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Published by Leonardo Calcagno
Who are you and your current job?
My name is Eneko Abad, head brewer in Faxilda Beer. Our microbrewery is based in Galicia, northwest of Spain and was founded around two years ago. I am actually 100% dedicated to the microbrewery and besides being head brewer I am also in charge of the administration of the company.
What was the inspiration behind your brewery?
I used to live in Barcelona some years ago, where the boom of craft beer started in Spain. I am a beer passionate and at that time in Barcelona enjoyed trying emerging beers and also attended to some courses for homebrewing. When I moved to Galicia I started making my recipes and it was love at first sight…I knew I wanted to be dedicated to the world of craft beer. The essence of Faxilda is inspired by the place where we started homebrewing, on the cliffs of Punta Faxilda in the Galician coast. In fact, in each of our beers, you will find a piece of Faxilda’s legend that is inspired in our place and it is the key to our story and our essence.
Can you give us a tour of your beer scene?
The number of microbreweries in Galicia has spectacularly increased in the last two years (around 30 new microbreweries) and some of them are doing it quite well. This is very good because we are more people from the sector working to give visibility to craft beer in our region. When the competition is high you need to put really an effort to compete and make a good beer trying to be on top so I think there are very good beers in the Galician market.
On the other side, consumers and hoteliers here are not so familiar with craft beer as in other regions in Spain and there is still some work to do in terms of showing and honoring our product. In my view, the expectations are very promising for the craft beer sector in Galicia.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a brewery?
My advice to people wishing to start a brewery is to start as a nomad. There are now very good breweries where to start making your own recipes and receiving the advice of more experienced brewers. In this way, you have time to check how consumers respond to your product before investing so much money.
Also, I believe it is very important to define a strategy and know who is your target consumer, where do you want to sell your beer and being realistic.
