Where are we? Caminha. Yes, but where are we? That’s the ongoing question of this episode – that goes for the first time ever in English. During the most eclectic festival in Portugal (Artbeefest Caminha), we heard three different perspectives about life-changing experiences, gangbangs, and the most important evolutionary jump after fire. The mics were pointed to Brian Strumke (Stillwater – USA), Ernesto Huete (Yria – Spain) and Costantin Pougatsias (Seven Island – Greece).
© Patrick Esteves 
© Patrick Esteves 
© Patrick Esteves 
© Patrick Esteves 
© Patrick Esteves 
© Patrick Esteves
Artbeerfest Caminha 2019 (July 11th – 14th)
• First edition was in 2013
• Takes place in Caminha, Portugal
• Produced by OG&Associados
• 2019 was the first edition with more international than local brewers
• 50 brewers from 13 countries pouring 315 beers
Costatin Pougatsias (Seven Island Brewery)
• Co-owner and managing director of Seven Island
• Owner of The Hoppy Imports Company
• Awarded Ratebeer’s #1 New Brewer in the World in 2017
• Made beer collaborations with Letra and Colossus
Ernesto Huete (Cervezas Yria)
• Co-owner and Head brewer of Yria (Madrid)
• Distributor of beer (Yria Distribuición)
• Partner of two bars (Chinaski Lavapies – Madrid and Falken – Victória)
• Produces spirits in Sack Man
Brian Strumke (Stillwater Artisanal)
• Founder of Stillwater Artisanal (Brooklyn, NY)
• Famous Techno DJ
• Ratebeer’s Best Brewery in the World in 2011
• Ratebeer’s Top 100 Brewers in the World yearly since 2011
Banda sonora:
Jingle – Pawel Nowak
- 2:41 Tiago: Are you a better DJ or brewer?
- 4:13 Ernesto: "All the big brewers in Portugal were still homebrewers (back then)"
- 5:22 Costas: "Artbeerfest was a life-changing experience"
- 7:10 Tiago: How important is to make collaborations?
- 8:33 Costas: "I think we are part of a big puzzle, (...) a rebellion network. I'm very happy that I'm a part of it."
- 9:26 Brian: "A collaboration is about sharing creativity and making something neither party has done prior."
- 12:00 Ernesto: "Portugal started 2 or 3 years after Spain, but it's like my young brother... Learning quickly."
- 14:16 Costas: " We started by making a big, big Imperial Stout - barrel aged. It was our first beer."
- 19:16 Brian: "We are living in a very interesting time right now, as humans. It's beyond beer."
- 20:13 Brian: "I think the birth of digital communication is the most relevant evolutionary jump since fire."
- 23:50 Ernesto: "I felt the necessity to come to the origins."
- 25:30 Costas: "We have to use always some local ingredients to give a twist, a local character."
- 27:17 Ernesto: "All the Spaniards know about wine, politics, bullfights and football. Now you're introducing something quite strange for the people."
- 27:47 Ernesto: "It's dangerous that the people think: that kind of beer is something strange just for a group of specialised people"
- 28:26 Costas: "Craft beer in the mediterranean countries is the new wine."
- 30:22 Ernesto: "Now, there is no border between wine and beer."
- 30:59 Brian: "I wanted to be the beer guy that competes with the winemakers."
- 32:38 Tiago: "In the US, it would be highly illegal to be in the three parts (of the industry): producing, distributing and selling"
- 34:02 Ernesto: "Costas, how old are you?"
- 35:00 Costas: "Even though my dream was to open up a brewery, I was a lousy brewer. Some guys told me to hold it back."
- 37:28 Brian: "I'm an artist. I have ideas. I want to share these ideas with the world. Is it my best approach as an artist to tie myself down to a business that I'm actually not skilled to run?"
- 39:21 Brian: "I think the world needs to focus."
- 42:05 Ernesto: "You are fucking crazy! You want to sell craft beer in Toledo? And now, I'm sure we write our own movie."
- 43:46 Brian: "Beer is the language that we can all speak."
- 45:33 Brian: "I want beer to go more art and I want more people to experience beer culture. And beer culture to me is a universal language."
- 46:28 Ernesto: "The organizer gives you the sensation that you're not just working about beer and business, but if feels like a family."
- 48:44 Brian: "We had a PR company working with us. And they asked what was my say, and I said: Craft beer is dead. That's what I want to promote."
- 51:10 Brian: "Craft beer fell into the same dogma as everything else. It used to be all kinds of crazy beers. And now we're going back to standards."
- 52:07 Costas: Next generation, my son doing what I love.
- 54:15 Ernesto: "My hope is that you go to every town and you'll have a brewery making their own beer."
