# Chile Country page of DA Caps, a collection of beer bottle caps. Web page: https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country/cl/info - Official name: Republic of Chile - Local name: República de Chile - Caps in the collection: 93 (https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country_caps/177) - Brands: 53 ## Beer in Chile Before beer, Chileans drank chicha, first made from maize under Andean influence; in colonial times wine, pisco, aguardiente and chicha were the main drinks. European beer arrived in the years after independence, and brewing on a large scale began around 1850 with German immigrants. Joaquín Plagemann, a German immigrant, set up a brewery at Valparaíso that CCU counts as the first beer factory in Chile; in 1851 Carlos Anwandter, a pharmacist who had reached Valdivia a year before, founded the Anwandter brewery on Isla Teja. Sources disagree on which of the two came first. Anwandter Hermanos was the first brewery in Chile to install modern machinery and to hold a Bavarian certificate, and Valdivia brewed 20 million litres in 1907. In 1889-1891 Plagemann's brewery joined the Hoffmann brewery of Limache, founded in 1883, to make the Fábrica Nacional de Cerveza, which took over Gubler y Cousiño and in 1902 went to the stock exchange as Compañía Cervecerías Unidas (CCU). By 1916 CCU owned the four biggest breweries in the country, Anwandter among them: the family sold it that year, after a fire in 1912, and the earthquake of 22 May 1960 destroyed the Valdivia plant for good. In the far south the German brewer José Fischer settled in Punta Arenas in 1896 and brewed Patagona for the colonists; the Chadwick family bought it in 1961, and it became Cervecería Austral. It is often said that Austral is the southernmost brewery in the world, but no source confirms it. After Quiñenco of the Luksic family and Schörghuber, the owner of Paulaner, bought 64 per cent of CCU in 1986, CCU brought out Paulaner under licence in 1990 and ended that year with 98 per cent of the Chilean market, Cristal alone with 57 per cent. Competition came in late 1991, when Quilmes of Argentina built a brewery in Santiago for 30 million US dollars and set up Cervecería Chile with Heineken; its Becker, priced below Cristal, made CCU double its marketing budget. CCU bought half of Austral in 2000 and half of Kunstmann in 2002, and in 2001 Heineken became its partner by buying Schörghuber's share in the holding company IRSA. In 2003 CCU still held about 89 per cent of the beer sold. The Quilicura plant, now AB InBev's, has been expanded since August 2018 to three times its capacity, and Becker is brewed there wholly in Chile. Craft brewing began in the south. Armin Kunstmann and Patricia Ramos brewed at home in Valdivia from 1989, sold Kunstmann Lager from 1991 and in 1996 or 1997 added Torobayo, a pale ale named after the district of its brewery and described as the first commercially made craft beer in Chile. Kross of Curacaví was founded in 2003, and in 2011 the Concha y Toro winery agreed to buy at least 40 per cent of it; Tübinger of Pirque dates from 2007. The big group answered with stakes of its own: Kunstmann took 50 per cent of Guayacán of the Elqui valley in 2018, and in August 2022 CCU bought Volcanes del Sur, whose sales were put at 10 million US dollars a year. According to Acechi, consumption per head rose from 30 litres in 2005 to 57 in 2023, with a peak of about 65 in 2021, and in 2024 the country had more than 300 producers. Kunstmann brews about 300,000 hectolitres a year, 2.7 per cent of the Chilean market, all of it in Valdivia, where about 300,000 people visit the brewery each year; it marks 35 years in September 2026. In August 2026 Acechi counted about 400 breweries and a consumption of 52.5 litres per head. In September 2025 CCU celebrated 175 years, dating itself from Plagemann's brewery of 1850, and announced that its Limache brewery, closed in 1993, will become a museum, an investment of more than 7 million US dollars. Sources: - [Wikipedia: Beer in Chile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Chile) - [Memoria Chilena: Industrias alemanas en Valdivia, Osorno y Llanquihue](https://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-650344.html) - [The Clinic: Los origenes de Cerveza Cristal (2024)](https://www.theclinic.cl/2024/11/08/los-origenes-de-cerveza-cristal-la-emblematica-y-popular-marca-que-ha-estado-presente-en-cada-generacion-de-chilenos/) - [Reference for Business: Compania Cervecerias Unidas S.A.](https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/Ci-Da/Compania-Cervecerias-Unidas-S-A.html) - [Diario Financiero: Un recorrido por el futuro museo en la Ex Fabrica CCU Limache (2025)](https://www.df.cl/capital/cultura/un-recorrido-por-el-futuro-museo-en-la-ex-fabrica-ccu-limache) - [Good Beer Hunting: In Patagonia, the new craft beer culture in Valdivia (2022)](https://goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2022/7/12/in-patagonia-the-new-craft-beer-culture-in-valdivia-chile) - [The Beer Times: Documentary on why Valdivia is the beer capital of the southern world](https://www.thebeertimes.com/en/documentary-premieres-explaining-why-valdivia-is-the-beer-capital-of-the-southern-world/) - [The Beer Times: Kunstmann Torobayo, the beer that started Chile's craft revolution (2025)](https://www.thebeertimes.com/en/kunstmann-torobayo-the-beer-that-started-chiles-craft-revolution/) - [La Tercera: El secreto de la cerveza Kunstmann esta en Valdivia (2026)](https://www.latercera.com/finde/noticia/cerveza-kunstmann-valdivia-variedades/) - [Diario Financiero: Alejandro Kunstmann, el 100% de la cerveza la elaboramos en Valdivia (2026)](https://www.df.cl/regiones/los-rios/empresas/kunstmann-apuesta-a-consolidar-su-expansion-nacional-sin-renunciar-a-sus) - [24horas: Kunstmann celebra 35 anos de historia (2026)](https://www.24horas.cl/regiones/zona-sur/los-rios/cerveceria-local-valdivia-kunstann) - [InterPatagonia: Una cerveza bien fria, la fabrica Austral](https://www.interpatagonia.com/puntaarenas/fabrica-cerveza-austral.html) - [Funding Universe: Quilmes Industrial (QUINSA) S.A. History](https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/quilmes-industrial-quinsa-s-a-history/) - [InvestChile: Expansion of AB InBev in Chile is 70% complete](https://blog.investchile.gob.cl/2026/ampliaci%C3%B3n-de-ab-inbev-tiene-70-de-avance-y-ya-produce-dos-marcas?hsLang=en) - [Concha y Toro: Strategic alliance with Cervezas Kross (2011)](https://vinacyt.com/content/uploads/2020/08/Feb-01-Vi%C3%B1a-Concha-y-Toro-seals-strategic-alliance-with-Cervezas-Kross.pdf) - [La Republica: CCU hace apuesta por cerveza artesanal y adquiere marca Volcanes del Sur (2022)](https://www.larepublica.co/globoeconomia/ccu-hace-otra-apuesta-por-la-cerveza-artesanal-y-adquiere-marca-volcanes-del-sur-3435273) - [Meteored: La escapada ideal para brindar, cervecerias artesanales de Chile central](https://www.meteored.cl/noticias/ocio/la-escapada-ideal-para-brindar-cervecerias-artesanales-degustaciones-y-experiencias-unicas-en-chile-central.html) - [BioBioChile: Dia Internacional de la Cerveza, como ha evolucionado esta industria en Chile (2024)](https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/servicios/toma-nota/2024/08/01/dia-internacional-de-la-cerveza-cuando-es-y-como-ha-evolucionado-esta-industria-en-chile.shtml) - [Wikipedia: Captaincy General of Chile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captaincy_General_of_Chile) - [Archontology: Chile, Polity Style 1818-2026](https://archontology.org/nations/chile/01_polity.php) - [Wikipedia: Flag of Chile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Chile) ## Breweries (21) - [Cerveceria Aculeo Ltda.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5903.md) — 1 cap - [Alchimia Brewstillery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/7053.md) — 1 cap - [Compania Cervecera Araucania](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4287.md) — 1 cap - [Fаbrica de Cerveza Artesanal D'Olbek](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5737.md) — 2 caps, 2005– - [Cervezas Artesanales S.A.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5905.md) — 1 cap - [Cerveceria Austral S.A.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1622.md) — 6 caps, 1896– - [Cerveceria Cactus](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5904.md) — 1 cap - [Cerveceria Chile](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1882.md) — 7 caps, 1991– - [Cerveceria Cuello Negro](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5896.md) — 3 caps, 2003– - [Cervecera del Puerto S.p.A.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4824.md) — 3 caps, 2003– - [Cerveza Artesanal Die M](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5845.md) — 2 caps - [ELSA - Embotelladora Latinoamericana S.A.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3454.md) — 2 caps - [Cervecera Guayacan](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5894.md) — 2 caps, 2009– - [Kross Cerveza Independiente](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3177.md) — 11 caps, 2003– - [Cervecera Kunstmann](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1735.md) — 6 caps, 1991– - [Cerveceria Principal](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5893.md) — 2 caps, 2007– - [Cerveceria Szot S.p.A.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5895.md) — 1 cap - [Szot Microcerveceria](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3452.md) — 1 cap, 2006– - [Compania Cervecerias Unidas (Heineken)](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1577.md) — 30 caps, 1902– - [Cerveceria Vericcio](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/7052.md) — 2 caps, 2015– - [Volcanes Del Sur](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5907.md) — 5 caps, 2005–