The passion for Homebrewing and Craft Beer was born in 2007 in Sogliano al Rubicone, a small town on the Romagna hills (famous for the Fossa DOP cheese), where I spent my childhood and lived until a few years ago. In those years in Italy the presence of Craft Beer was still not widespread and Homebrewing enthusiasts were still a small niche, but the topic seemed interesting, so I decided to get involved.
The culture of good drinking derives from my passion for wine, on which I focused for years in order to obtain the ONAV diploma. At one point, after yet another Corona drank at the beach, I wondered why not even drink good beer. This dazzling lighting led me to drink the first Craft and, shortly thereafter, to decide to produce something of my own.
After a first experience with a Kit and a second with Extract+Grains (experiences useful to begin to understand how to manage the fermentation), my desire to get to the bottom of things already pushes me to produce my third batch with All Grain technique. I still remember with nostalgia the first mash pot obtained by cutting a 30L keg.
The desire to improve leads me to enroll in a course on AG production organized by the Cultural Association “Pinta Medicea” and held by the legendary teacher Alessio “Allo” Gatti, a phenomenal brewer and now owner of the ” Canediguerra” brewery. On this occasion I had the pleasure to meet Francesco “Cespaglia” Rodriguez, great connoisseur of the BIAB technique, with whom I still share close bonds of friendship and sharing on the brewery world.
To meet new people, to try beers produced by others and the satisfaction of winning some local competitions led me to invest further on my passion.
So it was that in 2011, together with a group of friends, I decided to found, as President, a Cultural Association with the name “La Fossa del Luppolo”. The aim is to spread the passion by organizing beer brewing demonstrations, tasting and homebrewing courses as well as taking part in local festivals proposing Craft beers from all over the world.
James Bonanni
All Grain Homebrewer with a passion in Craft Beer and Blog Administrator
Among the many satisfactions there was the purchase of a 50-liter 6-vessel system to produce multiple batches and the use of the same for pilot batches of established breweries.
The peak was reached in 2014 with the organization of the “Malt in Fossa” brewery festival. The event is repeated every year in the month of June and several Italian Breweries participate.
In the years to follow great changes in 2016 I got married with Rossella, my current wife, while in 2017 the little Ludovica arrives. The increase in family commitments prevents me from following as I would like the Association, so in 2017 I resigned as President. Naturally the passion for Homebrewing did not go away and I organized myself to produce on the home stove with BIAB technique. I have to thank for this choice the friends Francesco “Cespaglia” and Giuseppe “Beppaglia”, who have been producing BIAB beers for some time, obtaining excellent results and saving space and time. Wanting to produce on the home stove I had to organize myself to buy the necessary to get 10/11 L of finished beer, this also to allow me to be able to continuously test new styles and especially to have in my Kegerator always fresh beer to drink.
Currently as a father and husband the remaining time available is not so much, but I always try to carve out that little necessary time to do what completes me, i.e. producing beer, studying beer history, styles and brewing production, attending tasting courses, because what matters most is that I can have fun while I carry on my passion.