Milan's Legendary Birrificio Lambrate Turns 30: Free 'Lambrateland' Beer Festival on September 12

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Founded in 1996 on the intuition of Giampaolo and Davide Sangiorgi, Birrificio Lambrate is today one of the leading names in Italy's craft beer scene — a pioneering company marking its 30th anniversary with a major event in Milan on September 12.

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Thirty years of craft beer, experimentation, and above all, Milan. Birrificio Lambrate, one of the pioneers of Italy's craft beer movement, is set to celebrate its 30th birthday with "Lambrateland", a big party on Saturday, September 12, 2026 at Rubattino 56 — a free-entry day with beer, music, street food and entertainment. It's a way of honouring a story that began in 1996, when craft beer in Italy was still a nearly pioneering phenomenon. To retrace that story and understand how the beer world has changed over three decades, we spoke with Giampaolo Sangiorgi, one of Birrificio Lambrate's founders.

From a brewpub idea to the Lambrate adventure

Birrificio Lambrate's story begins even before the beer. "It all started with my father. I had this idea of opening a craft brewpub abroad, in 1995. My father, Franco Sangiorgi, was a professor of agricultural engineering and at some point he told us: why don't we do it in Milan?" From that question began a journey destined to change the life of the Sangiorgi family and, at least in part, that of Milanese craft beer.

The turning point came through an almost accidental contact with a Munich-based German company specialising in brewery equipment. A telling detail: the company was run by an Italian. "Entering the Italian market was new for him, and he offered to guide us. So we started production with their brewer as consultant." Giampaolo and his brother Davide were very young and did not come from the beer-production world. "My father supported us, but he wasn't in the company. At first it was just me, my brother, and then Fabio Brocca, a dear friend."

The first venue in Lambrate, then expansion

"We were very young and had never done this job. We were pioneers. We opened in 1996, when there were very few breweries: there was Birrificio Italiano and little else. Those were exactly the years of the birth of the Italian craft beer movement." The first Birrificio Lambrate was born as a true brewpub: a venue where the brewing equipment sits directly in the customer space.

From house beer to a beer demanded across Italy

At first, Birrificio Lambrate produced mainly for its own venue. But over the years, outside orders started coming in. Pubs, venues and distributors wanted those beers that until then had been associated above all with that little Milanese brewery. The small plant gave way to ever-larger equipment, reaching a 2,000-litre system at the original site. Birrificio Lambrate went from being an almost artisanal neighbourhood operation to one of the best-known names in Italian independent beer. "We stayed there for the first fifteen years, growing exponentially. We reached a 2,000-litre system and about 5,000 hectolitres a year." Then, in 2016, came the definitive leap: production moved, still in Lambrate, to a warehouse of about 2,000 square metres, with a much larger plant and a cellar to match the new scale.

"We grew a great deal and doubled production within a couple of years." Today Birrificio Lambrate stands at around 9,000 hectolitres of annual production — a significant figure for a brewery born in 1996 in a small Milanese venue. The production team numbers six people, while the whole operation, brewery and venues included, reaches about 40-45 employees. The company structure has changed too: alongside Giampaolo and Davide there is now Enrico Maestri, a long-time friend of Giampaolo and a new partner in the project.

Pils, Porpora, Gaina: the beers that built Lambrate

Thirty years of history also mean a long story of beers, some of which have become true icons. Among them is Montestella Pils, a reference point of Lambrate's production tied to lager tradition, and Porpora, a particularly intense, full-bodied bock that has built a devoted community of fans over time. But above all it is Gaina, an IPA, that represents one of the pillars of production today. "Gaina is our most-produced and best-selling beer," Giampaolo explains. The catalogue, however, is much broader: today Birrificio Lambrate has 16 fixed-line beers, aimed mainly at pubs and distributors, plus seasonal, collaborative and special releases throughout the year — "over the course of a year we reach 25-26 beers."

Two venues, two souls of the same story

Birrificio Lambrate's story is not just a production story; it is also a story of venues and social life. In 2011 came the second venue, on Via Golgi, minutes from the historic one on Via Adelchi where the brand was born — a choice that let the brewery build an even stronger presence in the neighbourhood and the city. "We created a kind of Bermuda Triangle between the production warehouse and the two pubs."

The two venues share the same beers but have developed different identities over time. The historic venue attracts a very varied crowd, from people in their twenties to their sixties, with many loyal regulars who keep coming back. The food is typical pub fare, with burgers and dishes designed to accompany beer. The second venue, closer to the university area, draws a slightly different, more heterogeneous crowd; here food plays a more central role — not just a beer accompaniment but a real gastronomic offering, from lunch to dinner. "The other one has a real kitchen and also serves lunch, from starters to dessert. The signature dish is the beer-braised pork shank (stinco alla birra), but we have a varied, interesting menu with quality products."

The pub of the future, and a sociability to rebuild

For Sangiorgi, the very concept of the pub is one of the challenges of the future. In Italy, the pub model has developed differently from Northern Europe, and that world is changing too. "In the Nordic countries the classic traditional pub is not very fashionable. If there's nothing to eat alongside the beer, they struggle. We've been doing that in Italy for years."

The issue is not just about what's served at the bar, but about the social function of venues. "Pubs are wonderful places: you meet people, you relax, you socialise. But in recent years that sociability has become harder to build, especially among young people. The new generations struggle to approach it. There was Covid, and social media in some ways kill sociability and keep young people out of venues." For this reason the pub of the future, according to Sangiorgi, may depend on the ability to capture new consumption habits without losing the original purpose of the venue: meeting up, sharing a drink, spending time together.

Alcohol-free beer and new challenges

It is in this context that one of the main challenges Birrificio Lambrate faces today emerges: alcohol-free beer. "It's the only market giving positive signals right now," he explains. Sangiorgi does not consider it a solution capable of revolutionising the market on its own, but an essential presence for a brewery that wants a complete portfolio. "It won't be a turning point, but for a brewery like ours, having a complete portfolio is fundamental. Today people ask for alcohol-free, and we can't not have it in our line."

Another challenge concerns the horeca sector and beer preservation. The idea is to work on products that can be pasteurised, so as to reach venues without cold storage, while keeping the other beers unpasteurised, as regulations allow.

A movement still small

Birrificio Lambrate's path largely coincides with that of Italian craft beer — a sector that, according to Sangiorgi, remains interesting but has not yet made the dimensional leap many imagined. "The Italian market is stuck at around 3% of national consumption. It's been there for more than 15 years." Italian craft production remains a niche — though a niche better able than other segments to withstand market difficulties.

The problem, according to Sangiorgi, is also the average size of companies. "In Italy we all started very small, like shopkeepers. And those who grew remained very small anyway. Few had the foresight to look ahead." The numbers describe a still extremely fragmented sector: very few Italian breweries manage to exceed certain production thresholds. "In Italy there are about ten breweries making more than 5,000 hectolitres a year. We're now around 9,000." That scale has over time imposed entrepreneurial choices, investments, and the ability to look beyond the simple small-local-producer model. With thirty years of experience behind it and a new generation of challenges ahead.