When he founded The Brew Hut in 1995, Scott Newcomb could not imagine the future of his homebrew supply shop or America’s DIY beer movement. “Who would have ever known that homebrewing would become what it is today?” Newcomb wonders. Equally hard to imagine was the impact that his Aurora, Colorado, store would have on the homebrewed and craft-brewed beer cultures of Colorado.
But on June 26, The Brew Hut will celebrate that beery influence with its 25th/26th anniversary party. (Last year’s 25th got dropped due to COVID-19.) The party will include a “mini beer fest” that will present beers from six local craft brewers who got their starts in beer as customers at The Brew Hut. The list includes Kevin DeLange, a Brew Hut customer who purchased the shop from Newcomb in 2002 (with his then wife and current business partner, Michelle Reding) and then launched Dry Dock Brewing Company (in 2005) in the adjoining strip-mall space next door.
Newcomb opened The Brew Hut out of frustration with the limitations in ingredients and equipment at the homebrew shops then in the Denver metro area. “My plan was to open a larger ‘one-stop brew shop’ that had about everything that was available for homebrewing at the time,” Newcomb recalls. The owners of many of his peer shops attended his grand opening. “About every one of them said my store was too big and I would be out of business in a year,” he says. “Here it is 26 years later and the store is stronger than ever thanks to Kevin and Michelle.”
When the pair opened the Dry Dock brewery next door, they did so with a novel approach (suggested by Newcomb) that proved helpful to The Brew Hut and the new brewery, one that is now ubiquitous in craft beer: a manufacturing brewery that sells all of its beer by the glass to onsite customers. “This was a new concept at the time,” DeLange recalls. “We opened the first tasting-room-model brewery in Colorado.”
The concept meant Dry Dock customers could buy a pint, carry it into the adjoining Brew Hut, and then pick up a recipe and the ingredients for making that beer at home. “We were sort of a speakeasy,” DeLange recalls. “In our first six months, about half of our production went into kegs brought in by our homebrewing customers.”
One of those customers was Dave Bergen. He and two of his homebrewing friends made the jump from extract to all-grain brewing when they became Brew Hut customers in 2009. The three brewed beer together once a week for five years, perfecting recipes with advice and unflinching feedback from staff at The Brew Hut and Dry Dock. In 2014, the trio became friends and business partners when they opened Joyride Brewing in nearby Edgewater, Colorado.
“We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for The Brew Hut and all of the help and mentoring the staff gave us,” Bergen says. At the anniversary bash, Joyride’s founders will serve two beers (a West Coast IPA and a Kölsch) made from recipes from their days as Brew Hut customers.
“We don’t have an official count of craft brewers who got their start by buying supplies at The Brew Hut,” DeLange says, “but I think it’s around 25. I continually see brewers at beer festivals, GABF, and the Craft Brewers Conference that remind me of how they started brewing with us. It’s always very gratifying to hear that.”
(Left to right) Steve Bussell, Nick Bruening, Mark Hurley, and Jeff Jameson
DeLange and Reding have enjoyed their own Brew Hut–fueled success as craft brewers. Dry Dock now has a second and much larger production facility (also with its own tasting room), beers (including a popular Apricot Blond Ale) sold across the state, and an impressive collection of GABF and World Beer Cup medals. The pair has also guided The Brew Hut through nearly twenty years, including tough ones in the early days and a pandemic year with hearty sales growth. Last year, The Brew Hut also earned the 2020 Homebrew Shop of the Year Award from the American Homebrewers Association.
And while Newcomb is no longer in the homebrew business, he’s still deep in the at-home zymurgy he began evangelizing over a quarter of a century ago. “I make beer at home as often as I can,” he says. “Right now I have my award-winning brown ale on tap, and a lemon wheat and a red ale in the secondary fermenter. I enjoy this hobby today as I much as I did the first time I ever brewed beer,” he adds. “I still get excited on brew days and can’t wait to taste my homebrew and share it with others.”
About the author: Marty Jones is a longtime craft beer journalist, promoter, and publicist. He lives in Denver, Colorado and helps Dry Dock Brewing with its flag-waving efforts. All photos in this article attributed to Julia Gorrell.
In August 2020, the federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) finalized the definition and labeling requirements of gluten-free fermented and hydrolyzed foods (including beer and other alcoholic beverages). The ruling provides a clear delineation between products that are truly gluten-free and products that are not and how product labels communicate those differences to consumers. In the case of beer, the distinction is between naturally gluten-free beers and barley-based beers processed in an attempt to reduce the gluten.
On September 23rd the world’s dedicated gluten-free breweries gathered for a 2nd annual conference, held virtually this year due to COVID-19. Holidaily Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado hosted brewery owners, brewers and staff to share ideas and discuss technical brewing techniques specific to gluten-free brewing. A portion of the conference was dedicated to discussion of the FDA ruling, how it should be interpreted and what consumer risks still exist.
Traditionally, beer is brewed utilizing four main ingredients – grain, water, yeast and hops. While water and hops are gluten-free and yeast can be created and/or propagated gluten-free with general ease, the grain can be a challenge for brewers who aim to brew a truly gluten-free beer. The most common grains found in beer are barley and wheat, both of which contain gluten.
In an attempt to find an easy way to provide a safe product for celiac or gluten-sensitive consumers, breweries have tried “reducing” or “removing” gluten from traditional beers. In this case, brewers produce beer with gluten-containing ingredients (barley and/or wheat, etc.) and treat the liquid to “remove” gluten with an enzyme. The product must test at 20 ppm of gluten or lower before packaging and even so, labels cannot reflect “gluten-free.” The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) created a puzzling labeling option for these beers, calling them gluten-removed.
Why did the TTB not allow these beers to be labeled as gluten-free?
Further research was needed due to two concerns – consumer complaints and, well…science. Thirsty, gluten-free beer drinkers trying these “gluten reduced” beers with the promise that they were testing below 20 ppm were having negative gluten reactions.
According to a February 2018 study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
“The average inadvertent exposure to gluten by CD individuals on a GFD was estimated to be ∼150–400 (mean) and ∼100–150 (median) mg/d using the stool test and ∼300–400 (mean) and ∼150 (median) mg/d using the urine test. The analyses of the latiglutenase data for CD individuals with moderate to severe symptoms indicate that patients ingested significantly >200 mg/d of gluten.” (Syage, Kelly, Dickason, Ramirez, Leon, Dominguez, Sealey-Voyksner (2018) Determination of gluten consumption in celiac disease patients on a gluten-free diet. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 107, Issue 2, February 2018, Pages 201-207)
The study concludes, “these surrogate biomarkers of gluten ingestion indicate that many individuals following a GFD regularly consume sufficient gluten to trigger symptoms and perpetuate intestinal histologic damage.” (Syage et. Al., 2018). The study was provided to the Gluten-Free Brewer’s Group by Tricia Thompson, MS, RD, of GlutenFreeWatchdog.com.
Additionally, there are entire groups and pages on social media with people from all over the world asking why they are getting sick from gluten-removed beers. One particular group on Facebook is actually called “We Got Sick Drinking Gluten-Reduced Beers”. These are the consumers who, when the FDA opened up a call for comments by interested members of the public regarding labeling beer, responded. The cry by consumers was heard.
Michelle Colgrave, Professor of Food & Agriculture at Csiro & Cowan University in Australia conducted a study on fragments of gluten left behind after utilizing the enzyme. Testing with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, Colgrave found that hydrolyzed gluten was left behind after the enzyme was added. (Colgrave et al (2017) Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis reveals hydrolyzed gluten in beers crafted to remove gluten. J. Agric. & Food Chem. 65, 9715)
In other words, when beer is created with gluten containing grains and treated with an enzyme, the gluten protein that was once one large protein is now broken into smaller fragments. What consumers were reporting and studies are now showing is that while the gluten tests available may report the beer is less than 20 ppm, the components left in the liquid continue to make sensitive consumers sick. (Akeroyd et al (2017) Journal of American Society of Brewing Chemists, 74, 91; Allred et al, 2017, Journal of AOAC International, 100, 485) “To utilize the word ‘removed’ is actually quite deceiving. The gluten is still in the beer, it’s just in smaller pieces than before,” says Laura Ukowich, VP of Operations at Holidaily Brewing in Golden, Colorado. “This is why sensitive consumers are still getting sick.” The testing that occurs now has room for improvement. The FDA claims “we know of no scientifically valid analytical method effective in detection and quantifying with precision to the protein content in fermented or hydrolyzed food in terms of equivalent amounts of intact proteins.”
Despite maintaining high standards for quality control as an industry, individual breweries are still prone to mistakes. According to the results of a 2016 TTB Alcohol Beverage Sampling Program conducted by the federal alcohol regulating body a random selection of 53 malt beverages were tested for adherence labeling compliance regulations. One of the tests checked to see if the alcohol by volume (ABV) of the liquid inside fell within regulatory tolerance (+/- 0.3% ABV) of what was claimed on the label. 29 of the 53 products – 54 % – fell outside of the allowed variance. (https://www.ttb.gov/images/pdfs/2017-03-01-fy2016-results.pdf)
Ultimately, the final ruling by the FDA is that in order for a beer to be labeled as gluten-free, only gluten-free ingredients must go into the beer. “A solution to all of this confusion already exists,” Doug Foster of Aurochs Brewing in Pittsburgh, PA discussed. “These dedicated gluten-free breweries address any issues by creating craft beer made out of naturally gluten-free ingredients. It eliminates the need to even worry about gluten-reduced, unsafe products and labeling.”
There are not shortcuts by the members of the Gluten-Free Brewer’s Group. These breweries are dedicated to making safe, quality gluten-free beers for consumers to feel completely safe drinking. If you see the label gluten-free on a beer, know that it was made with gluten-free ingredients. If you are sensitive, be aware that gluten-reduced or gluten-removed may be a risk.
“Just as the only treatment for celiac disease is a completely gluten-free diet, the only truly safe beer products to consume are those that are made with 100% gluten free ingredients,” JP Bierly Founder of Bierly Brewing in McMinnville, Oregon. “Agreed,” said Karen Hertz of Holidaily Brewing “we are glad there is a difference between the gluten-free and gluten-removed labeling for beers but ultimately there shouldn’t even be a gluten-removed category. It’s either gluten-free or it’s not. We will keep advocating for that as a group.”
About the Gluten-free Brewers Group
Members of the Gluten-Free Brewers Group are passionate about crafting high-quality beer that is accessible to all including those with Celiac Disease and other gluten-related disorders.
There are currently 15 dedicated gluten-free breweries in the United States. Follow along with the hashtag #getbeercurious to learn more about gluten-free beer. Breweries interested in joining the Gluten-free Brewers Group can reach out to Kaitlyn Gipple at [email protected].
Stepped mash: 146° F for 15 minutes; 156° F for 30 minutes; mash out at 168° F for 10-15 minutes. 90 minute boil, following schedule listed in the ingredients. After boil, add whirlpool hops once wort is below 180° F to prevent isomerization of hops. Ferment at 68° F for 2 days and increase temperature by 2° F on day 3. Allow temperature to free rise to 72-73° F by day 5. Dry hop for 3 days when final gravity is within 0.5-1 Plato. Complete a diacetyl rest before cold crashing. Do this by taking a 2-4 oz sample that can be capped. Place sample in 140° F water for 20 minutes. Allow sample to come down to room temperature and test for diacetyl by smell and taste. If still present wait another 24-48 hours and retest. Only cold crash after the sample has passed the test. Crash at 32° F for 4-6 days and transfer to package.
During my childhood, in the countryside where I was born and grew up, it was very common to see people walking along small rivers, or sometimes irrigation canals, or even along dusty and lonely country roads, looking for bruscandoli in springtime.
Bruscandoli is the name given to the young shoots of wild hops by the people in Veneto. For ages, nobody in the northeastern part of Italy ever thought of them as an ingredient to be used in brewing, but rather as an element of gastronomy, revered for their excellent, lightly bitter taste. My mother, for example, used to make a risotto with bruscandoli that was creamy and delicate and, above all, a reminder that spring was at its apex and summer—and thus school holidays—was on its way. Another frequent preparation was a bruscandoli frittata: scrambled eggs and hop shoots, more or less. That dish is even more aromatic and tasty than the risotto, if less refined.
Later on, I discovered that those young hop shoots were picked almost everywhere in Italy. In other regions they had different names: asparagina or luartis in Lombardy, luperi in Umbria, and urtizon in Friuli Venezia Giulia. But their culinary use was the same.
Nowadays, fewer people go out in the country searching for bruscandoli, maybe because you can buy them at a greengrocer’s. And while they were once a free food, used by necessity in a post-war economy, they have since been discovered by Italian haute cuisine. Giancarlo Perbellini, a Michelin-starred chef in Verona, is famous for his own risotto with bruscandoli. Perhaps it is even better than my mother’s.
Despite the culinary role that bruscandoli plays, however, Italy has never really been considered an important place for hops. The beer industry does use local barley, malted in two maltings located in the south of the country, but hops are traditionally imported from Germany, Slovenia, and elsewhere.
But that wasn’t always the case. Today, a new generation of agricultural researchers, academics, and brewers is rediscovering the country’s hop-growing history—and paving the way for an innovative new industry.
HOPS IN THE GRAVE
In 1994, in a village named Pombia, close to Novara in the region of Piedmont, archeologists discovered a necropolis dating to the sixth century B.C., roughly three centuries before the conquest of the region by Roman troops from the south. In one of the graves a small drinking vessel was found. A subsequent analysis showed that the bottom of the vessel contained traces of cereals—mainly barley—and herbs. Among the herbs, scientists found hop pollen residues.
Of course, it’s a leap too far to say that the ancient Celtic population living in the area before the arrival of the Roman legions was happily guzzling the era’s equivalent of Double IPAs—but the presence of hops proved that those people were at least aromatizing their fermented barley drink with what they found in their surroundings. And hops were certainly there, as confirmed by Pliny the Elder, who mentioned them among the edible plants of that part of Italy in his “Naturalis Historia” (“Natural History”), published in the first century A.D.
If wild hops were used, knowingly or unknowingly, by the Celts, they were also likely used later by the Benedictine monks of Montecassino Abbey in the southern Lazio region, who could have been brewing their own Ales as early as the sixth century. That said, we have to travel forward to the 19th century to discover a true Italian hop farmer.
When I started to appreciate good beer, I also started to get involved in the subject as a student. So when a teacher at the university explained that no hops were cultivated in Italy at the time, I wanted to understand why and if there was any chance to do it.
— Eugenio Pellicciari, Italian Hops Company
A businessman living in the Romagna countryside near Forlì, Gaetano Pasqui was well known at the time as an inventor of agricultural tools, a pioneer in improving cultivation, and a passionate scholar of beet and peanut farming. In the 2012 book “L’uomo della birra” (“The Beer Man”), his descendant Umberto Pasqui described how Gaetano decided to open his brewery, Premiata Fabbrica di Birra Gaetano Pasqui, in 1835. In that era, breweries were spreading throughout Italy: Within just a few decades, many of today’s legacy brands including Birra Wuhrer, Birra Menabrea, Birra Peroni, Birra Moretti, Birra Forst, and Birra Dreher were all founded. By 1894 a government census counted 151 working breweries in Italy. Like other visionaries at the time, Gaetano Pasqui realized that things were “sulla cresta dell’onda,” or “on the crest of the wave.” What distinguished him from his contemporaries was that he considered imported German hops too expensive, and instead started growing his own.
Pasqui began by collecting whatever wild hops he was able to find and selecting choice examples by their characteristics. By 1847 he was able to brew a beer with his own “home-grown” hops, and his brewery continued using local hops until the day he died in 1879. Unfortunately, the “Birra Pasqui” adventure ended with him, but his experience was imitated by other farmers in the area, with several small hop farms growing on the hills surrounding Rimini and Cesena, in the part of the Emilia-Romagna region that faces the Adriatic Sea and the golden beaches of the Riviera Romagnola, which is usually packed with tourists in summertime.
In the end, Italy’s 19th-century movement towards commercial hop cultivation was stopped by a lack of confidence among the big brewers of the era. In this sense we can read what the scholar Eugenio Mazzei wrote in his essay “La coltivazione del luppolo nel cesenate,” or “The Cultivation of Hops in Cesena Territory,” published in 1909: “To us, the generic assertion of some agronomic writers that beer hops do not develop in Italy seems incorrect.” The essay mentions Gaetano Pasqui as proof that hops for the brewing industry could be cultivated with success in the country.
Unfortunately, Italy had to wait another century before hop farms would appear again. In 1989, the Ministry of Agricultural Food and Forestry Policies published an essay titled “Il luppolo da birra in Italia,” or “Beer Hops in Italy.” The report testifies to the existence of some small experimental fields near Feltre—in the same Veneto region where I grew up, close to the Birreria di Pedavena—and in Alto Adige, the northern Italian territory that shares a border with Austria. While the report and these first attempts at cultivation went almost completely unnoticed, the conclusion of that five-year project notes that there were “good agronomic possibilities for growing beer hops in an Italian environment.”
Instead, the definitive push towards Italian hop-growing found its roots in the craft beer revolution that started in the middle of the 1990s. In the beginning, pioneers like Teo Musso at Birra Baladin had to buy their ingredients from abroad, but with the fast growth and success of craft breweries, some brewers began to move towards local ingredients.
While using Italian produce like grapes, other fruits, and flowers has become a kind of trademark of modern Italian beer culture, other such forays also extended to beer’s core ingredients. For several years Musso has had his own barley fields in the south of Italy, and Leonardo Di Vincenzo of Birra del Borgo was searching for native yeast strains before his brewery was acquired by AB InBev in 2016. But for many brewers, securing a reliable, Italian-grown hop was the final challenge.
DAWN OF THE HOPS
Within a few years, small hop gardens were starting to spread across Italy. Naturally, most contained foreign varieties, such as Cascade, East Kent Golding, Saaz, or Hallertauer Mittelfrüh, and were cultivated without the proper tools to grow and harvest the aromatic cones, but it was a start. At least they demonstrated that growing hops for brewing was not a completely useless endeavor, as everyone used to believe. In 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture financed the first national research project concerning the cultivation of hops in Italy, entrusted to the Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economics Analysis (CREA). By the end of 2017, Italy could count 64 hopfields, even if many of them were little bigger than one acre.
In this general atmosphere of rediscovery in 2017, it is worth telling a story that stands out from the others. Ten years earlier, a student in the agrarian department at the University of Parma had the chance to attend a 2007 lecture by Giovanni Campari, founder and head brewer at Birrificio del Ducato. While sampling Birrificio del Ducato’s Viaemilia, AFO, and New Morning—three of the very first beers brewed by Campari—Eugenio Pellicciari fell in love.
At the beginning, we met some perplexity among Italian brewers about our hops. All of them were used to buying hops from abroad and, I have to say, we were not ready to provide the product continuously. But we kept believing in our idea and we continued to invest. More plants, more technology, including a hop-picking machine, a dryer, a cutting machine, and more product.
— Eugenio Pellicciari, Italian Hops Company
“When I started to appreciate good beer, I also started to get involved in the subject as a student,” Pellicciari says. “So when a teacher at the university explained that no hops were cultivated in Italy at the time, I wanted to understand why and if there was any chance to do it.”
As part of his research, Pellicciari learned about Gaetano Pasqui. Later he discovered the story of a hop farm in the comune of Marano sul Panaro, near Modena, that had been owned by the Marquis of Montecuccoli in the year 1874.
“Marano is a small village,” Pellicciari says. “It is part of the better-known Vignola area, which is famous for cherries, balsamic vinegar, and [the small town of] Castelvetro, one of the three cornerstones of Lambrusco wine [production]. But also it was the perfect location for the experiment that my friends and I wanted to try.”
With the support of Parma University and the municipality of Marano, Pellicciari and his partners planted an experimental hopfield in 2011. At the same time, wild hops were collected: not just from the area around Marano, but also from other parts of northern Italy, from Liguria in the northwest to Veneto in the northeast, as well as from Tuscany, and even Calabria, far down in the south. In the end, Pellicciari’s experimental field contained about 80 varieties of “autochthonous” hops—ostensibly indigenous varieties that had already proved their ability to grow in Italy.
“Of course many of these varieties had no relevant qualities for brewing,” Pellicciari says, “but a few seemed to have some potential. So in 2014, we founded Italian Hops Company with a twofold purpose: to grow international hops in the Marano terroir and to breed the first autochthonous Italian hops for brewing beer.”
If the first goal was easy to achieve, the second one took a very long time. The rare genotypes with potential for brewing had to pass through many stages, beginning with analysis of the plant’s vigor, its disease resistance, its production capacity in terms of quantity and quality, and every kind of organoleptic analysis—that is, how they smelled and tasted.
A year later in 2015, Italian Hops Company was able to invite about 20 breweries to join an initial project called Harvest, for which the breweries created a one-off beer using wet hops from Marano. By 2019, that project had grown to include 55 breweries.
“At the beginning, we met some perplexity among Italian brewers about our hops,” Pellicciari says. “All of them were used to buying hops from abroad and, I have to say, we were not ready to provide the product continuously. But we kept believing in our idea and we continued to invest. More plants, more technology, including a hop-picking machine, a dryer, a cutting machine, and more product. We now have 12.5 hectares [30 acres] which are cultivated ‘German style’ [with long rows, tall-ish trellises, and wide spacing] but with slightly lower trellises to suit our setting and climate.”
Those trellises include a number of international varieties, Pellicciari says, from Cascade to Centennial, from East Kent Golding to Nugget. A high point came in 2018, when the U.K.’s Moor Beer Company brewed Italia’Hop, a Pale Ale made with Marano-grown Nugget.
If Italian Hops Company is beginning to gain some commercial success, it is not just among small breweries: Its Cascade was recently chosen for a beer by Birrificio Angelo Poretti, a large brewery owned by Carlsberg Italia. That said, the most relevant part of its mission is finding autochthonous Italian varieties, which distinguishes it from other hop startups in Italy, as well as from the brewery-owned “hopfengarten” (or small hop gardens that they use for their own consumption) that brands like Baladin have launched over the last few years.
“Æmilia, Futura and Mòdna are the names of our very first, 100% Italian hops, the product of our research, our work, our failed attempts,” Pellicciari says. “These are the real first bricks of the path towards hops that are truly ‘made in Italy.’”
CALL FOR BREWERS
Those first bricks were set in the ground by several brewers who were looking for an excuse to experiment.
“I was among the bunch of breweries that participated in the first edition of Harvest, but my biggest interest was for the autochthonous varieties, of course,” says Agostino Arioli, founder of Birrificio Italiano. “I used Æmilia and Futura only in dry-hopping four years ago, but last year I decided to brew a beer just with them.”
Called Hop, Tony Hop!, that Pale Lager was made by splitting the batch in two after the whirlpool. One part was double dry-hopped with Æmilia, while Futura went into the other.
“These hops were very green and quite raw, but they had delicate fruity notes that I like. You can find the wild touch in their aroma and flavor profile,” Arioli says. “I have to say they are not easy to use and the beer could taste unfamiliar to most beer drinkers, but they do have potential, even if they need to be tamed.”
For Arioli, these new hops are interesting for reasons beyond nationality.
“It’s not about being able to say ‘Made in Italy,’ even if this trademark can create some marketing interest,” he says. “It’s about the search for a new taste, a new aroma—for the discovery of what a specific place, through hops, can express in a glass of beer.”
Other breweries are following different paths. Teo Musso, for example, grows his own hops near Piozzo, in the Langhe area where Baladin is located. And Fabiano Toffoli, founder and head brewer of 32 Via dei Birrai, a microbrewery located near Treviso in Veneto, decided to approach hop sourcing from a different angle.
“I have always chosen my hops in Poperinge [in Belgium], but in 2014 I had the idea to promote hops cultivation on the hills where I live and work,” he says. “Our project was to persuade local farmers to start to cultivate hops to supply the microbreweries in the area.”
Toffoli has had some success: One local farmer has converted part of his production from breeding cows to growing hops and is now one of 32 Via dei Birrai’s suppliers. But Toffoli warns that it’s not as easy as it might seem.
“First of all we had to invest money in technology, the machines we needed to transform fresh hops into useful hops for beer, then we have to build a strong relationship among farmers and brewers,” Toffoli says. “Farmers have to grow the hops that brewers request but, at the same time, brewers can’t change the hops requested every year. We live in a time where many brewers are always searching for a new beer to brew and a new beer often means different hops. But nature doesn’t run at the same speed of the market, or at the same speed of a brewer’s will. So we have farmers that start to grow a variety that they aren’t sure they’ll be able to sell when the time comes. The situation is a little chaotic.”
I have always chosen my hops in Poperinge [in Belgium], but in 2014 I had the idea to promote hops cultivation on the hills where I live and work. Our project was to persuade local farmers to start to cultivate hops to supply the microbreweries in the area.
— Fabiano Toffoli, 32 Via dei Birrai
Although Toffoli believes that his region and its climate offer great opportunities for hop cultivation, he acknowledges that there are some misconceptions about farming hops. Some promoters, he says, have been selling hop seedlings with the promise that in three years, farmers will be able to sell hops from them for €40 per kilogram, or about $21 per pound, when the real price is generally much lower. And in any case, success certainly doesn’t happen overnight.
“There’s a weird idea that growing hops means immediate cash return,” he says.
Nevertheless, it’s clear that Italy has good potential for hop cultivation—and that doing so could be a viable path forward for many, considering the financial difficulties that farmers are encountering with more traditional crops. But building up a new hop industry is not something that can be improvised. Successfully growing corn or tomatoes does not mean that you’ll have an easy time growing hops. Time will pronounce its sentence, but at the moment, hop fever is conquering Italy.
With that in mind, the 2018 launch of a particularly innovative hop company, one founded by a young engineer, should come as no surprise. Called Idroluppolo, Alessio Saccoccio’s startup applies hydroponic cultivation to hops—more or less.
“It would be more correct to call it ‘soilless,’” Saccoccio says, “but the process uses a scientific and targeted nutrition based on aqueous propolis [a resinous and nutritional substance that bees collect from the buds and bark of plants diluted in water], and offers several advantages. Firstly, because of constant monitoring, we can always be aware of the health and growth of the plant. But also, thanks to this process, we can obtain up to four harvests a year, saving 50% of our water consumption, and we can have four plants per square meter instead of the single plant in traditional hop growing.”
At the moment, Idroluppolo is working with two hop fields: one in Puglia, the southeasternmost part of the Italian peninsula, and the other one in Umbria, the central region known as “il cuore verde d’Italia” or “the green heart of Italy,” due to its forests and its status as one of the very few Italian regions that does not touch the sea. There’s also a new project for greenhouse cultivation in the north of the country, in Lombardy, close to the city of Bergamo. It’s another way to make Italian hops a reality, and a testimony to how much interest there is in the country today for hops as part of brewing beer, and not just an element of gastronomy.
That interest is slightly “chaotic,” to use Toffoli’s word, young and sometimes imperfect, but it could be the very future of hops in Italy—a future that does not end in a bowl of risotto, but rather in a glass of beer. Obviously, with all due respect to my mother.
Words by Maurizio Maestrelli Illustrations by Colette Holston
Festive Day Features Special Veterans Day IPA Release with Yakima Chiefs Veterans Blend, Special Commemorative Glass, and Marine’s Cake-cutting Ceremony
WAYNESBORO, VA – (November 2, 2020) – Central Virginia’sStable Craft Brewing at Hermitage Hill, an authentic working farm brewery and winery, will honor the special men and women who serve our country, with a special Veteran’s Day celebration on Sunday, November 8 from 11 am – 9 pm.
Stable Craft’s festive celebration to salute our veterans will feature a special Veteran’s Day IPA 7% ABV using Yakima Chiefs Veterans Blend. The proceeds from the hop sales will be donated to the Gary Sinise Foundation, a charity and veterans service organization that offers a variety of programs, services and events for wounded veterans of the military.
In addition, Stable Craft will offer a special commemorative glass with one free glass with a military ID. At 4 pm, there will be a ceremonial Marine’s birthday cake cutting ceremony. Food specials will feature an All-American cheeseburger showcasing locally-raised beef from McNett Beef.
According to Stable Craft Brewing owner, Craig Nargi, “The team at Stable Craft includes veterans and we always look forward to this day to honor our men and women who serve our country. This is a great opportunity for our guests and community to come out and celebrate with our veterans.”
Stable Craft Brewings’s rural location offers acres of open farmland with multiple covered and uncovered outdoor locations to keep guests physically distant while enjoying craft beer, cider, wine and food. Several other safety measures have been implemented to provide guests with a safe and fun experience while complying with Virginia’s Governor Northam’s guidelines.
For hours of operation and directions, visit www.stablecraftbrewing.com or follow on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stablecraftbrewing/. For more information, call 540-490-2609.
America is built on the dreams and triumphs of people who took a chance to pursue better. Driven by the pioneering spirit that made our country so very great from its inception, Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream has been supporting food and beverage entrepreneurs since 2008.
The History of Hops and the Dream
Jim Koch started Sam Adams in his kitchen in 1984, when imports and mass domestics were the only option for beer lovers. While Jim had the privilege of higher education, there was nothing that prepared him for starting his own small business. Not only did he have to nail down his craft, but he had to work on sales, marketing, finances, and whole slew of business management that comes with being an entrepreneur.
With hard work, perseverance, and determination, Jim was able to get Samuel Adams into the Boston market in 1985. In turn, he ignited a revolution, the craft beer movement, inspiring a whole new category that has produced millions of jobs in communities from coast-to-coast. What makes Jim’s story so special is that Sam Adams is not just about brewing a better beer, it’s about waking up every day to do something you love.
In the wake of his success and with a passion for supporting entrepreneurs who are in the place he once was in, Jim knew he could give back. In 2008, Jim launched a philanthropic program that embodies our pursuit of better called “Brewing the American Dream.”
Brewing the American Dream Program
Even with the advancement of technology and wide breath of knowledge available today, entrepreneurs continue to face the challenges that Jim Koch faced back in 1984: lack of access to capital and a need for sound business advice. The Brewing the American Dream (BTAD) program, which partners with Accion Opportunity Fund, has succeeded in providing more than 3,200 loans totaling $64 million to food and beverage businesses across 39 states, creating or retaining more than 9,000 industry jobs, and most importantly providing free business coaching and mentoring to over 12,000 entrepreneurs.
Brewing the American Dream continues to champion for increased coaching across food and beverage. In collaboration with regional partners, Brewing the American Dream hosts regional speed coaching events both in person and virtually, providing free coaching and networking with local community leaders and experts. Additionally, through BTAD, entrepreneurs can meet with a Sam Adams coworker in monthly coaching calls to learn about a particular area of expertise to enhance their businesses; panels, digital webinars, resources, and broadcast interviews also help round out our coaching support.
Craft Beer Goodness
Since 2012, Samuel Adams has annually invited one craft brewer to benefit from one of the most incredible programs in the industry: to work directly with Samuel Adams brewers and even spend valuable time with Jim Koch himself! The Brewer Experienceship program craft brewer winner receives an all-expenses paid trip to the Samuel Adams Boston Brewery where a collaboration brew is brewed with Samuel Adams brewers! The Experienceship program also includes extensive one-on-one mentoring of business expertise and financial supports to attend the largest American craft beer event, the Great American Beer Festival.
To that end, Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream is proud to announce the winner of the 8th Brewer Experienceship program, Kate Russell. Russell is a working mom of two kids who opened Hopkinsville Brewing Company in 2016. She later expanded her brewery, opening just three weeks before the COVID-19 lockdowns in the United States. Russell’s story of resilience and dedication resonates with many moms across the country who have been hit by the repercussions of the pandemic.
More Dreams to Come True
Whether we are supporting entrepreneurs with increased access to capital or providing sound business advice, Sam Adams, in conjunction with BTAD continues to support entrepreneurs across categories.
Brewing the American Dream has been honored to support so many food and beverage small businesses for over a decade, but we know that this is just the beginning. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that many entrepreneurs have faced and continue to face a lot of challenges and we are proud to support them as they achieve their dream. For Jim Koch and all of Sam Adams, this beer not only tastes good, it does good too.
German Master Brewer Peter Bottcher and Catoctin Creek Distillery’s John Reed Shope Join Line-up for Entertaining Two Day Release Party!
Central Virginia’sStable Craft Brewing at Hermitage Hill, an authentic working farm brewery and winery, will celebrate the release of its popular Cavallo barrel-aged imperial stout on Friday and Saturday, November 6 & 7, 2020.
This year’s Cavallo release will feature four variants and each will be paired with a special dessert by Stable Craft’s Executive chef Stephan Klein. Joining in the festivities to entertain and educate guests will be German Master Brewer Peter Bottcher and Catoctin Creek Distillery’s John Reed Shope.
The socially distant Cavallo release party will be capped at 50 guests and kicks off with a guided tasting on Friday, November 6 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm and a beer and dessert pairing on Saturday, November 7 from 1:30 – 2:30 pm. Tickets are limited so order today at: https://www.eventbrite.com/…/cavallo-barrel-aged…
The 2020 Cavallo line-up plus dessert pairings will include the following:
-Bienenstich or Bee Sting (Honey Almond )Cavallo paired with Honey Almond Beesting Cake
-Caramel Coffee Cavallo paired with Caramel Apple Pastry
-Saigon Cinnamon & Tahitian Vanilla Cavallo paired with Beeramasu Creme -Jar (variation of tiramisua)
-Raspberry Cavallo paired with Raspberry Cheesecake
Featured speakers on Saturday include John Reed Shope, Catoctin Creek Distillery’s Sales Manager. Catoctin Creek is an intergral part of this barrel-aged Imperial Stout as Cavallo slumbers in Catoctin Creek’s Rye Whiskey barrels for 365 days before its release. John is the life of the party and will have you laughing against your will.
Peter Bottcher is a German Master Brewer who received his degree from Doemens Academy in Munich – Germany. Peter’s background spans over 30 years and he is CSI-Certified Black Belt Six Sigma. Peter has received 4 gold medals & 1 silver medal at GABF; been a master brewer for Abita and Pacific Western Brewing Company and is a malster at Malteurop. Peter serves as a consultant to the team at Stable Craft and we are pleased to welcome him for our Cavallo release.
Stable Craft Brewings’s rural location offers acres of open farmland with multiple covered and uncovered outdoor locations to keep guests physically distant while enjoying craft beer, cider, wine and food. Several other safety measures have been implemented to provide guests with a safe and fun experience while complying with Virginia’s Governor Northam’s guidelines.
For hours of operation and directions, visit www.stablecraftbrewing.com or follow on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stablecraftbrewing/. For more information, call 540-490-2609.
Saison recipes run the gamut from simple, SMaSH (single-malt and single-hop) versions to complex, boundary-pushing innovations. In many instances, homebrewers have found the saison style to be a fantastic foundation for fruit additions.
Browse through these 5 examples of fruited saison beer recipes!
(Berkeley, CA) — An ambassador for craft beer in Berkeley, California, Fieldwork Brewing Company officially opens its brand-new Napa Valley location featuring a…
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