The history of beer is ancient and its invention may well be considered fortuitous, if we take into account that basically every type of sugar-containing cereal can ferment spontaneously and naturally.
One of the oldest, beer-related testimonies available comes from Mesopotamia (an area which is, today, comprised between the territories of Iran and Iraq) and brings us back of about 6000 years. And indeed, it is from the Sumerians we received the first recipe to make “kas,” a drink similar to beer, found in a 4000 year old poem. The Egyptians would use beer as currency to pay pyramids’ builders, but its importance grew exponentially when it became symbolically and religiously associated to Isis and Osiris, who were thought to have created it. Ancient Greeks tied beer to feminine cults of the goddess of agriculture, Demetra; for this reason, it was considered “not masculine enough” and was consumed by men only during the olympic games, as it was lighter than wine. For the whole Republican period (from 509 BC to 27 AD), the Romans looked down on beer as a drink “for the barbarians,” an idea that remained very much entrenched also during the Empire and the first centuries of Christianity, which preferred wine, representation of the “blood of Christ.”
The earliest traces of beer consumption in Italy, however, come from a glass preserved within an ash urn, dated around 560 BC, found in the Novara province of Northern Piedmont. The artifact was produced by a culture known as Cultura di Golasecca.
It is likely that beer spread around Europe following migrational fluxes, becoming especially popular in those areas, from the Black Sea to Northern Europe, where climate made vine culture difficult, but allowed cereals to prosper. The Celts, who inhabited Northern France and the Netherlands, refined production techniques and, more importantly, they were the inventors, around the year 0, of the first wooden barrels, which took over the heavy and fragile Roman amphorae.
During the Middle Ages, beer became the most widely consumed drink in Northern Europe, while in Italy it remained synonym with lower social classes: wine was still the most commonly consumed drink among the wealthy. And it is, once more, thanks to Northern Europe and more specifically to the towns and villages of Germany, that we owe the introduction of hops for the aromatization of beer. Hops substituted a mix of spices and herbs commonly used in beer production, nice to the palate, but with little preserving power.
In England, beer was called ale and, up to the16th century, it didn’t contain any hops. Hops beer was imported from the Netherlands. In the same years, beer culture began taking over in Italy, too, so much so that Ludovico il Moro, in occasion of his wedding, had it distributed for free to people.
The first half of the 19th century witnessed the birth of the first Italian beer factories, Wühhrer in Brescia and Felix Pfanner in Lucca, as well as the first hops culture in Forlì, thanks to the initiative of Gaetano Fraschi. In the ‘20s, beer consumption in Italy peaked, but because of the Legge Marescalchi in 1927, which increased taxes on it, people turned once more to wine.
Since then, and in more than one occasion, beer returned en vogue, even if Italy remains the European country where it is consumed the least. However, the interest for craft beers and their production has been turning into a renowned staple of modern Made in Italy. In 2016, Italy introduced a legal definition of craft beer, which is “beer produced by small independent breweries, which does not undergo pasteurization and micro-filtration during the production process.”
Because Italy doesn’t really have a well entrenched beer making tradition, microbreweries demonstrated an immense creativity, producing beers flavored with local produce such as spelt, fruit, chestnuts or beans, as well as other more exotic ingredients, like ginger. Moreover, Italy’s experience in wine making helped the production of quality brews all over the country.
Italian beers are catalogued for revenue reasons, rather than typologies. To do it, the Plato degree is used to measure the density of the must-water solution; indeed, words like “doppio malto” do not identify the flavor, but the density of a beer, indicate how much producers are taxed and have no real meaning outside of Italy.
Finding traditional beer-inspired recipes is not simple, but in recent years chefs have been experimenting, with good results, with it in the kitchen. Here we propose a full menu where beer takes center stage: beer and sausage risotto, followed by beer chicken.
Beer and Sausage Risotto
Ingredients for 4 people:
• 1/2 a Spanish onion, very finely chopped (it has to be chopped almost to a cream and you should get about 3 tbsp of it)
• 300 gr of sausage (spicy, if you like), chopped into pieces as large as a walnut
• 250 gr of Carnaroli or Arborio rice
• 2 glasses of lager with a medium hops content
• 650 ml of broth (either vegetable or meat)
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 a stick of butter
• 25 ml of extra virgin olive oil (a fruity, young one would be perfect)
• Grated parmigiano
Sautée the onion in the olive oil at low temperature, until it becomes soft and almost see-through. Careful not to burn it! Add the rice and toast for about 3 or 4 minutes while stirring. Add the sausage and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, always stirring. At this stage, add the beer and let it evaporate, then add the broth little by little, waiting for it to be absorbed each time before adding more. Always respect the rice’s own cooking times: from this moment on, it should take between 15 and 18 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Once the rice is cooked, take the pan off the stove and add the butter (cold) and the parmigiano. Stir and serve.
Delicious and simple beer chicken scaloppine
Ingredients for 4 people:
• 1 organic chicken breast, sliced thinly (you can use a meat tenderizer to make them thinner if necessary)
• Some corn starch to coat the chicken
• A small bottle of red ale
• A tbsp of fresh mixed herbs (thyme, rosemary and sage), chopped thinly
• 1 stick of butter
• 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
In a non stick pan, heat the butter and the oil. Coat the chicken breast slices with the corn starch and, as soon as the butter and oil start bubbling, place them in the pan. Cook for 2 minutes on each side, or until it turns golden. Add the beer and let evaporate. At the end, add salt, pepper and the mixed herbs. Serve hot. It is delicious with boiled potatoes.
Stout Tiramisù
You make it just like a traditional tiramisù, substituting coffee with stout. The result is delicious, intense and unexpected!
Ingredients for 4 people:
• 2 organic eggs, at room temperature
• 4 tbsp of sugar
• 250 gr of fresh mascarpone
• 8 halved savoiardi
• 1/2 can of stout
• 4 glasses or small bowls
• Powdered cocoa
Beat the eggs and the sugar with a hand mixer for 5/7 minutes (they have to be very frothy). Add mascarpone and mix for 30 seconds to one minute, until you obtain a light, yet thick cream. Soak lightly the halved savoiardi in the beer (they don’t need to be drenched in liquid!) and place them at the bottom of the glass in twos. Add a layer of cream, than another of savoiardi. Place in the fridge to cool.
Sprinkle with cocoa just before serving.
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