The italian microbrewing experience: features and perspectives

The so-called Italian craft beer revolution is a new phenomenon characterised by a rapidly growing number of microbreweries and popularity of their products. The evolution of the Italian craft beer sector has interesting potentialities in terms of local/rural development. The analysis is based on available statistics as well as on a survey carried out in May 2014 which discloses features, motivations and expectations of the craft beer producers. Together with the risk of overproduction due to the high number of recent entries, the creation of local supply chains (from barley cultivation to its transformation into malt) is emerging as a possible evolution of the sector, thanks to the advent of a new typology of microbrewery, the agricultural brewery