Welcoming sign at Pub 27 in Pompeii
Zapap Sick Boy Columbus IPA, Castello di Serravalle, Italy
Date: October 3 , 2018
The Story— We end our stay in Bologna with this post, and today we leave Il Punto with considerable reluctance to find other great places to spend an evening. Zapap is a brewery a few miles outside of Bologna, but they have an outlet in the midst of one of the best streets for beer in Italy.
A couple of blocks west of the iconic Mercato delle Erbe, the narrow Via del Pratello runs west from Piazza Malpighi. For one of Europe’s best pub crawls, drink your way down it almost to the end, but turn right on Via S. Rocco chug past Brew Dog and end your crawl at Il Punto. Actually, don’t even think of trying this in one night — and it has to be a night because most of the best places don’t open until very late in the afternoon and sometimes only in the evening.
We were only in Bologna for 4 days, so we couldn’t come close to having full drinking experiences in more than a handful of the many many watering holes along the way. Zapap was compelling — a brewery tasting room experience in a field of multi-taps, it was a trip to the country in downtown Bologna. In Italy the term “Pub” can refer to a drinking establishment that is relatively refined (Il Punto) or downright funky (Pub 27 in Pompeii). There is no specific term for “dive bar.” If there were Zapap would certainly fit it. it’s clean enough, if quite funky, and the staff is wonderfully friendly. You can run though an impressive selection of the home brewery’s offerings.
The Beer— The Sick Boy Columbus IPA is a fine showcase for the Columbus hop, grapefruit and orange flavors ride on a soft and chalky, softly sweet, malt. Close to a NEIPA but with better balance and more interesting depth than most of the NEIPAs we’ve tried. I loved the hint of black pepper that emerges as it drinks. It’s a well made beer similar to what you could find in the states — if you were lucky. it’s not easy to make a beer this interesting without it being in your face. Extreme beer fans won’t flock to it, but save for the 6.8% ABV, I could spend the whole night with it.
Value — Very good. One middle man less leaves more of your euros in your pocket.
All this week we feature HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE 2018– Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.” The best we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.) We’ll shift back to great American beer finds next week.
About these posts: We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year. The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings. Values: “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.
Leave a Reply