I know the new year baby has kicked old man time out of the picture for the time being, but for the life of me I can't let 2009 go quite yet - mostly because I have a handful of blog posts I wanted to put up, and just never got around to it. So... here goes.
Embarrassingly, I never finished posting about my trip to France and Italy. So... Here goes, lightning round edition. I think I got through telling you all about France. (Though check the name of this French lemonade: Psssschit. I think it is supposed to be onomatopoeia for opening a can, but it looks like something else.)
So as I remember, I petered out just about the time I got to St. Peter's home (Rome, of course). Catherine and I took a flight from Paris to Rome, and after landing, I decided to get on the good foot immediately: while waiting for the bus to the city, I picked up the best I could find - Peroni's Gran Riserva Doppio Malta, which is supposed to be a kind of bock, I think (at 6.6% abv). To be honest: I was surprised that Peroni could make anything this tasty. Not that it was great, by any means; just surprising... for an Italian beer. I'd give it a thumbs-sideways, though perhaps the heat (it was over 100 degrees) and the hours of travel made it seem better than it was. I remember it being really malty, with decent hops, but being rather thin.
Ok, so Rome seemed a bit more beer-tastic than Paris, actually, because you could find relatively local stuff quite regularly, whereas in Paris you were generally restricted to the big brewers. Even the well-known "beer joints" in Paris only served stuff you could find at Greene's liquor. But Rome offered several stores within a few blocks of our hotel that at least had Italian microbrews - though stuff you might be able to find over here if you look hard. I grabbed a couple of beers from Birrificio del Ducato (brewed in a small town north of Parma, which is north of Tuscany), which makes some good (not amazing) stuff. I tried their Strong Ale "Chimera" first (6.5%), and thought it was midway between a thumbs sideways and a thumbs up. Creamy, toffee-like sweetness, and spices made for a good beer - but on a hot, hot, hot day this was perhaps a bit too sweet. The light lagers were beckoning, but I kept my head down and powered through the more interesting brews.
So the next day I picked up another beer (I love how in Europe you can buy a beer and walk around with it - a beautiful thing): L'Orso Verde (Green Bear)'s Vertigo. Orso Verde is from Busto Arsizio, outside of Milan, and they seem to make some pretty interesting beers. Vertigo is a double lager (7% abv) that was surprisingly hoppy and refreshing, and spicy, as I remember (lost my notes for this one). I loved it, especially on another blistering day. I had this one while walking to a monastery to have a peek at some epitaphs; the brothers there seemed to recognize it as a good beer when I put the empty bottle in my bag. Thumbs up, for sure.
I next sampled AFO, a pale ale also from Birrificio del Ducato. Hoppy, fruity, flowery - this is a good beer. They call it "Ale for the Obsessed" - and I was seriously impressed; it was a genuine and uncompromising thumbs up. It didn't hurt that I ate this along with a lunch from one of my favorite eateries ever - Pizza Art, the amazing and not-to-miss artisanal pizza joint in the Centro Storico (and a block from our hotel, thank God). This beer is probably available in the US. It's a good one (think Dale's Pale Ale but coppery and with a subtler hop profile).
Ok, but this all paled in comparison to the place you CANNOT MISS if you ever go to Rome: namely, Bir & Fud (Beer and Food). Catherine and I walked in, and the dude at the helm let us sample every beer on tap (15 of them) and then we had two delicious pints. The bartender knewthe abv, ibus, and stories of every beer on tap, and was glad to struggle through all of them in broken English. Good food, too. It's like the Brick Store with exclusively Italian beers. Go there, seriously. Go.
So while there, my favorites were generally those on tap from Birra del Borgo, a fantastic brewery due east of Rome, about halfway across the "leg". From them, we got to taste the good Re Porter (7% Porter, smoky and delicious, bitter chocolate taste, smooth mouthfeel), the absolutely amazing Re Ale Extra (a 6.4% IPA style, delicious hop bite, a pineapple-bread flavor, and a nice finish), the not-that-different but still amazing Re Ale Anniversario (8%, supposedly Belgian but huge hops), and the delicious My Antonia, a collaboration with Dogfish Head (7.5% Imperial Pilsner, huge hops, pine needles and sage). We also had a couple of beers from Montegioco, which I highly recommend, and Panil sour, which you can get in the states (but damn is it a good sour). Also, strangely, beers from Port, which you can't even get in Atlanta. We sat down with a pint of the Re Ale Extra and the My Antonia (which is actually brewed with sage leaves, and just smells like a hop-and-sage bomb sitting there on the table). For the next hour or so we sipped beers and stared at each other in the streets of Rome. That, my friends, is the definition of a well-spent afternoon. Let me give you a taste:
Then, we simply had to leave the scorching temperatures of Rome to find solace in the cooler climates of Venice. While I love Venice so much (and am thankful that I have research to do there), it is most decidedly not a beer town. Nothing like Rome; the best I could do was a Birra Venezia, and even that wasn't good. It's brewed nearby, at least. Not really awful, I mean I enjoyed drinking it, but I certainly wouldn't saddle up to a bar and say, "man, I need one of those Birra Venezias." That's like saying, "I sure need a Corona." If you're playing volleyball, fine. But I wasn't, so I stuck to drinking wine and delicious Spritz, the Venetian drink of choice. Basically Prosecco and Campari. Mmmm. But take a look at the view:
So you have to give it to Venetians: they like their awful beer, but at least they don't go to ridiculous lengths to get it there. Oh, wait:
Ok, so that's our trip - and my Italian beer rundown. I think Italian beers would make a great beer club, since there are quite a few one can get at Greene's and Hop City. Alright, I think I exorcised the blog demons. Let's try to get the flow back for 2010 (twenty-ten, right?)
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