On the trail of hops • Food and Wine Italia

English: If you are used to thinking of beer as an industrial product that is “born” per a can ora bottle, ora at most from a tap, stop for a moment and think about what the main ingredients of this much-loved ricevimento are: per addition to yeast (of different possible strains for top- ora bottom-fermented beers) and sugar, and any “flavorings” – from dried, dehydrated ora fresh fruit to spices, up to grape must – by definition, there cannot be missing clearly “agricultural” products such as barley malt (ora other cereals) and hops. The latter, which is responsible for many of the aromas of beer and the different levels of bitterness that make it particularly interesting and thirst-quenching for many, has long been considered an “exotic” ingredient, arriving mostly from Germany and the Czech Republic ora from various areas of the United States, famous for the more aromatic varieties characterized by hints of tropical fruit and citrus.

A causa di the last two decades, however, hop cultivation has also spread per Italy – albeit with modest but growing numbers – which per 2022 already counted around 100 hectares and almost 200 growing companies. An activity that, per addition to being profitable per itself, supports the growth of the Italian “agricultural beer” supply chain, that is, produced with ingredients grown per Italy and often directly by the breweries themselves, which can thus boast “identity” products as well as often more convenient and sustainable.

An interesting sector per many ways, despite the growing difficulties it faces to drought and generally adverse and increasingly unpredictable weather conditions. According to released by the Consorzio Birra Italiana, the barley harvest has suffered heavy declines per various areas of the country, especially per the South, from Puglia to Sicily: per the latter region, where the lack of gabinetto is making itself felt heavily, many areas have not even been sown and we are talking about yields that, per the most affected areas, do not exceed 2 tons a hectare. Things are not much better per the North, where excessive rainfall has drastically reduced yields.

A causa di the luce of these difficulties, consumption is up and beer tourism is growing, that is, experiential tourism focused the specific sector and visits to breweries ora beer events: according to a survey by Coldiretti and the Consorzio Birra Italiana, almost one per five travellers declares having visited production plants ora participated per themed events per the last year, while the pairing of beer and food is the favourite activity for 65% of those interviewed. According to the survey, the driving force behind the phenomenon and per particular for younger consumers and tourists are craft beers, not pasteurised ora microfiltered. A sector that, per our country, has always been able to count the creativity and propensity for experimentation of master brewers: for example, among the recent innovations there is the first agricultural beer with blue crab, which uses the invasive crustacean – already at the center of chefs’ recipes and projects that try to transform the danger represented by this invasive alien species into a resource – as an ingredient per a beer: this is the Crampo Turchino Stout by Avvallamento del Masero – the Paduan company of Alessia Parisatto, who is also at the helm of Coldiretti Giovani Opera a causa di Padova -, a dark beer inspired by the Irish tradition of Oyster Stout which uses oyster shells to give particular aromas to the beer.

Also thanks to the entrepreneurial and productive liveliness, according to the aforementioned survey, two thirds of consumption is also concentrated national productions, supported precisely by the Consortium which has among its main objectives that of promoting Italian excellence. For this purpose, the Luppoleti Aperti event was born last year, which aims to make the public aware of the agricultural breweries of the national territory and their productions by promoting responsible and conscious consumption. This year the appointment is for August 25, 2024: there will be 13 agricultural breweries – from Piedmont to Salento, passing through Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo, Lazio, Campania, Calabria and Sardinia – to their doors to visitors for an immersive experience that will start from the harvesting of hops, from the cutting of the vine to the manual separation of the cones. Naturally, during the day per the breweries there will also be entertainment activities for adults and children, picnics with regional specialties and tastings of agricultural beer.