Basqueland

It would be an understatement to say the craft beer landscape in Spain is challenging. The prevalence of macro lagers has warped public opinion of what beer can be, and what it should cost, making it hard for artisanal producers to find footing in the market. As a result, Spanish craft breweries have had to invest heavily in export while they fight to connect with drinkers on the home front. As challenging as this is, Basqueland has cultivated community at home and abroad, by celebrating where it's from, and allowing drinkers all over Europe to do the same. 

“The thing I’m most proud of is really how the local community has adopted ownership of the brand itself”, says co-founder, Kevin Patricio. “People really have a ‘that’s my local brewery!’ response to the beer, and have told us that when they’re abroad, or if they have friends visiting from out of town, our beers are something they use to showcase where they’re from, and use it as an example of a local product. People have taken on a very fervent brand ambassadorship and ownership of the brand. That’s easily the thing that makes me most proud of what we’ve done here.” 

When asked what advice Basqueland would give a younger version of itself, Kevin responded by saying, “think bigger! When we first started out, we thought, ‘how long will this facility last us? Oh, 10 years at least, surely’, and then we’re maxing out on space in two years. Similarly we were like ‘oh yeah, this manual brewhouse will be great for us’, and now it’s a big bottleneck. It would have made things a little less painful further down the line, if we hadn’t done so much with so little at the start. Of course, no one knows if we could have gone bigger, we didn’t know the locals would accept us, and that we’d manage to cultivate such a strong export market, no one has a crystal ball. But hey, at the beginning, you think the earth is flat, and it’s only as you grow that you realise it’s round.”