Were you looking forward to a Bottle Share Playlist? Well hold on tight, because the new selector of our musical series has arrived ready to go all in. Let's welcome Rubén Irisarri, head of marketing at the Gipuzkoan brewery Mala Gissona, to C R A F T E D.
The history of Mala Gissona originates in the year 2014. Two lifelong friends, Iban Zabala and Manu Murillo, after years of traveling and experiencing first-hand the beer culture in countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium and Germany, decided to found their own brewery in the municipality of Oiartzun. After a year, they opened the doors of their Beer House in the Gros neighborhood, a location that has become a benchmark in the Basque craft scene.
Ruben, however, who had always worked on projects related to marketing and linked to music (Mondosonoro, Mediaset), lived at that time in Madrid and worked for Spotify. But like any good prodigal son -and a lover of good beer-, since Iban and Manu founded the brewery, he was clear that one day he would return home and their paths would end up crossing. And so it did.
The name of the brewery was born from the expression “For ju Mala Gissuna”. This is a phrase that the Basque whalers who fished off the coast of Iceland used, and meant “you are a Bad Man”. That rough but honest personality of the old fishermen is part of the DNA of Mala Gissona beers. As Rubén points out: “we brew them in a way that is honest, because we want to help the beer culture grow. We do it through our two lines: the core range or line beers, which are beers in more accessible styles and that we have available all year round, and another more special line, with more experimental beers”.
Just as experimental is the selection of songs that Rubén has prepared for us. It is a sound journey that goes from less to more, or from more to less, depending on how each one wants to see it -or feel it, we already know that this is about emotions-. A 100% eclectic playlist full of styles ranging from alternative rock, punk, indie, electronic or techno, to Turkish acid folk. When consuming it, Rubén gives us the advice: “stir well and serve cold”. Eskerrik asko!