It’s one of our latest brew, but actually it’s not just “ours”. La Zia Ale – whose name could have different meanings in Italian, and which was officially launched last month during the Italian Craft Beer Week – is the first “Latium collaboration beer” made by all the brew masters of the 8 microbreweries of the Lazio region who joined A.Bi, Associazione Birra del Lazio (Latium Beer Association).
The new consortium is lead by Leonardo Di Vincenzo, Birra del Borgo’s founder, and it counts also Turbacci, Birradamare, Atlas Coelestis, Mister Malto, Turan, Itineris e Free Lions. It was born in collaboration with different boards and associations – Arsial, Assobirra e Coldiretti Roma – to join the efforts to promote Latium made craft beer and the use of local supplies and ingredients, specially regarding malts anc cereals.
The first A.Bi “group brew” was made here at Borgorose, at our Old Brewery, last January, and the result is La Zia Ale: a special Saison beer (based on the the yeast) with a definite “laziale” touch, as it was made using regional barley malt and a very special “Latium gruyt”. Gruyt was the spice mix used in Belgium to “season” the beer before hop was introduced. Also for La Zia Ale, only a small quantity of hop has been used, and other bitter herbs such as chicory, dandelion and bitter almond were added.
But this was just the first move. Every month or so, a new version of La Zia Ale will be brewed in every brewery joining the conortium, with a new recipe and new ingredients for the gruyt. Keep following the La Zia Ale adventure!
