Tag Archives: from Italy

Theresianer Pale Ale

Theresianer Pale Ale
Theresianer Pale Ale

Another Italian beer, and one I’d had before, with an altogether brilliant dinner at La Casa here in town, a while back. It’s an appealing bright orangey colour, and definitely has appropriately citrussy twangs in the nose and the taste. It’s a bit boozy, at 6.3%, and has a slightly metallic zing to it which just comes across as refreshing, not irritating.

Afterthoughts, February 2011: Metal is such a weird flavour to pick up, but it is pretty distinctive. Usually, it’s bad, bad news — my usual citation is Beck’s, which (when had on tap in Melbourne occasionally) just tasted, to me, like biting down hard on a wet stainless steel butterknife. But here’s me singling it out as a “not in a bad way” thing. Which does weird me out, in hindsight.

This beer in particular probably did get a lot of Circumstantial Points, given the awesomeness of the dinner it originally accompanied. But beer is like that, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be.

Theresianer Pale Ale
Diary entry #82, Theresianer Pale Ale

Verbatim: Theresianer Pale Ale 24/3/09 @ home, Mt Vic. 330ml 6.5% Had another La Rossa the other day, so more Italian. I had this at La Casa with Kylee a while back, too. Nice amber, grunty, floral, slightly metallic, but refreshingly. Citrussy and fun. Good stuff.

Birra Moretti ‘La Rossa’, again

Birra Moretti 'La Rossa'
Birra Moretti 'La Rossa'

We were out for a surprise birthday dinner for Robyn’s 30th, where I got to play beer nerd / consultant, and couldn’t resist another La Rossa — especially since they had the cute little glass.

Afterthoughts, February 2011: This was a great little night out, and one of the unexpected benefits was meeting Jessie and Simon, two friends who have since hooked me up with several good beer recommendations and joined me for some enjoyable Rambling Time. Jessie’s from California, within “crawling distance” (as she puts it) of the Sierra Nevada brewery. So I’m going to run a bit of a Local Stuff Beer Tasting for her family (including her apparently-formidably Beer Nerdy father) when they’re in town later this month.

The lesson is this: you do meet good people when you let yourself geek out. Be not afraid to let your nerdlight shine, fellow nerds.

Birra Moretti ‘La Rossa’

Birra Moretti 'La Rossa'
Birra Moretti 'La Rossa'

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

Birra Moretti 'La Rossa'
Unnumbered diary entry, Birra Moretti 'La Rossa'

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.

Birra Moretti ‘La Rossa’

I’ve gone back to this one a few times, and it’s still an enduring favourite.

Birra Moretti 'La Rossa'
Diary entry #10, Birra Moretti 'La Rossa'

Verbatim: La Rossa. Birra Moretti. 330ml, $?, at home, 7.2% 7/3/04. Rich brown-red color. Smells dark, almost chocolately. Tingly on my tongue. Very tasty. Round, full and classy as all hell. And it’s Italian. That’s just odd.

Afterthoughts, October 2010: Not sure why I had the beer and brewery names backwards; maybe the effects of it being the strongest beer in the book so far took a hold unexpectedly early. I was certainly massively impressed by this at the time, and have been pretty chuffed with it the few times I’ve had it since.