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Volume 21 Issue 6
January 2001 Feature Story 2
The Magic
Moment In
Italian
Brewing
by Lorenzo Dabove
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Beer faces an uphill battle in Italy,
where it has always been considered inferior to wine. The
climate, culture and religious beliefs are all friendlier to
grapes than to barley. As Catholics, we Italians believe
wine to be the sacred beverage, blessed at the Last Supper,
whereas beer is the symbol of the paganism of Northern
peoples.
The Etruscans are credited with having
introduced barley, the basic ingredient for the preparation
of beer, into Italy between the seventh and sixth centuries
B.C. By the first century A.D., the whole Roman Empire had
picked up the habit of consuming beer. But beer was
considered a pagan and plebeian beverage in comparison to
the divine and noble wine. In 87 A.D., the historian Tacitus
compared the beer of the Germans to vinus corruptus--wine
gone bad!
His father-in-law, Agricola, was not of
the same opinion. He brought three master brewers from
Glevum, nowadays known as Gloucester, to Rome, where he
turned his villa into a private brewery.
Beer had other powerful supporters. The
Emperor Augustus exempted the medical profession from paying
taxes, because Musa, his doctor, cured him of liver ache
with cervisia.
But royal endorsement could not save
Roman beer from the barbarians. Beer fell victim to the
barbaric invasions that destroyed Romes agricultural base,
as well as its breweries. From the medieval period, there
are only isolated historic references to beer, all related
to monastic life. Manuscripts dated between 529 and 543 say
that beer was served during the stay of Saint Benedict of
Norcia at the Abbey of Montecassino in Latium. This was the
first Italian abbey beer, and perhaps the first abbey beer
in the world. And, in 600 A.D, a monk from Ireland founded
the Abbey of Bobbio in the vicinity of Piacenza. There, he
performed miracles with beer in 612 and 613, which may have
led to his later canonization as St. Killian.
For nearly 10 centuries, there was no
real expansion of brewing in Italy and the return of beer to
our country was not auspicious. It was reintroduced by the
notorious Lansquenets who sacked Rome in 1527. Named for the
German Land-Knecht, or servant of the country, these
mercenaries, commanded by officers from noble families,
reportedly loved beer so much that they carried it even into
battle. During the period of insurrections leading to the
Unity of Italy, called the Italian Risorgimento (1815-1870),
the divide between the oppressed wine drinkers and the
oppressing Austrian beer drinkers sharply paralleled the
political differences.
But, in time, nothing could stop the
popularity of this fresh, thirst-quenching and socializing
beverage. Beer conquered the whole world, and it won Italy
over, too.
Modern
Entrepreneurs
The first proper modern breweries in
Italy, all of them with craft features, were founded in the
second half of the 19th century. The first was probably
Spluga, located in Chiavenna, in 1840. It was followed
immediately by breweries founded by far-sighted Austrians
such as W¸hrer, Dreher, Paskowski, Metzger, Caratch,
and Von W¸nster, who were searching for a brand new
market. These Austrian entrepreneurs were soon imitated by
many Italian family brewers, some of whom, like Peroni and
Menabrea, are still operating. All these early products were
lagers in the Austrian style.
Then came the vicissitudes of two world
wars and rising taxes. Small breweries were easy prey and
fell victim to big and powerful international groups.
Brewing concentrated in a few hands, with an inevitable loss
of character that further eroded the reputation of
beer.
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Despite the higher status still accorded
to wine, the Italian beer market was--and is--a prize worth
fighting for. Last year, the consumption of beer in Italy
reached a record high of approximately 15.5 million
hectoliters (approximately 13 million barrels US), and
domestic production stood at approximately 12.1 million hl.
In the last 25 years, per capita
consumption of beer has more than doubled, to around 27
liters per year (compared to about 160 liters per year in
the beer-devoted Czech Republic, and about 77 in the United
States). In the same period, wine consumption has been cut
in half, from 104 to 51.5 liters.
These figures are encouraging for the
beer industry if we consider only quantity. When we consider
quality, its a quite different story. More than 90 percent
of all the beer consumed is still in the international lager
style. In many ways, it resembles the situation of the
United States at the end of 1960s. The dream of all lovers
of craft beer in Italy is to reproduce the fantastic
adventure of the Americans, great protagonists of an
extraordinary beer renaissance.
Small Is
Beautiful
Beers reputation is not helped by the
powerful multinational companies that play to the old pagan
and plebian image. Some of these companies claim to promote
beer education, organizing courses for their publicans on
such subjects as the correct way to pour beer on tap or from
the bottle. These trained publicans are then meant to help
educate their customers. The same companies then
paradoxically present advertising spots on Italian
television, where trendy boys take frozen bottles from the
fridge and gulp directly from the bottle.
No comment. That is the popular image of
beer in Italy. We are not surprised when foreigners have
heard only of Peroni Nastro Azzurro or Moretti, or perhaps
Menabrea.
Behind the scenes,
things are changing.
Thanks to a small group of beer lovers,
you can now find many pubs with a large range of beers from
small independent breweries from all over the world. There
are beer shops with well-informed staff, where you can buy
bottles to take away and taste quietly at home, at the right
temperature in the right glass. For the curious, there are
tasting courses for the experienced beer lover and the
novice alike. There are presentations on beer styles, on
famous brewing centers, and on brewers philosophies,
followed by tutored tastings that pair beers with the right
foods.
This development of a real beer culture
is very important because it can be the foundation for a
radical change of consumers habits. The consumer begins to
become more discriminating. In this promising new
atmosphere, the opening of the first small independent
breweries in 1996 came at just the right time.
Who started this movement in the 1990s?
Many people can claim credit. Thanks to international
travel, beer lovers discovered the different and wonderful
products of nations with traditional beer cultures. Back in
Italy, they sought out those beers. In response, some
distributors began to import craft beers and supplied pubs,
often run by publicans who had themselves tasted these beers
during trips abroad.
Other people were not satisfied with
drinking imported craft beer, so began to brew it
themselves. After visiting and falling in love with
Granville Island microbrewery in Vancouver, I was tempted to
abandon college to open my own brewpub, said Agostino
Arioli, brewer at Birrificio Italiano. Thank heavens, he
added, I decided to conclude my
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studies and improve my brewing
technologies.
For Teo Musso, brewer at Le Baladin,
things went in a different way. "I went to Belgium to learn
everything about brewing", he said. Back in Italy, he opened
his own pub in 1986 to introduce great classic Belgian beers
to customers who had previously drunk only wine or tasteless
industrial beers. But I was not completely gratified. My
real mission was to become a brewer myself. I absolutely had
to turn my pub in a brewpub, he concluded.
The first new brewers had to face a lot
of hard challenges, including bureaucratic and legal
problems. The need for capital and unjustly high taxation
made their nights sleepless. They needed also more
education, both of brewers and of consumers, and improvement
in the quality of beer.
Brewers
Union
For these and other reasons, a small but
experienced group of brewers in 1998 founded an association
called Unionbirrai (Union of Brewers), which in its short
life has become a presence at important exhibitions in Italy
and abroad.
Other small breweries have joined the
founders and more will follow them. Already, members
represent the whole Italian territory, from Friuli region in
the far north, to Sicily in the far south.
The union upholds standards of quality
and supports both consumer and brewer education as well. For
this purpose, we organize congresses, monographic courses,
seminars, publish a newspaper and distribute Italian and
foreign scientific works, explained union president Guido
Taraschi.
The union has intrigued the Italian and
foreign media, as well as famous beer writers such as
Michael Jackson and Charlie Papazian, said Davide Sangiorgi,
the nice, shockingly tattooed and skillful brewer of
Birrificio Lambrate.
These craft brewers are the real
protagonists of this lively and exciting new reality. As
true pioneers, they are challenging the lack of beer culture
and information in Italy with great passion, courage and
boldness. They are spurred on by their main goals: the
quality of their products, the development of a real Italian
beer culture, the professionalism of craft brewers and the
satisfaction of the consumer.
Young, Demanding and
Eager for Knowledge
As the skills of the new brewers grow, so
do the expectations of Italian drinkers. Nowadays, Italians
have more opportunities to discover a new taste, the taste
of craft beers, unfiltered and unpasteurized, and to
appreciate more authenticity and variety of flavors.
A recent survey conducted by Assobirra
(the Association of the Industrialists of Beer and Malt),
revealed that the typical Italian consumer of commercial
beer is male, aged between 25 and 35 years, a college
graduate, a professional man or manager, mainly single,
living in a big city of northwestern Italy like Milan, Turin
or Genoa or in the sunny regions of the South. He sees beer
as a great ice breaker, he loves social life and
participates in sports. This stereotype of the beer consumer
enjoys drinking beer while reading a book, surfing the
Internet or watching TV.
In contrast, the typical Italian consumer
of craft beer is a phenomenon so new that there are no
market analyses available. Personal observation would say
that this new beer consumer is younger, with a special
interest in all that is natural and healthy. He, too, is
cultured and mainly single (it is well known that an Italian
family with children does not often go out at night). He
lives in a big city and loves social life. But when he
decides to drink beer, he does so for pleasure. He does not
mix
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beer drinking with other activities, but
likes to concentrate on the taste and the flavor of the beer
itself. He feels the need to learn more about what he is
drinking. In the end, the main difference lies in the fact
that the craft beer consumer is not only eager to drink, but
even more eager to know about the real culture of beer.
This new beer lover represents a
favorable opportunity for many types of small businesses.
For example, in the market of books about beer, some world
best sellers are now available in Italian translation. The
newborn Unionbirrai News, published by the beer union, is so
far the only Italian magazine devoted to the consumer of
craft beer. Ask for a free copy from
info@unionbirrai.com.
New
Attitudes
The world of Italian craft beer is
increasingly attracting the interest of the media, which
dedicates more space and attention to small craft breweries.
The attitude of the press has changed radically.
At the beginning of the craft brewing
movement, the occasional article dedicated to the small
breweries focused mainly on folkloristic aspects, or on
craft brewing as a curiosity. Coverage was therefore
superficial and without depth. But thanks to an ever-rising
level of the quality of the beers, and the attention they
have received in pleasant and crowded pubs as well important
festivals, the press has started to take craft beer
seriously.
The emerging interest in this new
phenomenon is rapidly consolidating, not only in Italy, but
abroad. It is often possible to find articles in influential
European and American magazines full of appreciation for
Italian beers and breweries. Witness the 2000 Great British
Beer Festival in London in August: For the very first time,
Italian products were present at this five-day celebration
of craft beer from all over the world. Isaac, a white beer,
and Super, an abbey-style beer, both from Le Baladin
Brewery, were shipped to England, together with Amber Shock
from Birrificio Italiano. The shipments were small, but
English and Italian television dedicated special reports to
these new entries.
But the real triumph was conferred by the
customers themselves. Excellent was the most common comment
after the first taste. The unavoidable result: after only
one and a half days of the festival, all the beers were sold
out. Next year, Italian brewers will present more products,
bottled as well as draft.
The Homebrew
Connection
The enthusiasm for craft beer in Italy is
contagious in the world of homebrewers. The number of
amateurs who enjoy making beer is continuously increasing,
with sales of equipment and homebrew kits in a clear ascent,
said Eliano Zanier, who supplies homebrewers with products
under the brand name Mr. Malt.
Pioneer Massimo Faraggis newsgroup named
it.hobby.birra has proved to be a winner. Thanks to the
power of the Internet, homebrewers are able to swap
opinions, seek advice and improve the quality of their
homemade products, he explained.
After the first exchanges and
comparisons, now we are planning to organize the first
homebrew competition, dedicated to winter beers. It will be
held before Christmas and it will be similar to the ones
taking place periodically in the United States, said
homebrewer Enrico Pastori.
The newsgroup has built up a lively and
rich web site at www.hobbybirra.it. The site is continuously updated by the very
active Lelio Bottero, who invented a browser with the
curious name, altabirra. This site gets about 1,500 hits per
week, he proudly
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affirms. Thanks to it, everybody can
reach information and news related to the craft beer world
of Italy and beyond.
Homebrewers are already actively present
in Unionbirrai. Given the strength of interest in the
virtual brewing community, a local association of Italian
homebrewers seems imminent.
An End to
Isolation
Not even the most optimistic among the
Italian small brewers would have dreamed of becoming a
member of the prestigious EBCU (European Beer Consumers
Union) after only two years. It has been quite simple,
however.
On behalf of Italian craft brewers, I
asked the leaders of EBCU during the Great British Beer
Festival in August 1999 to consider the request of
Unionbirrai to join the prestigious European association. In
October, the request was on the agenda of the EBCU Meeting
in Antwerp. After hearing about the evolving craft brewing
industry in Italy, the delegations voted unanimously for
admission. The welcome from the EBCU means that Unionbirrai
sits at the same table with Belgium, the United Kingdom, and
other nations with the richest beer cultures.
But above all, the membership means the
end of the isolation fostered by tradition, geography and a
climate that is more suitable for the cultivation of
vineyards and the production of wine. The success of craft
beer of excellent quality signals an auspicious, though
gradual change. Nothing is harder than trying to change
mentality. It requires a lot of time, patience, and more
than else, tenacity. The young, enthusiastic, small brewers
are proving that they possess these gifts.
Lorenzo Dabove is an expert on Belgian
beers, specializing in the traditional lambic style. He is a
member of CAMRA, a permanent member of BSF (BiËres sans
FrontiËres) and official taster for Unionbirrai. At
next years Great British Beer Festival, he will lead a
guided tasting of new Italian craft beers. tinues to enjoy a
high profile by sponsoring exhibitions, festivals and other
events, including an annual beer festival at the brewery in
Vysoky Chlumec. It's all part of a family tradition.
Although members traveled far and wide through the
centuries, the output of the brewery back home in Vysoky
Chlumec continues to be one of the family's most important
contributions to Bohemian culture.
Strength in
strength
While the Lobkowicz brewery emphasizes
tradition as its main strength, a different brewery on the
other side of the Czech Republic sees, in a sense, strength
as its strength. The Pivovar Zubr (Zubr Brewery), in the
North Moravian town of Prerov, was founded in 1872 as "the
first Moravian brewery with a malt house." It met with quick
success in the region and abroad, as numerous awards from
beer exhibitions at the end of the century attest.
A century later, the Zubr Brewery is
proving to be no less successful. A modern joint stock
company with a fiercely market-oriented approach, the
brewery offers a large selection of classic lagers. With a
yearly output of 350,000 hectoliters, it also ranks among
the country's larger mid-sized breweries. Furthermore, with
an eye on economies of scale in distribution, Zubr joined
the neighboring breweries of Litovel and Holba in a regional
association called Moravskoslezske Pivovary
(Moravian-Silesian Breweries). Together, the three breweries
produce and distribute 1million hectoliters of beer
annually.
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Beginning in 1998, the Zubr Brewery
expanded the distribution of its beers via a network of
carefully selected European supermarket chains. It recently
increased exports to 15 percent of the brewery's output,
reaching markets in Slovakia, Russia, Slovenia, Italy,
Finland, Sweden and the USA. As part of its production
strategy, the brewery has also added several varieties to
its family of beers, including a low-sugar Zubr Light and a
nonalcoholic Zubr Free. David Sabak, Zubr's commercial
director, proudly asserts that among the range of
full-flavored beers produced by the brewery, every consumer
can find one that suits his or her taste.
Zubr's pricing and marketing strategy is
based on the belief that the public will eventually reject
bland, low-priced, so-called eurobeer. Sabak holds that
consumers will increasingly demand stronger, more robust
beers-and will be willing to pay more for them. Hence,
Zubr's slogan, "Chut Sily-Sila Chuti," which means "The
Taste of Strength-The Strength of Taste." The brewery's
marketing campaign accompanying this slogan is by no means
"weak" in its focus. It promotes Zubr as the beer for "real
men" and is sponsoring the Zubr Tour of strength-related
sporting events, such as weightlifting, boxing and
mountaineering. In a style that suits its product, the
brewery is aggressively out to prove that macho sells.
Lasting
loyalties
Another example of the merging trend
among medium-sized Czech breweries is seen in Ustecke
Pivovary (Usti Breweries), located in Usti nad Labem. In
1992, this grouping combined the formerly independent
breweries of Krasne Brezno and Velke Brezno into a joint
stock company owned entirely by domestic capital. The older
of the two breweries, Velke Brezno, has been in operation
since 1753. In addition to its flagship beer, Breznak, a
pilsner-style beer available in 3.8 and 5.1 percent abv, the
brewery produces a line of pale and dark real ale beers. The
Krasne Brezno brewery was established at its present site in
1867, and produces the prize-winning Zlatopramen beers of
3.8 and 4.7 percent. Ustecke Pivovary ranks approximately
ninth among Czech brewing companies, with a combined 550,000
hectoliters of output per year.
Usti nad Labem lies to the north of
Prague, approximately 20 kilometers from the German border.
Thus, Ustecke Pivovary's primary market share is in north
Bohemia. Likewise, the 3 percent of its output that is
exported goes primarily to Germany. Ustecke Pivovary
benefits from typical regional loyalty, selling over 80
percent of the draft beer in the local market. Vladimir
Horak, chief export manager, notes that regional dominance
is the key element to Ustecke Pivovary's success. "The
future of medium-sized breweries like ours," he said,
"depends upon local consumer loyalty."
The last few years have marked tremendous
change for the Czech brewing industry. In a land where beer
is king, the king makers themselves have had to struggle to
adapt to drastically different economic forces since the
country's transformation from communism to a free market.
Although beer has stood for centuries as one of cultural
mainstays of Bohemia and Moravia, the suppliers of "liquid
bread" have found that it takes more than history to stay
afloat in a world of cut-throat competition. Increasingly, a
brewery's department of sales and marketing must achieve a
level of success on par with the art of the master brewer
himself in order for the brewery to survive.
The quality of Czech beer has never been
better than it is today and the country's beer culture has
never been more vibrant, as even the briefest visit will
demonstrate. Paradoxically, this tremendous demand for
high-quality beer makes life more and more difficult for the
breweries.
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Individual producers, once dominant
within local markets, must face competition from each other
and, more ominously, from the biggest domestic
breweries.
This reality, while challenging to
brewers, is good news for consumers. Competition is not a
bad thing. Although there's no evidence that the
centuries-old quality of Czech beer was about to falter, a
market-driven approach to consumer loyalty may ensure that
the breweries keep up the good work. And the need to market
a unique image will encourage every brewery to perfect its
traditional styles, experiment with new flavor profiles, and
not least, come up with ever more provocative and
entertaining billboards.
There's no doubt that in the home of the
original pilsner, a premium, smooth-as-silk half-liter of
beer will always be a few steps around the corner at the
local pub. In Bohemia and Moravia, there are 8 million or so
folks who will all drink to that.
Marshall Dunlap is an American who
must have been Czech in a past life. He has lived in Prague
since 1991, where he owns and manages a company that
provides export logistics, translation services and travel
arrangements. He often visits the United States where his
American company, Bohemian Crown Imports, markets and
distributes luxury Czech stemware and their natural
extension, Czech beer glasses.
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Desitky and
Dvanactky
While Czech beers are labeled
with the percentage of alcohol by volume (abv), in
conversation, Czech drinkers always refer to the
body of the beer they are drinking by the system of
degrees developed by Professor Balling in the 17th
century. A 10-degree beer is called, in Czech, a
desitka; a 12-degree beer is a dvanactka. The
number refers not to the amount of alcohol in the
beer, but to the amount of malt extract used in the
brewing process. The actual abv is usually about
one-fourth of the degree value. While desitky and
dvanactky are the two most common "strengths" of
beer found on the Czech market, Czech beers can be
found as low as 6 degree and as high as 19
degree.
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