From Mito 22 to Lula Livre and Golden Shower, check out the ‘electoral beers’

On election day, the consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited in most Brazilian states, but until the day before it is free for everyone (in moderation). For some beer voters, it is possible to drink and at the same time show their support, or rejection, for the main candidates for the presidency.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, the Rock’n Brau nanobrewery emerged combining music and beer, as the name suggests. However, the labels with the most repercussion are political, especially the Lula Livre red ale, created when the former president was arrested in 2018 as part of Lava Jato investigations.

“Part of the money was directed at the time to help people at the camp in Curitiba”, says owner-partner Diogo Cavalheiro, who is not affiliated with any party, but militates with the Small Farmers Movement.

Two years before Lula Livre, Rock’n Brau had already launched a blond ale called Fora Temer, which is now discontinued (and from the government). The current success is Lula 2022, a refreshing pilsen, sold in a 500 ml bottle.

Rock’n Brau has also launched titles such as Antifascista, a Belgian golden strong ale with 8% alcohol content; and Fora Boso, a classic wissbier.

“Despite the name, it is not a seasonal beer, but a rooted feeling. Fora Boso came to fill our indignation with the taste of revolt”, says the text on the brewery’s Instagram profile.

There is also the Lula 2022 beer, produced by the nanobrewery in Apiaí (São Paulo countryside) Cerveja Artesanal Terra, a brand that emphasizes care for the environment and the principles of agroecology. The 500 ml bottle can be found at Armazém do Campo stores, linked to the MST (Landless Rural Workers Movement).

On the other side of the beer polarization, Jair Bolsonaro has already been honored. However, some of the pro-captain labels are not brewery initiatives, but entrepreneurs who order the drink.

One of them appeared in 2018 at the request of Flavio Bolsonaro himself. The president’s son 01 would have had the idea to gift supporters in the presidential campaign and spoke with businessman Adriano Lazzari de Oliveira. This is how the Vapor Negro brewery was created, in Nova Petrópolis (RS), to manufacture Mito beer.

The instant success and the many orders made Lazzari increase the production of the long neck for direct sale, sold in three styles, lager, schwarzbier and red ale (red can?).

“We sell all over Brazil, but the strength was in the South region, due to logistics”, recalls Lazzari, who stopped producing beer during the pandemic due to lack of inputs.

The small brewery in Fortaleza, Hey Ho, produces the Mito 22 to order, sold in a 473 ml can with a suggested price of R$ 10.90. The label brings the image of Bolsonaro with sunglasses, making the characteristic gun sign with his hands and with a green and yellow flag in the background.

The brewery says the label is not part of its portfolio and was produced at the request of a businessman. Mito 22 has an Instagram profile (@cervejadomito22), which points the way to anyone who wants to buy it.

Another label produced in honor of the president is Bolsonaro – with a design similar to Mito 22, but without the sunglasses in the image. The single malt beer, sold in cans, was an order from businessmen linked to the right-wing group Lux Brasil for the Salvador brewery Salva Craft Beer, from Bom Retiro do Sul, which also states that it only produces beer, but does not sell it.

A curious case happened with another small brewery in Rio de Janeiro that was born in 2014 with the name of Mitologia. The brewery was already out of production, but maintained the page on social media, when it was confused with pro-Bolsonaro beer in 2018, with consumers looking for the page to buy the drink. The brewery was forced to make a post: “Guys, once and for all. This page is not about Bolsonaro’s beer. We think he’s a jerk. We don’t sell fascist beer.”

The post went viral and the owner, Bruno Mesquita, resumed the project with the name Cervejaria Mito, supporting LGBTQIA+ and anti-racist causes, and with labels that satirize Bolsonaro’s statements.

“We say that Bolsonaro is our head of marketing, because he is the one who gives the names, he is very good at it”, comments Mesquita, who has already launched labels such as the Golden Shower pilsen, the Presidential Comite, a hoppy lager “with 39 kgs of hop powder”, the shwartzbier Camarada Bozo, and the session IPA Noivinha by Aristides, all in a 500 ml bottle, which can be found on the brand’s Instagram (@cervejariamito).

And what would become of the brewery with another government? “Mito will continue defending the same values, making the same satires, but the protagonism will be elsewhere. And the fight continues”, defends Mesquita.

Finally, the third way, as in electoral polls, still seems to be limping in the brewing universe. On the initiative of the Rio Civil Police delegate Orlando Zaccone, who joined the PDT, the Cirão da Massa beer was created. The label, with the face of Ciro Gomes in an illustration of a cangaceiro, has the description “pilsen beer from Sobral”.

For the idealist left looking for a political beer, and not a politicized one, the suggestion is the Tito Bier brewery, with “red line” labels, such as the Trotsky red ale, the Marx red IPA or the Rosa altbier (a tribute to Rosa Luxemburg). ; in addition to the American pale ale Thoreau, recommended for the most naturalists.