This week with the help of NY1 we visited the Italian-American brewer behind the cask ales made and served on the rooftop of Eataly. And when we say Italian-American, we mean that literally: Brooks Carretta was born in Arkansas but moved to Rome when he was nine. (His mother is an American; his father an Italian.) He learned to brew in Europe, and was working an Italian brewery outside Rome when the owner was tapped by Eataly to join a partnership of breweries (two Italian, the other Dogfish Head in Delaware) to open Birreria on its roof. Carretta actually worked at all three companies that now get together to brainstorm Birreria’s beers, which steal ideas from both countries’ brewing techniques.
Beyond his own interesting backstory, there’s another tale behind the operation. (Pig tails, in fact.) Carretta also gives his spent grain to both Eataly’s bakery (which makes a spent grain loaf you can sample in the rooftop beer garden and buy on the supermarket floor below) and to its butcher shop, in the form of pork chops. The spent grains get bagged up and delivered to pigs just outside the city, which Eataly then buys after they’re fully grown: The keg to farmer exchange is featured in our upcoming issue, which hits streets this week. Until then, check out our video interview with Carretta right here.
