Wild and Sour Beers

In another link to Belgium, many Italian brewers make excellent naturally-fermented and/or barrel-aged beers that display a degree of acidity from bacterial fermentation and/or funky barnyard character from Brettanomyces yeast strains. Overall, these tend to be less starkly sour than most American sour ales, and they often make use of local fruits, especially grapes, in a nod to Italy’s wine-making tradition.

One of the earliest breweries to go in this direction was Panil, whose Barrique series dates back to 2000. Beers in this series are barrel-aged in the Belgian tradition, reminiscent of Flanders Red Ale. They were big hit in the US immediately, and some even found their way to Japan, though you would need a lot of luck to locate one today.

Two of the most important brewers of sour beers are LoverBeer, which only makes wild-yeast beers, and Montegioco, a tiny Slow Beer brewery known for using local ingredients and barrel aging. Since these beers are imported into Japan, I will give more details about them below.

Several other breweries are purchasing Belgian lambic and blending it into their own beers. Two examples include del Borgo’s Duchessic, their Duchessa saison blended with Cantillon lambic, and Ducato’s Beersel Morning, with 3 Fonteinen old lambic added to New Morning saison. Revelation Cat in Rome is also famous for its blended, barrel-aged, and dry-hopped lambics, all made using Belgian-produced beer.

Belgo-Italian Hoppy Session Beers

Belgian influence on Italian craft brewing has been quite strong from the beginning, and the pull of American craft beer, with its worship of the hop, is far from negligible. This combination has led to a wide variety of very well-hopped beers made in Belgian styles, particularly blonde ales and saisons, some of which are unique and full of character. In consonance with a second trend towards more “sessionable” beers, these also keep to a reasonably low abv. Many of the best Italian brewers produce dry hoppy Belgian blondes that are crisp and refreshing, and not too strong.

There has also been something of a resurgence of such beers in Belgium itself recently, due partially to the growing passion for hops that has been imported from the USA. Brewers like De La Senne, De Ranke, and even several of the Trappist breweries have thus been releasing drier, lighter beers that break out of the stereotype that Belgian beers are strong and sweet. Many of the fine Italian examples deserve a try in comparison.

Perhaps the best maker of such styles is Extraomnes, whose beers are unfortunately not yet imported to Japan. Their Blond, at 4.4%, is massively dry-hopped and pulls no punches for such a light beer. Zest, at 5.3% is similarly dry-hopped and presents an even bigger flavor. Their Tripel, while being much stronger, carries on the hoppy tendency. They have also been working on a series of single-hopped saisons recently.

L’Olmaia and 32 Via dei Birrai both make interesting beers with Belgian yeast and abundant hopping that are available in Japan. L’Olmaia La 5 (La Cinque) is a wonderful example, with fragrant, lemony hops, crisp, bready malts, and a saison-like farmhouse character as well, making for a complex yet highly drinkable refresher. 32 Via dei Birrai’s Oppale is similar: light and clean, with huge citrus hop character, and a perfect balance of sweet, tart, and bitter flavors that tastes almost like a lemon-and-hop gelato! They also make a saison, 3 + 2, which clocks in at only 3.2% alcohol.

Several Italian-made saisons are now available in Japan, many of which are also relatively low in alcohol and dry. It is an interesting project to try several of these alongside Belgian originals, or American or Japanese versions of the style. Some of the more interesting have been Toccalmatto Tabula Rosa, Birra del Borgo Duchessa, and Delcato Nouva Mattina. Each of these is less than 6% alcohol and each uses hops and yeast in an interesting and original way.

These are just three of the most interesting trends I have found in Italian brewing. One could also talk about their interesting approach toward hoppy American-style beers, or the great examples of aged barley wines that several brewers are producing, or the several brilliant examples of authentic German styles being made there. It is up to the reader to explore those trends on his or her own, though.

Lastly, I wish to briefly introduce a few of the more interesting Italian breweries whose products are available in Japan.

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.