Ale Street News Online

Italian brewers admit it’s an uphill battle to break into Italy’s wine culture, but the new breed of Italian brewer has the same passion as their American counterparts 20 years ago. At this year’s Cheese! festival held in the town of Bra, a Bierplatz featuring a dozen Italian microbreweries joined in the proceedings for the first time alongside the traditional parade of wines and cheeses. Organized by the Slow Food organization, Cheese! alternates with Salon de Gusta, a much larger food festival that takes place every two years in nearby Torino. Both fests draw supporters worldwide, but the Salon de Gusto features a much larger beer presence including an increasingly healthy American contingent.

Breweries featured at Cheese! included Del Borgo, the furthest traveled, from close to Rome; Cittavecchia from Trieste; Beba, an all-lager brewery featuring several “double malt” beers including one named Motor Oil; L’Olmaia from Siena; and two we were to visit, Troll and Piccolo. The Italian beers we tasted for the most part seemed  either Belgian (predominantly) or German influenced. There was even a champagne beer at Cheese! brewed in Bavaria for Italian brewery Zago.

Brewers seem to mirror the craft beer movement in the states; they are young and energetic; many were former engineers. And they’re not afraid to use un-traditional ingredients — witness the herbal and floral additions of Troll. Febbra Alta (High Fever) is a sort of Gruit brewed with 15 different herbs. If there is a popular flavor that is unique to Italian beer, it is probably Casatanha, Chestnut; we tried several brews sweetened by this ingredient. Otherwise, White Beer seemed quite pervasive.

The local brew star at Cheese! was Teo Musso, whose brewery, Le Baladin is located in the tiny village of Piozzo, just a half hour from Bra. Dressed in his signature pastel cottons and scarf, eclectic Teo presented his beers — works of art in and of themselves — at the fest by day and one night at a special dinner at Casa Baladin. The restaurant is part of a three-ring circus Teo runs in his village: the brewery, located at his parents home; the Baladin brewpub, presenting a more quaffable line of beers — ranging from the white, through blonde and bitter to Super Baladin at 8% — that are piped from the brewery under the village’s main street; and the restaurant/hotel and gift shop where the more esoteric and aged selections can be found. Stateside connoisseurs may be familiar with labels such as Nora, named for his mother, Erika, named for his daughter and Xyauya, named for his daughter’s imaginary friend. At the dinner a sublime 2004 version of Xyauya was served with three variations of foie gras including ice cream.

The recently opened restaurant, bespeaks significant investment and features five spectacular guest rooms, each with a special theme. Having seen Teo perform both at the fest and at the dinner — he poured all the beers personally — I asked him if his 18-hour days were grueling. “It is what I have done for 20 years,” he replied.

I was traveling in the company of Jeannine Marois and the Mondial de la biere research team who were recruiting Italian beers for next year’s festival in Montreal; the day after Cheese! we went in search of Troll, nestled in the foothills of the Alps, close to the French border.

We arrived early as the mists were clearing and the sound of cowbells clanged from the hills as cows wandered under empty chairlifts. This particular spot is a snow chute in the winter with moisture from the Mediterranean driven into the wall of the Alps. They always have snow even when Torino doesn’t (i.e. the last Winter Olympics). In 1996 an avalanche thundered through the village killing four people.

Alberto was waiting for us, smoking a cigarette on the deck of Troll, which began life as a pub 15 years ago. Alberto added a brewery in 2002, and along with brewer Daniel has been turning out beers with unique flavors — like lavender and balsam. Different beers presented to us for breakfast paired well with three different cheeses from a nearby fromaggio. Our favorite was the 8% Shangri La.

Back in the car, Mondial GM Marie Josee Lefebvre took the wheel, while resident “GPS” Marilou Caty took out her faithful Michelin directions. They took us into France through a long tunnel carved through the mountain. I drifted off to sleep and when I came around we were high in the air negotiating tight hairpin turns on a one-lane road. How could there be a brewery up here I wondered, as I clung to the ceiling of the car. Of course, our directions were no good, but as the clutch screamed and the brakes burned we found our way to Apricole, an extremely picturesque village, perched on a promontory overlooking what is known locally as “Valley of the Sun.”

Birrifico Piccolo owner Lorenzo Bottoni was a bit frazzled, having returned from Cheese! by way of a sleepless night in Milan only to find a broken condenser in the brewery. Still, in true Italian fashion, he presented beer — notably his Seson, voted the best of its style in Italy — followed by lunch. We feasted on freshly-picked Porcini mushroom pasta seated at a gorgeous restaurant patio overlooking the valley. “The most beautiful village in Italy,” Lorenzo proclaimed of Apricole, “You should stay!” To his surprise, we agreed — our schedule for the day was already shot. Lorenzo hooked us up with rooms, took us out for pizza that evening — the best in Italy, of course — and a dip under a full moon in the warm Mediterranean, a stone’s throw from Monte Carlo.

Our itinerary took us north toward Milan and beyond. We met Scarampola brewer Maurizio Flibus at a rest area — in transition from brewpub to micro. He had learned his love of beer living in Brighton, England (my birthplace) for five years. His girlfriend was a compiler for the Good Beer Guide — enuff said.

We visited Manerba, a huge winery west of Milan, but also home to a large brewpub where new hire Swiss-born Maurizio Cannelli, was taking the reins (he formerly worked at a popular brewpub BABB). Lodigiano was perhaps the most organized of the breweries we visited, the owners a little older. The beers were clean, but more uniform.

North of Milan we visited Birrifico Italiano, the grandfather of Italian brewpubs where brewer Agostino Arioli is steadfastly making and bottling interesting brews — including an “extra hop” American style brew and Cassisona, an aged blackcurrant beer — working within the space constraints of a converted residence.

Near the Swiss border we came across Bidou, at the end of the brewery day and before the restaurant opened. These guys were definitely having too much fun! Judging from the décor and demeanor, we can say that here Che Lives! And we can say that microbrewing lives in Italy — indeed it seems that life has just begun.