How many of us have experienced this? Sometimes flights are not perfectly on time. When that happens, it can be the opportunity to finish reading the book you brought on the trip: this time I had with me "Beer Doesn’t Exist". The author’s photo seemed to be looking at me from the cover: Kuaska, with his smiling face, holding a nice glass of beer. This text about craft beers tells a world: craft beer, Italian and otherwise, and its passionate producers. A world that becomes even more interesting when we start talking about IGA, Italian Grape Ale, a new beer standard that has emerged in the last 15 years.
"A "borderline" product between beer and wine, the Italian Grape Ale"
The Barley brewery was the first to produce an IGA in 2006. The insight of Nicola Perra, the master brewer of the Barley brewery, to produce a beer with the addition of 'cooked' grape must in the production of high-fermentation craft beer has led to the subsequent spread of this way of making beer in Italy. It is worth noting that today, more than one hundred and fifty Italian craft breweries produce at least one IGA. A 'borderline' product, between beer and wine: in fact, it is to the world of wine that Barley is akin, also due to the choice not to sell beer in kegs but in 75 ml bottles, exactly the format of wine bottles. It is now 2009, the first beer with the addition of must is an Imperial Stout, a beer to which the cooked must of Cannonau grapes has been added, the BB10.
For international recognition of this new beer style, we will still have to wait, but already in 2015 it is mentioned in the Beer Judge Certification Program, thereby giving some official status to this brewing style. IGA is a beer that can contain up to 40% grape must or pomace in its formulation. Such a beer has a range of aromas and a complexity and richness of taste that are uncommon: they are different, particular, and strongly distinctive. Nicola Perra's idea is to use a highly sought-after and strongly distinctive product for Sardinia: Sapa, the cooked grape must used in preparing some traditional Sardinian sweets, Pabassinos, tiliccas, Caschettes, Pane di Sapa. In Emilia, too, there is a great tradition of cooked must, called Saba, which is also used here for cooking and pastry: the Christmas sweet bread, Bensone, and Savor Modenese. Soon experimentation makes its way among the ranks of Italian craft breweries, which often use a grape variety typical of their area for the must: research that goes well beyond the passion for beer and tells the pride of being part of the territory in proposing tradition, renewing it. Each region thus has its must: in Tuscany obtained from Sangiovese, in Piemonte from Barbera, in Sardinia from Cannonau, in Veneto from Moscato fior d'arancio, and so on, with the typical creativity and flair of our country.
"A beer that can be paired not only with blue cheeses but also with traditional Sardinian almond sweets"
Finally, my flight lands, and I discover that the Barley brewery is in Maracalagonis, just over thirty minutes from Cagliari. The visit is particularly pleasant; I chat with Isidoro Mascia, one of the two partners, who briefly tells me about their work. The beer tasting exceeds my wildest expectations: a product that possesses complexity, intensity, harmony, and persistence. A true masterpiece, available in no less than ten beers with ten different worts, both cooked and raw, obtained from various mostly native grape varieties, often in purity. A beverage that transcends the limits of traditional pairings and surprises with originality and character. BB10 has rightly received many prestigious awards in the world of craft beers, and it fully deserves them: an Imperial stout that has the color of dense, impenetrable coffee, with a compact amber foam, which has a dense visual texture, a prelude to the strong sensations it will give us on the palate. Its aromas are multiple: initially, the sweetness of the deep roasting of the barley leads us to aromas of dried figs, sultana grapes, cocoa, sweet coffee, and molasses, with a finish of ground coffee, bitter chocolate, and caramelized brown sugar. A beer that would not surprise me to pair not only with blue cheeses but also with the typical almond sweets of Sardinian tradition, or with Christmas desserts: panforte, panettone, chocolate salami. Who would have thought? A beer that can be paired with desserts! But it doesn't end there. Due to their characteristics, beers based on the Imperial Stout and Stout style, like Barley wines, are beers designed to give their best as time goes by. BB10 is a beer that has been aging in the bottle for 2 years but could still provide us with delightful sensations in a couple of years if we manage to be patient!