For centuries, the wine and spirit industries have embraced oxidation and the attributes it can lend in the right circumstances. Port, Madeira, and sherry are intentionally oxidized to create their powerhouse of intricate essences. And the complexity of a thirty-year-old Armagnac is largely due to the all the time spent in oxygen-porous oak.
But in the brewing industry, oxidation is essentially never consciously allowed. When a cellar-friendly beer such as barleywine or Russian imperial stout acquires positive oxidation characteristics after a few years of aging, the negative aspects normally remain as well. Malt-thinning and staleness, for example, are commonly present; the cellarer just hopes the levels are minimal enough to offset the gains. In contrast, the brewer aims to reduce oxygen at all times and almost never intends for the beer to be aged for years.
At least one brewer, though, didn’t get the memo: Teo Musso, owner and creator of Baladin, one of Italy’s first, and now largest, craft breweries. The craft-beer scene in Italy was essentially nonexistent in 1996 when Musso decided to transform his ten-year-old beer bar into a full-fledged brewpub. This lack of industry allowed him the mental freedom to design beers that were neither confined by stylistic expectations nor restrained by the traditional processes and ingredients found in many other brewing cultures. Some of his first beers used ingredients such as Mediterranean oranges, kamut, myrrh, and raw Italian wheat. And he looked to simply create the best flavor profile for each beer rather than re-create something previously brewed.