So if you’ve been following my blog at all over the past week or so, you’ve no doubt noticed the posts about my recent Tasty Tales from the Italian Ham Highway tour of northern Italy. An alternate title for this mini-series (or at least for the first few days) might have been “Best Beer in Alpine Italy” as I visited a couple of producers and fell in love with their artisan products.
My beer discoveries in Italy tie in nicely with a Best Beer on the Mountain article published on the Ingham’s blog right around the same time I was travelling through Italy. The Ingham’s post shares a list of some of the best ski bars in the Alps. Well, in France, Switzerland and Austria anyway. If you’re heading to Europe to ski this season and are keen for fun on and off the slopes, the list is well worth a read. But the four no doubt top notch bars listed are in only three of the seven Alpine states (eight if you include Monaco) and – just back from a road trip through northern Italy – I’m here to tell ya that there’s great beer in the Italian Alps too!
So what are these fantastic Italian beers I’ve now taken two paragraphs to celebrate without naming?
Foglie d’Erba
Award winning artisanal beer Foglie d’Erba is brewed in the small mountain town of Forni di Sopra. You can try all the Foglie d’Erba brews and meet brewmaster Gino Perissutti there at his birreria in the Coton Hotel. The hotel is owned and run by Gino’s family and is home to the oldest pizzera in the area. The artisanal beer movement in Italy has exploded over the past five years or so, and Gino seems to be leading the way from his mountain lair with a small selection of tasty yet simply crafted small batch beers made with fresh local water and foraged herbs. (Maybe this reflects my American palate, but) I especially liked the herbal and hoppy IPA, Hopfelia.
Zahre
The tiny mountain top village of Sauris is perhaps best known for its traditionally prepared prosciutto and speck … and, of course, its stunning alpine scenery. But it’s not just ham that is smoked in Sauris. Local family run brewery Zahre produces a smoked beer that’s out of this world. By ‘family run’ I mean two married couples busting ass to create some of the best beer I personally have ever had. They sell a Pilsner, a sensational hemp beer, and a red “Vienna” ale in addition to their smoky porter. I don’t think it’s possible to get Zahre Beer outside of Italy (and hardly anywhere further south than Bologna), and I got the impression that the Zahre folks are pretty content keeping things as basic and small scale as possible. Chatting with Danila Peressotti – one fourth of the Zahre gang and the de facto contact for international dealings due to her excellent command of English – it was explained to me while scanning the range of snow capped mountains as far as I could see, “We already have everything we need here. Why would we want to change that?”
Wherever you end up this winter – and especially if you’re skiing in the Alps or doing whatever anywhere in Italy – keep a lookout for these two tasty brews! You’ll be glad you did!
