A Guide to the Beers of Italy 2023

Over 450 companies narrated and 2430 beers and ciders reviewed in a dedicated section: the Guida alle Birre d’Italia 2023, published by Slow Food Editore and edited by Luca Giaccone and Eugenio Signoroni, is out.

A Guide for Beer Lovers

An indispensable volume for discovering the excellence of the Italian craft beer scene, the new Guide to the Beers of Italy is available in bookstores and on Slow Food Editore’s online store.

“Involving an increasingly wide audience that goes beyond enthusiasts is certainly one of the main challenges for the Italian craft beer sector. – say the two editors Luca Giaccone and Eugenio Signoroni – It was with this goal in mind that we approached the new edition of Birre d’Italia: to work on a guide that would be even more useful for the general public. A tool that, in a simple, understandable, immediate way, could on the one hand describe a world that instead is often seen by consumers as distant, snobbish and artfully complex, and on the other hand entice them to encounter beer by suggesting more and more places where to buy it.”

In addition to wanting to offer an exhaustive as well as capillary snapshot of the Italian brewing world of excellence, the Guide to the Beers of Italy 2023 in fact aims to reach an increasingly broad audience involving not only experts in the field, but also enthusiasts and the curious.

The volume encompasses the best of the Italian brewing tradition with 456 breweries, of which 38 are marked with the recognition of the Snail and 80 with the Excellence, and 2346 beers, narrated by a team of tasters throughout the country. There are 651 award-winning labels, and from this year they are organized in a list system, useful in choosing the right bottle for every occasion.

A list of 700 places including beer shops, pubs, taverns where to drink and buy craft beers completes the volume. For the first time, moreover, the Guide devotes a section to cider producers and ciders, confirming that both the market and the culture and attention devoted to apple fermented beers in Italy is growing rapidly.

Special Awards in the Guide to the Beers of Italy 2023

The Doctor B brewery in Livorno was awarded the Best New Brewing Award with the following motivation: a brewery opened just before the pandemic and run by two young brewers who decided to focus on low fermentations. The result is clean, precise and well-curated beers that are the result of a careful and meticulous approach. The choice to focus on the brewpub, and thus on the local market, without giving up offering their lagers outside is certainly a winning one.

The Costanza Award, sponsored by Cime Careddu, a company based in the Asti area, went to Barley from Maracalagonis (Ca), as Nicola Perra’s brewery is one of the best examples of how the success of craft beer is not only linked to the ability to create and innovate, but also to guarantee its customers a product that is always at the top of its game, through respect for timing, attention to detail, and shrewd management of the organization.

The Italian Supply Chain Award was given to Baladin of Piozzo (Cn), for the following reasons: from the very first brews, the Baladin brewery has sought to create a link with the land by using Italian grains, when not entirely local. A constant and focused effort that has led the brewery to put on the market, first of all, an all-Italian beer and to invest energy in building a consortium to promote these very issues.

The Best Winery Project Award went to Cantina Errante of Barberino Tavernelle (Fi), given for these reasons: experimentation, relationship with the territory, enhancement of local products, cleanliness and identity are the elements that characterize this young Tuscan reality that has shown, within a few years, to be a sure international reference.

Awards for the Best Locations in the Guide to the Beers of Italy 2023

The Drunken Duck of Quinto Vicentino (Vi) won the Best Draft Beer Selection Award, for a battery articulated in 18 tapping routes, through which-thanks to the careful assortment of types on tap-any enthusiast is sure to find access to products capable of satisfying his or her thirst: low fermentations; “high” fermentations of Belgian, German, British and U.S. matrix; mixed and spontaneous fermentations; “research” strands such as that linked, for example, to Italian Grape Ale.

The Best Bottled Beer Selection Award went to Abbazia di Sheerwood in Caprino Bergamasco (Bg): the Galati family’s establishment has a very wide and deep selection of labels that allow not only to get an idea of the national beer scene, but also to grasp its evolution over the years.

The Best Culinary Offer Award was given to Reggio Emilia’s Arrogant: for the equal attention put into the choice of beers and in the kitchen, where Alessandro Belli’s team selects the best products from the artisans of the Reggio Emilia Apennines and transforms them into recipes that in addition to looking to local tradition are not afraid to innovate.

Finally, the Best Publican Award went to Scurreria Beer & Bagel of Genoa: Alessandro Gurgo and Giorgio Airaldi carry on a place that has become a fixed stop for fans who find culture, attention to service, selection and storytelling here, as well as a relentless research that leads to proposing, often inviting them directly to the pub, some of the main exponents of the national beer scene.

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A Guide to the Beers of Italy 2023

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