Today in #SeamosMexicanos we present you: César Solis, founder of Thodes Ale, located in Mérida, Yucatán and tells us his story:
I started with the idea of making Beer because I had a crisis. I had been working as a public sector employee for some time and I did not feel complete, I was always quite bad at almost anything I did in terms of manual or skill things and it gave me some frustration.
I had always wanted to do something that I and other people liked, like drawings or something creative. The inspiration to make beer stems from reading the Godfather book, in which the fact that it was a custom that home-made wine was offered when arriving at a house was very impressed on me. And I thought it would be very nice to be able to receive my guests by giving them something made by me. But there it was, just as something I would like to do.
Until one day I went to a friend's house to play video games, and this friend had a craft brewery, he says that he learned to make beer by buying a kit online and that was all I needed, so I allocated my Christmas bonus for that year To buy a beer kit, I watched some youtube videos, read a file on how to make beer, and brewed my first batch. Like most brewers, the batch turned out pretty bad. But that didn't discourage me, because the experience of cooking beer made me feel in a way that I hadn't felt before, despite ending up with a pretty bad cheva, the brewing process seemed very gratifying to me, despite being very tired and uncomfortable. So I started studying to better understand what the process is like, I bought some books, I joined some forums and groups. After spending several months studying, designing and buying my brewing and fermentation system I took a loan from my job and set up my brewhouse and fermentation equipment according to what I had learned, it was in my budget and it was enough in my old bathroom. my parents' house. I had set out to make good chicks and I can say that when I used that equipment for the first time, things went mostly as I had planned and without a doubt I got very good chicks. Now I wanted to invite my friends to take them but really very few took the time to go to my house to try them, which discouraged me a bit because the initial motivation was to be able to share it with my friends and acquaintances. But I was already in, just like the “Ricardito” meme, I already knew that this was my thing... making craft beer. The truth is that I had very little knowledge of beers, in fact I made beer styles that I had never tried in my life, but I was a Geek and I read a lot about beers, their history of each style and brewing practices, which was good result. So I dedicated my Sundays to cooking beer and I was very happy. But at the beginning of 2018 I had run out of money and if I started spending more money from the house on beer supplies I risked having problems with my wife, so that had me a little discouraged, because I couldn't continue making chelas.
Until one time I went to a beer store, we asked for a recommendation and they recommended a local beer that was really bad, and so my wife told the manager that I made better beer than the one they had recommended, to which The manager replied that she should bring it and if it was good they would sell it. And that's how it all started, I began to see the label, the brewery logo and since I am a person who likes fantasy, I wanted my chevas to have names and images of mythologies, but the names that I liked were already used, my friend the illustrator told me to call it name as my nickname, because it's my beer and if people don't buy it then I'll drink all of it myself and he proposed to put an image based on me as the logo and I thought it would be something more of a type comic or childish, but it turned out very well and we left the logo as it is now, it would be Todes Ale (the Ale of Todes who am I) but in the impi they did not allow it because there was a company that made juices called Katodex and how everyone is " resemblance” could not, so we added the hy and it was like this Thodes Ale. And I started selling my beer, my first clients were Dzalbay, Taninos para todos and the Raíces store. And now I could cook a lot because the beer was well received, I had proposed to make a very good quality cheva and I had achieved it. The demand began to increase and so the brewery grew.
I started giving my cheva to knowledgeable people and they liked it, I gave it to beer sommeliers and they gave me very good reviews, and I became friends with them, I had finally found something that I was recognized for being good at, and I decided to live Of that, most people told me that it is not possible, I remember that on one occasion I invited a couple of friends to my house to have some of my beers and between the talk that I do not remember in its entirety now, he said: " It's as if you wanted to make a living from beer, it's just a hobby", to which I didn't respond, but I thought that comment was a bit silly because it is known that there are a lot of international microbreweries and there are several microbreweries national, and to a certain production capacity if it is considered good business.
Later I met some local brewers who feel the same way. I never agreed with them, that is my goal, to have a microbrewery that is sustainable, so far I have managed to grow in size, I have improved the quality of my beers, I have been able to attend a beer camp in Tijuana taught by a of the best breweries in the world and one or another local course. My goal is to be the best brewer in the Yucatan.
Another thing that I enjoy the most is the beer scene, going to the festivals, going to the places where they sell craft beer and spending time with the waiters or vendors. I can consider many of them my friends.
Follow him on his networks
👉 contact number: 9993455534
sale to the public
👉 9993512674 restaurants and shops
👉 thodes.ale@gmail.com
👉 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thodes.Ale
👉 Instagram: @thodes.ale