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There's a Baladin brewery, Baladin pub, Baladin restaurant, and Baladin B&B.
-The Baladin buildings, a church, and a little shop are pretty much the whole town center; lol!

-My wife has a strict "no computers on vacation" policy, so the "notify me when reply is posted" option wouldn't help; once my plane has taken off, I have all the beer hunting information I'm going to have. <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->


Adam

Hi Biertourist, I'm so sorry you couldn't check my reply before leaving, anyway I'm happy you went to Birrificio Lambrate and had great time there, at least. Yes, their brewing equipment is very large and top-class, but I don't think it to be SO oversized, I don't know what time did you visit it but it gets very very overcrowded in the evening, I mean, there are always one or two taps constantly open, the barmen just shift glasses below them <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: --> Anyway they are starting bottling in order to sell their beer in off-licenses as well.

I'm sorry for your sad experiences with Baladin and Isola della Birra, as I said almost every pub in Italy only open for dinner; this comes from the wicked idea of considering pubs as nightlife matter such as discos and not as an all-day tavern like in the "better civilized world" <!-- s:( --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_sad.gif" alt="" title="Sad" /><!-- s:( -->

And yes, Teo Musso (Baladin owner) owns half of his village (the restaurant and b&b are inside the city hall!), the "Open" pubs in Cinzano and Rome, and now is opening another "Open" brewpub in New York in partnership with Leo di Vincenzo of Birra del Borgo, Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head and Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River. He is very often interviewed by the press and the media and is almost identified by the population as "Mr. Craft Beer". His role has lights and shadows: he has the credit of spreading the word of craft beer in the whole country, but also the fault of having put it in competition with wine with all the consequences (0,75L bottles, high prices, breweries often concentrating more on packaging rather than on beer), and of being like a "Godfather" of all the italian craft beer scene.

I assure you: Italy DOES have some of the best craft beers around. Your complaint about the secrecy of this is absolutely right. Websites seldom report opening hours (often pubs and breweries DO NOT have any website at all!); I, as a very percise guy, created my simple website on this purpose, in order to make it the "yellow pages" of the beer, and I'm the main user of my pages in order to avoid those inconveniences you had... <!-- s:x --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_mad.gif" alt="" title="Mad" /><!-- s:x --> There is another, nicer, website[/url:3sqptiah] that collects useful datas for all italian microbreweries, and lists their beers with ratings, like an italian Ratebeer!
The real problem is that our craft beer scene is very young and brewed volumes are still small (the average microbrewery brews around 20,000 liters per year), so it's still not easy to find italian craft beer in Italy.
There are some "Beer-shops", but they prefer to concentrate on foreign beers (mainly belgian) because italian ones are really too dear.

I hope you may come back to Italy and have more fun!
Cheers!
Sergio

So is Birrificio Lambrate the number one place to go in Milan then?
I'm heading over there next week and the week after for work. Will be based just north of the city, and won't get a lot of free time, but I'm sure we will end up in the city centre some evening.

&amp;quot;MAF&amp;quot;:3f4sra4d wrote: So is Birrificio Lambrate the number one place to go in Milan then?
I'm heading over there next week and the week after for work. Will be based just north of the city, and won't get a lot of free time, but I'm sure we will end up in the city centre some evening.[/quote:3f4sra4d]

It's definitely the best place I found in Milan; truly great beer pursued with what is almost certainly OCD. The owner seems to really like his super high-end and insanely expensive brewing kit and ingredients (including the super expensive yeast nutrient Servomyces), too. -If there's anyway you can get someone to show you the brewery jump at the opportunity. I have no idea how someone of their size affords so much super high-end equipment (including a professional yeast propagator and an amazing pressurized or partial vacuum German steam kettle). I think the owner must like the kit and is willing to pay for it even if it doesn't make immediate financial sense.

Spend some time there and make it through all their beers; a fantastic pilsner and I think pilsner is one of the most boring styles of beer; it's just that good.

If you wear a heavy metal or motorcycle t-shirt you'll fit right in but a beer geek t-shirt would probably work, too.

Adam

Can I hijack this thread slightly? (just too lazy to start a new one, plus we have a real expert in Italian craft beer on this, and who knows? they might have the vital "notify" option ticked <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D --> )

Anyways, I'm off to Sicily shortly and will be in Trapani, Catania, Noto, Acireala, Taormina, Salina and Cefalu. I've already checked out the microbirrifici site which has given me some options, but are there specific Sicilian craft beers I should be looking out for?

Any suggestions? Of course any advice from all Beoiristas is welcome.

&amp;quot;Biertourist&amp;quot;:1dsexxuh wrote: It's definitely the best place I found in Milan; truly great beer pursued with what is almost certainly OCD.[/quote:1dsexxuh]Cheers Adam. Definitely sounds like a place worth visiting; I’ll have to make an effort to get there some evening.

&amp;quot;Biertourist&amp;quot;:1dsexxuh wrote: Spend some time there and make it through all their beers; a fantastic pilsner and I think pilsner is one of the most boring styles of beer; it's just that good. [/quote:1dsexxuh]Not a huge pilsner fan meself, but sounds tempting!

&amp;quot;Biertourist&amp;quot;:1dsexxuh wrote: If you wear a heavy metal or motorcycle t-shirt you'll fit right in but a beer geek t-shirt would probably work, too. [/quote:1dsexxuh]I have a Vespa t-shirt, but maybe I’ll stick to a beer one instead <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->