In case you have tried plenty of the famous volcanic wine and you feel like you need a palate cleanser in between all this wine, do not go far! Santorini have you covered once more! How? Well… the Santorini Brewing Company is located in Mesa Gonia, in between Fira and Kamari village, and will undoubtedly be an oasis especially in the heart of the warm summer season. This different Donkey Brewery is here for you to help you take a break and taste some unusual beers. Especially if you are a beer fan, make sure not to miss this cool place!
The beers made here are interesting and unique. Not only can you taste the various beers, but you can purchase some alternative souvenirs beer-oriented, such as t-shirts, bags, hats, and other cult objects carrying the donkey logo.
The unfiltered, unpasteurized, and preservative-free beers preserve their living nature only in low temperatures and are more than appreciated for their excellent quality. The brewery uses locally grown wheat, hops, and barley, but imports malt from Bosnia.
The brewery might not give organized tours, but the staff is more than happy to reply to all your questions and pour samples of their beers into your glasses! Visitors can either enjoy their beers at the brewery’s area or as a takeaway.
Location
Santorini Brewing Company is easily accessible by taxi or local bus, on the Fira – Kamari route.
The history
The brewery started operating in 2011 with only a few labels, crazy, yellow, and red donkey. Shortly afterward, the producers added the white donkeys, a beer with a small production, brewed 5-6 times annually. The last entry is the lazy-ass beer, indeed super tasty!
Guess what? A Serbian brewer, an American multi-talented woman, Greek oenologists and winemakers, and an English wine brewer and owners created this unique idea of this different kind of brewery! The four of them gathered, took advantage of their knowledge of the brewers’ secrets, and established the multicultural company. By using equipment from Austria and by selecting ingredients from all over the world, but also from Santorini, the four people managed to use the latest techniques to compose extra strong in color and taste beers.
How is up for a cool beer? We for sure! Cheers!🍻
We went to Santorini Brewing Co. to do a tasting of their beers. Good news: it’s free and there’s a local bus stop that drops you off in front of the brewery which makes it easy to get to from Fira or Kamari. Bad news: you are only allowed to taste the 3 beers that they choose and there’s not much else to do. There’s a video of their brewing process available to watch in the retail shop and a small opening in the building from the lower level to watch the bottling process. Other than that, there’s not much to do here. At most, you’d spend maybe 15-30 min. here. We later found out that there’s another local brewery that offers [paid] organized tours and tastings w/ snacks. I wish we’d gone there instead – it looks way better and it’s reasonably priced. Here’s their link: https://ftelosbrewery.com/tours/