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Historic Beer Birthday: Francesco Peroni

January 1, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Francesco Peroni (January 1, 1818-September 2, 1893) [Note: some sources say 1894]. He was born in the Province of Novara and his family made pasta. In 1846, he founded the Peroni Brewery in Vigevano. Production was moved and expanded to Rome in 1864, and was later managed by Francesco’s son, Giovanni, beginning in 1867.

According to the Peroni Brewery Wikipedia page:

The Peroni company was established under the founding family name in the town of Vigevano, Italy, in 1846. Due to booming business, a second brewery was built in Rome. The company was moved to Rome by Giovanni Peroni in 1864, six years prior to Rome becoming the Italian capital in 1870. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the company became one of the most prominent brewing companies in the newly unified Italian nation.

It is probably best known worldwide for its pale lager, Nastro Azzurro, which was the 13th best-selling beer in the United Kingdom in 2010.

By 2016, Peroni was owned by Miller Brands U.K. of SABMiller. As part of the agreements made with regulators before Anheuser-Busch InBev was allowed to acquire SABMiller, the company sold Peroni to Asahi Breweries on 13 October 2016.

This is somewhat of a fluff piece about the Peroni Brewery from Louisiana’s Rouses Market blog:

Like so many of the great food and beverage institutions of Italy, the story of Peroni begins in the nineteenth century. That’s when Francesco Peroni, an entrepreneur in the country’s north, opened a brewery in the city of Vigevano.

To drink beer is to drink the Earth itself, and location was everything to Francesco’s operation. It was practically designed by God for beermaking: the Alps provide glacial ice and water, and the arable land between the Adda and Brembo rivers offers fertile fields for growing crops. Thus Birra Peroni, as he called his company, offered perhaps the finest beer in Italy—pale and medium and well suited for food and conversation. Right away, the country just could not get enough of the stuff.

In 1864, two decades after opening its first brewery, Peroni had to open a second site in the city of Rome (itself no slouch in agriculture). It was the only way to keep glasses full in thirsty Italy. Seventy years later—a blink of the eye in the time scales of Italian companies—Peroni was the biggest brewer in the country. Today, it’s one of the biggest in the world.

It is no accident that practically every civilization in history has, at some point, independently invented beer. In fact, some scholars assert that, beyond its obvious appeal, beer is the reason civilizations exist in the first place. The hypothesis—though, of course, they didn’t know any of this at the time—goes like this: grain is not really very tasty—and especially the grain consumed by prehistoric humans. (It’s not like they had Tony’s to spice things up.) And some parts of the grain—like the bran your least favorite cereal is made from—are especially hard to digest, while others are easy to make use of but difficult to get to. Grain was and is a vital source of nutrition, and for a civilization to thrive they would need to grow it in abundance and consume it eagerly.

Enter beer. Its repeated discovery was likely an accident, perhaps the result of rainwater soaking into stored grain and fermenting over time. (The fermentation was very likely accidental and certainly a mystery.) This yielded a rich, dark liquid, which, at some point, a bold and possibly desperate human being decided to drink. Whatever the reason, no matter the circumstance, it kept happening. People realized pretty quickly—time and again—that beer was amazing, and they wanted more. Humankind had just found its new favorite thing.

While one might imagine early civilizations as an endless begrudging toil in the fields to harvest horrible-tasting grains and perhaps boring, butterless bread, it improves dramatically when you add beer. You’ve suddenly got industrious tribes cultivating every square inch of land imaginable, because more grain means more beer, and more beer means fewer nights sitting around the campfire thinking about how cold it is, or how hungry you are, or how bad everyone smells, or what the wolves are up to in the shadows. Instead, you’re tipsy and telling everyone about that saber-toothed cat you took down with your bare hands, and, inexplicably, dancing much better than you used to.

Ten thousand years of human industry, a steady improvement in beermaking, and one family’s devotion to quality bring us to Peroni. More than a beer, the name is a symbol of Italian glamor and practically a lifestyle for its drinkers. Peroni’s two most famous beers, by far, are its original beer, named after the company, and Nastro Azzurro, a pale lager. The latter is made with a corn exclusive to the company—Nostrano dell’Isola maize—which imbues the beer with its color, clarity and characteristic citrus, spice, and bitter balance. The beer is brewed with Saaz-Saaz and Hallertau Magnum hops, responsible for Nastro Azzurro’s ephemeral touch on the palate. Taken together, with two-row spring barley in the mix, you get a premium beer notable for its especially crisp finish. If human civilization has done nothing else, it has given us Peroni—Italy bottled and delivered the world over.

The Peroni Brewery in 1846.

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: History, Italy

Beer Birthday: Maurizio Maestrelli

October 6, 2024 By Jay Brooks

milano-beer-week
Today is the 57th birthday of Italian beer writer Maurizio Maestrelli. I think I first met Maurizio in Belgium several years ago on a press trip, but we’ve also judged together at the Brussels Beer Challenge and, I believe, in Japan. He’s also a founder of Milano Beer Week, so we have that in common. He’s a great person to share a beer with. Join me in wishing Maurizio a very happy birthday.

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Me, Stephen Beaumont and Maurizio at the Kerstbierfest in 2013.

Maurizio, Stephen Beaumont and me having a beer at Steam Whistle two years ago.

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Maurizio at the Brussels Beer Challenge in 2016.

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Maurizio at the Brussels Beer Challenge in 2017.

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun Tagged With: Italy

Beer Birthday: Lorenzo Dabove

September 13, 2024 By Jay Brooks

mobi
Today is the 72nd birthday of Italian beer writer Lorenzo Dabove, one of Europe’s most celebrated. I first met Lorenzo in San Diego over a decade ago, and have run into him here and again a few times since, most recently at the Craft Brewers Conference and the World Beer Cup three years ago in Denver, and annually at the Brussels Beer Challenge in Belgium. He’s a great voice for better beer everywhere, though especially his native Italy and Belgium. Join me in wishing Lorenzo a very happy birthday.

During World Beer Cup judging in Minneapolis two years back.

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At a beer dinner at Lost Abbey in 2008. From left: Tomme Arthur (Lost Abbey), Lorenzo, Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River), Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head), Adam Avery (Avery Brewing) and Rob Todd (Allagash).

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Lorenzo at Salone del Gusto in 2006, with Claude and Jean-Pierre Van Roy from Cantillon.

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Lorenzo and Michael Jackson judging together at a BA event.

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Talking about Italian beer in Belgium, at the Brussels Beer Challenge awards a few years ago.

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With the Italian contingent of judges for the Brussels Beer Challenge in 2014 (top row, 3rd from the left) .

Filed Under: Birthdays Tagged With: Italy

Beer Birthday: Agostino Arioli

September 8, 2024 By Jay Brooks

birrifico-italiano

Yesterday was the 59th birthday of Agostino Arioli, who is the founder of Birrifico Italiano. It was one of the earliest craft breweries in Italy when it started in 1996. I first met Agostino in 2013, when he spent the day at Russian River Brewing doing a collaboration beer in with Vinnie and also stayed for the entire day to document the brew. We’ve kept in touch and often see him at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival at least every other year, which has been great, because he’s a terrific person and brewer. Join me in wishing Agostino a very happy birthday.

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Agostino, Vinnie Cilurzo and Travis Smith at Russian Liver Brewing for a collaboration day to make La Fleurette in 2013.
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Agostino with Brian Hunt and another Birrifico Italian brewer at the Firestone Walker Invitational in 2015.
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Pils and Love at the FWIBF in 2013.
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Agostino with Matt Brynildson at another Firestone Walker fest in 2017.
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Travis, Vinnie, Natalie Cilurzo and Agostino at the end of the collaboration day at Russian River in 2013.

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: Italy

Historic Beer Birthday: Angelo Poretti

June 19, 2024 By Jay Brooks

angelo-poretti

Today is the birthday of Angelo Poretti (June 19, 1829-October 20, 1901). He was born in northern Italy, in the Vedano Olona area. He traveled in his youth, learned the brewing trade, and returned to Italy and founded the Birrificio Angelo Poretti in 1877. The brewery remained in his family until 1939, and today is owned by the Carlsberg Group.

Angelo-Poretti

This biography is from his Italian Wikipedia page, translated by Google:

He was born into a peasant family and decided in his youth to emigrate to Europe, moving between Austria, Germany and Bohemia. Enriched by the experience abroad, in the mid-seventies of the nineteenth century, he returned to Italy to spread the beer in his country. In fact the various years spent abroad gave Angelo Poretti the opportunity to acquire a deep knowledge of beer, thanks to the encounter with some of the best brewers of the time. He then sought in the province of Varese, of which it was originally, the best area to build its brewery, investing the savings accumulated with fatigue together with its Bohemian wife Franziska Peterzilka. At Induno Olona, near the caves of the Valganna, he bought the abandoned Amideria del Dones starch factory; from abroad it imported the machinery, the raw materials and the first master brewer, while the purity of the water, a fundamental element for a quality beer, was guaranteed by the source of the Valgannaknown as the “fountain of the sick”, which Angelo Poretti had purchased. The choice dictated by the search for quality also had a strong advertising impact as the water of the “fountain of the sick”, famous for its healing effects, became the basic element of the beers produced in the new Poretti brewery. Another key element in the choice of the area was the presence of the lake of Ganna and Ghirla from which it drew the ice for storing the drink.

Poretti-brewery-1904
The Angelo Poretti brewery around 1904.

This account is from an Italian museum website in Varese, Museoweb:

Angelo Poretti, born in 1829 in Vedano Olona, ​​decides to leave the province of Varese in his youth to work in Austria, Germany and Bohemia first as a laborer, then as a laborer and finally as a contractor for some railway lines.

In the mid-seventies, with his wife, the Bohemian Franziska Peterzilka, decided to return to Italy and to invest the discreet wealth accumulated in brewing which is so successful in Central Europe. His idea is to introduce in Italy a new type of beer – the Bohemian Pilsner – which compared to those sold up to that point (the “Vienna” and the “Chiavenna”) is lighter and is produced with top quality ingredients . He was convinced of the goodness of the initiative through his long experience in the euro zone. At Induno Olona he identifies the area where to build his own plant. It is located near the caves of the Valganna, where there is a spring, called the “fountain of the sick”, very famous not only in the district but even in Milan for its effects called “miraculous”. Angelo Poretti buys both with an immediate advertising effect: the water from the “fountain of the sick” becomes the basis of his beer.

In short, he buys the factory of the terminated Amideria del Dones, he gets machinery, raw materials and the first master brewer from abroad. The company, created in 1877 and formalized three years later with the establishment of Poretti Angelo and C., won great popularity a few years later, in 1881, on the occasion of the Universal Exposition held in Milan. The elegant Swiss chalet that houses the Varese company, in fact, is literally besieged by a crowd of visitors who want to taste the Italian pilsner. In the following years, the company grew and this despite a market then as now characterized by very low per capita consumption compared to the European average (today we are around 30 liters) and an extreme fragmentation of the sales points.

In addition to his entrepreneurial experience, Angelo Poretti is also active in public and economic life. Over the years, in fact, he held the office of municipal councilor in Varese and mayor of Vedano Olona, ​​while in the mid-1980s he was appointed chairman of the permanent committee of the brewers’ association. He has no children and at his death, in October 1901, he was succeeded by his grandchildren (the sisters’ children) Edoardo Chiesa, the brothers Angelo and Tranquillo Magnani and Francesco Bianchi (who died in 1918).

Until the outbreak of the First World War, the company recorded very positive results, so much so that it entered the top of the national ranking per hectolitre of beer produced. Meanwhile, in 1905, the increased production requirements led the two grandchildren to renew the Induno Olona production facility. The project is entrusted to the German studio Bihl and Woltz, which creates a factory in pure Jugendstil style able to perfectly combine industrial technology with art.

poretti-wax
As far as I can tell, this is a wax figure of Poretti on display somewhere, possibly at the brewery museum or visitor center today.

This is the description of the brewery from Wikipedia:

The brewery was founded in 1877 by Angelo Poretti in Induno Olona. In 1939, the company passed to the Bassetti family, who owned the Splügen brewery in Chiavenna. In 1982 the Carlsberg Group bought 50% of the shares from the company, followed in 1998 by a further 25%. In 2002, the Danish group acquired the remaining 25% and thus obtained full ownership of the company from Induno Olona.

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An early Poretti label.

And according to the section on Modern Brewing Associations in the “Documentary History of the United States Brewers’ Association,” published in 1896, Poretti was president of the Italian brewers’ organization.

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Birra-Poretti-hill

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: Europe, Italy

Beer In Ads #3012: Birra Bosio & Caratsch

June 2, 2019 By Jay Brooks

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Sunday’s ad is for Birra Pedavena, from 1936. From the late 1800s until the 1960s, poster art really came into its own, and in Europe a lot of really cool posters, many of them for breweries, were produced. This poster is for Bosio & Caratsch, founded in Turn, Italy in 1845, making it Italy’s first brewery. The poster was created by Bulgarian artist Nikolay Diulgheroff.

Bosio-Caratsch

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, Bulgaria, History, Italy

Beer In Ads #3011: Birra Pedavena Banner

June 1, 2019 By Jay Brooks

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Saturday’s ad is for Birra Pedavena, from around 1950? From the late 1800s until the 1960s, poster art really came into its own, and in Europe a lot of really cool posters, many of them for breweries, were produced. This poster is for Birra Pedavena, founded by brothers Sante, Luigi and Giovanni Luciani in Pedavena, Italy in 1897. The brewery was bought by Heineken in 1974, who announced they were closing the plant in 2004. The brewery worked organized protests and persuaded Heineken to sell it to Birra Castello, who reopened it in 2006. I’ve been unable to find any information about who created the poster.

Birra-Pedavena-banner

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, History, Italy

Beer In Ads #3010: Pedavena Birra Delle Dolomiti

May 31, 2019 By Jay Brooks

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 3993724870_6a0224e391.jpg

Friday’s ad is for Birra Pedavena, from around 1930. From the late 1800s until the 1960s, poster art really came into its own, and in Europe a lot of really cool posters, many of them for breweries, were produced. This poster is for Birra Pedavena, founded by brothers Sante, Luigi and Giovanni Luciani in Pedavena, Italy in 1897. The brewery was bought by Heineken in 1974, who announced they were closing the plant in 2004. The brewery worked organized protests and persuaded Heineken to sell it to Birra Castello, who reopened it in 2006. The poster was created by Italian artist Marcello Dudovich.

Dudovich-pedavena-birra

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, History, Italy

Beer In Ads #3009: Birra Pedavena The Mad King

May 30, 2019 By Jay Brooks

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 3993724870_6a0224e391.jpg

Thursday’s ad is for Birra Pedavena, from around 1930. From the late 1800s until the 1960s, poster art really came into its own, and in Europe a lot of really cool posters, many of them for breweries, were produced. This poster is for Birra Pedavena, founded by brothers Sante, Luigi and Giovanni Luciani in Pedavena, Italy in 1897. The brewery was bought by Heineken in 1974, who announced they were closing the plant in 2004. The brewery worked organized protests and persuaded Heineken to sell it to Birra Castello, who reopened it in 2006. The poster was created by Italian artist Plinio Codognato.

Birra-Pedavena-mad-king

And here’s a slightly clearer version of the poster, but it’s also quite a bit smaller.

Birra-Pedavena-mad-king-sm

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, History, Italy

Beer In Ads #3008: Birra San Marco

May 29, 2019 By Jay Brooks

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 3993724870_6a0224e391.jpg

Wednesday’s ad is for Birra San Marco, from 1909, though at least one source says 1920. From the late 1800s until the 1960s, poster art really came into its own, and in Europe a lot of really cool posters, many of them for breweries, were produced. This poster is for Birra San Marco, which was founded in Venice, Italy as early as 1835, though under a different name. In 1908 it became Birra San Marco, but in 1913 changed its name again to Birra Venezia. The poster was created by Italian artist and illustrator Gian Emilio Malerba.

birra-san-marco

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, History, Italy

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