Region & History

Blumenau lies in southern Brazil on the Itajaí-Açu river, built more in the German style than you might expect. The apothecary Hermann Blumenau founded the settlement in 1850 with seventeen immigrants. Along with Joinville and Brusque, it is one of the three centers of German settlement in Santa Catarina.

The settlers brought crafts, half-timbered houses, and the custom of brewing beer. In 1861, Pomeranians founded the town of Pomerode, which to this day sees itself as especially German. Some residents still speak German or the dialect of their ancestors in everyday life.

For decades afterward, large breweries dominated the market, above all Brahma, now part of the Ambev group. A countermovement arrived in 2002: the Mendes family opened Cervejaria Eisenbahn in Blumenau, named after the railway line next to the plant. The brewery set out to make quality beer in the German, Belgian, and American tradition.

In 2017, Heineken bought the then-owner Brasil Kirin, and with it Eisenbahn. According to press reports, the Blumenau plant now primarily produces the Californian brand Lagunitas, which also belongs to Heineken. Eisenbahn's standard beers partly come from other locations.

Alongside this, a scene of small breweries grew, and Blumenau likes to call itself the "capital of craft beer." Cervejaria Blumenau opened in 2015 and is considered the cradle of the Catharina Sour. There is no protected designation of origin for beer from Santa Catarina, unlike Kölsch in the EU. The name Catharina Sour is a style designation, not a legally protected origin, and any brewery can use it. Anyone following the trail of the immigrants will find it more in the cityscape and on the plate in Blumenau than in any law.