“Now I’m a brewer, but the idea is that one day I’m also a farmer”
- Martin Lemaire is a young Peruvian who is behind the Arkatza brewery. After studying at the university, he took a master's degree in beer in Belgium. “My intention was to rework in the production of beers, but at that time there was no such possibility, there was still no very small throat,” he explains. In the end, instead of brewing, he found work in the wine sector and for several years acquired experience. But it always kept the idea of ever having beer.
“I started weaving the earth, and I keep on producing my cereal and my hops. As in wine, I want to produce and transform raw materials, do the whole process,” explains Lemair. Instead of giving in to the difficulties of access to land, the young man has used another strategy: “Is it very difficult to find it? I have chosen to get good friends from the crop,” he explains with humor. It works closely with cereal and hops producers, buying them raw materials at a decent price.
Arkatza brewery has been operating for three years. Lemair has highlighted that all ingredients have been produced in the Northern Basque Country and in a biological way, and has been experimenting with nearby products such as red maize, grapes, black bread… Meanwhile, he is still looking for land and although he has not got enough to produce all the raw materials, he is conducting tests on small plots of two and a half hectares. This year, for the first time, it plans to collect its cereal. “I also have a small lupullary, so in early 2024 things are going well, I hope that at least a few beers will go only with the ingredients extracted from my house.”
Beer adapted to nearby ingredients
Lemair explains that he makes three kinds of beers, but he says that most of them are outside the classic ones of always. For example, he says he doesn't make IPA that's very fashionable lately. Why? “I can’t do the IPAs because North hops are not for that. In 2022 90% of production was lost, we have little hops, so we have used little. If I do not have a component around according to my bases, then I do not use it. I capture something else.” That's the key to how to make the young person.
In addition, in the last year, and returning to its beginnings, it has planted several vineyards in an area of Lurzaindia, which will increase in May. Its intention is to start producing wine. “Similar tools are used in both processes, and I also have experience in wine,” he says. The Arkatza brewery workshop is located in Itsasun, in a space rented by the Euskal Hiria Elkargoa. The sale is also made in the North, in producer shops and in nearby marketing networks. Lapatza is, therefore, a beer from the Basque Country, produced, transformed and consumed in every way.
