We have had a lot of fun this past week here at Dogfish hosting our Italian brewing brethren for a QC seminar here in Milton. Brewers and lab folk from Birra Del Borgo, La Baladin, Eataly NYCs Birreria and Eatalys soon-to-open Rome Birreria. There's lots of good karma and good idea exchange that comes with sharing what we know about brewing with each other.

The network of small, indie craftbreweries is blossoming around the world, but global consolidation of the large-scale industrial brewers means the largest conglomerates are more and more challenging for the little guys to compete against.So, we stick together, learn from each other, and support one another.

Here you see Dogfish Brewery Supervisor Seth teaching the Italian crew about our wet milling process.

They shared knowledge with us about their barrel aging programs. With Italy's long, rich wine history, the Italian craft brewers have done an excellent job using wine world techniques and materials to make wood-influenced beer.

Bocce break.

It wasnt all nose-to-the grindstone work, team Dogfish beat the Italians in bocce on the regulation-sized courts at the entrance to our Milton Brewery. Of course, we had the home field advantage and of course, the Italians destroyed us in game of beach soccer a few hours later.