Words by Matt Dursum
Photos by Samantha Demangate
It’s a drizzly Friday afternoon in Buenos Aires. The rain and breeze offer a brief relief from the searing summer heat. This abnormally cool day is perfect for a craft beer tour.
Joining me are my friends from the U.K. and my girlfriend. My Argentine friends wanted nothing to do with this, claiming unanimously that drinking anything but ice cold Vermouth or Fernet and Cola during this season would be barbaric.
We start our tour in the Palermo neighborhood at the bottle shop Bodega de Cervezas. The owner, Martin Mur and his team, work with the 14 top craft breweries in Argentina and several from abroad. “With the appearance of the top craft breweries in Patagonia, we saw an opportunity to show them off in the city,” says Mur.
We start our tasting off with an All Beer TV Hoppy Saison, a collaboration from the heavy hitters of Argentine craft beer like Cerveceria Jabalina, Itzel, Astor, and several others. The flavor was intense, well rounded, and delicious. For my friends, a trusty Leffe Brune.
At the bar, Mur greets several brewers who come in to grab a pint off work. “Bodega de Cervezas is kind of a hangout for brewers, huh?” I ask. Mur smiles and says that they like hanging out here.
Mur pours a special one for us to try and we chat near the bar. I ask him more about their history. “So, in 2013, we started working with local breweries in an online sales format. Deliveries were made in wooden crates to the consumers’ homes. Then, in 2015, we opened the store in the city,” he says.
Mur and I join the others in our group and another person in the local industry joins in for a chat. I open a can of Buena Neipa Social Hops from Cerveceria Itzel. The beer is bold and fruity, well balanced and cloudy and goes down a little too easy.
“Considering the economic reality of the country changes week by week, the effort needed by local breweries is astonishing. Despite this, I think today the level is very high”
Mur brings us some extra glasses. We pour each other beers and taste what the other is drinking. Everything is delicious. It’s what you’d expect from such a highly curated selection. Everything, aside from the dependable Leffe, was proudly Argentine.
I ask Mur about his views about the local industry, and where he thinks it’s going. “We can divide the local breweries into two broad groups: the first inspired by quality as a principle to grow commercially, and a second group inspired only by the commercial aspect,” says Mur, before greeting another customer.
Mur comes back to our table to chat more. I ask him more about how the industry has evolved. “Considering the economic reality of the country changes week by week, the effort needed by local breweries is astonishing,” says Mur, referring to the harsh economic realities of the country. With extreme inflation, creating a sustainable industry with foreign investment is tricky in Argentina. “Despite this, I think today the level is very high. There are local breweries that are already exporting their products to Europe and the United States with outstanding success.”
Off to Strange
We say goodbye to Mur and head out to our last stop, Strange Brewing. The brew pub is often the first thing beer nerds think of when talking about a high-quality craft beer experience in Buenos Aires.
When we arrive, it’s packed with people, dogs, and the occasional curious passerby. Strange Brewing is loud, busy, and serves some of the best craft beer this side of the equator. We order our beers. I grab a pint of Forma Fantasma, an imperial stout full of tasty notes of caramel and chocolate, a rich full body, and a sneaky kick of alcohol.
As we hover over our beers and chat about life in the city, we can’t help but notice how many people are crowding into this relatively small brew pub. The evening rush hasn’t even started and people are literally pouring onto the street.
Noise complaints may happen from time to time, but not as frequently as the adulations they receive from us, beer critics, and the increasingly drunk customers now yelling at the top of their lungs. Between Bodega de Cervezas and here, it’s good to see so much excitement for one of the most laudable beer industries in South America.