Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

is considered to be part of the wine belt of Europe. Nevertheless, beer, particularly mass-produced

pale lager Pale lager is a pale-to- golden lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. In the mid-19th century, Gabriel Sedlmayr took British pale ale brewing and malt making techniques back to the Spaten Bre ...

s, are common in the country. It is traditionally considered to be an ideal accompaniment to

pizza Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...

; since the 1970s, beer has spread from

pizzeria A pizzeria is a restaurant focusing on pizza. A pizzeria may offer take-away, where the customer orders their food either in advance or at the restaurant and then takes the prepared food with them in a pizza box. A pizzeria may deliver food to ...

s and has become much more popular for drinking in other situations. In the seventh century BC in Sicily, the

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

ns traded and consumed beer. In

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

Pombia Pombia is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about north of Novara. The commune is known for its Safari Park, established in 1976. History It has Roman origi ...

Province of Novara The province of Novara () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Novara. In 1992, the new province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola was created through the fusion of three geographical areas whic ...

, an archaeological investigation found tombs from the

Golasecca culture The Golasecca culture (9th – 4th centuries BC) was a Prehistoric Italy#Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age/Prehistoric Italy#Iron Age, Early Iron Age culture in northern Italy, whose type-site was excavated at Golasecca in the province of Varese, Lomb ...

, including a tomb from 560 BC containing traces of beer.

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

knew of beer and produced small amounts, but the systems of production were destroyed in various barbarian invasions. The first medical school, the

Schola Medica Salernitana The Schola Medica Salernitana () was a medieval medical school, the first and most important of its kind. Situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea in the Mezzogiorno, south Italian city of Salerno, it was founded in the 9th century and rose to prominence in ...

, praised the substance stating that it "supports old age, flows through the veins, increases well-being, and strengthens the blood". On the occasion of his wedding,

Ludovico Sforza Ludovico Maria Sforza (; 27 July 1452 – 27 May 1508), also known as Ludovico il Moro (; 'the Moor'), and called the "arbiter of Italy" by historian Francesco Guicciardini,

distributed beer freely to the Milanese. At this time, it was referred to in Florence as "barley wine". The first brewery in Italy, according to Hermes Zampollo, was "Spluga" in

Chiavenna Chiavenna (; ; ; or ; archaic or ) is a (municipality) in the Province of Sondrio in the northern Italian region of Lombardy. It is the centre of the Alpine Valchiavenna region. The historic town is a member of the Cittaslow movement. Geo ...

, which opened in 1840. However, the company Wührer stated that its brewing commenced in

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

in 1829. The first person in Italy to cultivate hops for beer brewing was in 1847. In 1983, the country consumed of beer. As of 2010, Italy has a beer consumption of per capita per year.

Breweries and brands

One of the oldest and most widespread breweries in Italy is Peroni, today owned by the

Asahi Asahi (Japanese 朝日, 旭, or あさひ 'morning sun') may refer to: Places in Japan Cities * Asahi, Chiba (旭市; ''Asahi-shi'') Wards * Asahi-ku, Osaka (旭区; ''Asahi-ku'') * Asahi-ku, Yokohama (旭; ''Asahi-ku'') Towns * Asahi, Aichi ...

group, which also owns the popular brand

Nastro Azzurro Peroni Brewery () is a brewing company founded by Francesco Peroni in Vigevano, Italy, in 1846. In 2016, as part of agreements made with regulators before Anheuser-Busch InBev was allowed to acquire SABMiller, the company sold Peroni to Asahi ...

. Other known breweries and beer brands are: * Beba * Birra del Borgo (owned by

InBev InBev () was a brewing company that resulted from the merger between Belgium-based company Interbrew and Brazilian brewer AmBev which took place in 2004. It existed independently until the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch in 2008, which formed Anheu ...

) * Birra Raffo (owned by

) * Birrificio Baladin * Birrificio Italiano * Castello * Dreher (owned by

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...

) * Forst * Ichnusa (owned by Heineken) * Menabrea (owned by Forst) * Birrificio Dr. Barbanera * Birra Messina (owned by Heineken) * Birrificio Lambrate * Birra Morena * Moretti (owned by Heineken) * Opperbacco * Birra Pedavena (owned by Castello) * Peroni (owned by

) * Poretti (owned by

Carlsberg Carlsberg may refer to: Places * Carlsberg (district), a district in Copenhagen, Denmark ** Carlsberg station, its train station * Carlsberg, Germany, a municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany * Carlsberg Fjord, Greenland Other uses * Carlsbe ...

Breweries and brands

See also

References

Bibliography

External links