Moretti Brewery, founded in 1859, is one of Italy’s oldest operating breweries. The brand takes its name from Luigi Moretti, a wholesale merchant of cereals, wines, spirits, and foodstuffs, including beer. Moretti purchased much of his beer from breweries within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a regime most Italians reviled because they occupied much of northeastern Italy. So Moretti decided it would be more profitable and patriotic to make his own beer, and he started a “beer and ice factory” in Udine, northeast of Venice. Like other breweries that sprang up in Italy in the second half of the 19th century, Moretti’s was influenced by the revolution in brewing that was underway in Southern Germany, Austria, and Bohemia, which relied largely on pale malt and lager fermentation. See lager and malt. He also had one factor in his favor: Udine’s soft deep-well water, which was ideal for the pilsner style that had been introduced barely 2 decades earlier in Pilsen. See pilsner. During his first year in operation, Moretti produced only about 2,500 hl (2,130 US bbl), mostly for his local markets, and his brewery grew slowly, taking about 6 decades to double its output. By the roaring 1920s, however, the Moretti Brewery suddenly took off, producing almost 32,000 hl (27,269 US bbl) in 1921. The Birra Moretti brand had gained enough momentum to carry it through the difficult 1930s, World War II, and the postwar reconstruction period. Evolving from a regional into a national Italian brewery, Moretti surpassed the 1 million hl (852,167 US bbl) mark for the first time in 1991, with the Udine plant running at the limits of its capacity. It was time to move to a larger facility, which was opened in 1992 in San Giorgio di Nogaro, 32 km (20 miles) from Udine. That year, Moretti also changed its corporate name to Castello di Udine. It had now become a sizeable enterprise, which began to attract international attention as a potential take-over target. In 1994, Moretti entered into a partnership with Canadian brewer Labatt, which itself was purchased, a year later, by Belgian brewer Interbrew, which, in turn, is now part of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer. See labatt brewing company ltd. Moretti’s indirect link to Interbrew through Canada, however, did not seem the right fit and the company was acquired in 1996 by Dutch beer giant Heineken. See heineken. Today, the Moretti brand is exported to more than 40 countries, including the United States, the UK, Canada, and Japan. The company’s mainstay product is a generic international pilsner-style lager. See international pilsner. Also in its portfolio are, among other beers, a fairly authentic bock beer called Moretti La Rossa and the malty Moretti Baffo d’Oro.