It is the premiere of a new series in C R A F T E D. A series that is born with a very specific purpose: to get closer to those new breweries that, in a very short time, have managed to conquer us.

CRAFTED RADAR focuses on young projects. Projects that in addition to applying with mastery the art of wort fermenting, they also transmit something. Without filters. You already know that this is all about emotion. Just one requirement: they have to be real and have a soul. You will understand what I am talking about when you get to know Oddity Brewing better.

If we drew a profile including everything I like about a brewery, the result would come pretty close to what they are. A common project by Ivan Raho and Vicky Navarro, which offers various elements that are worth paying attention to.

ORIGIN AND YEAR OF FOUNDATION

Oddity Brewing was founded earlier this year, 2020, and the first beer launch took place in April. That’s right: in the middle of a pandemic. But the truth is that their story had been written for a long time. It only remained to show it to the world.

The project is the result of the natural evolution of a career, that of its Head Brewer Ivan Raho, with years of experience in restaurants, craft beer bars and breweries, among which Garage Beer, Wylam and Whiplash Beer stand out.

After five years of learning and experimentation in the world of craft beer, in which he managed to obtain the General Certificate of Brewing (2018) and occupy the position of Junior Brewer in the breweries of Wylam and Whiplash, Ivan decided that the time had come to start his own business. A project together with his partner, Vicky Navarro.

Vicky, after a period of six years working as a writer, editor and community manager in the gastronomic section of a Barcelona art and culture magazine, joined the Oddity project to lead the brand's communication and image strategy.

When defining a location for the project, Vicky herself tells me that it is based in Barcelona: "for the moment, we are gypsies, and although we produce outside the city, in the future we want to have our own brewery in Barcelona". Ivan has experience working in countries such as England and Ireland, and for this reason they decided to make their first beers in Dublin “where we have the collaboration of a modern brewery where technology plays a key role, and whose founders we consider good friends. Even so, Barcelona is our cradle and our home”.

PHILOSOPHY

One of the aspects that I like the most about Oddity, apart from its beers, is its philosophy. Surely the fact of having chatted with Ivan before the project started has allowed me to understand it a little better, but the truth is that the identity of the brand and the values ​​it transmits reveal a large part of its personality and the creativity of its founders.

Vicky's explains: “we believe in small things and their natural evolution, and Oddity Brewing is the stage that defines our trajectory and journey in many aspects, both professional and personal. Our objective is to translate everything we have learned into something that we can share and that represents us enough for us to be able to recognize ourselves in. If we take a picture of the current beer scene, the level is overwhelming. There are people doing great work out there, and a lot of complexity in styles and executions. We have been lucky to have been a part of this since the beginning, and now we have to demonstrate what we have learned and share it in the best way. What defines us best? Perhaps the desire to feel consistency in our beers. It would be very satisfying if we were recognized by that and that this consistency is enhanced with the way we communicate through social networks, the design and the image of the brand. In other words, bring that consistency to all fields of work, and thus feel motivated every day to be able to do better, learn more and share what we do. After all, it's about beer, and you have to share it.”

THE ART IN ODDITY BREWING

Oddity Brewing's strong connection with art is another aspect that has to be taken into account. A simple glance at their website or social media channels will help you see it. And of course: the designs of their cans.

Both Ivan and Vicky admit that during the process of devising the concept of Oddity they were very clear that local art would play a prominent role. Vicky's experience working for lamono magazine, closely linked to the art scene, has undoubtedly forged the identity that is so recognizable in the brand: “it occurred to us that we could in a way turn our cans into blank canvases for different artists. If each beer was different, each can should be too. The branding of the brand should reflect this diversity and transmit the soul of each recipe”.

From the beginning they set their sights on the work of artists Kim Van Vuuren y Txemy to work on the labels of Shedland and Crumbling Crowd, respectively. And the results, in addition to being unique and fresh, they are also spectacular.

While we talk about art and design, Vicky gives us a first teaser for the next beer that is already on the way: “for the new Youngsters on Dominoes beer, which we will launch in July, we have chosen the Barcelona illustrator Bea Salas, with whom we have found great complicity. With her ballpoint pen work and fine lines, we have given a new point of view on label design (you will see this soon, haha)”.

Within their own team, they also have the support of graphic designer Dani R. Feria, creator of labeling.

BEER STYLES

In terms of beer styles, the range of Oddity is wide but revolves around a series of premises: “we want our beers to reflect the modern, daring and complex vision that characterizes the contemporary beer scene in which we live and which we will also capture in some of the most classic styles (lagerbiers, stouts, pale ales, etc.). Sometimes we like the darkness for the tranquility it transmits, we are passionate about the wild and we fall in love with the aromatic”.

When asked about the beer - of those brewed to date - which they are most satisfied with, Vicky acknowledges that “the most complex and at the same time the most challenging was the Crumbling Crowd. Ivan took it as a personal challenge and felt an urge to do something bordering on the obsolete perhaps. He loves being able to make dark beers, and he wanted to pay tribute to what he learned in the northern islands. A first tribute to their mentors was to be make something classic that they know a lot about and was easy to drink in Spain. It was destined to be a Brown Ale or a Stout. He began to investigate and document what was traditionally done when these styles were born, and came repeatedly across Brown Porters and, the even less known Brown Stouts. From there, the challenge was to adapt and modernize the processes, translate and understand the tasting notes and carry it out. He needed two small test batches to be able to outline the matrix of what it was going to be and convince the staff around him to do so. It is a technically complex and optically simple beer, the downside was the huge amount of caramel and brown malts that you have to use without messing everything up.”

FUTURE PLANS  

Before saying goodbye, I want to know more about their future plans. As expected, there are many ideas and projects that they have in mind. Firstly, to get Oddity Brewing to establish itself as a solid brand. Their own words express that ambition and the desire to grow do not cloud their good sense or the wish to continue doing things well, especially when they comment that “before putting future plans on the table it’s fundamental to first achieve more stability, rotation and consistency in the product. We try to grow in something day by day, and one way to do so is to be able to lead each process or, at least, to contribute in each one of them.”

The distance to Dublin is another of the aspects they plan to focus on, as they themselves point out “we work thousands of kilometers from the factory, and it takes many pallets to move the beer here, so the first thing is to lead that aspect strategically, and tackle a natural growth in our city (Barcelona) and the rest of the peninsula”.

Finally, another objective is to have their own physical space in Barcelona or surroundings, where in addition to being able to work and meet friends, they can sell some of their beers. And the next thing is to have their own brewing space, but step by step, since as they say: "we are learning to read right now, and having a brewery would be like writing a novel." Well, to tell you the truth, they have left me eager to read it!