They are young landscape architects, but that's not why we're going to talk about them. André Gonçalves, 28, and Ruben Pires, 27, are the creators of the craft beer «Marafada», produced in Algoz, which, from tomorrow until Sunday, will be tasted at the Beer Fest AlamedaOn Faro.
The beer has been produced since the end of last year and is even sold in eleven locations in the Algarve, including restaurants, breweries, a hotel, pastries and traditional grocers, in the municipalities of Silves, Albufeira, Faro, Loulé and Portimão (see list below).
For starters, the duo of master brewers launched an "India Pale Ale", a type of beer created by the British to send to India, "more resistant, that withstands heat and rocks". It is a beer with a stronger flavor, a little bitter, darker, which, guarantees André Gonçalves, «goes well with strong foods».
But because the duo doesn't like to stand still and rest on their laurels, a second type of beer is ready, an “Algarve Gold Ale”, more fruity, more golden, smoother.
André and Ruben, despite their youth, have their feet on the ground and like to do things with due care. Therefore, they explain, "we are producing and seeing what people want to drink".
This new beer will be released now on Beer Fest Alameda, where the «marfada» of type India Pale Ale (IPA). «We will take several batches of this IPA and present the new beer. Farenses and other people who attend this festival will have the pleasure of being one of the first to taste this novelty», says André Gonçalves.
But there is an important detail here that remains to be said, in order to understand how this «Marafada» has a pedigree of great quality. Because this craft beer is produced in the Grandparents' Farm, an old farmhouse located next to the Algoz road, now transformed into a tea and pastry shop, where you can eat the best and most traditional Algarve sweets, from the hands of D. Encarnação Gonçalves, André's mother.
In fact, Quinta dos Avós, which also has a rural museum center where, for example, a collection of carts and other animal-drawn vehicles is kept, as there are certainly few in the Algarve, all impeccably restored, is a hotbed of good ideas.
And how do two landscape architects, both finishing their master's degrees, one at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (André), the other at the University of Algarve (Ruben), get involved in this brewing?
«I already brewed beer for some time, for my own consumption. I have an Italian friend who was already doing it in Italy and who gave me some tips», says André Gonçalves.
“Then, the friends who drank the beer we produced started to encourage us to sell it, because they wanted to know where they could buy it”, adds Ruben Pires.
And, with a lot of research, a lot of experimentation in the mix, a lot of advances and setbacks, the idea of producing the «marfada» was gaining consistency. The first batches were first sold at Quinta dos Avós, where beer can still be bought. Afterwards, other contacts emerged, other customers. And today they are already selling in eleven locations in five municipalities in the Algarve.
André does not want to say how many liters they have already produced and sold since the beginning, but he assures us that there were «a few thousand».
The production of craft beer is duly licensed, but the brand «Marafada», which they already use on their labels, is not yet fully registered. «It has not been easy, because they are analyzing how many products there are already with this name», after all, a very common word in the Algarve. But André guarantees: «we are not worried about the brand, what counts is the quality of the product and we have already achieved that».
The label, as can be seen in the photos, shows an Algarvian girl, in traditional dress, but with a skirt up showing her (good) legs. «It's a marfado, so it has to have a pose like this», says, laughing, Ruben, who was the author of the label and image that is already the brand's logo.
Don't think, however, that the ideas of these two brewers stop there. Influenced by his parents, André Gonçalves is very interested in heritage, which is why he has participated in some activities at the Portimão Museum.
That was how, last April, at the Megalithic Monuments of Alcalar, during the recreation of a day in prehistory, the young brewers presented the many visitors with a beer… prehistoric. The success was immediate and there were immediately many people wondering where they could buy that very special beer.
André says that the project for this new beer is being developed «in partnership with archaeologists, to improve the recipe and bring it as close as possible to the beer from 6000 years ago».
To guarantee a unique taste, the beer given to participants on Prehistory Day “was made with a malt produced by us, and with aromatic herbs from the Alcalar area, to give it a different flavor. You can say it was a 100% Algarve beer, because of the ingredients and the fact that it doesn't contain hops».
André assures that “there is enormous potential for this to be also a commercial beer”. So don't be surprised if, in a few months, it comes on sale, in a grocery store good gourmet food or in the Portimão Museum itself, the «Alcalar», the first heritage beer in Portugal.
One of the first tasters of the «Marafada» was Gualdino Calçada, a popular poet from the Algarve, who wrote, by the way, the following quote: «You were born straight away marafada / you'll be like that all your life / you're well prepared / to give a lot of rashes».
With so many plans, requests and the master's degree to finish, André and Ruben haven't even had time to promote an official launch event of «Marafada». But maybe that will happen by October. O Sul Informação will report that, of course.
Places where you can buy/taste the «Marafada»:
(average selling price: 3,50 euros / 33 cl bottle)
Albufeira
Colibri Pastry 2
Estrada dos Salgados, Vale de Parra, Abel Carrasquinho Shopping Centre, Albufeira
Phone: 289 591 457
Restaurant – O Athlete Bar
Alto dos Caliços urbanization, Lj 8, 9 and 10, Albufeira
Phone: 28904250
Restaurant – Picnic Bar
Castelo Beach, Albufeira
Praia da Galé Restaurant
Praia da Gale, 8200-416 Albufeira
Phone: 289 591 636
Praia da Coelha Restaurant
Coelha Beach, Albufeira
Telephone: 289 591 018 / 962 756 152
Porto Bay Hotel
Olhos de Agua, Albufeira
Faro
Boheme Brewery
Avenida da República No. 2, 8000-079 Faro
Phone: 289 093 594
treats
Rua de Santo António 129 A 8000-284 Faro
Email: prankstersfaro@ Gmail.com
Silves
Grandparents' Farm
Algoz, road 269 from Algoz to Tunis
Phone: 282 576 459
Portimão
Monica's Flavors Shop
Travessa Drº Bastos nº 9, Portimão
Phone: 282 498 200
Loulé
Portuguese House
José Fernandes Guerreiro Street, Loulé
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