Lightning strikes Italy

Don't blame the Italians if you can't find their better beers in the U.K. The beers from Birreria Baladin, for starters, are exported; I've found them in the U.S.A. You'll forget all about crap lager like Peroni after sampling the likes of Super Baladin or Nora.

As far as the big Italian brewers go, Moretti's La Rossa isn't a bad drop, either.

Er, sorry, no real ale content here. Move along.

well, Baladin's beers are actually bottle conditioned and top fermented, so you are almost On Topic (apart from the "uk" bit) ;-)

BTW, last week in Milan we had the first Italian Festival of craft microbrewed beer, organized by Unionbirrai. It was "embedded" in a big food fair; there were six micros plus a few guest beers for a total of about 25 beers on tap (none actually cask conditioned, but all unfiltered and unpasteurized), plus the bottles; small numbers compared to any local CAMRA festival but still a good start: it was the first time you could sample so many italian beers by micros in a single place. Besides there were half a dozen guided tastings (incl matching beer and chocolate, beer & fish, and beer& cigars).

A further away there was also a Real Ale stand. As you may know, there is an organization (Real Ale Society) that started (mid 2002) promoting and selling UK real ale in Italy. They have selected 6 real ales (Gales's HSB, Summer Lightning, Orkney's Red Mc Gregor, Friederics Premium, Black Sheep Special and St Peter's Strong) that are available in some 40 pubs in Italy, one at a time (each beer for two months). Now it should not be S.L. turn, so maybe it has been more succesful than the other ones and is imported year round and more widely (don't know).

These beers have been promoted during all the main food and beer fairs in Italy, where all 6 beers have been available togheter, so I could sample them more than once. Last week I was busy helping at our stand - and checking the quality of all our beers ;-) - so when I jumped to the Real Ale stand I just greeted the people but sampled nothing. Anyway, usually the best appreciated by me and my friends have been Summer Lightning and Red Mc Gregor.

ciao max