There are two places to drink at the source on this island. The santorini brewery scene begins with the Santorini Brewing Company, opened in 2011 at Mesa Gonia and responsible for the Donkey beers on every taverna list, and continues at Ftelos Brewery in Karterados, the larger operation with a restaurant, a beer garden and a booked programme of tastings, tours and classes. Santorini Tours is a local operator running private tours and transfers on the island.
Santorini Brewery: The Short Answer
There are two places to drink beer at the source on this island. The Santorini Brewing Company, opened in 2011 in the traditional village of Mesa Gonia, is the original santorini brewery and the one behind the Donkey beers you see on every taverna list. Ftelos Brewery at Karterados, ten minutes from Fira, is the newer and larger operation, with a restaurant, a beer garden, live concerts and a booked tour programme.
Santorini Brewing Company is small, unfiltered, unpasteurised and informal: a working brewhouse with a shop, best visited in the late morning. Ftelos is a destination in itself, with tastings, food pairings, a behind-the-scenes tour of the production floor, a cooking class and a homebrewing masterclass.
Between them they are the reason an island famous for assyrtiko now has a beer culture, and a santorini brewery visit is the best-value hour on an island where very little else is.
The Santorini Brewery at Mesa Gonia
Where. Mesa Gonia, the old wine village below Pyrgos on the road to Kamari, twelve minutes from Fira by car.
Opened. 2011, by a group of four brewers, as the first santorini brewery of any kind on the island.
What it is. A genuinely small brewhouse: tanks, a lauter tun, sacks of malt, and a counter where you taste what came out of them.
The beer. Every santorini brewery bottle here is unfiltered, unpasteurised and preservative-free, which is why it is kept refrigerated and why it does not travel well.
The ingredients. Malts from Germany and Austria, hops sourced internationally, and water from the island.
The santorini brewery visit. Short, informal and cheap. You taste, you talk to whoever is brewing, you buy a few bottles and a t-shirt.
Best hour. Late morning, before the heat and before the afternoon crowd going down to Kamari.
The Donkey Beers, One by One
Yellow Donkey. The golden ale, light and citrus-forward, and the one you will be handed first at any santorini brewery tasting.
Red Donkey, the santorini brewery classic. An amber ale, maltier and rounder, the best of the range with food.
Crazy Donkey. The IPA, aggressively hopped, and the beer that got the brewery its reputation off the island.
White Donkey. A wheat beer, cloudy and soft, the one that works in August at three in the afternoon.
Slow Donkey. The darker, heavier winter beer, brewed in smaller quantities.
Salty Donkey and Rare Donkey. Seasonal and limited releases that come and go, which is half the point of visiting the brewery rather than a supermarket.
Why donkeys. Because the animal that carried everything up the cliff for four hundred years is the island’s real working symbol, and because it made the labels impossible to forget.
The Santorini Brewery at Karterados: Ftelos
Where. Karterados, on the inland side of Fira, five to ten minutes from the town and twenty from Oia.
What it is. The larger santorini brewery: a brewhouse with a restaurant attached, a garden, a shop and an events programme that runs to live concerts through the summer.
The santorini brewery tasting and pairing experience. A guided flight with snacks, the shortest and most popular of the visits.
The beer and the history semi-private experience. Longer, smaller group, and more about how brewing arrived on a volcanic island with no water.
Behind the scenes at this santorini brewery. Entry into the production area itself, with tastings paired against a degustation menu. The one to book if you actually care how beer is made.
The Aegean cooking class. A four-course Cycladic menu cooked at the brewery, which is a genuinely good rainy-day or windy-day option.
The homebrewing masterclass. How to brew the same thing in your kitchen at home.
Booking. Everything at this santorini brewery is reserved in advance and the tours fill in July and August.
The Beers From the Karterados Santorini Brewery
Ftelos brews to a different brief from the Donkey range: cleaner, more European, and aimed at the table rather than the beach. The flagship is the Blue Monkey lager, a bottom-fermented, non-pasteurised pilsner at 4.5 per cent, dry-hopped with Saphir, pitched somewhere between German crispness and Czech body, with blossom and citrus in the aroma.
The name comes from the frescoes at Akrotiri. Blue monkeys appear on the walls of a Bronze Age town that had no monkeys anywhere near it — the painters were working from animals seen in Egypt or further east, which is one of the pieces of evidence that the Aegean world of 1600 BC traded far further than anyone assumed. Naming a beer after them is the most Santorini thing a brewery has done.
The rest of this santorini brewery bottled range rotates, and the draught list at the brewery itself is longer than what leaves it. If you want to try what is not sold anywhere else on the island, this is where.
Volkan and the Island’s Other Beers
Volkan. Not a santorini brewery you can visit, but a Santorini beer brand worth knowing: brewed with lava-filtered water, rare Santorini grape honey and citron essence from Naxos.
The range. Blonde, White, Black and Grey, each built around those local ingredients rather than around a style guideline.
Grape honey. Made from grapes left in the sun by the island’s Vinsanto producers, and found essentially nowhere else. It is added late in the brew so the flavour survives.
Citron. Citrus medica, the oldest cultivated citrus, still grown on Naxos and Corfu, and the reason a Volkan tastes unlike any other Greek lager.
Where to find it. On restaurant and bar lists across the island rather than at a santorini brewery door.
Other Greek craft. Nissos from Tinos and Septem from Evia turn up on the better beer lists here and are worth ordering.
The mass-market ones. Mythos, Alfa and Fix are everywhere, cold and cheap, and none of them are made anywhere near this island.
Why an Island of Wine Has Breweries at All
Santorini has grown vines for three and a half thousand years and grain for almost as long, and until 2011 it had never brewed a commercial beer. The reason is water. This is one of the driest inhabited places in the Aegean, with almost no rainfall between May and October, no rivers, no springs and, for most of its history, a population that survived on cisterns cut into the rock beneath each house. Brewing consumes several litres of water for every litre of beer, and on an island where water had to be caught from the roof, that was not a business anybody was going to start.
What changed was desalination. The island now makes its own fresh water industrially, which removed the single obstacle, at exactly the moment that Greek craft brewing took off nationally and Santorini’s visitor numbers went from large to enormous. The first santorini brewery opened in 2011 in Mesa Gonia, a village that had been the centre of the island’s wine trade a century earlier and had been half-empty since the 1956 earthquake. The second opened at Karterados almost a decade later, at a much larger scale, with a restaurant and a tour programme built in from the start.
Both of them sit inland, on the flat volcanic plain rather than the caldera rim, for the same reason the wineries do: that is where the space, the road access and the affordable land are. Neither has a view, and both are better for it, because a santorini brewery visit is one of the very few things on this island where you are paying for what is in the glass rather than for what is behind it.
The beer itself has become genuinely local in a way that surprises people. The Donkey range is on tap in tavernas in every village; Ftelos supplies restaurants across the island; and a bottle of Volkan with grape honey in it is now a normal thing to be handed in a bar in Fira. For an island that had no brewing tradition whatsoever fifteen years ago, that is a fast piece of culture.
What a Santorini Brewery Visit Costs
A santorini brewery tasting flight. Roughly 10 to 20 euros a head for a guided flight of four to six beers with something to eat alongside.
A full brewery tour with food. 35 to 60 a head at Ftelos depending on which experience you book.
A cooking class. 80 to 130 a head, several hours, and a four-course meal at the end of it.
Homebrewing masterclass. Similar money, and considerably more useful once you are home.
Just turning up at Mesa Gonia. A few euros a bottle at the counter and no charge to look at the tanks.
Bottles to take away from the santorini brewery. 3 to 5 euros each at the brewery, more in the supermarkets and considerably more in the caldera bars.
Compared with a winery. A tasting at a caldera estate runs 25 to 45. A santorini brewery is a third of the price and half as busy.
Getting to Each Santorini Brewery
Mesa Gonia by car. Twelve minutes from Fira, fifteen from Kamari, twenty-five from Oia, with parking in the village.
The Karterados santorini brewery by car. Five to ten minutes from Fira, and walkable from the town if you do not mind an uphill return.
By bus. The Kamari and Perissa buses pass close to Mesa Gonia; Karterados is a short ride or a twenty-minute walk from the Fira station.
By taxi. Possible in one direction and often difficult in the other, particularly late in the evening.
Drinking and driving. The Greek limit is 0.5 g/l and 0.2 for new drivers, and the road from Karterados to the caldera villages is not one to misjudge.
The sensible version. A driver, so that the tasting flight is an actual tasting flight.
See the private transfers.
What to Expect Inside a Santorini Brewery
Nobody should arrive at a santorini brewery expecting the polished experience the caldera wineries have built. Mesa Gonia is a working room with stainless tanks, hoses on the floor, sacks of malt against a wall and a counter at one end, and the person pouring is frequently the person who brewed it. That is the appeal. You will be told what is in the fermenter, what went wrong with the last batch of the seasonal, and which of the five you are about to be handed is actually the brewer’s own favourite, which is rarely the one that sells best.
The santorini brewery tasting itself is short and unstructured. Four or five small pours, no spitting, no notes, no tour guide with a script, and no view of anything except a village that was half-abandoned for forty years and is now slowly filling up again. There is no advance booking, no entry fee to look around, and if the door is open you are welcome. Allow half an hour, or an hour if the conversation goes well, which it usually does.
The Karterados santorini brewery is the opposite in every respect and equally worth doing. It is built as a venue: a large brewhouse behind glass, a restaurant with a proper kitchen, a garden with long tables, a shop, and a programme of experiences that runs from a forty-minute tasting to a half-day cooking class. Bookings are taken online, the tours run on a timetable, and in high season they sell out several days ahead. What you get for the money is a genuine walk through the production floor, beer poured against food that was designed for it, and staff who explain the chemistry rather than the marketing.
Between the two, the honest advice is to do both on the same day if you like beer at all, because they take ninety minutes together and they are twelve minutes apart. Mesa Gonia before lunch, Ftelos in the evening with dinner, and the assyrtiko can wait until tomorrow.
Santorini Brewery Beer and the Local Table
Fava with capers. The island’s split-pea purée is rich and needs acidity to cut it, which is why the Yellow Donkey works and a heavy red does not.
Tomatokeftedes. Fried tomato fritters, sweet and salty at once. An amber ale is the correct answer and nobody ever orders one.
White aubergine. Grown only here, sweeter and less bitter than the purple kind, usually served grilled or as a spread. A wheat beer is the match.
Chloro cheese. The fresh goat’s cheese made on Santorini, sharp and wet. It defeats most wines and is very good with a hoppy beer.
Grilled octopus. Char, salt and smoke, which wants a pilsner rather than anything sweet.
Fresh fish at Ammoudi. The simplest food on the island and the one place where a cold lager beats a glass of assyrtiko for most people.
Souvlaki at two in the morning in Fira. Whatever is coldest. This is not the moment for a santorini brewery tasting flight.
A Day That Includes a Brewery
10:00. Akrotiri, roofed, cool, and empty for the first hour after opening.
11:30. Emporio or Megalochori, a square, a coffee and a bell tower.
12:30. Mesa Gonia and the santorini brewery, before lunch and while the tanks are still being worked on.
13:30. Lunch at Kamari or in Exo Gonia, ten minutes away.
15:30. An hour on the black sand at Kamari or Perivolos.
17:30. A winery, because the assyrtiko is the other half of the island’s drinking culture.
19:30. Sunset from Imerovigli or the lighthouse, then dinner inland.
That is one car, seven stops and no queueing, and it is the shape of day a private vehicle makes possible and a bus does not.
Where to Drink Santorini Brewery Beer
At the santorini brewery itself. Coldest, freshest, cheapest, and with the seasonal releases that never leave the building.
Tavernas inland. Megalochori, Emporio, Pyrgos and Exo Gonia all pour local beer at sensible prices.
The beach bars. Perivolos and Perissa, where a cold Yellow Donkey at four in the afternoon is the correct order.
Fira. The bars on the rim charge caldera prices for it, and the ones a street back do not.
Oia. Expensive everywhere, and the local beer is still cheaper than the cocktails.
Ammoudi. With fish, at the water, which is the single best pairing on the island.
Supermarkets. Both breweries sell through the island’s shops, so a bottle on a hotel terrace costs a fifth of what a bar charges.
Taking Santorini Brewery Beer Home
The problem. The Mesa Gonia santorini brewery beers are unfiltered and unpasteurised, which means they want refrigeration and a short life. They are not a good souvenir for a week of touring in a hot car.
What travels better. The bottled, more stable ranges from Ftelos and Volkan, which are built to sit on a shelf.
Hand luggage. No. Bottles go in the hold, wrapped, and the flight from Santorini is short enough that it survives.
Allowances. Beer is not spirits; within the EU there is no practical limit for personal use, and outside it your own customs rules apply.
Weight. Six 330 ml bottles is about three and a half kilos with packaging, which matters on the low-cost baggage limits most people fly here on.
The better souvenir. A t-shirt from the santorini brewery and a bottle of Vinsanto, which will still be good in ten years.
Shipping. Both santorini brewery operations sell online at home in several countries, which is easier than carrying it.
Santorini Brewery: Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a brewery in Santorini? Two. The Santorini Brewing Company at Mesa Gonia, open since 2011, and Ftelos Brewery at Karterados.
Which santorini brewery should we visit? Mesa Gonia for a short, cheap, informal tasting; Ftelos for a full tour with food, a class or an evening out.
What are the Donkey beers? The Santorini Brewing Company’s range: Yellow, Red, White, Crazy and Slow Donkey, plus seasonal releases.
Do you need to book? For Ftelos yes, especially July to September. Mesa Gonia is walk-up.
What does it cost? Roughly 10 to 20 euros for a tasting flight and 35 to 60 for a full brewery experience with food.
How long does a santorini brewery visit take? Thirty to forty-five minutes at Mesa Gonia, two hours or more at Ftelos.
Is it suitable for children? The venues are, the tastings are not. Ftelos has a restaurant and a garden that work for families.
Can you get there by bus? Karterados easily, Mesa Gonia with a short walk from the Kamari route.
Is Volkan brewed on the island? It is a Santorini brand built on Santorini grape honey and Naxos citron, but it is not a brewery you visit.
What is the best local beer? Red Donkey with food, Yellow Donkey on a beach, Blue Monkey with dinner. Order all three and decide.
When is each santorini brewery open? Daily through the season, with reduced hours in winter. Check before making a special trip in January.
Can we combine it with a winery? Yes, and it makes the better afternoon: brewery before lunch, winery at five.
Santorini Brewery Days: We Will Drive, You Taste
We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and a brewery afternoon is one of the few things on this island that is genuinely better with somebody else at the wheel.
Tell us your dates and we will build the day around it: Akrotiri in the morning, the santorini brewery at Mesa Gonia before lunch, a beach hour, a winery at five and the sunset from somewhere without a crowd in it.
Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, hotel pickup anywhere on the island is included, we guide in twelve languages, and an 80 EUR deposit confirms a date.
See the personalised tour, the private wine tours, or contact us.
Every Village and Site on the Island
Any of these can be built into a private day. Each has its own page with what to see and how long to allow.
Caldera villages: Fira · Firostefani · Imerovigli · Oia · Finikia · Baxedes
Inland villages: Pyrgos · Megalochori · Emporio · Mesaria · Karterados · Vothonas · Vourvoulos · Exo Gonia · Mesa Gonia · Pigadia
Beaches: Perissa · Perivolos · Kamari · Vlychada · Monolithos · Red Beach · White Beach · Agios Georgios · Agia Paraskevi
Sites and landmarks: Akrotiri · Ancient Thira · Akrotiri Lighthouse · Nea Kameni · Palia Kameni · Thirasia · Athinios Port
All our tours: All Santorini tours · Full day tour · Sightseeing tour · Personalised tour · North part tour · Horse riding · South part tour · Sunset tour · Shore excursion · Caldera tour · Food experience · Wine tour · Historical tour · Small group tour
Planning and services: Famous sights tour · Private transfers · Transfers to Oia and Finikia · Transfers to other villages · Villages of Santorini · History of Santorini · Tours near you · Languages we guide in · Food and fun tours · Gay friendly tours · Our tour buses · Daily tours · Day tours · FAQ · Gallery · Tour photo gallery · About us · Contact · Blog
