Welcoming sign at Pub 27 in Pompeii
Elav Punks Do It Bitter, Comun Nuovo, Italy at Il Santo Bevitore, Venice
Date: October 5 , 2018
The Story— We’ll stay in Venice for our last beer of this string of European entries (tomorrow we head back to the states.) Il Santo Bevitore means “the Holy Drinker” and names one of our favorite pubs in Bologna as well as the absolute best beer bar in Venice. As far as we know, only the name connects them.
In reviewing our notes for these posts we discovered we had tasted scores of good beers in Venice, but only eight that really rose above the “good” in craft beer these days. We found fully five of those in three visits over two years at Il Santo Bevetore. It’s a cute, waterside (which isn’t that rare in Venice) beer specialty pub. The number of taps isn’t that unusual these days, although the dozen and a half made them unique a few years ago. The selection and quality of the beers, however, puts this bar into an elite group of superior Italian beer bars. They usually have a featured brewery — we’d call it a tap takeover– and those beers are brewery fresh and carefully tended.
The brewery of the moment on our trip this summer was Elav, a small brewery in Comun Nuovo, a village not far from Bergamo, which is northwest of Milan. The brewery started with a tiny system less than 10 years ago – bigger than Sam Calagione’s soup pots at the original Dogfish Head, but not by much. A few years ago they leaped to a commercial sized brewery — more or less 20 barrels — that allows them to distribute as far as Venice. A pale ale, X 114, was as good; we picked this because it seems to be the beer the brewery sees as its flagship.
The brewery says “The trademark of the Punks Do It Bitter is the consistent Dry Hopping, with Mosaic and Cascade, which gives it the characteristic citrus fruit evident in every phase of the tasting.” Dry hopping, which involves adding hops while the beer conditions, was a signature feature of our Tuppers’ Hop Pocket Ale in the 1990s. One of the reasons we produced it was to show the world how important it can be to a full hop flavor. Today, dry hopping is almost standard in hoppy craft beers. Still the Mosaic and Cascade dry hopping (we won’t add Michael Jackson’s sotto voce comment about the term) with some Palisade and Columbus blend well and distinctively in this exceptionally good session beer,
The Beer–Some pale caramel and an unusually full body for 4.3 with lots of 20th and 21st century US hops. Lingering bitter is unusual and nice. The brewery calls this a British Bitter but, at least traditionally, you’d be sent to the Tower of London (the prison, not the gems exhibition) for using Mosaic and Palisade. Whatever the “style,” it’s a nice beer.
Value — Good. $8.75 for a pint, but you’re drinking craft in Italy, which is taxed higher than mass market beers there. And a much lower tip than you’d pay in the states delights your server.
All this week have featured 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.) Tomorrow we return to the US to highlight some great beers we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.
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