Giovanni, the Brewer
Hello and welcome!
If you are here, it means that you would like to know more about the person behind the O’ Beerificio, Giovanni, the Brewer.
Please bear with me while introducing myself, maybe with a beer in your other hand.
My name is Giovanni, born in 1985, one of the best year so far 😀
At the time of writing this, I am almost 40 years old and for more than half of my life i lived in Naples, the most famous city from South Italy, along with my parents, brother and sister, and the remaining part I lived abroad: Germany, England and The Netherlands where, eventually, I decided to stop.
BB: the times before brewing
During my childhood, I used to play a lot in the neighborhood with other kids, football, bicycle and much more, not caring at all about getting injured when falling on the asphalt while playing… we were just happy and were perfect like that.
When I turned 9 or 10, I got my first computer that was a life changer. I stopped dreaming of becoming a firefighter, a police officer or a doctor like every other kid in the world, and I just wanted to be a computer engineer and my teenage years were just around that: gaming, studying IT, little IT works, girls and beers.
Talking about beers, only a few places in Naples and surrounding had beers in bottles or on the tap that differ from the national brands like Peroni or Moretti, that served beer from Germany and England. Unfortunately the brewing revolution was yet to start in Naples.
After graduating at the University of Naples Federico II as an IT Engineer, for a few more years, I continued my studies at university till the moment I decided that I had learned enough and quit just a few exams away from the Master degree. I went for a specialized course in integration technology that at the end provided my first official job in Rome. It was 2012.
In Rome, I found far more beers compared to Naples coming from different breweries of different nationalities and, with friends, we started our personal beer revolution trying different beers in different pubs.
AB: the times after brewing
One day, while talking with a colleague, I got to know that it was possible to brew beer at home and some websites did sell everything you would need to start.
Before making my first order for a brewing kit, I read many things about brewing from many places like forums, ebooks and the so famous (in Italy) MegaFAQ, that contains everything you need to know about it.
Nevertheless, what was really preventing me from placing the order was my small apartment that I shared with my girlfriend (wife nowadays), not because she was stopping me but because the space was not enough for 2 people and a home brewery. But one day, I decided to place the order anyway on the BirraMia website (that unfortunately today is out of business).
This was another milestone in my life.
Since then I haven’t stopped brewing and today here in The Netherlands, after hundreds of liters brewed, I started this project that might end with opening a brewing.
Curious about my history as a brewer? Then you can read more in the Our History page.
Cheers!