When I reach Agostino Arioli by telephone, he is happy to talk about brewing, and he is happy to talk about Tipopils. It makes a welcome change from worrying about the business situation of Birrificio Italiano, the brewery he founded back in 1996.
Initially, Italy was one of the countries hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. When we speak in early April, Arioli’s business—like many across Italy—essentially has been shut down for six weeks. His team of 12 people are at home, unable to come to work. The brewery’s sales are down 98 percent; the places that remain open aren’t the ones that sell craft beer. In Italy, those sales mainly happen in bars, restaurants, and taprooms, not in supermarkets.
“As you can imagine, it’s very risky,” Arioli says. “I hope we will survive, that the government will activate some mechanisms to prevent 50 percent of the enterprises from going bankrupt. So hopefully we will be able to manage all of this, to survive. But it’s like stepping back at least five years, if not 10 years.”