(The following page was excluded from the print version due to space. Please enjoy Mark Meli’s complete and in-depth look at Italian brews in Japan covered here.)
Italian Beer in Japan
Baladin is the oldest craft brewery in Italy, built by Teo Musso in 1996. It is also one of the biggest and most influential. They brew a wide range of beers designed to pair with Italian food. There has been a strong Belgian influence from the start, and Musso is innovative in his use of unorthodox ingredients and methods. The four Baladin beers most readily found in Japan are relatively simple by Musso’s standards. Open and Open Riserva are American-style pale ales with Belgian yeast character. Isaac is a Belgian-style wheat beer with Italian spicing. Super is a Belgian strong ale that is perhaps more indicative of Baladin’s origins and has a fruity and spicy character from the Belgian yeast.
Baladin’s best and most original beers are harder to find in Japan. Most impressive of all are Musso’s long-aged barley wines, particularly the Xyauyu series. These are each aged for several years in open steel vats to make them fully oxidized. All contain more than 12% abv and are completely flat. Flavors include toffee, chocolate, sherry or port, and various fruits. They are ethereally light and silky in body, and often lightly tart. These are notoriously rare and expensive beers but, as truly unique barley wines, they are well worth seeking out.
Birrificio Italiano was the second successful craft brewery in Italy, after Baladin. The approach of its founder, Agostino Arioli, is almost the exact opposite of Musso’s. He brews mainly German style beers that are to be enjoyed simply, not as fussy accompaniments for food. Arioli has made a name for himself by creating some of the most respected German-style lagers outside of Germany, and in that sense has much in common with brewers like Fujizakura Kogen, Baeren, and Otaru in Japan. His Tipopils is a masterpiece of hop usage and drinkability. It is extremely crisp and light, and ends on a sharp, bitter note. Amber Shock (7%) and Bibock (6.2%) are bock beers. The former is an amber-colored dunkler bock, bottle-conditioned for a month, with toasty, rich malts and a clean, bitter finish. Bibock is a pale amber heller bock with bright citrusy hops and rich, fruity malts. All are classic lagers which reveal a hint of Italian flair as well.
La Petrognola is another Italian birrificio with a strong focus on regionality and terroir. A main focus of this brewery is the use of spelt. A local specialty, it is included in many of their beers, and amazingly, it is even the sole fermentable grain in their 100% Farro (4%). They also brew a chestnut beer, as well as an American pale ale and several Belgian-style beers, but those spelt beers deserve the most attention. Nera al Farro (Black Spelt 6.5%) is a rich stout using spelt, with flavors of dark chocolate, hazelnuts, and blackberries. It starts out sweet but finishes nicely dry. Ambrata al Farro (Amber Spelt 5.5%) is fruity and spicy, with complex aromas of peaches and oranges as well as chamomile. It is an original beer that may shock a bit but also finishes dry.
Brewfist, which opened in 2010, is already well known in Japan for their hoppy American and English-style ales. They brew a rather large range of beers, and have worked on several collaborations, including Italian Samurai with Minoh Brewing. Spaceman (7%) is their flagship IPA, made in the U.S. West Coast style, using three types of hops to produce a creamy, fragrant nose of citrus and overripe tropical fruits. Green Patrol (8.2%) is a strong black IPA, with a fabulous blend of chocolate and citrus flavors and some coffee and licorice notes as well. Terminal Pale Ale (3.7%) is a crisp and lemony refresher with full flavor that belies its strength. Though known for hop-fueled beers, Brewfist has also started brewing lagers and Belgian-style beers which are not yet available in Japan. Brewfist sells roughly 70% of their production in kegs, and it must be said that their beers tend to be in much better condition in that form, especially in Italy, than in exported bottles.
Montegioco was opened in 2005 in Liguria by Riccardo Franzosi, who sees himself and his beers as “tied to the region.” As great examples of Birra Slow, many of his beers use local fruits and barrel aging, and all follow his “Metodo Cagrea” (or Method of the Chair). You must sit and wait until they are ready. This method produces fantastically complex and refined beers that are expensive to make (and drink) but well worth trying. Bran (8.5%) is a barley wine leaning to the Belgian side, with rich chocolate, plums and raisins, giving it a tart edge and a bitter finish. La Mummia (4.8%) is a blond sour which is aged in wine barrels, with woody, tart and wine-like characteristics. La Quarta Runa (7%), perhaps Franzosi’s most famous creation, is a barrel-aged blond ale made with locally-grown Volpedo peaches. Production takes nearly three years from start to finish, and the result is a fruity and aromatic yet dry and light beer with oak notes as well.
LoverBeer is where, since 2009, Valter Loverier has brewed very small quantities of beer, all of it barrel-aged and sour. He says that he wants to blend traditional Flemish recipes and techniques with the wine-making culture of his home region, the Piedmont. Thus many of his beers contain wine grapes or local plums. My favorites from LoverBeer so far have been their sour fruit beers: D’uvaBeer, containing Freisa grapes, is sour and fruity, with grape notes and a good balance of lactic and acetic acids; BeerBera (8%), a spontaneously fermented beer using Barbera grape juice that is fruity, funky and sour with a wonderful wine-like nose; and BeerBrugna, which contains Damashine plums and exhibits great complexity.
Birra Del Borgo was opened in 2005 by Leonardo De Vincenzo, who learned how to brew from an American living in Rome. In the time since then, del Borgo has moved into a huge new brewery and is one of the biggest brewers in Italy, a leader in the Italian craft scene. They are rather experimental, shunning traditional styles and attempting to create unique tastes, whether that comes by fermenting in terra cotta pots, using the champagne method, or spontaneously fermenting their beers using their coolship. Their best-known beer is Re Ale, an American-style pale ale with both English and American malts and hops. Duchessa is their saison, which uses spelt in the mash, and is very lemony and herbal. Rubus is their naturally-fermented raspberry beer, acidic and tart. They are also well-known for their collaboration with Dogfish Head, My Antonia, and their strong imperial stouts and barley wines. Birra del Borgo is definitely one Italian brewery to watch.
Toccalmatto, meaning “A touch of madness,” was created by Bruno Carilli in 2008. Carilli’s specialty is not wild fermentation or regional additives, but hops. Heavily influenced by American craft brewing, Carilli’s main purpose has been to create dry and hoppy beers, using a broad variety of hops sourced from all over the world. In this he has succeeded, with his Zona Cesarini IPA, Surfing Hops Imperial IPA, B Space Invader black IPA, and Stray Dog No Rules Bitter, which is widely praised as one of the world’s best examples of this traditional British style. Grooving Hop, his golden ale with German and New Zealand hops, is also considered an exemplar of its type.
Toccalmatto was one of the first Italian brewers to get heavily into collaborations, and is now spreading out to many different kinds of styles. I look forward to see what new creations arrive here next.
Birrifico Del Ducato comes last, but not least. This brewer of several fine beers began in 2007 with brewer Giovanni Campari near the world-famous culinary capital of Parma. Many of Ducato’s highly-regarded beers have made their way into Japan. Their BIA line includes a wide range of traditional styles, all well-made if less than unique. Via Emilia, their first beer and flagship, is a long-lagered and very hoppy unfiltered lager in the tradition of the German kellerbier. It is biscuity and yeasty, with fresh, herbal hops throughout. Ducato is located in the town where the great composer Verdi was born, and their Imperial Stout which bears his name is a great homage to him. Already recognized throughout the world, Verdi was the first Italian beer to win a gold medal at an international competition, and is a chocolaty masterpiece. Beers with “Luna” (Moon) in the name are variations of their barley wine, some aged in various types of oak barrels (L’Ultima Luna), others blended with sour fruit beers (La Luna Rossa), and yet others aged in steel (La Prima Luna). Ducato brews many beers in a wide range of styles, with new creations coming out all the time.
There are newer Italian craft breweries whose wares are also starting to make their way to Japan’s shores. Birra Flea makes beers in Belgian and American styles, including a very unique IPA, Federico II. Many of Croce di Malto’s creations are subtly spiced in unique ways, and their Helles Diablo, a collaboration with Amiata, is a not-so-subtle lager fortified with 3 kinds of chili peppers! Birra Gjulia is another new brewer whose creations had people lining up for more at the recent Food-Ex exhibition in Tokyo. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing more of these and other breweries in the days to come.
This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.
