“Pedro kept those in mind; balancing our brewing style
between being true to the craft and the brew style, and with
what consumers are willing to accept as a beer,” Nadine
shared, when I asked about their thought processes on which
styles to start with.
“As a brand, Pedro wants to be relatable to people -
accessible, approachable, not intimidating. Wheat ale beer
styles were good ones to start with due to them being
light, fruity and not too far from what people know as
beer: the sweeter lager styles. And also then, we can’t brew
a lager. We didn’t know how to properly brew a lager at
the time, and there is no way you can mask your faults, so
we decided to brew ales. It also allowed us to turn over our
tanks due to the quicker fermentation turnaround.”
And so Endless Summer was born.
“We wanted the beer to speak for itself without you
explaining what this beer tastes like - something you can
enjoy on a hot day and be quenched. And yeah, it still remains
our best selling beer,” Nadine said when I asked about the
name of their first ale. And speak for itself it did.
“But now, we actually have a lager. It’s quickly
becoming our best-selling beer. Still very, very different
from the industrial lagers,” Nadine said with a twinkle
in the eye and a laugh. “Nothing wrong with industrial
lagers. It’s accessible; there when you need it at a very cheap
price. You can chug it down when you’re really thirsty, and
ultimately, industrial lagers are there for options,” she added.
I asked about their Indian Pale Ales (IPA) and how they
approached making it. For someone used to industrial pale
lagers, on first taste I felt IPAs are definitely alien and even
possibly unsellable here, with a seemingly excessive amount
of bitterness in various forms due to it putting front and
center the most expensive ingredient of a beer: hops.
Nadine agreed and added: “If you’re a craft beer
brewery, it’s almost like you HAVE to brew an IPA. It’s
the quintessential craft beer brewery style. It’s like you’re
showing off that you’re not afraid to showcase these really
bold flavors that industrial beer will never ever do. IPAs
have been around for as long as the British started trading
spices with India, hence the name.”
I had to ask, “So, if you don’t have an IPA, people
won’t take you seriously?”
“Well, we got teased on that. For the longest time we’ve
been holding off on brewing IPAs. We say ‘we brew for
a larger market, I don’t know’. The other brewers kept on
goading, and finally Jaime (Fanlo, head brewer) went, ‘fuck
it, let’s brew an IPA’,” Nadine laughingly recounts.
105
Perennial bestseller, Endless Summer Wheat Ale
Opposite page: The road to Pedro Brewcrafter's
signature flavors, as depicted on Instagram
“We wanted the beer
(Endless Summer) to speak
for itself without you
explaining what this beer
tastes like - something
you can enjoy on a hot
day and be quenched. And
yeah, it still remains our
best selling beer,”