What Is Oenobeer? Meet the World’s First Specialist in Wine-Beer Hybrids

To taste through all of Liberati's creations to date is a revelatory endeavor. Ruth Tobias

Alex Liberati may not be the first person in the world to brew beer with grapes. But as far as he knows (or I know), he’s the first to launch a brewery solely dedicated to it.

In 2007, the Italian native opened one of Rome’s first craft beer bars, Brasserie 4:20. In 2009, he began brewing under the award-winning label Revelation Cat to broaden the range of styles available in his homeland. But in 2014 as the bureaucratic and financial difficulties of doing business in Italy began to pile up, Liberati decided to relocate—eventually settling on Denver, Colorado, for its entrepreneur-friendly environment and robust beer culture. Granted, both ensured the city was already home to breweries galore. But how to stand out in such a crowded field?

The Spark

Grape ales didn’t initially occur to Liberati. Years prior, he’d experimented with blending wine and beer to no avail. As he explained, “It was never one plus one equals 2.1; it was always one plus one equals 1.9.” In other words, the result amounted to less rather than more than the sum of its two parts, detracting from the character of both.