THE BREWSTILLERS

Two brewers walk into a bar. The first says, “I’d like to make whisky.” The second goes, “I’d love to make some too.” No, this is not the start of an old joke. This is how Agostino Arioli, of Birrificio Italiano, and Benedetto Cannatelli, of Railroad Brewing Company, took their passion for malt and yeast to the next level, by launching Strada Ferrata Distillery and in the process becoming ‘brewstillers’. Located just a few miles north of Milan, Strada Ferrata isn’t Italy’s first whisky distillery (Puni, in Alto Adige, predates it by about 11 years), but Arioli and Cannatelli’s unique, unorthodox approach to whisky making might be set to kick off a real Italian whisky revolution.

“I’ve been considering the idea of getting into distilling for several years,” says Arioli, one of Italy’s, and the world’s, most revered craft brewers. After an initial attempt to launch a whisky project in Montepulciano,