Friday Craft Brew Series - Italian Beers!
Welcome back Steemians to Week 3 of the Friday Craft Brew Series. This week is going to be a little different since I have been in Italy for the past two weeks and was only able to find one real craft brewery while here. So instead of focusing on a specific brewery I am going to go over three of the most interesting beers I had while in Italy, all Italian brewed of course.
NOW, ONTO THE BEERS
Peroni Gran Riserva
First up, Peroni Gran Riserva. Many of you have probably had or at least heard of what I would consider Italy's most famous beer, Peroni. I would consider this their most famous beer only because it was the only Italian beer I had heard of before going to Italy.
Gran Riserva is quite different from regular Peroni. It is what I would consider a Red Ale, although, calling it just a Red Ale doesn't do it justice. The flavor is more sophisticated and satisfying than most Red Ales I have had. It was refreshing like a lager or Belgian Wit, while still having a slightly darker taste on the back end. I only came across this beer twice while in Italy, and unfortunately only had it one of those two times. It is definitely a beer that I will stock up on if I see it here in the states! If you have a chance to try this beer I highly recommend it.
Mostodolce Martellina
The second beer I want to feature was actually from a craft brewery we managed to make it to, Mostodolce. Unfortunately, they didn't have hardly any of their beers available and we're extremely busy when we went in, so I wasn't able to get much information about the brewery itself. What I can tell you is this brewery in Florence also specialized in pizza...who'd have thought that?! All kidding aside, the pizza was delicious, but the beer I had Martellina, left a little to be desired. It wasn't that the beer was bad, it just wasn't a Belgian Style ale as they proclaimed it to be. It had an almost roasted, bitter flavor to it, but not the delicious bitter flavor of an IPA . It was almost as if the hops had been mixed with something that was roasted a little too long. Maybe that was the flavor they were going for, I'm not sure, but it wasn't exactly the right flavor for a Belgian Ale to me.
The brewery did have a fairly extensive menu of their own beers, but only two of them were available at the time. It was too bad because they had a really good sounding Saison on the menu I was really hoping to try. Guess I'll just have to make a trip back over at some point!
Menabrea Bionda
The last beer I want to highlight is Menabrea Bionda. This was one of the most refreshing beers I had while in Italy. It was light yet still had a light hop taste that went away and left you with a slightly citrus taste. It was somewhere between a lager and blonde ale in flavor, although personally I would say the taste is probably closer to a lager than a blonde ale. This was definitely a beer I could drink several of on a hot summer day. I would have done just that too if we didn't need to get to dinner the one time I saw this on a menu, damn food always getting in the way of beer!
I know this weeks post is shorter and a little less detailed than the first two, but I hope you enjoyed learning about a few Italian beers. I know I had a good time drinking them! Next week I'll be back to the normal routine trying to focus on a specific craft brewery. Thanks for reading! See you all next week for the next part in the Friday Craft Brew Series!
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Italians dabbling in Belgium style, ha! :D I am quite close to Italy so I just might revisit you post! Say hello to the lovely lady!
That Gran Riserva would be one to find and try for sure, and if you could make it to the Mostodolce brewery I would love to see if the beer I tried was just an anomaly, their menu of beers looked too good!
aiiii I love peroni, I drank it last month in italy :D :D great, thanks for sharing :D
I had never really thought it was a beer I would like a lot, having it there changed my mind!
I don't know if you ever been to Ohio, but the craft beer scene is epic. Great Lakes Brewery leads the way in Cleveland. A lot of epic breweries if you every need a new place to visit.
Oh, I am a fan of some of the Great Lakes beers, I have never been out there but need to make a trip! I am spoiled being right in between Chicago and Milwaukee, so many craft breweries here.
o wow yeah thats a prime spot right there no doubt. Heck yeah glad to see a fellow Great Lakes beer drinker. Christmas Ale is my favorite, knocks me on my ass everytime lol
Check back every friday man! Going to be posting about a new brewery every week...really though, it's just a great excuse to give my wife each week so I can go drink beer ;)
hahaha heck yeah smartttt man. sounds good will do
Great report.
I was never fond of European beers, but that red definitely got my interest. I'm a sucker for ales. I'll definitely keep my eye out for it. We have a legendary shop out here called Hi Time and they carry a lot of craft beers. They might have it.
Definitely worth drinking, my wife even said the look on my face while taking the first sip was real surprised. I really liked it, real good beer.
Great post @mk40. We Australians love our craft beer, even if it is through a screen!
I've drank with a few Australians, and not once has it been a bad time...I should also say, not once have i made it back home on time, or in a even somewhat manageable state when I drank with australians either though too hahahaha. Glad you enjoyed!
Hahahaha now that sounds like me! Cheers to you!
I never heard of the second one, and I'm Italian! Should you come back check the Birrificio di Lambrate in Milan!
It's a small brewery in Florence from what I learned, had a rock vibe to it which was cool. Looked like there were a bunch of people from the University there. Yeah, I'm not writing them off because of that one beer, cause their menu definitely had some really tasty sounding beers.
If we make it back to Italy it will definitely be up north and including Milan for sure! I am going to add this to my list of breweries around the world to visit!
Good looking beers, thanks for sharing! Please feel free to explore and use the new steempub tag for your next alcohol related post. It's a tag for all things adult beverage; beer, wine, cocktails, etc. Cheers from Texas!
Will definitely use it going forward. Just changed up the tags for this post to include it too! Thanks for the heads up! I'm going to have to check out these posts now.
hey, you rock, thanks for changing the tag to steempub!! Resteemed from Texas!
Thanks for taking a look! Appreciate everyone so much so here.
Nice post @mk40, I love beer
Fantastic. I am really keen to try both the Menabria and the Gran Riserva having never seen them before!
Highly recommend the Gran Riserva. I'm looking into seeing how I can get it here in Chicago. There is a specialty wine shop I go to that actually has an awesome selection of beers, trying to convince the owner to ship a case in, he'll probably do it just to try himself!
Yeah, work on him and get him to supply al of your favourites!! ;O)
He is a huge beer lover, like us, so usually we can get him to bring in the good stuff! Might just have to run a couple of your posts by him as inspiration for what he should supply!
Man, that would be a thing and a half!! Hehe!
Thanks for the post, you should never let food interfere with beer! Sound like the Peroni would be my favourite !
It was my favorite for sure!
👍🏼🍻🍺