Andrew and Kike, the soul of Dougall's Beer's twenty-year history

This story begins in the mind and skill of Andrew Dougall, a Briton who has made Cantabria his home. His idea was to make a beer he would enjoy. That thought was the starting point. “There hadn't been any beer in Cantabria since the 1970s, and with my naiveté back then, I thought it was a dead market. It wasn't. I started brewing beer at home in '97. I didn't want to drink what was available. I was looking for more interesting flavors.” At that time, Andrew worked as a book editor. It was a complete career change.

Andrew began setting up his brewery in 2002, a project that could not see the light of day due to "permits and licenses" until 2006. He recalls that he started "making beer in a garage in Liérganes, although the first idea was to set up the brewery in a cabin we had, but they wouldn't let me."

From those early days, Andrew recalls that the first two customers were two bars in Liérganes and one in Santander. “I was confronted with the harsh reality that the 15 coolers I had bought weren't selling. In Cantabria, we're very cautious.” Those first bars that trusted the beer brewed by a Brit were 'El Tratero' and 'Los Picos,' and the one in Santander was 'El Kormoran Table.' Tough times.

The arrival of Kike

Two years later, Kike Cacicedo entered the picture. A Cantabrian living in Barcelona, ​​he worked in television, editing videos of the MotoGP World Championship. Up until that point, his interest in beer had been purely a hobby.

Kike started helping Andrew when the brewery was still in the garage and they were producing 400 liters. Of those times, Kike remembers, “For my first four years with Andrew, I combined that work with my job. I lived in Barcelona and worked for RTVE on a video editing program. From Monday to Wednesday I lived there and came to Liérganes on Thursdays. I'm from a town near Liérganes and I saw that there was 'a guy making beer.' In Barcelona I had tried the beer made by Carlos Rodríguez, from Ales Agullons. It was a time when I wanted to return to Cantabria after 15 years.”

2012 is another date circled in red on the Dougall's Beer journey. That year, Andrew and Kike took their professional relationship to the next level and became partners. Their goal was nothing less than to take the project to the next level and build a large brewery that would increase production "from 400 liters to 2,500." To scale the business. The idea was on the table, but the road ahead was full of twists and turns. Those were years of countless fairs, selling beer on the street "dressed as Romans or monks," and they recall that "being football fans like Andrew and I," Kike points out, "we didn't even watch the 2010 World Cup final because we were trying to sell beer at a fair where everyone was watching Iniesta's goal." It's an anecdote, a detail that demonstrates the commitment and hard work that went into those years, pint by pint, as what is now Dougall's was born.

Kike points out with humor, but with the certainty of someone who remembers a reality: “We gradually went bankrupt until we decided to set up the brewery. A guy working 24/7 and losing money looks like a fool from the outside, but two guys doing the same thing aren't fools, it's a business.” “We spent eight years losing money. In our case, what drove us was ignorance. Not knowing what we were doing. We always had good beer, even if we didn't sell it. I started with little idea of ​​what to do, but with a very clear principle: quality standards are very important. The highest quality standard. And the long term. That's non-negotiable,” Kike reflects.

2014, the wheel turns

A key date in this journey is 2014. “That year, we stopped losing money,” Andrew and Kike explain. Three years later, they managed to level the playing field, and the ship began sailing strongly, back on its usual course: top quality and a long-term vision. At that point, the company took several steps forward. Andrew and Kike were joined by various professionals: an economist, maintenance managers, chemists… who could see that the project was solid and that “they could retire at Dougall’s.”

That long-lasting feeling was largely due to the historic success of the 2019 crowdfunding campaign. It was a milestone and possibly one of the most powerful and fastest funding rounds in history, not just in the sector. That moment marked “a radical change. We acquired land, built a warehouse, and had an automated bottling line, canning line, centrifuge… and we're currently breaking revenue records by 2026.”

Of course, this period of steady growth hasn't been without its challenges. Covid threatened the project in 2020 and 2021, but a year later the summer restaurant opened, and from 2024 onwards, it's open year-round. Quality beer and cuisine from Liérganes. A winning formula.

Twenty years later, on the first day of the next 80 years, as they argued when they were making the rounds of visits to banks in search of financing, Dougall's has a turnover of 2.5 million euros, maintains a stable workforce with 18 payrolls and a production of 600,000 liters.

The journey, from those early days producing 400 liters and trying to sell by invoking the Cantabrian Wars right there on the street, has been marked, in Kike's words, by "entertaining years." He adds, "I've had a great time, even though there have been some really tough moments. I look back and it's all been super fun. You meet a lot of people in this line of work. Living together with Andrew has been key. Starting this venture together has been crucial, and having a generational difference has also been beneficial. That's helped us." Andrew, more concise in his summary of this story, is clear: "It's been interesting and unique." Andrew's word. A new chapter begins: 20 years + 1 day, which closes the conversation with a statement that's a clear declaration of intent: "I want to keep going a little longer and enjoy the ride."