Rethymnian Brewery

2001: We start construction work on the brewery building. The brewhouse and other equipment arrive before the building is completed. Anyhow we decide to install everything in the half finished building to start producing as soon as possible. With the traditional wish from a fellow brewmaster we start the first brew on the 31st of August 2001 and soon the first organic beer in Greece is ready, fermented in a brewery without window-frames, without connection to the electricity mains (using an old and too small generator) and without the necessary cooling-equipment (using ice cubes to cool the fermentation tanks). Despite all this, the ready beer turns out to be of excellent quality. The winter is difficult, the sales of the first cold months are, in average, less than 100 liters ! (for comparison: January 2010 the sales were over 6.000 liters). Luckily, the brewer has not yet left his job in Scotland. (He will be traveling there every month for the next three years). Bottle filling is done with a semi automatic filler, and of course we are closing our swing stop closure bottles by hand. Labeling of the bottles is done by wall paper glue and a brush. Returned bottles (from the beginning we had decided only to use returnable bottles for environmental reasons) are cleaned with rotating brushes. In summer 2002 we successfully start our little beer-garden, which we regrettable had to close down in autumn of 2007 due to lack of time. Show Less