FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT 149 QUALITY access to success Vol. 18, No. 161/December 2017 1. Introduction “Among alcoholic beverages, beer is the most widely con- sumed around the world, accounting for the 78.2% of the alcoholic beverages share” (Gómez-Corona et al., 2016). Amongst the European countries, Italy is the one with the longest and strongest tradition in wine production i.e. 48.8 million hectoliters in 2016 (ISTAT, 2017). Indeed, in this year, Italy was the leading world producer of wine (ANSA, 2017). Moreover, the Italian beer production was 13.5 million hectoli- ters,whichplaceditinthetenthpositioninEurope(TheBrewers of Europe, 2016). The production data on alcohol consumption show: in Italy 34.2 million people over 18 consume alcohol, 56.39% of Italians consume wine (21.69% daily) and 50.12% beer (4.88% daily) (ISTAT, 2016). In 2015, beer consumption in Italy was 30.8 litres peryear(Assobirra,2016)–whiletheEuropeanaveragewas71 litres (The Brewers of Europe, 2014). More specifically, daily beer consumption involves 8.37% of the male population and 1.54% of women, compared to 32.22% and 11.85% for wine respectively (ISTAT, 2016). The consumers’ beer preferences are distributed as follows: 49.1% Main Stream, 26.2% Premium, 14% Specialties, 7.5% Private Labels, 1.5% Economy (Asso- birra, 2016). In 2014, Italy was the third European country for micro- breweries, after the UK and Germany and, from 2009 to 2014, Italian microbreweries rose by 141.74%. Whilst, the growth in the other main craft beer producing countries was lower. In the UK it was 103.75%, Germany 7.8%, France 115.21%, Switz- erland 89.66% (The Brewers of Europe, 2015) and Czech Republic 141.67% (Maier, 2016). However, according to data of theAmericanBrewersAssociation,onthewhole,therehasbeen an increase in microbrewing, not only in Europe, but also in the USA (Murray and O’Neill, 2012), which, in 2014, had 3,000 microbreweries (Matthews and Patton, 2016). The definition given by the American Brewers Association is very useful to understand the Italian scenario: “An American craft brewer is small, independent and traditional”. In particular, these three elements can be described as follows:  “small”: annual production of 6,000,000 barrels or less;  “independent”: less than 25% owned or controlled “by an alcoholic beverage industry member that is not itself a craft brewer”;  “traditional”: flavour from traditional ingredients (and fer- mentation). On the basis of the annual barrel production, the American Brewers Association divide breweries into categories: micro- brewery, which produces <17,600 hectoliters, a brewpub i.e. a restaurant-brewery that sells 25% or more of its beer on site, a regional craft brewery, an independent regional brewery with a majority of volume in “traditional” or “innovative” beer(s) (Ame- rican Brewers Association, 2015). In the U.S. Microbrewery movement the most important phenomenon in the past was “participants […] attempt variously to portray their firms as small production organizations that refuse to cut corners in their quest for quality, care about their customers and communities, employ traditional methods and ingredients, and appeal to the most discerning of consumers” (Carroll and Swaminathan, 2000; Giacosa et al. 2014). Therefore, the American movement is a cultural “neolocalism”, born of homebrewing (Schnell and Reese, 2014; Mosher, 2015), due to the regional distribution of microbreweries (Flack, 1997; Cabras et al., 2016) and to define an identity constructed from ancient integration into community life “remnants that are mean- ingful in reference to the history of the field” (Lamertz et al., 2015). Italy does not have a long tradition in craft beer production The Art of Craft Beer in a Traditional Wine Nation: A Preliminary Study in a Model Area Damiano CORTESE 1 , Maria Beatrice PAIROTTI 1 , Chiara GIACHINO 1 , Alessandro BONADONNA 1* 1 University of Turin, Italy E-mail: damiano.cortese@unito.it, mariabeatrice.pairotti@unito.it, chiara.giachino@unito.it, alessandro.bonadonna@unito.it *Corresponding author: Alessandro Bonadonna, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Turin – Department of Management & Research Centre on Natural Risks in Mountain and Hilly Environments (NatRisk), Corso Unione Sovietica, 218bis – 10134 Torino (Italy); E-mail: alessandro.bonadonna@unito.it Abstract This research analyzed the craft beer sector and the position of microbrewers in a specific Piedmontese area i.e. the province of Biella. This area is famous for its textile production, due to its favourable territorial position and climate. The authors discuss the microbrewing phenomenon and identify some actions that may be implemented to promote this handcrafted beer production. The beer producers of the Biella province were interviewed using an ad hoc semi- structured questionnaire. These interviews provided some information on the importance of having good raw materials, maintaining a high standard of quality and the necessity for investments in the various activities to increase and create more value, also for the territory itself. Moreover, the data obtained enriches the present literature as to the microbrewery production in an emerging beer country. Keywords: craft beer, microbreweries, Biella Province, social and economic development.