Homebrewing in Italy?

I just snagged one of my dream jobs, and I'm headed to Italy (likely south) early next year. I love homebrewing, and have really started ramping up my operation since I finished school in August this year.

My question is this: Am I going to be able to get the ingredients I need to actually take advantage of my equipment if I drop-ship it to Italy? My company will cover the cost, so no worries there, but if it's just going to sit there and take up space I've got a real decision on my hands...

http://www.maxbeer.org/eng/neg.htm
Yep

rockfish42 said:

http://www.maxbeer.org/eng/neg.htm
Yep

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Just looking through that link, I would say it might actually be tough. You say 'south'. What do you mean by that? Are you still in the boot, or on Sicily. I can tell you from experience that getting things in Sicily is a lot harder than on the mainland. Other than that, I see only two of the shops on the list in southern Italy. One was in Naples, the other in Puglia. Shipping in Italy is SLOW, and I would imagine you'd like fresh ingredients.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but I feel like it will be a lot more challenging than you might expect, especially for fresh ingredients.

i don't know who sells them, but Italy actually makes some of the finest, if not THE finest, craft brews in the world. i can't begin to name them all, but start with Del Borgo.

I will probably be near Napoli/Solerno...

I was looking more for personal experiences, or secondhand knowledge of actually being able to get fresh ingredients. I too worked my google foo, and found links to sites in Italian (which I do not speak yet), but that's a far cry from having a solid answer to my question.

So, any Italian homebrewers out there?

I'm an Homebrewer from Catania (Sicily), I'm sorry I was on a delay , btw 80% of HB in Italy use to buy every kind of ingredients by internet without problems.
I'm also looking for American HB in Sigonella, if anyone of them read that just send me a PM.

I frequently order from here even though there are plenty of online domestic HBS this is cheaper and the ingredients are generally fresher..

http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=8

As you see you'll have to pay a little for shipping this way so doing big orders is properly best. That said their service is great, shipping times aren't to bad and their selections is enormous!

How well do you speak Italian? To find web shops (and look up locations for brew stores), you'll have a hard time without speaking the language. Sure you can get stuff shipped from the UK, but that will cost you as much in shipping as you spend on the items themselves.

One thing that I found useful: take a look at some of the homebrew items manufacturers (Wyeast, White Yeast, Star Chemical, Blichmann, etc.) and see if they list distributors in Italy. That might lead you to sources.

Rebuiltcellars said:

Sure you can get stuff shipped from the UK, but that will cost you as much in shipping as you spend on the items themselves.

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Why would you say this when you clearly don't know much about it???

EU International shipping is approximately 70%-150% more expensive than that of domestic shipping. You can get 30 kg shipped from the UK to Italy for below 20 pund (32$). That's enough for 6-12 batches of 5 gal beer (depending on whether OP likes small or big beer)

Assuming a shipping price difference of 100% (international/domestic) you'd be looking at 15$ to get everything shipped from a well-equipped UK HBS.

Now, unless you normally brew 9 batches of 5 gal beer with an ingredients expenditure of 1.7$ per brew - there's something COMPLETELY wrong with your argument.

In other words - Having home-brew supply shipped from other European countries (e.g. England) is a perfectly viable approach to homebrewing and it is already used by numerous home-brewing enthusiast in Scandinavia - not because we don't have domestic options but simply because it is CHEAPER and the selection is larger..

From personal experience: www.pinta.it
Located up north in the Veneto, but they ship all over Italy and Europe. Great prices. I go to the store to buy my ingredients so I'm not sure about shipping, but in case you don't find anything local, it's worth checking out.

I have used here to ship to greece

http://www.polsinelli.it/en/shop/homebrewing-kit.html
they speak good english and here

http://www.birramia.it/

hope it helps

ira-ct said:

I'm an Homebrewer from Catania (Sicily), I'm sorry I was on a delay , btw 80% of HB in Italy use to buy every kind of ingredients by internet without problems.
I'm also looking for American HB in Sigonella, if anyone of them read that just send me a PM.

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I'm an American home brewer at Sigonella and started a group on Facebook. You can look up Sigonella Homebrewers. I know this is like almost 4 years old but what the hey.