Published by Leonardo Calcagno
Who are you and your current job?
My name is Nicolás Brun, I am a founding partner of Cerveza Rondadora, a microbrewery in the heart of the Spanish Pyrenees. I work as a brewmaster and winemaker (in a different business).
What was the inspiration behind your brewery?
We are 6 friends who were homebrewers, after college, we wanted to start a business in our region to have an option to live there: it is a very rural area with 6.000 souls in 2.000 km2 (850sq miles). We wanted to make a company with the same values as we have (ecologic, high-quality beers, reusable glass bottles…) and have a job in it.
We were working on the construction of the brewery from 2011 to 2014, and we have been selling beers since 2014.
Can you give us a tour of your beer scene?
The beer scene in Spain is young, but it is much younger in our region. The average company size is still too little and is the time for better breweries to grow up.
People are making good beers, but culture, education, technology, and experience is needed to make great beers, and we only have a few of them.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a brewery?
We are still learning about what running a brewery means, but if i had to start now i will talk much more about brewing business with experienced people: only way to avoid mistakes is making them, or being told about!
