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Roberto Fonseca with the centenary brewer of the Canoinhense brewery

There’s a revolution going on regarding craft beer in Brazil which we are not very aware of, proportionally comparable to the Italian movement. Luckily, I had the privilege to be informed about it with great details by the star of this interview. Roberto Fonseca is a Brazilian journalist who writes for O Estado, the third newspaper in the nation, and a huge lover of craft beer. Last September he was in Italy to visit some of our breweries with the aim to know our beer culture, as we shall see, shows many resemblances to the Brazilian movement.

I had the pleasure to meet Roberto at the opening of the Open Baladin pub. He was there to write a report about it on the newspaper he works for. Intrigued by the turmoil brewing in Brazil, I could not resist to ask him some questions: the result is the following interview, also revealing a juicy anticipation in the end. Roberto Fonseca, along with his work as a journalist, runs a beer blog, B.O.B. Visit and read it if you can read in Portuguese language, of course.

Hello Roberto, please tell us something about you, what do you do and how your passion for craft beer started.

I am a politics journalist since many years. My passion for beer started 15 years ago, when the Brazil president opened up the market to imported products: suddendly you could find beers from several countries (United States, Europe, Asia, Africa), although mostly industrial lager. During that time I started collecting beer cans, wich gave me the occasion to taste some special product .

After that I forgot about beer for six or seven years, until 2006. That year I chose to spend the holidays in Santa Catarina, a state in Brazil, where there are many breweries boasting a strong inspiration from craft breweries in Germany. I paid visit to 12 of them and tasted many different quality beers, from producers with a 100 years history to recent ones, opened just since few months. Back in Sao Paulo, I wrote a report of my voyage for the newspaper I work for: they asked me to keep on writing articles on beer for publishing. Until today I have visited about 45 breweries in Brazil, but the recent trip to Italy was my first international experience.

Most of Italian beer lovers can’t imagine it, but in Brazil a true culture of craft beer is developing. So, how many microbreweries exist in Brazil? What are the most distinctive features of this movement?

Today there are about 120/140 breweries. But 90% of them produce industrial-style Lager and a Malzbier (similiar but made with caramel corn). Many microbreweries believe in a sort of wrong idea: indeed, many of these think their duty is to produce beers like Ambev beer or some other large group, to fill market niches where multinationals do not arrive. Others are sort of “afraid” to make different beers, and keep on producing classic triptych Pilsen / Dunkel (or Bock) / Weizen. On the other hand, there are 10 or 12 Brazilian breweries that do their job quite properly, focusing on quality beer and traditional styles, trying new styles, using typically Brazilian ingredients for their recipes. Among these I can mention Cervejaria Colorado, Cervejaria Bamberg, Falke Bier, Chop Wals, Abadessa, Leopard and others. I  should also mention Eisenbahn and Baden Baden, but they were recently purchased by a large group called Schincariol beer: the recipes have not changed so far, but there is some apprehension among fans.

What kind of beers are produced by Brazilians microbreweries?

Basically there are three different schools in Brazil. The most common is the German, due to a certain historical influence (immigration, brewers who studied in Germany, etc..), especially prevalent in southern states like Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. The second school is Belgian, stronger in Minas Gerais, where many recipes are inspired by Dubbel, Tripel, Quadrupel, Blonde Ale, etc.. Finally, the third school can be called “Brazilian”, recently born and less widespread. However, it boasts the most interesting recipes, as in Colorado: an IPA with Rapadura (solidified sugar cane), a Pilsen with Cassava root, a Weizenbier with honey, Porter Stout with coffee and an Imperial Stout with black Rapadura. Also Dado Bier produced a Lager beer with Yerba Mate (ilex or paraguaryensis), usually used for a popular hot infusion called chimarrão. This school seems to me the closest to the Italian one.

What kind of opinion have you formed about the Italian movement, after your trip? What are the differences with Brazil?

The movement in Brazil began in about 1999 - in Italy shortly before. But the Italians brewers  showed a faster and different  development. I think the biggest difference between the two countries is the origin of professionals. In Brazil, those who want to start a microbrewery do not know much about beer and imagine such activity as merely a “shop” to earn money. They usually engage former brewmasters from some industrial brewery, who know how to make beer in a large facility, are able to handle a few recipes (Pilsen, Malzbier, perhaps a Stout) and own a huge German influence on their training – most of them don’t know how to make a Witbier, for example. There are very few examples of craft brewers who started with a homebrewer with different ideas. In Italy is exactly the opposite: of the 10 breweries I visited, they all started from the figure of a passionate homebrewer aiming much more to the quality than the quantity. And that makes all the difference in the world. I think that between 5 or 10 years we will be at the same level of Italy today. There are two differences more: in Italy is quite common to use wooden barrels to mature the beer and use typical Italian ingredients in beer. In Brazil there are seldom examples of aging beer in wood or the use of local ingredients. Pity that Brazilian importers have not yet discovered the Italian beer, but this is about to change soon…

Finally, what are your favourite Brazilina breweries? Is there any chance to find any of these products in Europe?

There are many beers that I love… Colorado Demoiselle (the Porter with coffee), the Indica (the Rapadura IPA); Rauchbier Bamberg, Schwarzbier and Bock, Baden Baden 1999 (a Bitter Ale) and Red Ale (which, unlike the name, is a Barley Wine), Eisenbahn 5 (a Märzen with dry hopping), Weizenbock, Dunkel and Lust (a 11.5% alc. beer produced by the Champenoise method), Falke Monasterium (a Tripel with Curacao, orange peel and coriander ), Wals Dubbel. In a few months will also be available in Brazil the first “modern” beer aged in wooden barrels. I said “modern” because there is a brewery called Canoinhense (in the city Canoinhas, Santa Catarina) who has reached 102 years of activity. The owner is a 93 years old gentleman. Their beer is made as a Sour Ale: the must is left to cool in copper pools, then left to mature in barrels. The result is a sour beer with a strong wood flavor and aroma. Technically it’s not a great beer (there are tasters who can not stand it), but one thing is certain: it is a historical beer and the oldest in Brazil to be made today.

Unfortunately, none of these beers is available in Europe. The Eisenbahn had begun to sell in London some years ago, but after selling the company to Schincariol I suppose that is no more distributed there. But I can give you a preview: There is an Italian beer lover who is interested in setting up an event with craft beers in Brazil in 2010. We’ll wait…

Thanks Roberto, greetings from all the Italian beer lovers and readers of Beer-Chronichles.

Thanks to everyone for the welcome, hospitality and beer.