Brewing Something new in Southern Chile: Valbier from Valdivia

Valbier Brewery from Valdivia southern Chile

In Chile, any bar or restaurant will carry the typical national beer brands Cristal and Escudo. You will also find the usual international suspects like Heineken, Budweiser, and Corona. However, what I am talking about here is real beer, not funny tasting water. There are a few micro brew beers produced in Chile.

When I talk about beer however, I am talking about something that is brewed like beer, looks like a beer, and most importantly taste like beer. Something with complexity, character, and body. I mean beers in the European traditions of Belgium or Germany. A beer with yeast still sitting at the bottom of the bottle. Most importantly in Chile, I am talking about something with hops (the bitter flavor in beer). A beer that will grab your tung, and make your eyes pop open. So far, there are only two real contenders, Colono and Valbier.

Valbier, with real hops and quality ingredients

One of the problems with hops, beer, and Chile is the Chilean pallet tends to shy away from strong flavors. Many of the beers brewed in Chile, even when the style of beer is defined by strong hops tends to be rather on the tame side. Kuntsmann's pale ale would be a case in point. It is one of the strongest beers in Chile, yet still tends to lean towards the flavor and consistency of Cristal or Budweiser in an attempt to appeal to the widest audience.

Valbier's Red Ale is from an entirely different tradition. It is a classic Amber Ale, with rich malted flavors and strong but balanced hops. The Amber Ale has the classic golden to red colors expected of an Amber Ale. The rich flavors boarder on fruity with a light smoke aftertaste. The hops are properly balanced for an Amber Ale, but it still makes it overwhelmingly the strongest hoped beer in Chile.

There are couple warnings for people who have not ordered beer in Chile before. This beer is brewed in the bottle the traditional way, with a thick layer of yeast at the bottom. Peek drinking times are about 4 to 6 weeks after production (we are throughly testing this). One of the problems we encounter in restaurants is the tendency to freeze the beer to the same temperature as Cristal or Escudo. At those temperatures, the yeast quits fermenting and stops the beer at about 1-2 weeks of brewing. The result is that the head on the beer never has a chances to properly form, not to mention that at those temperatures the flavors are rather dead. Our recommendation is to ask the waiter if they have one in stock that is not in the refrigerator. Chances are the standard room temperature in any restaurant in southern Chile is just about right.

bottles of valbier red ale beer from valdivia chile

Let me repeat, Valbier is Not Budwieser. Don't let the waiter poor your beer or you will get a glass full of beer with a nice head of yeast. We have mentioned this to the producers, and they are considering shipping with a label to explain how the beer should be stored and handled.

We might also suggest that when at a restaurant in Southern Chile ask the waiter for Valbier or check for the signs on the wall. We have found that Valbier is so new, it has not made it in to many restaurant's printed menus yet. You can find Valbier in Valdivia, Temuco, San José, La Unión, Frutillar, Puerto Varas, y Puerto Montt. For Santiago and the central area just a couple of online distribution center actually have this beer, but in the future we believe it is going to get more popular.

Valbier has only been in business for a few months. They as yet to break into the big Santiago market, but are rapidly getting their first brew out to all the local restaurants and distributors in Southern Chile. We visited the brewer in Valdivia, located in a warehouse district down a small alley near the old train station. Unfortunately there is no proper beer tour or free samples, yet. The owners at Valbier are focusing on producing great beer (lets not distract them). They have plans for a Bock, that is still under development and eventually a restaurant and beer tour to rival the more industrial Kuntsmann tour located outside of Valdivia. We hope they can both expand their market, and still maintain the quality of the beer. Too many small breweries start off with a good formula, then tinker with it until it taste like Budweiser. So far, the guys at Valbier are doing good.

Kuntsmann is their direct competition, and is an example of how not to grow a specialty beer market. Of the 6 types of beers they brew, only one comes close to even meeting the minimum requirements for qualifying for that style of beer they claim to be producing (I am being very generous here). The Pale Ale is their flagship beer, but is more pale than an Ale.

We also took a trip to their brewery/Kuntsmann experience beer tour. It was a bit offensive to see the company propaganda trying to link what their beer is to the pure beer laws of Germany and 500 years of quality tradition in Europe. At every turn you are constantly reminded of just how old they are, including reference to the original family brewery ( cousins ) that went out of business after the tsunami that hit Valdivia in the 1960's. It turns out there is just one mention in the entire museum of when they started the brewery. Turns out they started it in the '90s. The whole experience, even in comparison to the Heineken experience in Amsterdam, was kind of plastic and had more in common with the tradition of Las Vegas casinos breweries ( Las Vegas brews much better beer ).

As mentioned before the only true competitor we have found in southern Chile to Val Vier is Colonos. Thus, our next article we will be making a trip to their brewery in Llanquihue to give them a fair shot at the title of best beer in All Southern Chile.

More information about Valbier can be found at their site: www.valbier.cl

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Brewing Something new in Southern Chile: Valbier from Valdivia

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