A successful second edition of Craft Beer Italy

There have been some fundamental changes in Craft Beer Italy 2019, which is part of “Beviale Family”, the international events concept of NürnbergMesse.

With the MiCo Lab Fiera Milano Congressi, a much larger venue was chosen, easily accessible thanks to its central location in Milan and offering enough space for further development in the coming years. The second change, setting the date of the event at the end of March, might have been scheduled somewhat unfavorably, given that “Beer Attraction” had taken place in Rimini only about a month before. Nevertheless, with 74 exhibitors (2017: 54) from 12 countries and around 900 visitors (2017: 670), key figures show a clear positive trend. The corridors of the exhibition areas were not really crowded which was, on one hand, due to the accompanying programme of guided tastings and seminars that drew a lot of visitors into the conference rooms. On the other hand it was determined by the event’s pure B2B format.

Seminar contents and the mayority of the speakers have been provided by the two partners of NürnbergMesse, Doemens and VLB Berlin. The speeches covered all steps of the brewing process, had high practical relevance and included quality assurance. Diversification opportunities were presented in lectures on production methods for non-alcoholic beer or distillation of craft spirits.

A further innovation was a forum with lectures for hobby brewers, supported by MoBi, Movimento Birra (Beer Movement). Another important partner of Craft Beer Italy is Italy‘s Union of Independent Breweries Unionbirrai, responsible for some of the seminar presentations as well as for the Taste it! areas.

The Italian championship of Doemens beer sommeliers with five candidates competing against each other were also a highlight. In each case, a randomly chosen beer had to be presented to the jury and the audience. Besides sensory description, knowledge of the respective beer style, information on the brewery and history as well as a recommendation for food pairing were competition criteria. The new Italian champion of beer sommeliers is Giovanna Merloni, brewmaster of IBEER. In the second and third place are Ingrid Facchinelli and Daniele Vivan. All finalists will represent Italy at the 2019 World Cup in Rimini.

All in all, Craft Beer Italy offered a rich, varied programme, and there is potential for an increase in exhibitor and visitor numbers in coming years.