I have a friend traveling to Italy in a few weeks. Anyone have any experience buying beer in Italy? Specifically, good beer, like Belgians. Are they any easier to find over there and worth dealing with traveling that far? Thanks!
Sure you can find Belgian beer in Italy, but if he's going to Italy, why not try to find some good Italian beers? not much Belgian beer you can find in Italy that you can't find in the US. There are, however, lots of good Italian beers you can't find stateside(and many you've probably never heard of.) Depends where he's going though, the scene is very regional.
Got any recs for Italian beer? I guess the Belgian question spawned bc I wondered if you can find Cantillon or Westy in Italy?
http://www.mondobirra.org/beershop.htm#Toscana Here's a list of all beershops in Tuscany, as well as Italy if you want to look for some other regions, don't know if it's up to date. As for Belgian beer, pretty much everything gets exported to States, just like pretty much everything gets exported to Italy. Products as Cantillon or Westvleteren are rare and pricy, just like they are in the US, you sometimes see some Cantillons on the shelves though. Overall i don't think it's that much worth to come from the states to look for Belgian beer, it will just be a little cheaper. My suggestion is to look for Italian craft or for smaller traditional german breweries, which are usually not exported to US but cheap and easy to find in Italy.
Wow, thanks. Do you have any recommendations on some stellar Italian brews? I've never seen Westvleteren here in NYC and the few Cantillons I've seen have only been at a store known for its insanely high prices, i.e. $100 for a bottle of Cantillon. I'm guessing it is cheaper in Italy, if you can find it
In most cities there will be a few bottles shops. In my experience most of them carry Cantillon regularly. A 75cl bottle of the classic gueuze will run between 13 and 18 euros. Birrificio Italiano makes some good german style beers. Brewfist makes some good American style beers. Toccalmatto makes some fine beers as well. Birrificio Dada makes some good IPAs if you can find them, they're located in Emilia-Romagna so you may be able to find it in Tuscany. The list goes on, if you can find a decent bottle shop you should have a good selection of Italian beer to choose from. Be ready to pay though, there's no such thing as economical Italian craft beer, at least not yet. Also, my local shop just got in a case of Westvleteren. I think it was 15 euros for a 33cl bottle.
Well, definitely cheaper than $100, didn't think it went for that much. As mmmbirra said i bought myself a couple of 75cl Cantillons in the 15€ range, appereantly he was luckier than me in finding shops that carry them regularly. Adding to his recommendations: Birrificio del Ducato, solid and quite affirmed brewery which has received prizes in several international contests though i have to say i was personally never that impressed. Birrificio Montegioco, experimental (is this the word?) beers with a belgian base. Birrificio Barley, nice high gravity beers
