The Italian craft beer industry is currently the most exciting one.

The craft beer movement reached the Italian shores later compared to England or America but, whilst in the rest of the world a consolidation process has taken place and craft breweries have either close or been bought, in Italy, with a very few exceptions the craft movement is still going strong.

Italians were late because they were mainly wine people, I say they were because the craft beer movement has changed Italians’ attitude towards beer. Italy did not have a big beer tradition, we were lacking the ingredients and there was no Italian beer industry, despite their name, Peroni and Moretti are not Italian, and Italians don’t drink them. And without established breweries, Italy was lacking the drive to innovate.

Now, Italy has thousands of craft breweries, plenty of passion and enthusiasm, making beer is now a lifestyle more than a product. And if Italian breweries ten years ago were lacking one of the main ingredients, namely the hop, not anymore. Italy now produces plenty.

Over the last 10 years, the Italian beer movement has gone through a cycle, initially producing standard beers (learning on the job), then producing “extreme beers” (we learned the basic and can now show off our skills), now is back to more normal beers often utilising other traditional Italian ingredients, whether it is the wine for the IGA (Italian grape ale) to Calabrian oranges or Tuscan saffron.

Italian craft beer in the UK is little known and appreciated, only a handful of craft breweries have crossed the channel, the biggest ones, but very little is available. Italian craft beer is exciting, certainly the most exciting at the moment in the beer world, Italian craft beer is still driven by passion and love for the beer and Italian craft breweries keep pushing the boundaries, driving the beer toward something different, beyond beer as we know it.

Any beer lover cannot ignore Italian craft beers. Italian beers are not Moretti and Peroni, but the thousands of unknown craft breweries and at Italyabroad.com we love the word craft, craft is artisan, craft is respect for the environment, craft is passion, craft is high quality ingredients, craft are our beer.