A modern Italian take on German pilsner: a pale, crisp, brilliantly dry lager pushed toward bigger hop aroma by dry-hopping with noble varieties. The result keeps the clean malt backbone and snappy bitterness of a classic pils but layers on a pronounced floral, herbal, and peppery hop perfume. Typically 4.6–5.3% ABV.
In the glass
Origin
The style begins with a single beer: Tipopils, brewed by Agostino Arioli at Birrificio Italiano, which he opened in Lurago Marinone, in the Lombardy countryside north of Milan, in April 1996. Arioli built a German-style pale lager but treated it like a fresh-hop showcase — leaving it unfiltered and dry-hopping it with traditional noble hops, a technique then almost unheard of for the pilsner family. Tipopils was among the brewery’s first two beers and became its signature, and over the following two decades the approach was widely imitated, first across Italian craft breweries and later in the United States, where it crystallized into a recognized style of its own. What had started as one brewer’s reinterpretation of a German classic became a template that brewers around the world now reach for by name.
Notes
The line between an Italian pilsner and a German pilsner is the dry hop. Both lean on noble hops, both finish dry and bitter, but the German version takes its hop character entirely from the kettle, while the Italian version adds a dry-hopping step that pushes the aroma louder and more aromatic without adding harshness. Despite the “Italian” label, the style is as much an American craft phenomenon now as an Italian one — many of the best-known examples are brewed in the United States, where the format caught on as a way to dress up a clean lager with the kind of hop aroma craft drinkers expect.
Defining examples
Birrificio Italiano Tipopils·Pivovaria Birra del Borgo·Live Oak Pilz·Threes Brewing Logical Conclusion·Firestone Walker Pivo Pils