Pietra, which means "stone" in Italian (''petra'' is the Corsican equivalent) and is also known as "''A biera corsa''", is a brand of beer from the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

French island of

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

History

The Pietra Brewery opened in 1996. The name "Pietra" comes from Pietraserena, the Corsican home village of the brewery’s founder. Pietra beer is a 6% ABV amber beer brewed from a blend of

malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...

and

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...

flour. Chestnuts have long been used in Corsica as a cereal, but it took many years of research to validate the qualities of chestnut flour. The high fermentability of chestnuts helps maintain the beer's head and contributes to Pietra beer's golden color. The annual production of Pietra beer is over 25,000 hectolitres.

Other beers brewed by Pietra

* Serena (5% ABV) has a very light head and is just slightly bitter. * Colomba is an un-pasteurized white beer perfumed with herbes du maquis ( strawberry tree, myrtle,

cistus ''Cistus'' (from the Greek ''kistos'') is a genus of flowering plants in the rockrose family Cistaceae, containing about 20 species (Ellul ''et al.'' 2002). They are perennial shrubs found on dry or rocky soils throughout the Mediterranean reg ...

, and

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

Corsica Cola

Pietra brewery has also produced Corsica Cola, a non-alcoholic

soft drink A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) Carbonated water, carbonated, and typically including added Sweetness, sweetener. Flavors used to be Natural flav ...

, since 2003.

References

Breweries of France {{business-org-stub