By Oriol Bolaño
Bernardo is an ordinary-seeming person, like those Jarvis Cocker refers to in “Common People” by Pulp, Bernardo’s favorite band.
OB: What is your background in beer making?
BM: I’ve always had a fondness for fermented foods. I am from that generation that drank pulque as a child. I am from a town called Huichapan, and at that time there were many pulquerías. We would go horseback riding in the countryside, and sometimes we would stop at a pulquería. I would have a little clay jarful, and it was very refreshing, I always liked it. I like that pulque is sour, that it foams, and that you can taste the alcohol. My taste for beer, like for many of us, started during adolescence. I have a taste for different styles of beer because I visited Portland with a good friend around 2006. We went to the Rogue Brewery several times. It had about 40 beers that they brewed. The business structure of that brewery was socialist, so in general the bartender earned the same as the brew master or the waiter, which made me like their beer even more. My favorite style is Indian Pale Ale (IPA). It has more hops and is more bitter than other beers. The hops used for that style are citrus or fruity. The result is that the bitterness is always reminiscent of some fruit, and is delicious. If we want to find a similarity between beer and pulque, bitterness is one.
OB: There is a debate about the beer industry. Some would like more breweries to be built and provide jobs, others are concerned about exploiting natural resources, mainly water. What do you think?
BM: I believe that multinational companies suffer from gluttony, and try to monopolize everything. They are always looking at how to increase their monopoly, how to reduce costs, and how to grow their markets. Further, they have lobbies looking out for their interests. Beer and fermented products in general are one of the many things that we consume that we could produce ourselves. We should produce and consume them with the people we choose.
OB: Is there a market for craft beer in San Miguel de Allende?
BM: Sure there is! We do not make beer with a conventional business approach, which is out of fashion. That would be like saying that mega projects bring progress or that you aim for success. Progress and success in the same sentence are disgusting and nauseating. The approach of Freak! Microbrewery is making the best beer to enjoy with the people we love.
OB: Leaving the beer issue, you are also in the construction industry. What are you doing?
BM: Yes, and I’m very happy. I work with my sister Cecilia and my brother-in-law Peer, who are architects. We have a residential finishing shop called Innovaciones Arquitectónicas, which is across the street from La Joya Hospital. We do everything from remodeling to installing any of the products we sell. Wooden floors, vinyl, synthetic grass, decks and a long list of other products and services. It was difficult for us to maintain the store during the pandemic, and we went through hard times, but it is better now. We have several projects under development and under way.
OB: There is an explosion of developments. What do you think of that?
BM: Yes, there is, I think there are around 50 residential areas in San Miguel. To me it is like a cancer; they can’t stop building. Clearly many of them [buildings] are not occupied, and there should be much stricter regulations. Many of those developments reproduce identical houses using the cheapest finishes, and attempt to sell them at stratospheric prices. Honestly, that’s crazy. It’s a bubble that’s going to burst at some point, for sure.
OB: What is the last book you read and movie you saw?
BM: The last book I read is Humankind: A Hopeful History, by Rutger Bregman, who is a young historian from the Netherlands. The book portrays a historical perspective of humanity. What the author discusses is that on the one hand, according to Hobbs, the nature of the human being is vile: take off the light layer of varnish that is civilization, society, culture, laws, and morality, and without that human beings are envious, voracious, and bloodthirsty. That is man’s nature. On the other hand, according to Rousseau, human beings are good, kind, and gentle by nature, and society is what corrupts them. The author studies 200,000 years of history and discovers that altruism and not competitiveness has been the evolutionary engine of humanity.
The last movie I watched was Aftersun on Mubi. Great movie! It is the debut feature of the Scottish director Charlotte Wells. The protagonist recalls the vacations that she took with her father when she was 11 and her father was celebrating his 31st birthday at a resort on the coast of Turkey. The father and daughter have a deep and loving connection, but there is also much left unsaid. It is an immensely emotional film, highly recommended for everyone, especially young parents.
Freak! Microbrewery is located at Calzada de la Estacion 59.
