Earlier this week, I spent a couple of days in L’Aquila, Italy. I was there as a guest of the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI), who had invited me to give a couple of talks. This was my second visit to L’Aquila. I had been there in September 2017, also as a guest of GSSI. To get to L’Aquila, you fly into Rome, and then travel by bus for two hours. L’Aquila has a population of approximately seventy thousand people. It is an interesting town for a number of reasons, one of which is the fact that it is earthquake prone. The most recent earthquake, on April 6, 2009, registered a 6.3 on the Richter scale and killed 308 people. Its impact is still visible throughout this picturesque Italian town. Since my last visit in September, however, I noticed visible signs of progress – buildings that had been empty were now inhabited and in use, while others were closer to being so.

The purpose of my visit this time was to give two lectures – one to this year’s cohort of GSSI doctoral students in Regional Science and Urban Studies, and one to members of the general public as part of the Pint of Science Festival that was taking place in town.

My presentation to the GSSI students focused on the theme of consolidation and fragmentation in the global brewing industry. Both processes are impacting the industry simultaneously. For example, the October 2016, $106 billion acquisition of SABMiller by AB InBev resulted in an industry that is considerably more consolidated at the global scale. At the same time, at the local scale, the industry becomes more fragmented every time a new craft brewery opens it doors.

My presentation at GSSI was in the afternoon. In the evening, I was back at the podium again. This time the audience took on a very different composition – it was the good citizens of L’Aquila. The town had been chosen as one of the venues for the three-day Pint of Science Festival; a festival at which that scientists present their research to members of the general public in the informal setting of a bar/pub.

Pint of Science was started in 2012 by Dr. Praveen Paul and Dr. Michael Motskin, two research scientists at Imperial College in London, UK. At the time, Paul and Motskin were post doctoral researchers working on motor neuron and Parkinson’s disease respectively. While working in London, Paul and Motskin organized a “Meet the Researchers” event, in which they invited individuals impacted by the disease (both those with the disease and their families) to their laboratories to see, first hand, the research in which they were engaged. It was a huge success, and very quickly the idea of taking scientific research to the people emerged – hence, a Pint of Science was born.

According to the Pint of Science website:

“The Pint of Science festival aims to deliver interesting and relevant talks on the latest science research in an accessible format to the public – mainly across bars and pubs. We want to provide a platform which allows people to discuss research with the people who carry it out and no prior knowledge of the subject is required.”

In 2018, Pint of Science Festivals were held in over 260 cities, across twenty-one countries. In Italy, twenty cities hosted Pint of Science events. All Pint of Science events across the world were held on the same three days – May 14-16.  Three venues hosted the events in L’Aquila. Over the three days, in L’Aquila, a total of sixteen lectures were presented. The topics were wide ranging, and included Chasing Gravitational Waves, Who’s Afraid of Social Media, and Living Together: From Municipalities to Cohousing and Beyond. My own lecture was titled Making Your Beer Great Again.

The venue for my lecture was Fratelli Il Bacaro, which describes itself as:

”a Venetian tavern with a wide selection of wines by the glass and small snacks, a few seats and . . .  a place where dishes from the local and Italian culinary tradition are also served . . . a place to make culture, where young singers and musicians, who want to express themselves and grow through music, alternate with great artists.”

My lecture started at 9:30pm. The venue was cozy, and comfortably full with somewhere between thirty-five and forty people. Recognizing that the audience’s knowledge of English was probably highly variable, my colleague Giulia Pezzi had translated my entire Power Point presentation into Italian. I covered five themes in my lecture:

• The rise of large breweries and the homogenization of beer
• The emergence of home brewing and the rise of craft breweries
• The craft beer drinker and what attracts him/her to craft beer
• The craft brewery as a unique drinking space
• The geography of craft breweries

While most of my material came from the United States, I did incorporate some examples from Europe. The talk seemed to go well, and the audience appeared engaged. After I had finished, audience members were invited to ask questions. There were six or seven questions, and I was really impressed with their overall thoughtfulness and insightfulness.

My participation in L’Aquila’s Pint of Science Festival did garner some attention in the Italian press, including a mention in La Repubblica, one of the country’s most influential daily newspapers. The local L’Aquila website, NewsTown, also covered my visit.  I was also interviewed by Fabio Iuliano, who runs the website virtuquotidiane.it.  Fabio’s interview touched on a number of interesting issues, including the reasons behind the success of craft brewing in the United States, and status of craft beer in Italy. He also noted that Bob Dylan was a recent co-investor in a craft whiskey distiller, Heaven’s Door. Fabio was interested in the similarities behind craft distilling and craft brewing industries. Fabio’s final question had to do with the President of the United States, Donald Trump. He wanted to know if the title of my lecture, “Making Your Beer Great Again” had been inspired by President Trump”s slogan “Make America Great Again”. I explained that while my presentation’s title was a clear nod to the President’s slogan, it was not intended as a political statement; I was simply having a little fun with my title. As I reflected on my interview with Fabio, I must admit that I had not anticipated being asked about Bob Dylan and President Trump in an interview about craft beer.

So that was my trip to L’Aquila. I had a wonderful visit and was, yet again, overwhelmed by the generosity of my Italian hosts. Fortunately, it will not be long before I am back in L’Aquila. I will be there in early July to participate in a workshop on “The Geography of Craft Beer Brewing and Consumption: Local Entrepreneurialism and Tourism Development”, an event that I am co-organizing with my Italian colleagues, Alessandra Faggian and Giulia Pezzi.

Until then, Saluti!

Further Reading:

Paul, Praveen and Michael Motskin. Engaging the Public with Your Research. Trends In Immunology, Volume 37, Number 4, pp. 268-271.