Noctua is the first and only microbrewery in Athens
How four friends decided to leave their jobs and start making beer.
Photos: A. Christofilopoulos / FOS PHOTOS
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” Thus spoke Benjiamin Franklin. Or so they say. What is of interest to us though is that the beer makes us happy. Especially when it is good and moreover, when you know that it is made by four friends, by themselves, who decided to create the one and only microbrewery in Athens.
Yes, you read that correctly. The only one. There might be several microbreweries around mainland Greece and on the islands, but in the capital there were only the big ones. So, Iasonas Panagiotopoulos, Christos Vasileiadis, Orpheas Dimopoulos and Dimitris Giannopoulos decided to leave their jobs and start making beer.
“It is very strange because in every city abroad you can find 5, 10 and 15 microbreweries. It is not reasonable for a city of 5 million people in Europe to not have one of her own. So, we decided to create it,” Iasonas starts the conversation. “It is very difficult to find a place with the specific license in Athens and maybe that’s the reason why it hasn’t been created yet,” he continues.
So they found an old garage on Piraeus street, formed the area by building the necessary walls and made their first beer in August. “Meanwhile, we were searching for recipes at home, in order to bring them to a bigger scale in production afterwards,” Christos comments. “We liked this. We were going abroad and visiting other breweries, so that we could have a well-rounded picture of brewing and were trying different recipes,” he adds.
Having tried lots of beers, they knew what they wanted and were just trying to make it perfect at home, before the big production. “You can make something really good at home, but it might not be the same when you make it here,” Iasonas steps in to clarify. “I have been thinking about it for many years. I saw people doing it, but I didn’t believe it could really be done. At some point, I started getting very exhausted with my job and I thought about it in a more serious way. We gathered ourselves little by little and we have been trying to set it up for two-and-a-half years now.”
You need determination to take this step, to quit your job in the middle of the crisis. And to know what you want to do. “Doing something on your own under these circumstances, I don’t think is a deterrent. The financial situation is very difficult, but on the other hand, you take control over your future,” Christos comments, while Orpheas characterizes it as a ‘leap of faith’. “It has its difficulties, obviously, but when you decide to do it, you stay and support it,” he adds.
Now on the other side, new difficulties start to rise.
“We cannot introduce Noctua to the bar across the street. Greeks have to decide to drink your product, paying something more in order to consume a quality drink and not a mass-produced lager. It has to do with what each bar owner gains. And it is reasonable, because if you cannot give them the offers and discounts that the big producer gives them, they are not going to select you. They are not going to gain more money from ours than from a common beer,” Iasonas explains. Nevertheless, the goal is to become competitive, however difficult it is, if you take into account the mass productions and the 92% tax increase.
It is also important that a good distribution network exists. People have to know you exist and find you. Just having a good beer is not enough. The people behind Noctua are trying to make their place more available for visits. They organize open days and show people around, with a beer in hand, of course. Do you know beer is created? You can go and find out how your favorite booze is made and take a couple of beers home too. All this, is just 5’ from Kerameikos metro station, where all the crazy nightlife takes place. In the future, there will also be special edition beers that you can only obtain there.
The four friends collaborated with a brewer from Syros island, Nikos Hatzakis, who has a great deal of experience and now owns the Syros Winery. They asked him how the perfect recipe is made and how all these machines work. Because it is one thing to know in theory and another to have a person that actually knows what he is doing. “For Pale Ale we got help from Nikos. But we made the Black IPA on our own. It was something that we wanted to put on the market, although it is not easy to sell it. It is not a simple black beer, it’s very special. With hops, scent and a general explosion of flavours, it is not something a Greek is used to. But many people were impressed by it, since there is not something similar here. We haven’t joined this culture yet,” Christos states.
Pale Ale, their other beer, is “going with the flow,” as the guys say, but when I tried it for the first time, I didn’t believe that it could be that good and Greek. Every time you try something you like, you notice the details more and more. So, I was turning the bottle and paying attention to the artwork, the “Owl of Athens”. It doesn’t have seem like the cliché Greek aesthetic and kitsch columns, as it follows European styles, thanks to Andy Papadakis. Very meticulous, modern and beautiful.
‘Athenea Noctua’. The latin name of the smallest owl that lives in Greece gave its name to the microbrewery that now lives in Athens. It is representative of the city. Even the beer names follow the own concept: ‘Head Twister’ pale ale from the bird that can turn its head around, and ‘Night Vision’ for the owl’s supervision.
The goal is to produce 4 or 5 different etiquettes per year, so that they cover a big variety of styles and choices. They will eventually produce a lager, but they want it to be different, not like most out there. We are excited to try their third beer, an IPA with intense flavor, scent and amber coloured.
The conclusion?
“People understand that they are drinking something different. If you give them something of quality, not only they are going to like it, but they are going to ask for it,” as Iasonas commented and everybody agreed. Always ask for the best you can get and support products that come out of exertion and ‘meraki’.
Cheers to the nice beers and healthy endeavors of this — and every — place!
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