The thirteenth edition of Italy Beer Week is at the starting ribbons: from March 20 to 26, throughout Italy, the widespread event dedicated to craft beer returns with hundreds of initiatives.
An evolution of the “Craft Beer Week” begun in 2011 and organized by Cronache di Birra, a web magazine and newspaper, Italy Beer Week is open to pubs, restaurants, and breweries all over the Belpaese, which can independently report their own initiatives that go into the calendar of the event. There will also be no shortage of activities organized by Italy Beer Week and its partners, as well as online events.
Opening Italy Beer Week
Once again, the Debutante Ball, the inaugural event of Italy Beer Week, will be held the weekend before. On March 18 and 19, Open Baladin venues in Rome and Turin will host the premiere presentation of 13 new beers.
“With the Debutante Ball on the weekend before Italy Beer Week, we traditionally kick off the event. This year the live event will be held for the first time simultaneously in two cities, at the Open Baladin in Rome and Turin,” says Andrea Turco, editor of Cronache di Birra.
Those who cannot reach Rome or the Piedmontese capital will still have a chance to taste the “debutants.” A special box containing the unreleased beers can be purchased on the 1001Birre website. To taste them with the brewers who made them, four live online broadcasts are planned on the Italy Beer Week Facebook page, to be held between March 20 and 26.
In addition, from Monday, March 20, the products will be available exclusively on the taps of selected pubs throughout Italy participating in Italy Beer Week.
This Year’s Newest Craft Beers
Among the debutants: Milvus Brewery’s Raye Saison, made by master brewer Vito Samela with juice and peels of clementines from the Ionian coast of Lucania; Locals Only, the new beer from La Gramigna, an IPA brewed with hops grown in Umbria by Luppolo made in Italy; Perdu à Turin, the first Debutante Ball beer born from an international collaboration between the breweries Edit Brewing (Turin) and Fauve (France), a French-Italian Pilsner starring Barbe Rouge and Mistral hops, two famous varieties developed in France, which the representatives of Fauve personally brought to Turin for the Perdu à Turin crush.
After the years conditioned by the pandemic, the 2023 edition Italy Beer Week will have to confront a profoundly changed craft beer market.
“What has happened in recent years internationally has turned the craft beer market upside down, forced to face first the closures of anti-Covid restrictions, then the heavy price increases at all levels. The beer market, however, has responded well to the difficulties: per capita consumption has quickly rebounded to pre-Covid levels and the public has returned to populate festivals and themed events,” says Andrea Turco, editor of Cronache di Birra.
“The situation, however, remains delicate and clear initiatives, of all kinds, to support the sector are essential,” continues Turco. “With Italy Beer Week we will try to support the craft beer movement, thanks to an event with a national appeal and high visibility that is able to unite the entire sector in one big collective toast.”
“In the context of Italian craft beer, we are increasingly discussing the supply chain. For years we have limited ourselves to making excellent beers, for some time now the focus has also shifted to the production of raw materials,” says Salvatore Cosenza, organizer of the event together with Andrea Turco. “Re-establishing the threads of the relationship with agriculture is essential to ensure that beer is perceived as an important sector of Made in Italy.”
Grape Ale and Much More Among the most interesting initiatives is the event dedicated to Italian Grape Ale, staged in Milan and organized by Personal Brewery, an evening to celebrate this style created from the flair and skill of Italian brewers and which is now spreading all over the world.
In particular, Francesco of Malaspina Brewing will explain how he manages to reconcile in his beers two worlds as different as grapes and malt, as in the case of Tonda, a red IGA made with the Foglia Tonda vine, Phigata, a white IGA made from Pigato grapes, or the IGA made by Personal Brewery with wort from the wineries of Oltrepò Pavese.
There will also be themed evenings, tastings, in-depth discussions, delicious and original beer-food pairings, visits to craft breweries, meetings with brewers, tap takeovers, presentations of new beers, seminars, webinars, live streams on social media, and more.