Region & History

Anyone who simply orders "una cerveza" in Argentina will get a Quilmes in most bars. The brewery stands in the city of the same name, south of the capital on the Río de la Plata, and its founder came from Germany.

Otto Bemberg, a German immigrant, founded the Brasserie Argentine in 1888 together with his son Otto Sebastián. The joint-stock company was registered in Paris, but brewing took place by the river near Buenos Aires. The son had learned brewing in Munich. The first draft beer was poured on October 31, 1890, and from the very beginning it carried the name of the town.

Otto Bemberg died in 1895, shortly after establishing the company. His son carried the brewery forward. In the 1930s and 1940s the family took over competitors and thereby came to dominate the Argentine beer market.

The family did not stay at the helm forever. In 2002 Quilmes entered a strategic partnership with the Brazilian group Ambev, and in 2006 the majority changed hands. Since then the brewery has belonged to AB InBev, one of the largest brewing groups in the world, continuing under the Quilmes name. The beer from the suburb is thus part of an international conglomerate, yet the Quilmes brand remains firmly rooted in the country.

There's no protected designation of origin for beer from Buenos Aires, and Quilmes too is a brand rather than a style name. Since the late 1990s, however, a scene of small breweries has grown up alongside it. Antares started in 1998 in Mar del Plata and now has venues in Palermo, Las Cañitas, and San Telmo as well.