- Tiago Carneiro and José Felipe Carneiro of Wäls Brewing
Brazil’s Wäls Brewing first landed on our radar at the 2014 World Beer Cup in Denver. There, Tiago Carneiro and José Felipe Carneiro were two of the more rambunctious award winners, jumping onto the stage with zeal, hooting and hollering in their native Portuguese. Fast forward to late February 2015, and news broke that Wäls had been acquired by AmBev, a subsidiary of Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Now, Wäls’ “satellite brewery” (according to a DRAFT Magazine article) is opening in Chula Vista under the name NOVO Brazil Brewing Co. Representatives told WC that the two businesses have some shared business partners, but that they should be viewed as two distinct breweries. In mid-March, NOVO began producing the first of its 14 planned beer styles. So far, they’ve made Session Cacau IPA, Rio IPA with Simcoe hops, and a Trippel. Their tasting room is set to open this month (their Facebook page reports potentially the 18th).
Connections between San Diego and Brazil go back even further.
In 1995, San Diego and Campinas (two hours northwest of São Paulo) became sister cities, poised to engage culturally and commercially. In Campinas, the creator of Brazil’s RateBeer equivalent opened Bar Brejas, serving beers from all over the world.
Back in San Diego, censuses show nearly 4,000 Brazilians reside in the county. “Brazilian Day” is a popular and growing event, returning to Pacific Beach in September.
Locals Green Flash have an especially cool connection to Brazil. During SDBW 2013, Green Flash packaging supervisor Chris Weber (whose wife is Brazilian), hosted employees from Porto Alegre’s Seasons Craft Brewing. Earlier in the year, Weber had travelled to Brazil and collaborated on a hop-heavy IPA.
Seasons’ Founder Leo Sewald told us they visited plenty of spots here in SD: Green Flash, Stone, Alesmith, Ballast Point Home Brew Mart, Port/Lost Abbey, Belching Beaver, Amplified Ale Works, Pacific Beach Ale House, Neighborhood, White Labs, The Tap Room, Crazee Burger, Keg and Bottle, The Homebrewer, and Latitude 32 Pub.
As for beers, the group took to Stone Ruination IPA, Green Flash Green Bullet, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, and AleSmith Double Hammerhead. They also got their hands on a barrel-aged Rare Form from Amplified Ale Works thanks to brewer Cy Henley.