Tripping Animals is your archetypal American dream story … as long as that story includes fruited sours and a cartoon octopus.
The brewery’s four cofounders—Daniel Chocron, Iker Elorriaga, Ignacio Montenegro, and Juan-Manuel Torres—started homebrewing together 11 years ago in Caracas, Venezuela. They had an abundance of curiosity, but everything else they needed was in short supply: ingredients, examples of the latest international beer styles, and reliable shipping.
“It was very hard to buy ingredients, pay for it in bolivars, and then with all the inflation that was happening in Venezuela… in those two months, you already lost the money you put up at the beginning,” Chocron says.