We just received our brewery license from the Italian state!
We’re the 2nd monastic brewery in Italy. Over half of our community are Americans, so we have the international spirit. Belgian style beers, slightly modified for Italian tastes, brewed by Americans and Italians, Belgian brewing consultant, etc.
Talk about a crash course in learning about opening a brewery. :o (the research in Belgium was fun though)
We’ve started with a Belgian Blond and a Brown.
Sadly, we will have an almost Westvleteren scale distribution. Our brew system is really small (nano brewery), so our market at the moment is only our town which get’s a lot of tourists, and maybe some special requests within Italy. But the craft brewing movement is growing in Italy much like it did in the US in the 90’s, so we hope we’ll be able to grow too.
I’ve wanted to post this earlier, but wasn’t able to until everything was official.
Who knew all my years of tasting beers would come in handy in a monastery! ;D
Thanks for y’all’s support (yes, I lived in Texas before coming here).
Yup, really a monk.
Yes, we’re only about an hour and a quarter away from Assisi and less than three hours by car from Rome.
Starting a brewery is hard enough, but doing it in another country adds to the challenge, especially when it is not a beer country … yet
I do have to say though that our building workers, architects, plumbers, electricians, and painters, and commercial lawyers have really worked hard for us, and they were especially helpful in helping us understand the Italian red tape we needed to deal with. Much like in the States, don’t guess, ask someone who knows.
The best advice I can give for starting a brewery is find others who know what to do and are willing to help explain things to you. Even though every brewery is unique in its story, there’s a lot of hula hoops that everyone has to go through. Finding informational resources will speed things along nicely.
The monks of Cascinazza (the first monastic brewery in Italy) and the guys at Birra del Borgo and at Vecchio Birraio were also really friendly and helpful with advice. 8)
