This summer I spent some time in the beautiful Basque Country. Besides the picturesque villages, spectacular scenery, and delicious food, this autonomous region of Spain has much to offer for lovers of wild ferments too! Most notable are the numerous cideries, but lovers of wild beer can get their fix too. For an overview of the four wild beer breweries in the Basque Country, check out this recent article. One of these breweries, and probably the smallest one is Garai Agro Brewery from Garai, a tiny village near Durango. This brewery, run by Ibon, is part of Garai Kontserbak. Garai Kontserbak, run by Ibon’s wife, is a small company that produces all sorts of organic condiments and sauces.
The Brewery
Ibon started brewing beer in 2016 but at the time didn’t have a fixed location yet. The brewery, named Garai Brewing Co. at the time, produced mainly pale ales. In 2019 the name was changed to Garai Agro Brewery when the brewery was set up in a newly built part of his house. From then onwards, Ibon started making saison beers. These beers are fermented with a house culture of yeasts and bacteria. Around the same time, the brewery got its organic certification from the authorities. The brewery is beautifully situated in the luscious and fertile Basque green hills so most fruits are grown in their garden. Since 2022 they have worked together with acquainted organic farmers solely. Besides saisons, Ibon started brewing wild beers too and the small home build coolship was used for the first time in December 2022. Flowers from the garden were added to the cooling wort to help with the inoculation by the local microorganisms. The capacity of the brewery is deliberately kept very small with only 10 barrels currently in use. All barrels are Rioja red wine barrels.
The Beers
Due to local regulations for small breweries Garai Agro Brewery’s beers are only available in the Basque Country. However, Ibon is hoping to come to Rustic & Wild, organized by his friends from Santa Pau Ale Works in Girona, with some of his beers. So you might have a chance to taste his beers there next year in March. Garai Agro Brewery produces pale ales, saisons, and wild/coolship ales. Because this is Beers Gone Wild, I’ll focus on the latter two types. From these, only four saisons are currently available for sale. Luckily, I was able to get an exclusive tasting of the wild beers and other saisons that are still aging in the barrels.
The four saisons, Kaiku, Sarda, Korana, and Zerra are all made with a different base beer and fermented and aged on stainless steel. Kaiku is a mixed fermentation saison fermented by the house culture, lactobacillus, and Brettanomyces, Sarda is a sour saison made with lemons from the garden, Korana is a dry-hopped sour saison, and Zerra is a barley and rye-based sour saison with home-grown orange and coriander.
The Barrels
During our conversation, I got to taste all of the different beers from the barrels. The first was a saison base beer that was used for Kaiku and some of the coming releases. The house yeast culture gives the beer a distinct fruity, banana-like flavor. The second barrel I got to try was a strawberry saison with homegrown strawberries, followed by a blueberry saison and a saison with peaches. All three beers were pleasantly fruity and I can hope to get my hands on some bottles when they’re released. Especially the variant with peaches was absolutely stunning. Furthermore, I had a taste of a raw saison that was still developing and needed some extra time in the barrel.
Four coolship beers are aging in the barrel that I got to try. The first coolship brew, a collaboration with Santa Paul Ale Works using one of their barrels, has a lot of potential for aging. Not even one year old it already has a complex and sour flavour with some smoked wood notes. Another coolship beer, brewed in February, clearly needed more time to develop. As did another coolship beer that was infused with wild flowers. The last coolship beer I tried was an elderflower-infused beer that had a very pronounced elderflower smell and flavor. Last but not least, I tried a grape ale made with Txokoli grapes and a blend of all leftover brews. The last one was surprisingly good!
Thanks, Ibon for welcoming me to your home and brewery! It was amazing to taste all of the barrels and have a conversation about your passion project while enjoying one of your fantastic beers. This is what I love, and why I started this blog. Connecting with other wild beer enthusiasts, tasting new flavors and beer directly from the brewer. If you’re going to be in the Basque Country, try to get some of his beers as they’re a nice souvenir to bring home and can only be bought there. The bottles of saisons are still in my cellar, so stay tuned for more posts here and on Instagram about these beers in the future!