Italy: Geothermal-Powered Beer from Larderello

Clean-Power Beer Takes Tuscany by Storm, and California Is Next (Bloomberg)

Edo Volpi, owner of Vapori di Birra, takes
a sample from a tank in his brewery.
Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg

Edo Volpi finally figured out how to combine his work with his passion. The retired energy technician has joined Italy’s craft brew movement, and his beer comes with a twist: it’s produced entirely with steam power.

For Volpi, 66, the long days working at one of Enel SpA’s geothermal plants in central Italy often culminated at his home in the Tuscan town of Larderello, feet up, a cold pint in hand. The beer was even more satisfying, he found, when it was home-brewed, a hobby he experimented with in a backyard operation.

By 2013, Volpi was using the same geothermal steam that powers Enel’s turbines to set up a zero-emissions beer operation at his hillside house overlooking Tuscany’s Devil’s Valley, named for the steam rising from underground sources that’s thought to have inspired Dante’s “Inferno.”

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Editor's Note: Klamath Brewery in Klamath Falls in southern Oregon also uses geothermal heat for it's brewing operations.

From the Global Geothermal News archives:

• Thursday, February 5, 2015 - Italy: - Geothermal Beer Added to EGP’s Green Menu 
• Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - Italy: Brewery Says ‘Cheers’ to Geothermal Energy