Craft beer in the Basque Country: Bidassoa Basque Brewery

Published: November 21, 2023

Our small craft beer tour in the picturesque Basque Country of Spain continued from Laugar Brewery to the town of Irún, right next to the French border, where we visited Bidassoa Basque Brewery! This wonderful microbrewery was born out of passion towards beer, combined with a strong scientific background in microbiology. In this post we share the story of this artisan brewery and introduce their impressive range of beers!

A brief history of Bidassoa Basque Brewery

The founder and brewmaster of Bidassoa Basque Brewery, Carlos Arrecubieta, has a solid background in both brewing industry and the science behind brewing beer. The inspiration for commercial scale brewing sparked during his years living in New York, working as a scientific researcher at the Columbia University and for a Biotech company. He first started to brew as a hobby, and then collaborated as a microbiological consultant for a brewery in New York. During that time he learned different aspects of both the brewing itself and of running a microbrewery. Carlos returned to the Basque Country in 2012 to start his own brewing business, together with Inigo Pérez, a life-long friend from their hometown Irún.

Bidassoa Basque Brewery was born out of passion towards artisan beer and microbiology, and named after the Bidasoa River, that runs by the town of Irún, marking the border between Spain and France. River symbolizes the diversity of the beer and that no two beers are alike; like Heraclitus once stated, “You cannot step into the same river twice”. The brewery cherishes the rich cultural heritage and long traditions of craftsmanship in the region.

The production started in 2014, when craft beer was still a very young phenomena in the Basque Country, and since then the brewery has been growing and launching new quality beers. The concept of the brewery is to brew beers in different product lines, focusing both on highly drinkable, easy craft beers, that are great for welcoming new people in to the world of artisan beers, and on more bold and also experimental beers that the craft beer lovers can’t resist.

Bidassoa brewery and taproom

The home of Bidassoa has always been in Irún, but in 2020 the brewery moved from its original location to larger premises within the city. This enabled establishing a bigger taproom restaurant with a full kitchen, a wonderful venue for tasting Bidassoa beers and pairing them with food. The taproom is located right next to the brewery itself, and there are 10 taps with super fresh craft beers, one of them reserved for a rotating guest beer.

As the brewery has been growing, they have been constantly investing in new, production equipment – the largest fermenting vessel is now of 40 hectoliters, and altogether fermenting / maturing capacity is more than 200 hectos. At the moment the production volume is roughly 500 000 liters per year, and there is capacity for further growth. Bidassoa uses both bottles and cans, and just recently invested in a new, modern canning line, that can handle 8000 cans per hour!

Bidassoa is primarly a local brewery, focusing on delivering their beers around the Basque Country and elsewhere in north-western Spain, like Asturias and Cantabria. There is also some international export, but the main market and focus is to be local. Bidassoa also brews for nomadic breweries, like Mala Gissona, also from the Basque Country.

Tasting Bidassoa beers

The beer range of Bidassoa Basque Brewery is impressive, from very light and easy beers to hoppy IPAs and to strong and intense brews. The core range of Bidassoa, called the Original, includes seven beers in classic styles; Kasper, a light, refreshing Blonde / Kellerbier, Boise, an amber-colored American IPA, Larrun, a malty and bitter Rye Imperial IPA, Mugalari, a hoppy and fruity Pale Ale, Gluten Free, a hoppy gluten-free Pale Ale, Txingudi, a fruity, slightly herbal IPA and Agiña, a classic Weissbier / Hefeweizen.

The Hop Coast is a series of fruity IPAs, packed in 0,44 liter cans decorated with colorful, graphical labels. This relatively new beer series plays with hops and showcases the different styles of India Pale Ales. The Dark Series includes tasty Stouts from a light Rye Stout to an intense Russian Imperial Stout. And then there is also a Sour Series with fruited Sour Ales, some seasonal stuff and other special brews, collaboration beers and at times also barrel-aged beers. Below short introductions of four Bidassoa beer in different styles, jump from the pics / links to beer cards with beer description and tasting notes!