Menabrea Alcohol-Free Beers

Birra Menabrea has brewed in Biella, “at the foot of the Alps”, since 1846, and calls itself “the longest established continuously active brewery in Italy”. The Thedy family still runs it, but it has been part of the Birra Forst Group since 1991. Its alcohol-free beer is Zero Zero.

Who founded Menabrea?

The brewery’s own pages tell it two ways. Its history page says “The brewery was founded in 1846 by Mr. Welf of Gressoney and the brothers Antonio and Gian Battista Caraccio”, and that Giuseppe Menabrea rented it with Antonio Zimmermann in 1854 and bought it in 1864. Its home page says it was “founded in 1846 by Giuseppe Menabrea”. Italian Wikipedia agrees with the history page: it credits the Welf family, of Walser origin, and the Caraccio brothers, and says the brewery was sold for 95,000 lire to two men from Aosta, Jean Joseph Menabrea (Giuseppe from 1861) and Antonio Zimmermann.

In July 1872 the business became ‘G. Menabrea and Sons’, and in 1874 it built its first circular building, the Roundhouse, to store maturing barrels. In 1896 control passed to Emilio Thedy and Augusto Antoniotti, who had married the Menabrea sisters, the brewery says. It used wooden barrels until the 1960s and moved to metal kegs in 1971. Franco Thedy took over in 2005, “described as the ‘fifth generation of the family’”.

Biella and its water

Production stays in “the same original location”, the brewery says, under the line “Proudly made in Biella since 1846”. It credits “the pure waters from the Biella Alps”, and its UK site says: “The incredibly pure water and cold fresh air of the region made it the perfect location to build a brewery.” We found no independent confirmation of its claim to be Italy’s longest established continuously active brewery.

Casa Menabrea, the brewery’s museum in Biella, shows original machinery from as far back as 1846, with a self-guided tour on panels; the brewery takes bookings at info@mebomuseum.it and doesn’t list opening hours.

What Menabrea brews

Its main beer is Bionda, a 4.8% premium lager made with malt, brewers’ maize, hops and water, at 22 EBU and 39 kcal per 100g, the brewery says. Ambrata is 5.0%, and the range also takes in Strong, Rossa, Weiss, Non Filtrata, a Christmas beer and Arte in Lattina (art in a can). The brewery puts its beers down to “Long maturation, carefully selected ingredients and the pure water from the mountains surrounding the brewery”, with malts and hops “chosen by the Master Brewer”. Italian Wikipedia says Strong contains no maize and Weiss uses wheat malt as well as barley.

The brewery says it won gold and silver medals at the 1997 World Beer Championships in Chicago; Italian Wikipedia adds four Grand Prix awards in 1924, in Milan, Rome, Brussels and Paris. We couldn’t confirm these independently. 2017 brought record production and turnover, the brewery says, and a brewhouse expansion approved that year was due to be inaugurated in March 2019; its bottling plant can fill 15,000 bottles an hour.

Who owns Menabrea?

“In 1991 the company joined the Birra Forst Group, an agreement signed by Paolo Thedy. The brand kept its identity and independence,” the brewery says. Italian Wikipedia says the Forst group has owned it since the early 1990s, with the Thedy family the owners until then, and that Franco Thedy is still chief executive. We couldn’t read Forst’s own website to check the details.

So the family still runs Menabrea and the brewery speaks of its independence, but by its own account it belongs to a larger group, and we don’t show an independent badge. Italian Wikipedia, in an undated figure, puts output at over 250,000 hectolitres a year, with 48 employees, exports to 36 countries and turnover of €40 million.

Menabrea Zero Zero

Zero Zero is the only alcohol-free beer in Menabrea’s range: “an alcohol free lager beer produced using a bottom-fermenting yeast”, at 0.00% by volume, the brewery says. It doesn’t say how the alcohol is removed or kept out, or when the beer was launched. It describes a golden yellow beer, “Full bodied given its zero level alcohol”, with a delicate bitterness and an “Exceptional” balance, and suggests it with shellfish, rice, fresh mild cheeses and dessert. The Alcohol Free Co and Dry Drinker describe “crisp malt character, floral hop balance and refreshing finish”.

The brewery gives 17 kcal per 100g, a weight rather than a volume, with an extract of 4.4 °Plato; it doesn’t give a figure per 100ml. Its page doesn’t list the ingredients, and nobody claims it is gluten-free. The Alcohol Free Co and Dry Drinker tag it vegan; the brewery doesn’t say. Menabrea’s UK website says its UK range is brewed in the UK, but it doesn’t mention Zero Zero, so we don’t know where the bottles sold here are brewed.

How Menabrea Zero Zero compares

Alcohol-free lagers from Italian and Spanish brands in our directory. Menabrea’s 17 kcal is the brewer’s figure per 100g. Calories are the figures our calorie calculator holds; checked 1 November 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

The Menabrea beer in our directory

Checked 1 November 2026. Menabrea gives its calories per 100g, not per 100ml. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

Where to buy Menabrea

On 1 November 2026 The Alcohol Free Co had single bottles of Zero Zero at £2.06 (an affiliate link), though its cases had sold out, and Dry Drinker had sold out of every case size. We couldn’t check Wise Bartender that day. For more Italian alcohol-free beer, see our Italian alcohol-free beer guide.

Facts checked against Birra Menabrea’s own website, Menabrea UK, Wikipedia (Italian), The Alcohol Free Co and Dry Drinker, 1 November 2026.