There is a year on the labels that is not the year of foundation: 1593. It is the year of the Leggi Livornine, the laws that made Livorno a port where those who arrived did not have to explain where they had come from. The city's first craft brewery chose that date as a statement of intent.
Livorno's first craft brewery, since 2010 · taproom in via Cimarosa · since 2024 also on the rocky shoreline · direct and online sales
A brewery founded in 2010 that dates itself four centuries earlier. It is the most serious thing they say about themselves.
The Leggi Livornine are the edicts by which, at the end of the sixteenth century, Livorno became a free port and offered refuge to anyone who arrived — merchants, the persecuted, people fleeing from half the Mediterranean — without asking about their origin or their faith. From there comes the idea that Livorno has a vocation for openness that the other Tuscan cities do not have. A brewery called Clandestino that declares itself independent since 1593 is saying exactly this: that independence, here, is an old affair.
Il Piccolo Birrificio Clandestino opened in 2010 and presents itself as the first craft brewery in Livorno. Behind it is Pierluigi Chiosi: the trajectory is that of the homebrewer who at a certain point stops making beer for his friends and starts making it for the city.
Being the first, in a city, is not a matter of dates: it means that somebody had to explain to two hundred bar owners what an unpasteurised beer was when nobody was asking.
The history of the brewery can also be read on the map. It begins in via Solferino, then moves to the brewery in via Nicolodi, and since 2020 production has been in via Cimarosa, with the taproom next door. Since 2024 the group has also run the Clandestino Reef Club, on the rocks.
Every move is a bigger plant. And that is how a craft brewery really grows: not with a campaign, but with one more shed and a few more tanks.
In the catalogue there is an English Brown Ale that the brewery indicates as its first «clandestine» production. It is called Santa Giulia, and it is the beer everything started from — the one made before there was a brewery to call by that name.
Today it is in the core range, alongside beers awarded at national level, and it has gluten free certification. It has stayed where it was.
The catalogue is divided in three, and the division is already a declaration of method. The Core Range are the beers that are always there, the ones a bar can build its taps on. Year Round holds the structured, long-maturing beers — the barley wine, the Russian Imperial Stout. The Fun Part is where the experiments end up, the one shots and the collaborations with other breweries.
Many breweries do the same three things. Few write them on three different shelves, telling the buyer which of the three they are drinking.
The repertoire of names is almost all Livornese, and not by accident. Fortezza Nuova bears the name of the fortification that is the symbol of the city. Birra Amaranto is dedicated to Livorno Calcio, and amaranto is the colour of the team. 5e5 is the chickpea tart in bread, the Livornese street food par excellence — and indeed the brewery accompanies it with two words only.
Beside them there are Dé, which is the filler word Livorno starts half its sentences with, and Awanagana, the golden ale that has become the flagship beer of the house. A catalogue that, read all together, is a walk through the city centre.
In 2022 the brewery launched a project it calls Make IPA Clear Again, and presents it as the first Cold IPA ever brewed in Italy. It is a company claim, not a third-party recognition — but it says a good deal about where these people's heads are: the Cold IPA is a style that arrived from the United States only very recently, and brewing it first in Italy means reading the trade magazines before the customers do.
It sits inside The Fun Part, where it belongs. And it too carries the gluten free certification.
In May 2024 Slow Food included Il Piccolo Birrificio Clandestino among the Eccellenze della Toscana in the Guida alle Birre d'Italia 2025. At the Birra dell'Anno competition run by Unionbirrai the brewery has been on the podium in three consecutive editions: in 2022 with the Mastro Ciliegia, in 2023 with the Sorrypier — silver — and in 2024 with two third places, the Pils and the Sorry Pier again.
Three years running at a national competition is not luck. It is a brewery that knows how to repeat itself, which in this craft is the hardest thing of all.
Since 2024 the story of the brand has left the shed and reached the sea: the group runs the Clandestino Reef Club, sheer above the Livornese rocks, where beer meets seafood cooking, aperitifs and water sports.
And it is the natural continuation of a brewery that has always organised more than it has sold: Jingle Beers, the Christmas festival that in 2023 was already in its sixth edition with fifteen microbreweries; the birthday party with nine guest breweries; the tasting courses inside the production plant.
Two thousand hectolitres a year means continuous brews. And, in between, people coming in to watch.
These are the two conditions Italian law sets for calling a beer craft, together with the independence of the brewery. Here they are the starting point, not a goal.
The beers that are always there, the ones a bar builds its taps on. It is the least showy part of the craft and the one that holds up all the rest.
The Fun Part collects one shots, prototypes and collaborations with other breweries. Some productions never leave the taproom: you drink them there or you do not drink them.
Several lines in the core range are certified gluten free. they are the same beers everybody drinks.
Guided visits, tastings and basic courses that take place inside the production site. Whoever wants to understand how it is done comes to watch it being done.
Jingle Beers at Christmas, the birthday party in summer. A brewery that invites its competitors into its own home is saying that the market is widened, not defended.
Three declared shelves: the ones that are always there, the ones that wait, and the ones that happen only once.
The beers certified gluten free are indicated as such in the company's catalogue. Unmarked lines contain gluten: they are made with barley malt and, on some recipes, with other cereals.
The backbone of the brewery, and the place where Livorno enters the names: the fortress, the football team, the chickpea tart, the filler word. Several lines are certified gluten free.
The structured beers, the ones that mature at length before coming out. You buy them once and open them when the moment comes — or you put them away for another year.
Experiments, one shots and collaborations with friendly breweries. Some prototype productions never leave the taproom. In here there is also the project Make IPA Clear Again, which the brewery presents as the first Cold IPA brewed in Italy.
The brewery can be visited. The guided tasting takes place inside the plant, among the tanks, and the full visit includes the tour of production with the people who do the producing.
Outside beer but inside the same business: the house amaro, the one you drink at the end, at the taproom counter.
A brewery that brings people inside its plant does not have much to hide about its organisation chart.
The founder and the master brewer. A former homebrewer, he is the central figure in the company's story and the public face of the project: he leads the plant visits, the tasting evenings and the interviews.
Described by those who have visited the brewery as Chiosi's right-hand man. He is the other half of the workbench.
The beers and the experiences with their own page, their own data and their own price, alongside the brewery's own shop.
The group takes over the running of the Clandestino Reef Club on the Livornese rocks. At the same time, at Unionbirrai's Birra dell'Anno two third places arrive: the Pils and the Sorry Pier.
The brewery enters the Eccellenze della Toscana.
Five meetings of tasting and beer knowledge, in collaboration with Puro Malto, held inside the production site.
In June, three days of celebration for the birthday, with nine guest breweries and guided visits. In December the sixth edition of Jingle Beers, with fifteen microbreweries in Livorno. And the Sorrypier takes silver at the Birra dell'Anno.
The project the brewery presents as the first Cold IPA brewed in Italy gets under way. In the same year the Mastro Ciliegia is among the winners at the Birra dell'Anno.
Production moves to the current premises, with the taproom next door. It is the third address after via Solferino and via Nicolodi.
Pierluigi Chiosi opens the first craft brewery in the city of Livorno.
The brewery with the taproom in the city, and in summer the club on the rocks.
It is the brewery's claim and it recalls the Leggi Livornine of 1593, the edicts by which Livorno became a free port and welcomed those who arrived without asking about their origin or religion. The brewery links its own identity to that tradition of freedom and openness in the city.
At Via Domenico Cimarosa 37/39 in Livorno, where production and the taproom are. It is the third premises since 2010, after via Solferino and via Nicolodi. Since 2024 the group has also run the Clandestino Reef Club, at Via del Littorale 232, on the rocks.
Yes. The brewery sells guided visits with tasting and accompanied tastings that take place inside the production plant, and it has hosted basic beer knowledge courses spread over several meetings.
Several lines in the core range are presented by the company as certified gluten free, among them Awanagana, Riappala and Santa Giulia, together with the Cold IPA of the Make IPA Clear Again project. They sit in the core range, alongside the others.
The Core Range are the beers always available. Year Round gathers the structured, long-maturing beers, such as the barley wine Fortezza Nuova and the Russian Imperial Stout Montinera. The Fun Part is the space for experiments, one shot productions and collaborations with other breweries.
Slow Food includes it among the Eccellenze della Toscana in the Guida alle Birre d'Italia 2025. At Unionbirrai's Birra dell'Anno competition it has been on the podium in three consecutive editions: Mastro Ciliegia in 2022, Sorrypier silver in 2023, and in 2024 two third places with the Pils and the Sorry Pier.
A beer from the core range, whose name comes from the Livornese cinque e cinque: the chickpea tart inside bread, the street food of the city. The brewery accompanies it with two words, «Pane e Torta».
In the taproom and in the company's online shop, which also sells the brewery visits and tastings. The products are also on Tuscany Market Hub.
Here we tell who makes them and why they carry the names of Livorno. There is the catalogue: every beer with its own page and its style.
This profile is part of the archive for Craft Beer. All the producers in the network.