Our Story
Turgua Brewing came into this world as the creation of two unique backgrounds coming together.
Phil, like the brewery, was born in Venezuela from a marriage between expatriates from two continents. His father was French and his mother is American, so naturally, Phil grew up with an interesting blend of cultures that he poured into the creation of the brewery.
When Phil was a child, he spent his summers in Wisconsin at his family's dairy farm, where his mother was born. At the farmstead, he was exposed to the rigors of rural farming, which made an imprint on him.
In college, Phil studied ecology, but he loved microbiology and chemistry which he combined with a passion for cooking and found home brewing. He started experimenting with various forms of fermentation from beer and wine to yogurt, kefir, kombucha, tempeh, and miso. The home-brew explorations were endless.
After graduating, Phil moved back to Venezuela to work as a research ecologist, studying birds. He raised a family on a farm, off-the-grid, located in the mountains south of Caracas, in a region named Turgua. Turgua is a tropical forested area, rich in bird diversity, whose name is of Carib Indian origin, meaning “Valley of The Birds”. Though his scenery had changed, Phil continued to homebrew with his goal of one day opening up a farmstead winery.
Unfortunately, the political climate of the late nineties in Venezuela brought the tropical farmstead winery dream in Turgua to a halt. With the growing social unrest, Phil decided to move his family back to the US to keep them safe and started over on a new career path.
Over the next decade, Phil worked his day job in information technology but at night he would homebrew, always perfecting his recipes.
Turning Dreams Into Reality
In 2015, Phil decided he needed to turn his dream into a reality when he found Fairview, North Carolina. The mountain landscape and lush forests in the summer instantly reminded him of home, in Turgua, Venezuela. He knew this would be the perfect place to start a brewery.
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