Greece
Breweries on the map
Brink's (Rethymnian Brewery)
The Greek press calls it 'arguably Crete's best-known beer, at home and beyond the borders': Brink's, the Rethymnian brewery, has turned the town of the minaret and the Venetian loggia into a name that travels on beer lists far beyond the island. Its craft beers, poured from the old-town tavernas to the beaches of Bali and Episkopi, act as Cretan ambassadors to visitors and export markets alike. Between the Fortezza fortress, the traditional weddings of the hinterland and the monasteries of Arkadi and Preveli, Brink's puts Rethymno on the itinerary of any beer lover crossing Crete from west to east.
Cretan Brewery
In Zounaki, among the olive groves and orange trees of the Platanias hills, Kritiki Zythopoiia — the Cretan Brewery — brews the Charma beers, among Crete's most established, and belongs to the Hellenic brewers' association official network of breweries open to visitors. Set in Chania's hinterland, twenty minutes from the Venetian harbour and its lighthouse, it welcomes guests to see kettles and fermenters before tasting the range on the spot. Between the sunset beaches of Falassarna and Balos and the Samaria Gorge further south, Charma has become the natural brewing stop of western Crete.
Lafkas Brewery
In Vamvakopoulo, a suburb of Chania a few minutes from the Venetian old town, Lafkas Brewery cultivates the artisan scale: small, expressive batches prized by the enthusiasts who comb the harbour bars and the city's bottle shops. Its closeness to the centre makes it western Crete's most accessible brewery — you can go from the Egyptian lighthouse and the lanes of Topanas to discovering its brews in a quarter of an hour. Together with Charma in the Platanias hills, it forms a Chania duo that gives the city the unofficial title of Cretan beer capital, best verified in person between two plates of dakos.
Solo Cretan Craft Beer
In Heraklion, between the palace of Knossos and the Venetian fortress of Koules, Solo Cretan Craft Beer has carved out its place in the Cretan capital's bars on the strength of honest hoppy ales and a fiercely independent spirit — down to the name, which claims the solo ride. Its beers accompany the new generation of raki bars and city-centre counters, from the 1866 Street market to the harbour terraces, embodying the urban side of an island where craft plays out differently in the hills of Chania or Rethymno. The address to know for drinking local in Crete's biggest city, before the ferry or the archaeological museum.
No brewery for this initial.