Gino Perissutti of Foglie d'Erba said, "Our beer is the first – and so far only - beer in the world to achieve PEFC certification, as it is flavored with pine needles, pine cones, and resin, which are all collected from PEFC-certified forests."
The Italian micro-brewery Foglie d’Erba (Leaves of Grass) earned first prize in the category “Anglo-American origin hoppy beers” with their PEFC certified beer at the recent Sapore Beer Festival, held in Rimini, Italy in February. PEFC is the world’s largest forest certification system.
“Certification is often only associated with wood-based products,” explained Dr. Antonio Brunori, National Secretary of PEFC Italy, “but in the Southern Mediterranean region, we are seeing rapid growth in non-wood forest products such as tree oils and mushrooms to meat from animals bred and fed exclusively in PEFC-certified forests. A natural extension of this is, as in all great civilizations, the brewing of beer!”
386 beers from 82 Italian breweries competed in the Sapore Beer Festival, which was organized by the Italian Union of Beer Producers, Unionbirrai. “Sapore is Italian for ‘taste,’ and we are delighted that our PEFC-certified beer is recognised by true connoisseurs,” enthused the creator of the beer, Gino Perissutti of Foglie d’Erba. “Our beer is the first – and so far only – beer in the world to achieve PEFC certification, as it is flavored with pine needles, pine cones, and resin, which are all collected from PEFC-certified forests.”
“The award becomes all the more special as the judges commended Foglie
d’Erba’s strong commitment to the environment and tiesto local ecology –
the fact that the beer is PEFC-certified was also a plus,” concluded
Dr. Brunori.
Batch-22 