A long-overdue review of this great little beer place in the Italian Alps. It was so welcoming and became our home brewery for six weeks when we lived in Cogolo this summer.

The Pertinents

• Via delle Roge, 11 – 38024 – Cogolo di Peio, TN, Italia
• Founded in 2015

The Family

This is truly a family owned and operated brewery. Often when we visited, Marco and Angela would be manning the brewery or the taproom (and most of the time, both!) while their children played. The grandparents also help out and the family even brings their new baby to work. It’s such a welcoming atmosphere.

The Water

“It would be a shame not to make beer with this water.” – Translated from the Birra Pejo website.

Cogolo is home to Acqua Pejo, a famous mineral water distribution centre which bottles from the source at 1400m altitude. We spent more than a month exploring the valley which is home to Birra Pejo and found more waterfalls than almost anywhere we’ve ever travelled. It’s second only to Iceland in this regard.

I love to imagine the waterfalls filling the water with great energy and sending it bubbling downstream to the towns, and being made into excellent beers.

The Beer

The styles that they produce at Birra Pejo are classic, but often with a twist. For example, their Alpina (named for the Stella Alpina, AKA Edelweiss flowers that are on the high alpine tracks nearby) features pink pepper in the brewing process. The Aquila belgian ale is our favourite of their brews, with a balanced malt profile and clean taste. They brew regularly and often make seasonal ales that are in very limited quantity. All the prices are quite the steal if one takes into account the handmade quality of the beer.

This brewery is one of our favourites that we’ve found in all our beery travels. We hope to come back to visit some day soon.