RETURN TO TRÖEGS ALWAYS SCRATCHES AN ITCH

Scratch Series #280 Single Hop Pale Ale. Tröegs, Hershey, Pa.   Abv 5.8   IBUs  66

We’ve tasted more than a thousand beers in the last year, so it would seem unlikely that we’d keep returning, at least in this blog.  But whenever we’re in the Harrisburg area we find an excuse to detour through Hershey on the way back and lose another Sunday afternoon to the Troegs brothers.  It would seem a waste not to share the triumphs here.

The scratch series is every brewer’s dream—the chance to brew anything you can think up using some of the best equipment and collaborating with a team of exceptional brewing professionals.  It’s not like they never miss, but the odds of running into a success are so much higher than pulling a bottle of Whatsitbrau off the shelf that we never miss the chance to see what they’re up to.

This beer is unique in our 29,000 beer data base because it features one of the latest of a seeming explosion of new hops.   This one’s new enough not to have a name yet:  HBC342.   We don’t know where or how Tröegs got it, but increasingly hop producers are slipping shipments of new hops to brewers they trust to see what they can do for them

 

 

The result here isn’t the smoothest beer we’ve had, but come on—that’s not even a goal most of the time anymore

Tasting notes:  Tartness and bitterness overlap, twist and turn, as citrus and citrus peel and muddy Tangerine frolic on a dry chalky yeast carpet.  Lasting bitter is more a peel sensation than a hop.  Not smooth and moreish but decidedly interesting.

Food Pairings:  Big fruity hops overpower a mild cheddar but an aged hard sharp cheese is a great match with the fruit supporting the biting sharpness and each get a chance to shine.

Flavor – citrus is evident, watermelon is harder to find.

Still, if someone is going to the bother of developing a new hop, someone needs to use it and this is a pretty good use of challenging hop.  Beer Review # 0111    20170529

NEXT WE’LL FEATURE A “BI-COASTAL” ZWICKEL LAGER FROM GREEN FLASH

 

 

 

 

GO TO ITALY FOR BEER? YOU BETCHA!

PBC  (Piccolo Birrificio Clandestino) Villa Serona, Livorno, Italy   Abv 6 

The Beer House Club is our favorite beer bar in Florence.   There are many great beer bars in Florence, but we like the low key atmosphere, hugely knowledgeable owner-manager, and friendly international clientele.  Few of their beers were home runs, but there were no strikeouts and a good many doubles off the wall.  Next time there we’ll tuck into their extensive bottle selection but the decabar (ten taps) kept us in drafts on our last visit.

PBC  is Piccolo Birrificio Clandestino, a brew pub in Livorno, Italy.  One of the reasons Italian craft beer has soared in the last few years is that brew pubs have little difficulty distributing their excess capacity to the plethora of beer specialty bars that flower in every city of size in Italy today.   Beer House Club somehow sorts out the disasters from the winners and lets you travel the peninsula without leaving your seat.

Tasting notes:  Copper malt is almost enough to hold the big hop dose.  Full body may suggest some residual sugar, but the end is bitter and still fruity.  You would expect to find a strong pale ale like this in an American brew pub, but it would have been a shocker even a few years ago in Italy.  Ben fatto, birrerie Italiane

Food Pairings:  You have to go to Italy to drink this beer, so forget American food.  It goes wonderfully with a good simple pizza, but really, why?  If you’re lucky enough to find it at a restaurant that embraces local cuisine, try a squid ink pasta or best yet – Steak Florentine.   Beer Review # 0110    20170528

ON MONDAY WE’LL FEATURE A RETURN TO TRÖGS TO SCRATCH OUR HOPPY ITCH

COLUMBUS COULN’T FIND INDIA, BUT IPAs HAVE FOUND ITALY

Fire Witch India Pale Ale, The Wall, Varese, Italy, Abv  6.5

Florence’s Beer Club House would be a destination beer bar even in Portland or San Francisco; in Florence it has a niche of its own.  Although there are the requisite double digit taps and a huge range of hard-to-find bottles, it’s the care in the selection that sets it apart.   The owner/barkeep is a beer enthusiast who is good for engaging conversations about the Italian beer scene – in exceptionally good English.

The bar is located near the river, no more than a ten minute walk from the Uffizi and even less from Santa Croce.  Unlike most of the good drinking places in Florence, it opens at noon, so when your feet wear out, it will be ready for you.

Today’s beer probably won’t be there when you get there, but you’ll surely find something like it.  IPAs have taken off throughout Europe.  They’ve been popular in Scandinavia almost as long as they have in the US, but they have exploded in Iberia and Italy in the last few years.  The Wall is typical of the craft revolution.  Located in Venegono Inferiore not far from one of the pioneering Italian craft breweries in Cumo, it’s only a few years old, but like so many new American craft breweries, their learning curve has been pretty quick.

Tasting notes:  Lots of hops fill cauldrons of metal flavors, but by the end they add fruit as well as some grass and herbs.  Caramel malt seems to add to the metallic profile.  As it drinks, hops get sticky and pushe it close to a double IPA.

Food Pairings:  Big flavors.  Italian pizza or a medium rare Steak Florentine. Beer Review # 0109   20170513

NEXT WE’LL FEATURE ANOTHER BEER FROM THE BEER HOUSE CLUB

NUTS TO THIS BREWERY:  ALMOND’22 A PIONEER IN ITALY’S EXPLODING CRAFT BEER SCENE

Irie, Almond’22, Pescara Italy,  Spiced Golden Ale 5% Abv 

                Almond’22 beers immigrate to America with some frequency.   They tend to be adventurous and expensive. We’ve had pink peppercorn and smoked ales from them in past years.   On its home field, however, the brewery offers more standard offerings and this spiced golden ale – really a Belgian-style wit—is one of them.  Beers like this are a good reason to leave the oh-so-tempting American craft brew scene and sample some of what the rest of the world is up to.

The brewery got its name from the building it occupies.  In 1922 ranks of low wage women workers toiled to peel the rich almond harvest from the surrounding area. 

The brewery’s  founders chose the name as a tip of the hat to them. While many of Italy’s cutting edge breweries are in the north, Almond’22 is located near the coast in Pescara in Abruzzo, a province stretches from the Adriatic to the Apennines in southern Italy.

Tasting notes:  The brewery calls its Irie a “chiara”, which literally means “clear.”    This most certainly not, and the term can actually refer to any light colored brew.   It’s basically a wit beer with lots of flowery and fruity tastes.  Plenty of yeast remains in the beer, which is fortunate, since this strain of yeast is a perfect match for the hop and malt flavors.   Oranges, peaches and roses all take turns in this chalky, tasty and interesting wit-like beer.  The brewer says there are flavors of rhubarb “without the characteristic sourness.”  Maybe it has; I surely wouldn’t know.

It is a good drinkable wit style beer that we tasted for an affordable $4 for a small glass at Florence’s Beer House Club.  Not exactly German Bier Garten cheap, but a good deal easier on the Visa than the large bottles that make it to America.

Food Pairings:  The brewery recommends pairing with fried fish, fried battered vegetables, Parma ham and melon, wiener schnitzel or tempura.  Our first wit beer was paired with a peanuts in a silver dish only a few miles from the Hoegaarden brewery back when it was the Hoegaarden  brewery.  We’ve dreamed of repeating it ever since. Beer Review # 0108    20170506

NEXT WE’LL STAY AT THE BEER CLUB HOUSE FOR ANOTHER RARE ITALIAN BEER, THE WALL’S FIRE WITCH