Land of beer

“Something I encountered a lot at these festivals was the question ‘what kind of beer do you brew in Italy?’. It was difficult to answer,” says Ivano. “Italian grape ales are a very interesting concept but they’re not really beers that you can brew in volume, so it is quite a niche product. Then we have the Italian pilsners and chestnut ales, but not much more. Similarly, Italian brewers at that time were starting to be viewed as great executors of styles from abroad, but we only made copies of them, and nothing original. So we saw an opportunity to develop an Italian way of brewing beer, and to propose it to our potential customers abroad.

“For us, that looked like taking traditional recipes and brewing them with Italian ingredients. We started this journey by making a lot of collaborations with breweries from abroad, asking them to bring a particular ingredient or way of doing things from their territory to us in Italy, to which we could add our knowledge and the produce of our region. This series of collaborations culminated in a project called Be Grapeful.”

Many would argue that using local ingredients to produce traditional styles is precisely what West Coast US breweries did in the late 1980s to bring about the birth of the modern craft beer movement, and so isn’t exactly a novel idea. However, Italian craft has something that makes it completely unique to all other markets in the world, and that is the agricultural brewery, or farm brewery.

In 2010 the Italian government codified the existence of the farm brewery into law, recognising breweries that grow 51% of their raw ingredients as belonging to a category of their own. Why? Italy’s agricultural sector is one of the country’s biggest assets, with its varied terroir and microclimates allowing for the cultivation of a huge array of products, all of which are internationally revered for their quality. 

“For all the mistakes that Italian politicians have made, they did the right thing when they codified into law the existence of the farm breweries,” says Ivano. “That was the start of a movement, because without this recognition, breweries like us that grow their own raw materials would just be heroes trying to do something difficult. Without recognition by the law, your status is not protected and you are in a very fragile situation.” 

Before agricultural breweries were given official status, no quantifiable value could be afforded to a brewery having intimate knowledge of the raw materials it uses, and therefore, the quality of those raw materials. “As an agricultural brewery you have more obstacles, but it's very interesting, because you know so much about the barley. For example, you learn what makes a good barley, and what difficulties you have in the fields to grow it. 

“In Italy we have a long tradition of growing barley — not for brewing, but barley in general — and so we know how to produce it, but a lot of farm breweries are now starting to experiment a lot with the hops. Hops grow all over Italy at the side of the road, but we don’t have a tradition of cultivating them. It is difficult, because hops express different aromas and taste based on where they are grown, and so a lot of Italian farmers are experimenting with different kinds of hops to see if any will express, in Italy, particular aromas or particular taste. We need time to try different hops in different climates, in different latitudes all over Italy to find varieties. That will be, for me, the Italian revolution of beer. This is the goal, but we are not there yet.”

It surprises me that the R&D teams behind the likes of Yakima or Baarth Haas have not yet capitalised on the infrastructure that Italy’s network of farm breweries provides. A regulated body of farms, based in a variety of microclimates, within a country that can grow hops and is actively trying to grow more hops, and has an existing knowledge and appreciation for terroir seems like something on which multinational hop retailers would already be piggy-backing. That said, in the absence of multinationals lies the potential for something new and unique to develop. 

“In Italy, the brewing world has always been associated with industrial breweries, and all the industrial breweries are the property of companies from abroad,” says Ivano. “They haven’t been paid a lot of attention by the government because they are not seen as a strategic asset for the economy. As a result, it has been very hard for breweries in general to be heard from the politicians. Now that there are so many agricultural breweries, we are starting to lobby for our interest using the agricultural side, because in Italy, there is much more sensitivity toward farmers than toward the brewers. We have made a little club, together with farms that produce barley for normal breweries, and we are starting to get a little bit of traction and recognition by the community and by the political world.”

According to Ivano, this newfound clout should be used to correct a mistake made by craft breweries in Italy, and which has resulted in stagnated growth for the market. “It’s obvious that we did something wrong when communicating the product and the movement, and also what we are and what we can do for the country,” he says. “We must take responsibility for this, and do something to make it right for the future. Of course, we should maintain our connection with the craft beer nerds, but we have to find a way to speak to a much broader audience. It is absolutely essential that we find a way to talk to the casual drinker, who just wants to spend a nice evening with friends, or go to the movies. This is what we are missing now.”

Having spent almost 14 years deepening its connection to the land it sits on, it is fitting that Granda is now turning its attention to telling the story of that land. “Granda is the name of our territory here in Cuneo" says export manager Gabriele Bertucci. “It’s the land where we produce the beer and with which we are strongly linked because it's also where we grow our ingredients. The beers themselves are therefore an exposition and celebration of this land, but there are many other concepts and tools we can use to tell that story.”

Building on its Be Grapeful series, Granda’s new project, The Land of Beer, is using written, visual and experiential elements to help drinkers draw connections between flavour, climate, soil and the value of knowing exactly where every part of the finished beer came from. Many will remember the debate that took place in UK craft beer just a couple of years ago, about whether or not there is terroir in beer. In some ways, projects like The Land of Beer emphasises that historically there has been no terroir in beer, but that there can be.