This is part two of a guest article on The Asunción Times website from Kristian Niemietz, a German-born economist who lives in London. He is also a beer and wine blogger in a personal capacity, and in Paraguay, he discovered a real beer revolution. This is part two of his story about Paraguay’s beer revolution. Missed part one? Read: Unsung Beer Revolutions: The Curious Case Of Paraguay’s Beer Revolution (1).
Antecedents of the craft beer revolution (2006-2014)
I am often slow to notice new social trends, so when I read up on a trend that I thought of as “new”, I usually find that it has been around for much longer than I realised, just unnoticed by me. Thus, when I tried to find some information on the changing brewing landscape in Paraguay for this article, I half-expected this to be one of those cases. Maybe the craft beer revolution has been going on for a long time, even if it took me longer to catch up with it?
But apparently not. I did notice it with a time lag, but not a very large one. Here is what I found:
In 2006, Mr. Bruno Tippach set up the microbrewery “La Escuadra”, integrated into a restaurant. He would later claim to have been Paraguay’s first-ever craft beer brewer, for which we will have to take his word. Whether he had any influence on the subsequent craft beer revolution, or whether he was a lone-wolf outrider, is a question for a more knowledgeable author. Nor do I know what his beers are like.
In 2010, the aforementioned Jorge Biedermann set up the Astoria Bierhaus, another restaurant with an integrated microbrewery, offering a range of imported beers alongside. It was meant to be, in Biedermann’s words, “a place where people will be able to try the best beers in the world, and above all, to learn about […] beer culture […]
Our objective is that our clients […] learn about the culture of this beverage, its history, the types of beer that there are in the world, as well as […] taking part in tastings”.
They seem to have closed in the meantime, though, and again, I never got the chance to try their beers.
Paraguay’s first free-standing craft beer brewery
Then, in 2011, the same Jorge Biederman set up Sajonia Brewing. Trippach may have been the first craft beer brewer, but Biedermann can plausibly claim to have founded Paraguay’s first free-standing craft beer brewery. Sajonia is undoubtedly a pioneer, and after a series of expansions, they remain at the forefront of today’s craft beer revolution.
I tried their pale ale, which is citrussy and refreshing, their lager, which is medium-bodied and also slightly citrussy, and their “El 4 Rojo”, a fruity, flavourful Irish-style red ale. All three were excellent, and I look forward to trying many more of their beers next time.
I also found some information about a craft beer brewery called “Korok”, set up in 2013, but they are already out of business again, and I never got a chance to try any of their beers.
Britannia Pub
The list would not be complete without mentioning Alfons Adam, an Anglophile Bavarian who used to run the British-themed “Britannia Pub” in central Asuncion for nearly three decades. Adam was never a craft beer brewer, but he used to commission his own house beer, “Britannia Beer”, from one of the established breweries. At the time of writing, it is no longer on their menu, though. I know the Britannia Pub, and have probably tried Britannia Beer at some point, but I have no particular recollection of it.
In 2014, the Paraguayan Association of Home and Craft Beer Brewers (ACERVAPY) was founded. On its own, this does not mean much, and it certainly does not yet suggest any kind of breakthrough for craft beer: anyone can set up an association for anything. But there has to be an “anyone”. Just a few years earlier, there would not have been.
Paraguay’s craft beer revolution (2015-?)
The brothers Augusto and Ernesto Stanley claim to be descendants of the aforementioned Pedro Herken, the founding father of Paraguayan brewing. In 2015, the two embarked on an ambitious project: the relaunch of the Herken brewery.
If I was writing this article in a work-related capacity, where I have to be logical and evidence-based, I would seriously dispute that the brewery which the Stanley brothers call “Herken” really is, in a meaningful sense, a successor to the original one. Niemietz, the Political Economist, would argue that the Stanley brothers have not “revived” or “relaunched” anything: what they have done is set up a completely new brewery from scratch, and cheekily name it after a long-defunct historical one for marketing purposes.
Niemietz, the beer blogger, on the other hand, does not have to be 100% logical and evidence-based: he can permit himself a degree of “beer romanticism”. In that spirit, the Herken brewery is back! This means that I did, in the end, get to try my pint of Herken, nine years after having first come across that name in San Bernardino.
I tried their Guardians IPA and their New England IPA, which are both bold and hoppy, and their Framboise, a light-bodied fruit sour.
Beer Kings and Vikings
In 2017, the BeerKingos brewery joined the fray. The name is a portmanteau of sorts between “Beer Kings” and “Vikingos” (i.e., Vikings). Consequently, their beers are heavily Norse mythology-themed, and their eponymous BeerKingo pub is like a tropical Valhalla. I liked their Honey beer, which is halfway towards a mead, and their Frambubeer, which is a light fruit sour. Of the others, none were bad, but some were a bit flat: they still seemed to be in a somewhat experimental stage.
In 2018, the business paper infoNEGOCIOS ran an article entitled “Is craft beer here to stay?”. They cited the vice president of ACERVAPY, Laura López Pérez, who said that the craft beer sector had been experiencing accelerated growth since 2016, but also that “Paraguay is still in its infancy” when it comes to craft beer. She expected that growth trend to continue:
“I’ve been told once that craft beer is just a fad, that it will not last long. But this is really not so, craft beer is here to stay and grow, just like in many other countries such as the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and others.”
Thus far, her assessment has turned out to be correct.
Another impulse
Counterintuitively, the pandemic may have given the craft beer revolution another impulse. It led to at least one major addition to the brewing scene. Carlos Amado Turrini is a former TV and radio presenter who found himself at a loose end in 2020. He got himself a homebrewing kit and started to obsessively watch YouTube videos about brewing. A year later, he had launched his company: “Birrini”, a portmanteau of his surname “Turrini” and the Italian word “birra”. I loved their Hoppy Lager, one of those lagers which nod in the direction of an IPA, and their Golden Ale, one of those ales which nod in the direction of a sour.
In 2022, infoNEGOCIOS reported that there were now 25 craft beer breweries in Paraguay. They cited Javier López from ACERVAPY, who believed that there was still a lot of room for growth, because Paraguay’s craft beer boom was really just the regional version of a much wider international trend, which had already gone much further elsewhere:
“In Brazil, there is a gigantic explosion, and in percentage terms, [craft] producers are competing with the industrial breweries. Not to mention in the USA”.
On that note: I mentioned above that back when Paraguayan beers were terrible, they also imported terrible Brazilian ones to match the poor quality of their own. Now that the Paraguayan ones have improved so drastically, they also seem to be demanding more from their neighbours. During this trip, I also discovered the Brazilian microbrewery “Cervejaria Eisenbahn”, which sounds like another fake-German name at first, but they have won medals in actual German beer competitions, so they have every right to use that name.
Another craft beer revolution
Having just arrived in Asuncion and still labouring under the old assumptions, I made the mistake of putting Eisenbahn’s Pilsen in the freezer, and was then pleasantly surprised that it got better as it warmed up a bit. I did not make the same mistake again with their Hilda Session IPA, which is full-bodied yet easy-drinking. If Eisenbahn is remotely representative, Brazil seems to have a craft beer revolution of its own going on, which I wish I knew more about.
In 2022, infoNEGOCIOS reported another milestone. Francisco Montanaro and José Manuel Dacak, head of production and head brewer at Sacramento Brewing, respectively, became the first Paraguayan nationals to be selected to take part in the beer sommelier championship organised by the Doemens Akademie in Munich.
Sacramento use their labels to anthropomorphise its beers, imagining them as local characters. Their porter, for example, is an “Arriero”, which is a rural “redneck” farm labourer, while their IPA is a “Moquetero”, which is a pub brawler, a Hispanic version of Begbie from Trainspotting. But do not go Brendan O’Neill on them now: they make fun of upper-class and class-neutral characters in the same way.
Their Helles Lager is a “Chuchi”, which is a pretentious posh lady, and their Pilsener is a “Meno”, a reference to the – mostly German – Mennonites who settled in Paraguay in the 19th century. Unlike the residents of San Bernardino, the “Menos” have largely kept themselves to themselves, so their descendants are still clearly recognisable.
Sacramento and Aurelia
Sacramento runs a large brewpub, which is probably the one we visited in 2019 without realising that the beer revolution had already begun. This time, we visited a smaller spin-off with a tropical beer garden, Sacramento Carmelitas. I was impressed by their Arriero, because I thought porters only work in a cool climate: even in Britain, my porter consumption drastically declines in summer. But Sacramento has somehow made it work. I also liked their Churro Campaña golden ale, which is somewhere between an ale and a lager, their slightly sour La Correli red ale, and their La Chuchi, a Bavarian-style Helles. Their sour was unfortunately not available.
Last but not least, there’s the brewpub Aurelia, which, from the outside, looks neither like a pub nor like a brewery, but like a colonial-era residential home, which it may well have been at some point. They offer a decent range of craft beers, which they supplement with some of their own. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on the latter because I messed up my Untappd reviews from that evening, mixing them up with an unrelated “Cervezeria Aurelia,” which is based in Venezuela!
Quite fittingly, I finished my Paraguay trip with a pint of Herken, wondering what the old Herken would have made of this one, with its bold, hoppy flavours. Maybe he has been watching Paraguay’s beer revolution all along from his seat in Valhalla, thinking: “About time! What took you so long?”
About the author
Dr Kristian Niemietz is a German-born economist who lives in London. He is also a beer and wine blogger in a personal capacity.
