As explained in the other articles of #TeamItaly in our country you can find one of the best offer of food and beverages but the idea of beverages in Italy refers mainly on wines.
There is another world that is expanding himself from around the 1996: the craft breweries and I would like to share with you my passion! I’m part of the italian breweries trade association Unionbirrai and I’m a qualified taster. I appreciate to taste every kind of craft beer from everywhere but you can be sure that in Italy it’s possible to find a huge variety of them. Let’s discover more about!
I know you are thinking “why an italian is speaking about beer in the land of wine?!”…well it is amazing but today in Italy there are 813 active craft breweries!
The story of beers in Italy start in the 19th century with roots located in Austria and Germany from which industrial families came in our country in order to found the first italian breweries. After some years also italian industrial families decided to found their own breweries. In this way beer industry starting to grow also in Italy.
Moreover during 1847 the entrepreneur Gaetano Pasqui start the first cultivation of hops on italian soil.
Some of these companies are still active even if now they are, in some case, part of bigger industrial groups:
- 1829: Birra Wurer in Brescia (now part of the Peroni group)
- 1846: Birrificio Menabrea in Biella
- 1846: Birra Peroni in Rome
- 1848: Birra Metzger in Turin
- 1859: Birra Moretti in Udine (now part of the Heineken group)
- 1865: Birra Dreher (now part of the Heineken group)
- 1877: Birrificio Angelo Poretti (now part of Carlsberg group)
After this great start the italian brewing panorama suffered a blow with the first and second world war when the barley production has decreased strongly. The barley was needed to feed people and it was not possible to use it for the beer production. Some industries have been obliged to close and the other start to use different cereals, mainly mais, in order to continue the production. In this way the quality of the beers drop heavily especially if compared with German beers that were protected by the Reinheitsgebot (purity beer law) that admit only barley and wheat as cereal with which produce the beer in a legal way.
After the second world war Italy discovered a new economic system that has been called “economic miracle”. During this period (approximately from 50’s to 70’s) italian people discover a new way of life, the families became richer than during the past and almost every sector growth in quality. Unfortunately this grow in quality doesn’t involve the beer sector since in 1962 a new law regards beer has been created. According to this law the beer producer can continue to use up to 40% of cereals different than barley and wheat so it is still possible for breweries to take this advantage to continue the production with mais in order to kept the production price at a low level (with a consequent low quality beer level).
Fortunately in Italy there were no law against the home production of beer and many people especially during the 80’s start with their own recipe and became the first italian homebrewers that were specialized in standard lager beers.
The most important change in the italian craft beer panorama came in the 90’s when italian homebrewers start discussions throw the first web groups and discover a very active craft beer movement in the USA.
Italian homebrewers started to introduce new ingredients in their beers with inspiration that came from Belgium, UK, Germany and USA. It is thanks to these homebrewers that the seed of the Italian craft beer movement has been plant. One of the reason of this passion for homemade beers is probably the fact that Italy is full of different variety of wines but with them is not possible to experience different taste than the standard ones.
Wine is an italian excellence but beer give to people the opportunity to test new recipes and, also if the result is not excellent, the money that has been used is not so much. Wines quality depends on the grapes, on the harvest and on the producer skills but it is not possible to change many things: if you want to taste a Brunello di Montalcino for sure you will expect a defined taste. But with beers the rules are different and you can taste a beer with a typical italian citrus fruit, with pink pepper or with porcini mushrooms! Italians need to put creativity also on drinks and beer is the right one to do this since water, malt, hop and yeast represent only the base.
These homebrewers were not a problem for the beer industry because they were producing at home for consumption with relatives and friends but great ideas were literally boiling in the pot!
The italian craft beer movement has been started from these homebrewers that around 1995 decided to think big and open the very first craft breweries:
- “Beba” near Turin
- “Centrale della Birra” in Cremona
- “Vecchio Birraio” near Padua
- the brewpub Turbacci near Rome
These breweries and brewpub are still existing with the exception of “Centrale della birra”.
The geographical locations demonstrate that the idea to change something in the italian beer panorama was diffused but the real change happened in 1996 when 3 very important firms were born:
- “Birrificio Italiano” near Como founded by Agostino Arioli
- “Baladin” near Cuneo founded by Teo Muss
- “Lambrate” near Milan founded by a group of friend including Giampaolo Sangiorgi
The craft beer passionate from all around the world will recognize these brands that represent the starting point of the craft beer explosion of the new century. These brands are still important and can drive the beer panorama in Italy.
Thanks to these pioneer nowaday the craft beer panorama in Italy is really exciting for a passionate that can drink many different styles of beer produced in our country.
The craft breweries has been census on a regular basis by the website www.microbirrifici.org where it is possible to find their addresses where often there is a brewpub with very fresh beers to be taste.
During last years also the italian law is helping this movement with a government project aimed to establish an autochthonous italian hop. This project called Luppolo.it (luppolo is the italian name of hop) will help the growth of this cultivation and commercialization since hop is one of the most important ingredients in beers and can really change their taste. Luppolo.it project will bring on the market the italian hop taste and make it recognizable by the tasters.
On 31.12.2018 in Italy 813 craft breweries were registered (source microbirrifici.org) and according to the Italian breweries trade association “Unionbirrai” Italy is now at the 4st place in Europe for breweries number considering that the podium is composed by UK, Germany and France. These 3 countries are in “top 5 per-person consumption of beer” while Italy is placed in the 31st place with 31 litres/year of beer per-person. These data demonstrate that the quality in Italy is set to a very high levels and our craft breweries are now exported all around the globe. Italian craft breweries cooperate with foreign breweries in order to create new exciting recipe and the large variety of Italian ingredients allow them to create masterpieces.
Not only wines in Italy. Every years new pub specialized in craft beer opens, many people is discovering these products also in the restaurant that during the past only served industrial beers. Also industrial companies are winking to consumers by creating craft-sound beers as demonstration that this is a productive field so that the trade association “Unionbirrai” created in 2018 the first certification for real craft breweries: the craft independent breweries logo that according to the law only the certified breweries can print on their label like already happens with Trappist beers and CAMRA in UK.
There is a lot of ferment around this world, let’s visit Italy and discover the wide offer of food, wines and beers that our country boats of! And if you need some tip be sure that in the Italian local guides group you will find the right one!
This is a collaborative post by #TeamItaly included in the #TeamChallenge proposed by @ermest. The post is part of the series about Italy: Italian culture between ancient and modern.
post very much 
. Craft 
tour is always fun.
… isn’t it