This was one of the original beers in the famous chilly bin that George gave me. I remember being hugely impressed, and so leapt at a recent chance for another.

It’s a gorgeously-coloured strong Italian(!) doppelbock. It’s a sweet, caramelly, stupidly drinkable thing for 7.2%, with a nice little hoppy zing on the back end. I’ve just discovered it’s actually brewed by Heineken (and was when I first had it), so I feel morally peculiar, but I’m still a big fan.

Oh, and yes. That is indeed a chippie sandwich in the background. I am a Master Mongrelistic Beer & Food Matcher

Verbatim: Having another go at La Rossa. (20/1/09) It’s a strong Italian doppelbock. Sweet and caramelly, absurdly drinkable for 7.2%. Nice late hoppy zing to it, too. Even better than I remembered.

Afterthoughts, November 2010: My numbering system for what counted as a ‘proper’ Diary entry, and what was just an unnumbered note is pretty seriously idiosyncratic. Sufficiently so that I have no idea, now, what it was then. I was probably thinking that since this was a re-sampling of something already-noted, it didn’t need a full entry again. But in fairly short order, I’ll go on to break that ‘rule’ — if that was indeed the ‘rule’ I had in mind. It’s not that I’m fickle; I just have a terrible memory, sometimes.