Bufona Cervecería Colombiana: Crafting Community in Colombia

Is there really anything better than pizza and beer with friends? Only if that pizza and beer with friends is in a home overlooking the stunning Colombian city of Medellin with the owners of Bufona Cervecería Colombiana, a craft brewery in the heart of Medellin, Colombia.

Welcome to Bufona Cervecería

Welcome to Bufona, one of the newest cervecerías artesanales in Medellín, Colombia. With a patio located directly on the sidewalk in El Poblado, a bustling neighborhood of bars, eateries, shops, and a vibrant night life, this intimate taproom is not one to be passed by.

Especially when you consider the meaning of the name, Bufona. Roughly translating to the likes of jesters or entertainers, Bufona Cerveceria Artesanal is exactly that. A place to get out of the hustle of everyday life. The goal here is community.

Meet Daniel and Tomas

A passion for community and purpose always, beer didn’t enter the picture until later. In fact, Tomas, cofounder and self titled finance guy of Bufona, didn’t even like beer at first. Although he did become a bottle collector. As for liking beer now? There’s no doubt.

Daniel, cofounder and brewer, on the other hand, liked beer since he started drinking in university. He never imagined, though, that he would become a professional brewer.

The two met in high school. Tomas went on to university and became a psychologist. Daniel went on to university to study mechanical engineering. However, not finding the passion for it that he had envisioned, he took off traveling instead. It was on those travels that he happened upon a beer bar in South Africa where he fell in love with all the flavors of beer. Coming back to Colombia, Daniel couldn’t find those flavors, so he started brewing them.

And since when owning a brewery you have to also make money, it made sense for the two of them to come together.

Although Daniel jokes that there’s a lot more to owning a brewery than simply brewing.

“When you're just starting, we are not a brewery, we are a cleaning service that occasionally brews.”

And for anyone that knows brewing, there’s not a much truer statement than that.

Their goals for Bufona are as big and beautiful as their country is. Ophelia, their biggest cheerleader and Tomas’s girlfriend sums up their mission with a fierce confidence.

"It's about building a country with the beer."

Join us as we sit in Daniel’s living room, comfortably seated on the floor with the coffee table holding the best centerpieces ever: Bufona beers, pizza from a local joint, and an impressive array of chips. While taking in the beauty of the city below through the homes’ impressive expanse of windows, we chat like we’ve been friends forever. About Medellín’s beer scene. About obtaining hops and malts. About the community that Bufona is creating one beer at a time. 

For the complete set of show notes click here.

Relevant Links:

To connect with Bufona, click here.

To learn more about visiting Medellín, click here.

To learn more about Hammock Universe, click here.

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