Italiano
Given its "local" and non-industrial nature, one of the fundamental characteristics of a craft brewery is the very close correlation with the production area and its most typical products. Since at Birrificio San Quirico we chose to make an artisanal product made without pasteurization and filtration processes or the use of preservatives or chemical additives, we decided to focus on short chain ingredients of the highest quality. Our good fortune is that, in this case, "local" also coincides with "Made in Tuscany"... indeed, Made in Val d'Orcia!
Basic ingredients and unique aromas
A product is made of many components: the main ingredients (the main characters, always in the spotlight), the "gregarious" ingredients (indispensable, but often "invisible"), and finally the "special" ingredients, those that give uniqueness to the products and that stimulate the continuous search for new combinations and blends. In creating our beers we made sure that all these components spoke Tuscan.
Main Ingredients: the cereals of the Val d'Orcia
Val d'Orcia cereals are not an ingredient... they are THE ingredient of our beers; they are the very reason why the San Quirico Brewery was born, with the desire to enhance an ancient product that tells the origins of these lands, once called the granary of Tuscany. The cereals of the Val d'Orcia, in fact, are not only considered of extreme quality since the time of the Medici but are also an important piece in the history of cereal farming. In this valley, in the Barbieri Quarry near Pienza, bio archaeologists have found the remains of charred seeds of the Triticum genera, such as the T. monococcum (or small spelt, which is considered the first cereal domesticated by man about 7500 years ago), as well as oats, barley and several varieties of ancient grains.
The invisible ingredient
There are some ingredients that, although fundamental, tend to be forgotten... A bit like you forget the presence of air when you breathe. Water is definitely one of them: it is often taken for granted, while its quality is of absolute importance for the success of a top of the range beer and we are proud to say that our beers are produced using Acqua del Vivo.
Under the castle of the Counts Cervini in Vivo d'Orcia in the municipality of Castiglione d'Orcia flows the river Vivo, whose sources gush out in Ermicciolo.
The Ermicciolo spring, which flows on the north side of Mount Amiata, just over a thousand meters above sea level, in 1890 after careful analysis was officially defined excellent and of very good quality thanks to the good altitude conditions and its location in a sparsely populated area ("The excellent water of the Vivo is chemically pure and offers the most enviable requirements for excellent drinking water") and indicated as the only one capable of solving the problem of water supply of Siena.
The water of the Sorgente dell'Ermicciolo springs from a base of a trachytic rock bank and is characterized by excellent potability requirements. This is due to the constant values of its physical characteristics, the excellence of its organoleptic characteristics and the absence of any chemical-biological anomaly derived from contamination or sources of pollution. The parameters collected in the continuous controls reveal a state of consistency of its characteristics, unchanged over the centuries.
This is the water of the Birrificio San Quirico.
Special ingredients
The desire to enhance typical local products also pushes us towards a continuous search for new formulas and new flavors. In this experimentation we are helped by spices and local plants that are, in fact, our "special" ingredients able to give unique and peculiar taste characteristics. A typical example of this research are our two limited editions: the Arthemisia and the Catharina. The Athemisia, created to celebrate ten years of activity of the brewery, is characterized by the aroma of the "Arthemisia Cretacea", a native plant typical of the Val d'Orcia; while the Catharina, a limited edition created for the winter season, is flavored with the secret combination of spices used for centuries for the production of Panforte, a traditional Sienese cake.
