DRINKS Raise a glass
PEDRO NAVARRO, CO-FOUNDER AND CO-OWNER OF SANTANA BREWING COMPANY IN QUITO, TALKS ABOUT THE COUNTRY’S GROWING CRAFT BREWERY SCENE
When did beer brewing begin in Ecuador? Something that’s not widely known is that Ecuador had the first brewery in all the Americas. It was built in Quito’s Convent of San Francisco, the oldest religious monument in the country, by a Flemish monk who arrived in the capital in the 16th century, bringing brewing grains along with him. That brewery stayed in operation for around 500 years, until the 1970s, mostly for the benefit of its beer- loving monks. It’s been restored and is now open to travellers. It’s worth a visit!
What inspired you to set up a craft brewery? Around 15 years ago, some Ecuadorians experimented with craft brewing, but it wasn’t easy. Industrial products like Miller and Heineken were what the locals knew. But with time, people started to travel and see what was happening in other countries, mostly in the US, where the craft brewery movement had already begun. That was when it started to take off here, too. We wanted to show people there were other types of beer they should try. I founded Santana Brewing in 2012 with my three siblings, and four or five other craft breweries started in Quito around that time.
How has Ecuador’s beer scene changed? Over the last 10 years, Ecuador’s craft brewing industry has grown exponentially. We formed the Association of Craft Brewers of Ecuador, which has around 100 associates — quite a lot for a country like ours. We know there are over 100 other unaffiliated breweries, too. We’ve started a culture and, year after year, we make better beers. It’s a great community; when you’re small, there’s friendship. We help each other, make beers together and collaborate.
Where’s Santana Brewery located? We started the brewery in the old hacienda where we grew up. It’s around 200 years old and has belonged to our family for six or seven generations. What’s more, it’s located along the equator; the land where the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World) monument stands was donated to the government by my family. The farm’s called Santa Ana, but in Spanish we pronounce it ‘Santana’: this is where the name of the brewery comes from.
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What can people expect when visiting? We have five traditional beer styles we produce year-round: stout, Irish red, amber, pale ale and chulla chela, a Belgian-Ecuadorian blend — plus seasonal IPAs and porters. Then, there’s our restaurant. Typically, breweries serve burgers, pizzas, wings, but we decided to offer local specialities. My brother Sebastian, the master brewer, is also a chef, so he works on the menu. Diners can visit the brewery, and when we’re there, we’re happy to give tours.
What’s special about your products? Around a year ago, we started to only use rainwater to make our beers. Water’s important in the brewing process: its flavour, minerals, smell, everything goes into the final product. Tap water comes with a degree of variability, while rainwater is stable, and that’s what you want when brewing. It’s improved our beers, and it helps the environment, too.
Have you taken other initiatives? We’re working to become Ecuador’s first brewery with zero carbon emissions in 2023 — as far I know, no other company is doing this. Our family also has a pocket of land in the northeast of Quito — a section of the Chocó- Darién Forest, which stretches from Ecuador to Panama — and a lot of it is primary rainforest. We’ve been looking after it for over 20 years, working with Fundación Futuro to protect it and with Quito’s Universidad San Francisco to get a better idea of the species living there.
Do you export beers abroad? Not yet, but I think we have a product that could be very exportable — a brand called chicha madre. Chicha is an Indigenous beer, which can be made with different ingredients. We use yuca (cassava), mix it with barley and follow the beer-making process to get yuca beer. By using local ingredients, we can give some personality to the product, and help local farmers. We call it chicha madre (mother chicha) because we see it as the mother of fermented drinks. It think it could be interesting, giving the world something local.
Santana Brewing Company is based in Quito and open Wednesday to Sunday.
santanabrewing.com
Colada morada, a traditional Ecuadorian drink, made with black corn flour and fruits
From above: Santana Brewing Company; Pedro Navarro, co-founder and co-owner of Santana Brewing Company
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