Z'AM STEG the beer of monterosa Alagna Valsesia

Z'am Steg e il Monterosa Alagne Valsesia

Z’AM STEG
The Monte Rosa beer

Frazione Casacce s.n.c – 13020 Mollia – Alagna Valsesia

The history of the Z’am Steg brewery begins at the foot of Monte Rosa massif in Alagna Valsesia, an alpine village located at the gates of the Alta Valsesia Natural Park.

Just above the town of Alagna, at 1200 meters above sea level, there is the small fraction of “al Ponte” which, still today, retains the ancient name Z’am Steg of Walser origin.

The Walser, belonging to the Alemannic strain, were the first to inhabit these valleys around 1200. Their language is Titzschu, a particular variant of the southern German dialect.

It was in Z’am Steg that in March 2012 Nadir Valzer began his adventure as a homebrewer. At first, the home brewed beer cooled the throat of thirsty friends on hot summer afternoons. But soon his innate passion and curiosity pushed him to experiment with all grain production by venturing with different brewing styles. The beer will later take its name from the story place of origin, the fraction of “al Ponte”. The reason is very simple and is related to popular phonetics. Z’am Steg, pronounced in his German titzschu inflection, “sounded very good”. During a cold Valsesian winter, just before Christmas, Nadir and his partner Elena decided to take an important step in the history of the brewery.

The Z’am Steg brewery and its craft beers

On December 17, 2014, Nadir Valzer’s Z’am Steg was born, a micro-brewery that produces beer by renting production facilities (beer firm).

In the same period, Z’am Steg took its first steps in Alagna Valsesia. Officially proposing the first two labels: Stardust and Red Giant, one amber and one red. In a short time, the new arrival “Nadir’s beer” met the favor of the Valsesians and by the end of the year it was already present in various bars and inns in the town. The production is thus enriched with other labels: in May 2015 Black Hole made its entry, while in March 2016 Z’am Steg presented Fumè and later on yet others. A little over two years after the business started, the new version of the brewery opens its doors. Z’am Steg, with its own production plant, is now located in Mollia, a small town a few kilometers from Alagna Valsesia. Inside the brewery there is an area dedicated to the sale where it is possible to taste the various range of beers produced on tap which, thanks to the water coming from the highest glaciers in Europe, improves in quality, digestibility and lightness. In the high altitude shelters of Monte Rosa, mountaineers and freeriders quench their thirst with the Z’am Steg beer which is claimed, in all respects, as “the beer of Monte Rosa” or rather, to say it in the ancient Walser language: Z’am Stg “ds Gourner Biar”.