Distinctive traits? Passion for beer
A guided journey through the Trentino brewing scene
Cerevisia malorum divina medicina” (Beer is a divine medicine for all illnesses) - Paracelsus.
In its Latin name, beer is proposed as a divine remedy: a drink with a thousand-year history that has more recently become a young and trendy niche phenomenon, becoming entrenched in our mountains as well. Beer crafting also reflects a peasant tradition which often turns the master brewer into head of household, producer and host. From the rediscovery of traditional artisan production methods to the care for and selection of raw ingredients, there is a whole range of stories that reveal the art of beer crafting through the personality and taste that each brewer gives to their products, blending energy, passion and tradition into increasingly more sophisticated brews. We rethink beer as a modern though never banal drink, young and versatile yet always innovative, whose aroma and infinite taste meanings can even come to exemplify a territory.
A coffee beer?
Lupinus is a high fermentation beer infused with blue lupine from Anterivo, a native variety of legume that was once used as a coffee substitute. Because Anterivo coffee is rather bitter, so much so that it was used in barley blends, Stefano Gilmozzi, brewer and founder of the Birra di Fiemme brewery, decided to use it in lieu of hops - that is how Lupinus was born.
“Asso di Coppe”, the sour beers of the Bot
Lipa Porca, Single Bot and Impombera are the curious names of some of the beers of the "Asso di Coppe" project, launched by the famous Fabio (Bio) and Nicola (‘Noc), founders of the Bionoc craft brewery in Primiero, with friend Nicola Coppe, a brewer with a passion for atypical fermentations: beers that are unpasteurised so as not to loose their aroma, unfiltered so as not to let go of their texture, re-fermented in the bottle for perfect storage, and finally refined in barrique barrels adding fresh fruit (raspberries, apricots and cherries).
Nerobrigante, a clumsy and mean legendary character
Maso Nero stands on the Avisian hills, and legend has it that in its oldest cellar lived bizarre characters who enjoyed bothering passing travelers. But one of them, once a harmless and strange brigand, has decided today to redeem himself by starting to creatively play with malts, yeasts and hops. Nerobrigante is the brewery of Rudy Zeni who, coming from a family of winemakers, has devoted himself to the art of brewing with an “oenological” touch; indeed he inoculates skilful mixes of yeasts to give unique scents to his amber Fra’ Diavolo beer, and uses re-fermentation in the bottle on yeasts for the Zio Ulrich weizen, borrowing a precious art from the production of Metodo Classico spumante.
Garba, Werra and Fara: the beers of Arimanni
In medieval times, the arimannus embodied the free man, tied to his land so much that he resolved to obey the lord who left it in his care, in order to defend it. The arimannus loves and respects the land, which, if in return for care and deference, yields high-quality raw ingredients. The symbiosis with the territory is still today the first ingredient that Birrificio degli Arimanni uncompromisingly adds to Garba, Werra and Fara, its 3 unfiltered and unpasteurised artisanal beers.
Pure spring water and berries for an anti-ageing beer
Goji is an amber beer produced by Birrificio Artigianale Pejo using renowned spring water as raw ingredient, with low hardness and low contents of calcium, sulphates and chlorides, and adding fresh Goji berries grown organically in the Val di Pejo mountains, in the heart of the Stelvio National Park. This beer is enhanced by quality malts and hops that re-ferments in the bottle, yields fruity olfactory notes, is light and refreshing in the mouth and, finally, brings forth the characteristic delicate bitter taste of Goji berries, famous for being a proverbial natural antioxidant.
At the 8 km milestone of the Val di Non Provincial Road 73
Km8 is the name of a small and young brewery that produces high-fermentation, rigorously unfiltered and unpasteurised beers re-fermented in the bottle, made with high-quality ingredients and products from the Trentino area and mountains: hops grown in the valley but also wine must added to a special line of seasonal beers produced in autumn. In IGA (Italian Grape Ale) beers fermentation spontaneously exploits the natural yeasts that grow on skins before being enhanced with the must of vines (Groppello from Revò and Müller Thurgau from Valle di Cembra), in order to bring forth style and aromas that are unusual for both a beer and a wine.
The fantastic 5 of BirraFon
They know beer well. They drink it, love it, learn it, rehearse it at home and, when they are ready, put it on the market. Then they start winning! And since they got a taste for it, they are now applying themselves to growing their own hops. Where? In Fondo, in Val di Non. Alberto, Alessandro, Daniele, Giordano and Marco founded their brewery in 2016, and found a suitable home for it in 2018. Their beers go well with everything, not all together though, but one at a time... There is Rio Saaz, which evokes the valley canyon and is excellent when paired with white meats and fresh cheeses; the Ipa Grhop, which brings to mind the bold flavours of grilled meats or aged cheeses; the perfect Ampome for sushi; and, the Sweet Dream that loves chocolate desserts. There are 5 more we have not named. Set off to discover them!
Ohilalà, look what we see in Val di Fassa!
After years of traveling and studying across Europe, Daniel returned home in 2020 to put his learning to good use. He began to create his beers, the first ones to be strictly Ladin. Rampeèr - which means “to climb” - is the name of his brewery, eco-sustainable like the raw ingredients he uses, and powered only by renewable energy. Every day, as exemplified by the very name of his products, he infuses into the glass the love for his land and for the environment, adding to it hops and honey from Fassa. You can taste the graceful and light Tin Tan Ton - the sound produced by cowbells as cattle graze -, or the classic Arlárk - ohilalà -, the aromatic citrus- and resin-infused beer, or the Cef ta la nigoles, the one with “the head in the clouds” with its hints of ripe fruit. And there are also stronger cinnamon and rhubarb beers produced in accordance with the seasons.
In the palaces of the Baroness
It just so happens that in Monclassico, in Val di Sole, a real Harris’s lady hawk gives its name to an artisan laboratory, which is also a microbrewery. Her name is nothing less than Baroness. For eight years this splendid specimen of bird of prey, the “wolf of the sky”, as it is called for its sociability, has been welcoming Ilaria and Antonio Valorz into its home, at Nido delle Aquile, the Eagles’ nest (or is it the other way around?); among many things, this bird has developed a taste for beer. Not just any beer, but a royal slow-brewed beer, rigorously bottled by hand. Antonio and Ilaria’s Lager Premium has a fresh, slightly fruity flavor, undergoes rémuage and is allowed to re-ferment in the bottle, like a real mountain spumante.
What if it were made from an apple? PomBier!
Lucia Maria Melchiori took care of it! In Val di Non, Lucia Maria is a guarantee of quality in the processing and transformation of apples. After juices, freshly squeezed juices, vinegar and cider, his latest creation is called PomBier. An unfiltered beer that is the result of a mix between the craft beer he has been brewing since 2013 and his Trentino apple juice. A perfect radler (shandy) to perk you up at any time of day and to accompany a good board of cold cuts and young cheeses.
The sincere Lager of the Brenta Dolomites
In Pinzolo, the Val Rendena Brewery has treasured the knowledge and resources of the valley to renew the traditional German classic in its own way. Ultra-pure water that flows directly from the Adamello glacier, in the heart of the Natural Park, malt from a historic production plant in Northern Bavaria, hops from an agricultural consortium from the Hallertau region, the world home of the plant, for a traditional mountain beer that has the taste of the land in which it is born. You don’t think so? Come and taste the Lager, the one that does not forgive mistakes, or Bira de l’Ors, from a recipe as old as its name. And then let us know if you find in it the lightness of the crystalline valley air, the freshness of the glacier and the frankness of its people when they look at you in the eyes and shake your hand.
Craftsmen, of course…
If you continue to travel the world far and wide looking for the perfect beer for you, and you can't find it, what do you do? Maybe open your own brewery! Thus the idea of founding the Birra del Bosco adventure was born in Marco, in San Michele all'Adige in Piana Rotaliana: brew the beer that I can't find around anywhere! A self-made brew that was started almost as a game that could always be carried in the backpack during outdoor experiences with friends, today his brewery can boast of 18 labels skilfully prepared by the master brewer Mauro, also known as the bocia because of his age, even though he is the boss.
