The Beertrekker

The Beertrekker Photographer | Ethnographer | Visual Story Teller | Content Creator
"Every beer has a story.Every story has a beer" Every story has a beer"

The BeerTrekker is a photographic journey about the beer culture and the people behind them. Over the last 10 years I have been traveling around the world visiting breweries and documenting it with pictures and storytelling. Follow my journey and explore the world of beers with me and remember: "Every beer has a story.

For a long time, the closest I got to Africa was the music.Back in 2005 I worked at Putumayo World Music in New York Cit...
06/05/2026

For a long time, the closest I got to Africa was the music.

Back in 2005 I worked at Putumayo World Music in New York City, surrounded by the sounds of Mali, Senegal, South Africa and the Ivory Coast, and the artists who made them. I fell hard, and that music is still some of my favorite on earth. Ever since, I have wanted to stand on the continent it came from.

Then in 2013, the year The Beer Trekker began, I had my first African beer. This exact bottle, a Tusker, at the iconic Brooklyn restaurant called Madiba on June 16, 2013. I didn’t know it then, but it was the start of a thread I’m still pulling on.

On June 7, I land in Nairobi. My first time on the African continent, in the country behind that bottle, Kenya.

Nairobi’s craft beer scene is thriving, built by people who know exactly what they’re doing. I’m coming to meet them, taste what they’re brewing, and document it the same way I have tried to everywhere my Trekks have taken me.

This photo is from June 16, 2013. On June 16 this year, thirteen years to the day, I’ll be in Nairobi. The circle closes right where it started.

So show me. If you know Nairobi, where do I go, what do I drink, who do I need to meet? Point me in the right direction. I’m all ears, and I can’t wait.

Asante, Kenya. See you in a few days.

Afya!

Diez años. Una década. Felicidades a Xavier, Marlene y todo el equipo de Bee Beer por este hito.Mi conexión con Bee Beer...
05/03/2026

Diez años. Una década. Felicidades a Xavier, Marlene y todo el equipo de Bee Beer por este hito.

Mi conexión con Bee Beer comienza cuando Xavier me contacta por Instagram para invitarme a su local en Chueca. Era 2023, estaba viviendo entre Nueva York y Madrid, y una tarde me aparecí sin saber lo que me esperaba.

Xavier estaba detrás de la barra dándome a probar sus cervezas una por una mientras yo las iba entendiendo. Entre cerveza y cerveza, empezamos a hablar. Ese día también estaban dos amigos suyos del colegio en Caracas, contemporáneos de mi hermano Apache. Y ahí comenzó una confluencia de historias.

Xavier estudió en La Salle en Caracas, el mismo colegio donde estudié yo. Él era contemporáneo de uno de mis hermanos menores, yo era contemporáneo de dos de sus primos. Sin saberlo, habíamos crecido en los mismos pasillos en La Colina.

Pero ya va, este peo pica y se extiende. Xavier trabajó en Esperanto, una de las tiendas de disco más icónicas de Caracas, entre 1996 y 2004. Yo trabajé entre 2005/06 en Nueva York para el sello disquero Putumayo World Music, quienes tenían presencia exclusiva en Esperanto. Sin saber, la birra y la música nos conectarían.

El 2 de mayo de 2023 Xavier me invitó al Bee Beer de Chueca para su séptimo aniversario. Documente y capture algunos momentos, sin imaginar que tres años después estaría escribiendo este post.

A finales de ese año, en una cata en su local de Debod, apareció uno de sus primos con quien había compartido el colegio en Caracas. No nos habíamos visto desde el bachillerato, unos treinta años atrás. Conocí a su familia y resultó ser amante de las cervezas también. El mundo es un pañuelo y nosotros somos los mocos.

Como escribió Xavier el año pasado en un artículo: nuestras vidas no son líneas rectas, son ramas que se abren y se reconectan. Dos venezolanos, uno haciendo cerveza en Madrid, otro documentando la cultura cervecera alrededor del mundo, descubriendo que llevaban décadas orbitando en los mismos círculos sin cruzarse.

Por muchos más años, birras e historias. Xavier, Marlene y a tod@s l@s panas de BeeBeer.

Cada Cerveza Tiene Una Historia. Cada Historia Tiene Una Cerveza.

Salud y Gaceta Hípica!

Yesterday, Proclamation Ale Company announced it is closing its doors. When I read the news this morning, I went back to...
05/02/2026

Yesterday, Proclamation Ale Company announced it is closing its doors. When I read the news this morning, I went back to something I wrote on Dave’s birthday, just a few weeks after he passed away in December 2020. Five years later, it still says everything I need to say. This one’s for Dave, for Lori, Harper, the Proc team, past and present and for everyone who ever walked into Proc and felt something.

I first learned about Proc back in 2014 through my good friend Kris Waters, a local RI’er who was always telling me about his local brewery and sending me some of their beers.

I first met Dave back in 2015 at BeerAdvocate Extreme Beer Festival. I was walking around trying as many beers as I could when I passed by the Proc booth and started talking to him. He was puzzled about how much I knew about his brewery, being from NYC and all. At the end of the festival I told the Alström brothers about three breweries that blew my mind, Proc was one of them.

Since that day, I became friends with Dave and we stayed in touch through social media and text messages. A year later he and Lori hired me to take pictures at the original location in West Kingstown, RI. It was my first paid gig at a brewery and for that I will be forever grateful.

I was fortunate enough to see how much Proc grew, to see Dave translate his vision alongside his rocks, Lori and Harper. I would always joke with him about his nonchalant demeanor, his laid back personality, outlandish ideas, embracing being a goofball yet serious and professional when he needed to be.

I am so glad to have met you mate, you are one of those people that leaves a mark and I am a better person because of you. I will miss seeing you at festivals, visiting you in the Kingdom of Warwick, but most of all I will miss our random late night phone calls where we would talk about everything and nothing, life, dreams, vent out.

Lori, thank you for your strength and keeping the dream alive for so long. I am here if you ever need anything.

Happy Zwanze Day!Zwanze Day 2026. My first one in Chicago.15 years of the global toast. Let that sink in.Cantillon start...
04/25/2026

Happy Zwanze Day!

Zwanze Day 2026. My first one in Chicago.

15 years of the global toast. Let that sink in.

Cantillon started this in 2011. One brewery in Brussels, one experimental beer, bars around the world all tapping at the same moment. I caught my first one in 2014 in New York City and I've been chasing it to different cities ever since.

This is Jean Van Roy, the man behind it all, raising a glass in his own barrel room. I took this photo on one of my visits to the brewery in 2018. During the tour, that trip was a major milestone for my project.

New city. Same ritual. Glass raised.

Wherever you are right now, if you are attending the Zwanze celebration, you're part of something that started in a small Brussels brewery and grew into a worldwide moment. That's the whole thing. And it never gets old.

To all my Zwanze lovers around the globe, let's make it a good one.

Santé!

It's the Season!Happy to all the lovers of this beautiful style around the world.Thank you to my dear friends Allagash...
04/18/2026

It's the Season!

Happy to all the lovers of this beautiful style around the world.

Thank you to my dear friends Allagash Brewing Company for starting this beautiful tradition in 2014.

In the words of my good friends in Ambler, PA Forest & Main Brewing Company Believe in Saison.

Santé!

Hoppy Easter!No chocolate eggs here. Just one of the best German-inspired pilsners I’ve had in a long time.Hopfen! Hopfe...
04/05/2026

Hoppy Easter!

No chocolate eggs here. Just one of the best German-inspired pilsners I’ve had in a long time.

Hopfen! Hopfen! from my dear friends Creature Comforts is a Pilsner done right. Crisp, herbaceous, a little floral, all sitting on a clean malt backbone that knows its place.

I’ve been lucky to know them for years. I’ve spent time at the brewery in Athens, GA., and they’ve been sharing their beers with me for a long time now. Doesn’t change the fact that when I cracked this open, I just stopped for a second.

They have been dialing in their Lagers for the last 12 years. This is precision. Flawless ex*****on, and everything exactly where it should be.

The Germans figured out a long time ago that hops don’t need to punch you in the face to be the star. This beer gets it.

It looks simple. It’s not.

Grateful for the years and the beers. Prost!

On April 3, 1996, the doors opened in Lurago Marinone, and with them, a new chapter in beer history quietly began.But th...
04/03/2026

On April 3, 1996, the doors opened in Lurago Marinone, and with them, a new chapter in beer history quietly began.

But the story really starts earlier.

Agostino Arioli, a Milanese brewer, had already spent a decade honing his craft brewing skills as a home brewer from 1985 to 1995, before bringing his vision to life. On February 11, 1996, the first Tipo Pils was brewed. Less than two months later, the brewpub opened its doors, and nothing about pilsner would ever be the same.

Birrificio Italiano didn’t just brew a great pilsner, they redefined it.

Tipo Pils became the blueprint for what we now call the Italian Pilsner, refined, expressive, and quietly radical. A dry-hopped lager that proved elegance and character could coexist, and that tradition could still evolve.

For me, this story has always been personal.

I still remember trying my first Tipo Pils, it was in Belgium, 2018, at the BXL Beer Fest. One of those beers that stops you in your tracks and recalibrates your understanding of what a pilsner can be.

From my first visit to the brewery in 2019 and again in 2023, to sharing beers and long conversations together in Brooklyn, NY or in the Czech Republic, these aren’t just moments, they’re part of a journey that deepened my respect for the people behind the beer.

Because Birrificio Italiano isn’t just about innovation, it’s about culture.

They didn’t just create a style, they built a community around it. From the first Pils Pride in Italy in 2006 to Pils & Love in the U.S., in 2017, they gave this movement a heartbeat and a place for all of us to come together.

I’ve seen first hand their influence echoed across continents, they have inspired hundreds of breweries around the world. But it always leads back to that original spark, and the people who lit it.

Happy 30th anniversary, my dear friends Birrificio Italiano Thank you Ago, Stefano, Gio, Rudy, Francesca, Maurizio, Alma, Perla and the rest of the Birrificio family for the inspiration, the beers, and more importantly the friendship all of these years.

Here’s to many more beers, years and stories.

Salute!

04/03/2026

"A kind of Pils"
- Agostino Arioli.

30 years and counting. Here's to many more beers, years and stories.

Salute!

GLOBAL GIVEAWAY ALERT (please read carefully)I wasn’t planning on sharing this yet, but it’s already starting to leak.O...
04/01/2026

GLOBAL GIVEAWAY ALERT
(please read carefully)

I wasn’t planning on sharing this yet, but it’s already starting to leak.

Over the past year, there have been very limited pilot runs exploring alternative packaging for traditional lambic, mostly driven by export constraints and evolving sustainability requirements.

Interestingly, while cans were initially dismissed due to refermentation risks, more recent trials focusing on dissolved oxygen management, internal pressure stability, and light protection appear to have shifted that thinking.

So yes, against all expectations:

The first lambics in cans have been produced.

From what I understand, this wasn’t intended for public release (yet), but a small quantity has made its way out as part of an unannounced test batch.

To mark what could be one of the most debated changes in lambic history, I’ve partnered with my dear friends Brasserie Cantillon to give away the first four canned releases.

Some will say this should never happen. Others will say it was inevitable.

How to participate:
• Tag 3 friends
• Follow both accounts

The winner will be announced live during Zwanze Day at the Cantillon taproom on April 25, 2026 at 12PM EST.

Extra entry:
Repost to your feed and/or stories, tag both accounts, and use


Not sure how long this will stay under the radar.

Good luck and Santé!

Orval was my first!New York City, 2002. Just moved, figuring things out, and my brother hands me a bottle of Orval.First...
03/22/2026

Orval was my first!

New York City, 2002. Just moved, figuring things out, and my brother hands me a bottle of Orval.

First Belgian beer.
First Trappist beer.
First time tasting Brettanomyces, at the time, I had no idea what that even meant.

I just knew it didn’t taste like anything I’d had before. A little wild, a little funky in a good way, and impossible to forget.

That beer stuck with me. It’s what pulled me into a beer rabithole, specifically Belgian beers, in a serious way and eventually plqnted the seed to what would become The BeerTrekker in 2013.

In 2018, for the 5th anniversary of the project, I found myself at the Orval Abbey in Belgium, with access to the brewery. Full circle.

Today, my first Orval Day in Chicago, celebrated at the iconic Belgian centric Hopleaf for the first time.

It has been 24 years after that first sip, it still makes me fall in love with this majestic beverage.

Santé!

📷 Teresa Gonzales

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Chicago, IL

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