A mate, let’s call him Duane, swung past the other day with a couple of most unexpected surprising beers I’ve had in a while, a great little drop from Italy called Menabrea 1846.
I say unexpected as the only Italian beers that I, like many others I guess, have ever tried are Peroni Nastro Azzuro and Birra Moretti. But while those two were good, the Moretti in fact very good, I didn’t expect to find another I liked. I mean really, it’s Italy, beers?? But like many Italian beers, Menabrea owes its better qualities to the fact that it was perfected in northern Italy and was probably mostly influenced by the brewers in what is now Germany and Austria.
So now I’ve come around to thinking that Isabella Rossellini is not the only thing that I’m fond off that’s come out of Italy in the last 30 years, and, wonder why I haven’t found this before.
The label proudly advertises the beer as a Gold Medal Winner at 3 world beer championships, the trouble is though, it doesn’t say when, which can be misleading sometimes. I mean did they win back in 1952?
A little net research later and I’d learnt that the Menabrea 1846 has been awarded the Best Pale Lager Gold Medal at the World Beer Championships in Chicago three times, in 1997, 1998, and 2000, where it beat out Heineken, Grolsh and Kirin.
Poured into the glass it was light in colour, almost as pale as a Scotsman in winter. It has a typical European Pilsener-ish taste and aroma, crisp and a light hoppy style. With a clean mouth feel and a slight bitter aftertaste. It had good bubbles that kept right till the end; it doesn’t finish off tasting like a flat beer. With the second mouthful I noticed the bitterness was a little stronger than I thought, nice, I liked it.
I quickly came to the conclusion that this is a great Italian beer, and found that after a couple I was saying “Ciao Bella” to the girls walking past! After I had the rest of the six pack I was kicking a soccer ball around with Duane, tripping over my own feet, blaming the nearest guy in a Socceroos shirt and trying to claim a penalty…all very Italian……..not that I’m still bitter or anything.
Often with European Pilseners you can find that the taste declines slightly as the beer warms. I found the 330ml Menabrea to be no exception. But by my reckoning all that means is that you’ll need to drink your six-pack of the 5.1% alcohol stubbies quickly to fully appreciate the beer.
Available at all major bottleshops.
