Viva El Salvador’s beer revolution!

El Salvador’s Playa El Tunco, a bohemian beach town 26 miles outside San Salvador, is known for surfing by day and an eclectic party scene by night. Now, it’s also celebrated as the birthplace of El Salvador’s craft beer movement, thanks to American expats Andy and Nanelle Newbom, founders of Brew Revolution.

In 2010, the pair moved to El Salvador from San Francisco, where Nanelle had worked in the coffee industry. She turned her sights on a different sort of brew, as the pair opened El Salvador’s first craft brewery in June. Today, they serve Salvadoran-inspired beers like Venus Wit, a Belgian-style wheat beer infused with pineapple and maracuyá fruit, and Nyx Black Coffee, a dark, hop-and-java-flavored brew. Now, the cervecería’s beers can be found in more than 20 restaurants and bars around San Salvador.

El Salvador is a developing country, but with a growing middle class, there’s also a growing taste for craft beer. “There’s very little here, but if you bring something interesting, people are very hungry for something different,” says Nanelle. “And they are especially very hungry for something that they can call their own.” –Natasha Padgitt