A long refinement

There are craft beers which have nothing to envy to a great wine, with regard to aromatic complexity, body, and longevity. So, they can be tasted, though not pasteurized, after years of aging in bottle, thanks to the special yeast used for producing them. A clear example of these characteristics is the Imperial 'Russian Stout' produced by Maltus Faber, the brewery of Rivarolo, a district of Genoa which developed in Polcevera, in the western area of the city. Here at the beginning of industrialization many of the top companies in the Ligurian capital found a place. Of them often only ruins remained. And just Maltus Faber, or rather its creators, Massimo Versaci and Fausto Marenco, started the architectural renovation of part of one of those factories, Cervisia, the historic beer of Genoa which entered a large industrial group at the end of twentieth century. This group preferred to gradually marginalize it from the distribution system, until at first it became a discount product, and then was forced to disappear.
The labels of Maltus Faber, active since 2008, have nothing to do with the time of end of life for Cervisia. The only element of similarity perhaps consists in resuming, at a distance of about a century, the spirit of the many breweries which had flourished in the early twentieth century in all Italian cities, with a limited commercial presence in the territory, because the transport and distribution network was still underdeveloped. Versaci recalls: «For a long time, Italian historic breweries met a local demand, moving their beer, which was not pasteurized, in cooled barrels, as the technology of the time could allow».High quality raw materials
Today, however, the supply of premium quality raw materials, and especially the technological refinement, allow a producer as Maltus Faber, who is inspired by the beers of Northern Europe and in particular the Belgian ones, to produce even without subjecting the beer to industrial pasteurization. This process destroys the distinctive elements of the product. However, by using ingredients and yeast which continue to live and re-ferment in the bottle for a long time, it is possible to preserve the organoleptic characteristics of the product for years.
This happens for the Imperial ‘Russian Stout,’ but for ‘Extra Brune’, too, also proposed in a version that provides, before packaging, an aging for six months in oak barrels which have contained Brunello di Montalcino wine and ‘Bricco dell’Uccellone’, one of the best Barbera wines from Piedmont. In both cases, the soft pleasure of beer is enriched and complemented by notes of wood and wine. They are beers for meditation that can be drunk in unusual combinations with oysters and shellfishes, according to Irish traditions, but also with seasoned marbled cheese or such desserts as the ‘Panettone’ of Genoa, dry pastries, nougat, or Gianduia (Piedmontese soft nut chocolate) with hazelnuts.Target: United States
The ‘Imperial’ beer is a ‘stout’ one (always highly fermented, as all ‘Maltus Faber’ beers) which resumes the one that in the late '700 was produced in England in order to be shipped by sea to Catherine the Great’s Court, in St. Petersburg. In order to bear the long roll of the ship during the journey, the beer had to be properly processed, also increasing its alcohol content, which exceeded 10%. Today, the Imperial ‘Russian Stout’ is included  by many experts in the family of barley -wines.
The characteristics which distinguish these two labels, as well as many other ones proposed by Maltus Faber, allow exporting them not only at a relatively short distance, as to the Principality of Monaco, not far away from the nearby border of Ventimiglia, but also to Japan, thanks to the contacts which the two partners have established with importers from Far East. Versaci closes: «Now we are considering the opportunity of establishing a presence in the United States, where our products have already been appreciated. A possible obstacle to overcome can consist in the production capacity of the system we have at present at our disposal, which is now calibrated on 90 thousand litres per year. Before starting the distribution in the USA, perhaps we should increase it, in order to avoid the risk of disappointing the expectations from a desirable surge in demand».