The Art of Brewing: A Local Brewer Makes Her Mark on This Cumberland Brewery

Andrea Riera stands in front of her five-piece mural at Phantom Farms Brewing holding some of the business’s recent brews. (Photo by Lauren Clem)

For Andrea Riera, brewing has always been a form of art.

A native of Argentina who previously lived in Chile, Riera makes up half of the husband-and-wife brewer team at Phantom Farms Brewing, alongside her husband, Oscar Garrido. The couple headed up brewing operations at competing breweries in Chile before moving to the United States in 2023 to launch the brewing program at Phantom Farms. The two-year-old brewery is located in Cumberland’s former Berkeley Mill, where light streams through high windows and illuminates multiple stories of distressed red brick.

Downstairs, in a seating area off the main taproom, that light falls upon a series of five murals. Riera completed the murals last August and unveiled them to the public alongside a mural-inspired beer, a fruited sour made with mango and pineapple that reflects the swirls of orange and yellow flowing through the paintings.

“For me, it was a challenge, because I’ve never made [art] that size before,” she says.

Long before she discovered brewing, Riera was raised in a family of artists. Her mother is a sculptor, and two of her sisters — both of whom have designed labels for the brewery — are visual artists. As a child, she accompanied her mother to art classes and workshops, and later studied filmmaking in Buenos Aires.

At the same time as she was launching her career in art, her family was discovering brewing. Her brother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother are all involved in the industry, with the latter two launching Cerveza Mauco brewery in Chile in 2015. Riera initially joined the venture as a graphic artist and brand manager. Later, she began to dabble in the production side and eventually rose to the position of master brewer.

“I love flowing between chemistry and art; it’s all so natural for me, but it’s due to many years and the influence of many people passionate about what they do,” she says.

“When I met Oscar, I was captivated by his creativity in combining and imagining flavors and aromas,” she adds.

In a romance befitting two head brewers, the two met at a beer festival, where Riera was pouring and Garrido was attending as a guest. Riera credits Garrido with conceiving of many of the brewery’s more elaborate styles, though the pair works side-by-side to bring their creations to life. Inspired by the namesake farm where they live (the Macari family owns both the brewery and Phantom Farms apple orchard and bakery up the street, where the couple lives on the property with their four-year-old son), the brewers take a farm-to-pint approach, sourcing ingredients from both the surrounding land and Chile. The brewery’s three ciders are made from apples harvested at the farm, while the Aconcagua Mountain stout features merkén, a smoked chili pepper originating from Chilean Patagonia.

“When we have some freedom, we try to make something special. For example, we make a saison with dandelion that we harvest from the farm,” Riera says.

Last year, she had an opportunity to express her creativity in a different way. Working out of a studio space in the mill building, Riera created the five-piece mural that now hangs in the beer garden. Inspired by the ocean floor, she incorporated forms reminiscent of sea creatures while also leaving room for interpretation. In addition to paint, the unnamed work includes gold foil that interacts with the changing daylight from the high windows.

“Cinematography is a constant analysis of light and form, and it’s something I’m passionate about,” Riera says. “I love seeing how the refractions of light at different times of day completely change the canvases. That was the reason I used gold leaf in some parts to integrate the light from outside into the painting itself.”

Now, visitors to the brewery can not only enjoy the couple’s beer and cider creations, but sip beneath the visual expression of Riera’s art in the beer garden. Like her sisters, she has also created several labels for the brewery, including one for the recently canned Cascade Brook cider that uses relief printing from the wood of an apple tree.

While nothing is planned at the moment, Riera says she’d be open to creating additional artwork. The two-story brewery offers plenty of room for décor, including a blank stretch of wall that remains unadorned on the second floor.

“I love challenges, and I’m looking forward to taking on the next one. Hopefully, it’ll be a giant canvas,” she says.

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