A Very Cold Beer

We visited the legendary Austral beer brewery, the oldest in Chile.

The history of beer in Chile began in this inhospitable region. In the late 1800s, Punta Arenas was a very small village with a promising future, where the families that would transform the city into a commercial pole were already established.

In 1896, José Fischer, a German brewmaster arrived in Patagonia and settled down there with the idea of making this beverage based on malted barley, for the colonists. Thus, the southernmost beer in the world was created, and Fischer gave it the name of Patagona. As it had an excellent quality, it soon became popular all round the region.

By 1916, Fisher's undertaking was already offering 6 varieties of beer and, in 1961, it was a very interesting business for the Chadwick family, who purchased it from the Fishers to merge it with their company, Malterías Unidas. In the late ’90s, Malterías became a partner to trade and distribute its trademark Austral all through the country.

The legendary Patagona beer today is known as Austral, with its green label or can. Its name was changed but not its location, as the brewery still remains in the same site where it was founded 110 years ago. In addition to the brewery, a beer museum was opened in the same venue.

Touring around the venue, visitors may follow the process of making this beverage step by step, from the stage of selection of the malted barley to bottling, as well as learn some of the secrets of this special southern beer.

Karina Jozami Jorge González

Tour Kind: city tour

In 2006, Austral beer made a great commercial bet and began to produce a premium quality line of beer, which rescues the flavor of homebrewed beer, as personal as the region where it is made.

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