice to go back to square one and reassess your palate with what sold you on Craft Beer in the very first place. And this again… is no slight on Basqueland Brewing… just an observation on the current trends in the market that is happening across the globe.
So what happens with these two breweries going forward? I will say that what happens… is what happened in the U.S. around six+ years ago. The Craft Beer market in Europe will absolutely get the attention (if it hasn’t already) of Big Beer and there will be acquisitions of Craft Breweries. This is to try to slow and destroy the Craft Beer Revolution and stop it from hitting their pocket books. You have to appease the shareholders after all. So my advice to Montmirà and Basqueland? Keep your customer base happy and hold on… you can’t stop this Craft Beer Revolution. Craft Beer is for the people and everyone… sooner or later… will come to realize the promise of extremely well made delicious and unique beer.
With that… I shall end this tale of two breweries. It has been fun to do a bit of a compare and contrast and also a little bit of a history lesson. If you don’t learn from history… you are doomed to repeat it. So… I say these two breweries have a leg up and could learn a thing or two with what has happened over in the American Craft Beer market. If anything… they might blow past us because they will have learned and skipped all our mistakes and will come out all the better for it. Here’s hoping.
