DOUGALLS

What does a Brit miss when he moves to Spain? His beloved ale! Andrew Dougall had to experience this first hand and made a virtue out of necessity.

A hophead in beer exile

It all began with Andrew Dougall. In his hometown of Richmond, the Brit enjoyed his first pints of his life and fell head over heels in love with the magical drink made from hops and malt. Most of the beers in the pubs came from local breweries that had been making their beer according to old traditions, some of which had been doing so for centuries. Andrew first came into contact with American hops in the 90s: The brewing pieces by Samuel Adams, the Breckenridge Brewery and the Redhook Brewery introduced him to the fine art of brewing with aromatic hop varieties. Andrew developed a small preference for hoppy beers. When he moved to Liérganes in Spain with his family, he was initially delighted by the wonderful weather, the friendly people and the good cuisine of his new home. The only drawback was the Spanish beer. Instead of being strong and hoppy, the local creations were light-footed and a little too watery for Andrew's taste. In order not to die of thirst, Andrew began to brew his own barley juice. However, it would be several years before he had his own brewery.

Beery recycling

After almost a decade of brewing just for himself and his friends, Andrew decided to take a step back. He bought a brewing system from a fourth-hand brewer in England, shipped it to Spain and opened his company in 2006. He launched a core range of three different brews. Two years later, he met Kike and Anna, who had just moved from Barcelona. The three of them hit it off right away and decided to work together in the future. From then on, things went steadily uphill: in 2011, the team rented a larger hall, in 2014 an automatic bottling line was added, in 2018 they opened a laboratory and in 2019 they were able to expand again with the help of a crowdfunding injection. DouGall's beer is a mix of English classics and modern craft beers. To make the future of their brewery and that of the world a little better, the company has developed a sophisticated environmental concept. The spent grain, a waste product of the brewing process, is used to feed local cattle. The residues left over from the hops are used to make fertilizer for salads and the remaining yeast is given to a cheese factory. Returning waste products to the cycle reduces waste enormously and ensures that recyclable items are not simply thrown away.