La Birra di Meni craft brewery: from bricks to barley
I’m Domenico Francescon, a builder by trade and “Meni” to my friends. Back in the 1980s, purely by chance I came across a book on beer-making and started experimenting. Raw materials were difficult to get at that time, and so I had to malt my own barley, pick my own wild hops together with my wife Ornella and use shop-bought brewer’s yeast, the kind used for making breads and cakes. 
After a number of failed attempts, a little more practice and the possibility of purchasing the right raw materials came the first hint of success.
At first, my equipment was made up of a couple of pans and a gas ring, but they suited the purpose at the time. Then, some friends of mine who liked the beer that I had produced after so much perseverance, contributed to improving the process by helping me design and build a boiler with an electric motor for mixing the malt. In the meantime, I attended a technical-management course at the University of Udine to deepen my knowledge of the subject. I then built a small refrigerator for the fermentation and the beer came out perfect.
Happy with my results and with the support of all those who appreciated my beer, together with my sons Romano and Giovanni, I built my brewery and left the building trade for good.