MADRID, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Ten years ago there were four friends who lived in the city of Guadalajara close to Madrid who liked good beer and were bored of the limited offer of beer produced by Spain's main producers.
They started to brew their own beer in a container that held around 100 liters, which allowed them to experiment with small batches to produce different styles of beer. Four years ago they decided they liked their beer so much that other people would also like it.
Consequently, "Cervezas Arriaca", one of over 400 micro-breweries in Spain, was born, but the founders of Cervezas Arriaca had bigger plans.
"In a country like Spain where gastronomy is valued and where there has been a tremendous development in industries such as cheese, wine, olive oil, ham, it was just a question of time until that reached beer," Jesus Leon, one of Arriaca's founders told Xinhua.
"We like to eat and drink well in Spain, but until now the production of beer was conditioned by the big producers in the sector and that meant we couldn't enjoy the variety of styles, tastes and aromas offered by beer."
In Jesus' opinion, some main producers in Spain had "spent years producing virtually the same product." However, being a small producer allows Arriaca to be more adventurous.
"One of the key characteristics of a micro-brewery is the versatility. Here we make small batches and several different styles of beer," he said.
Among Arriaca's eight different beers are a "session IPA" which has just 3.6 degrees of alcohol, a wheat beer, an IPA with almost 7 degrees alcohol, as well as a dark porter and an Imperial Stout. They produce eight different beers in vats of 2,500 and 5,000 liters, allowing them to change and experiment as they have with a new style of beer flavored with red fruit.
"It's been really well accepted and our growth in the four years we have been operating has been tremendous," said Jesus.
In 2015, Cervezas Arriaca produced around 100,000 liters of beer, which doubled in 2016 and doubled again in 2017, when the factory produced 420,000 liters.
"That shows a quality beer was needed and that as producers we needed to give value back to beer," Jesus insisted.
Having a quality product is worth little if you can't take it to your potential market and Cervezas Arriaca were pioneers in becoming the first artisan producers in Spain to put their beer in cans.
Jesus said that using cans was "perfect for several styles of beer, especially those with a lot of hops, because it doesn't t allow in light or oxygen to enter and preserves the beer for longer."
Besides, cans are lighter which have allowed Cervezas Arriaca to move beyond the specialized artisan beer stores. Arriaca's beers now are avaialble on the shelves of several Spanish supermarkets.
"It has opened up a new retail channel for us," Jesus commented, adding that the it also allows them to other countries.
In the near future the factory is set to expand further and the workforce will be increased from the 11 people who currently work there. Not bad for something which started as a hobby in a garage.