Craft beer

Birrificio Italia, 30 years of history in a success story (also in business)

A conversation on the future of the sector with Agostino Arioli, one of the pioneers of the national 'craft' phenomenon, which, without ever distorting itself, now has a turnover of 2.3 million

by Giambattista Marchetto

31 March 2026

Agostino Arioli, fondatore e proprietario di Birrficio Italiano con la sua storica birra Tipo Pils

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

It was early April 1996 when Agostino Arioli and his brother Stefano opened their brewpub in Lurago Marinone, a small town in the Como area. It was called Birrificio Italiano, the first in Lombardy and among the very first in Italia. Two-stage tapping, glasses dedicated to each style, fresh but not chilled, unpasteurised, unfiltered beer: an unprecedented service model for customers at the time. Thirty years later, that adventure has become a company that in 2025 produced 6,500 hectolitres with a turnover of 2.3 million euro, distributed throughout Italia and in thirteen foreign countries.

The Italian way to craft beer

The beginnings were pioneering, essentially because 'there was no Italian beer culture, there was no tradition,' Arioli recalls. "I'm not German, I'm not English, I'm not Belgian, so I'm not influenced by any tradition. Consequently, even though I have a technical background, I had a very free, very creative approach'. No improvisation: behind me were agricultural studies, years of homebrewing, industrial practice at Von Wunster and Poretti, educational trips to Germany and Canada. Yet the lack of a codified tradition proved to be an advantage, so much so that 'now, after thirty years, we know what Italian-style beer means. And still today it is characterised by a slightly more creative approach', at least compared to the great European brewing schools. "Many Italians don't know it, but we Italians have a worldwide appreciation, notes the master brewer.

The most emblematic case is his Tipopils (brewed since 1996), a German and Czech-inspired pilsner brewed with the Anglo-Saxon technique of dry hopping. A beer capable of impressing Firestone Walker's brewmaster, Matt Brynildson, who brought the style invented at Arioli to the United States, and who brought the 'Italian Pilsner' to recognition as a category by the American BJCP.

Growing without losing identity

The company's trajectory recounts an almost uninterrupted growth: from 300 hectolitres in 1996 to 2,500 in 2012 (when production moved to the current site in Limido Comasco) up to 6,200 in 2023, the year in which the volume of the cooking room was doubled with an investment of around 400,000 euro, with intervention also on the energy recovery front.

80% of sales are to the Horeca (bars and restaurants, ed.) in kegs, and the geographic presence remains strong in the territory of origin (42% goes to the north-west, 20% to the north-east, 25% to the rest of Italia).
The first exports date back to the early 2000s with the first shipment of a pallet of bottled beer to the United States. To date, exports have reached values of around 13% of the total volume, with destinations in Europe, but also the United States, Japan and more recently China.

Il locale storico a Lurago Marinone (Como)

A chapter in itself is made up of the two premises managed directly by Birrificio Italiano: together with the historic one in Lurago Marinone, since 2017 Birrificio Italiano in Milan in the Central Station area has been added. "The sum of the two premises absorbs 7% of the volume of beer sold, but apart from the quantitative element, their activity is very important because it constitutes a reference point for all consumers and operators in the sector who appreciate our beer".

Society crisis or product crisis?

Arioli does not hide the fact that the expansionary trend has come to a halt. 'Until 2022 we had continuous growth,' he reports, 'while from 2024 a crisis of the post-Covid cycle began, which is manifested in the contraction of the on-trade and the alcohol sector in general. It seems to me, however, to be a crisis of sociality rather than of product. However, in comparison with the industry, craft beer is holding its own, because quality products tend to suffer less, thanks to the hard core of those who have learnt to drink beers of character and find it difficult to go back".

l team del Birrifico Italiano

On one point Arioli is clear: 'Craft beer must remain a niche product, without chasing the industrial mainstream. It's OK if we are few, it's OK if we produce and sell little... it's not a problem if a craft brewery doesn't grow and then, say, you don't open a craft brewery to make money. In any case we are not better or worse than the industry, we are different. We, for example, work with low-alcohol products and yet we refuse to make non-alcoholic beers, because it has nothing to do with the work of the craftsman: it is a distortion of the work of the yeasts. And at the same time the craft movement has been and continues to be a stimulus to the industry, but 'we must continue to work creatively and innovatively'.

Brass culture improving

On the consumer side, Arioli is optimistic: 'The average culture of beer drinkers in Italia is significantly higher than in many other countries. This is only an apparent paradox, because in Germany people drink their father's and grandfather's beer without knowing what an Ipa is; on the other hand in Italia those who have approached craft beer have done so with curiosity and a desire to understand'.

An evolution that few pioneers - Baladin, Birrificio Lambrate, Beba in Villarperosa, Vecchio Birraio in Campo San Martino, as well as Birrificio Italiano - have accompanied in the evolution of knowledge and innovation.

30 years of craft beer in a book

To mark the 30th anniversary celebrations in the Como area, the book "Di cotte e di crude. 30 years of Italian craft beer" by Alessandra Agrestini (Maggioli Editore) and there will also be the re-edition of thirty iconic beers, marking the milestones of three decades of brassic revolution.

In this time, 'brewers have grown a lot, technologies have changed,' Arioli explains, 'although we remain of the opinion that nothing should be done after fermentation. Today there are perfect beers, but sometimes a bit boring. However, the most important thing is the exchange that continues to take place between producers. We have grown old but we have not lost the desire to get together and have fun.