Straw blond with thin head. Light, clean tasting. A bit citrusy and soapy. Perhaps a bit plain.

Bottle at Ristorante Cotto, Via Torino, Rome. Pours a cloudy mid brown with a small off white head. Aroma of caramel, fruit, bread, light hop, malt and yeast. Moderate sweetness, light bitterness. Medium/full bodied, slick texture, soft carbonation. Pretty decent.

Bottle from Bierenplezier in Almere. I first thought this was from Ducato, seeing the shape of the bottle, but it turns out to be a totally different Italian craft brewery I never heard of. Irregular, fairly loose and bubbly, egg-white head retaining as a moussy rim on the edges and in thin veils of tiny bubbles in the middle, over a hazy peach blonde beer with ochre hue. Aroma of overripe gooseberry, banana, honey, sorrel, mandarin, buttermilk, sourdough, yellow kiwi, limoncello, ripe pear, white bread dough, sweet dessert wine, gin, bubblegum, damp straw, powder sugar, apricot, pineapple but also some vague melting plastic. Fruity, sweetish onset, residual white candi sugar syrup, impressions of strong banana isoamylacetate, strong pear, hints of gooseberry, melon and orange, with sweetness dominating the sourishness, spritzy carbo but fit for the style. Supple, full mouthfeel, bready and honeyish malt sweet body while esters continue and spicy phenols come in retronasally. Malt sweetness persists in the finish but meets a ’friendly’ hop bitterness there, earthy, floral and leafy, with peppery notes, drying a little bit; still the white candi sugar wins in the end, even a tad cloying, countered more by a glow of warming, gin-like alcohol than by hop bitterness; this alcohol effect even becomes a little bit wry and fatiguing in the end. Clove-like phenolic notes join the floral hops and fruity esters retronasally. Clearly the intention here was to imitate ’edelbier’ - that is to say, the near-imaginary substyle of strong Belgian blonde built around the unsurpassable Duvel but in practice nearly indistinguishable from tripel. Strong in isoamylacetate (banana ester), pear-like, spritzy, relatively lightly malty, fruity and alcoholic but still highly drinkable, I’d say their attempt at making a ’Duveloid’ came out quite successfully, but it does not beat the real thing, like most of the Belgian attempts from competing breweries. Too sweet and banana-like for my personal taste, but that being said: if the aim was to brew a strong blonde in the most Belgian way possible, mission accomplished, I would never have associated this with Italian craft.

Bottle sample at a tasting at Max’s place. Thanks Alevtina. Hazy orange.Aroma of caramel, malt, a bit of cardboard, fruitiness. Sweet flavor with caramel, a bit of honey, fruitiness, and a bitterish finish. Medium-bodied. OK.

Bottle sample at a tasting at Max’s place. Thanks Alevtina. Hazy orange. Aroma of citrus peels, candy, coriander. Sweet flavor with honey, citrus peels, coriander, bitterish finish. Light to medium-bodied.

Bottle sample at a tasting at Max’s place. Thanks Alevtina. Cloudy yellow with tiny floaties and white head. Aroma of citrus peels, grains, spiciness, wheat. Sweetish flavor, a bit grainy, spicy, slightly candy-ish, with citrus peels. Quite light-bodied.

Hazy medium amber colour, small frothy white head, mostly diminishing, light lacing. Aroma pale malts, fruity (peach, pear, orange), light honey, candy sugar. Taste medium sweet and slightly bitter, fruity, white grapes, alcohol, with average to long duration, sweetbitter finish, light dusty notes. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation, fresh and fruity lady but not completely convincing.

Bottiglia @ Simei 2015, Milano. L’intensità olfattiva è elegante, la persistenza è discreta. La consistenza del liquido è limpida e il colore è giallo dorato carico. Il corpo è pieno e l’amaro è medio. L’intensità gustativa è elevata e la persistenza gustativa è sufficiente. Il gusto è piacevole. Le sensazioni boccali finali sono luppolate e di facile beva. Il finale è secco e pulito. L’aroma richiama alla memoria pane, miele, frutta a polpa gialla, agrumi e tannico. --- Beer merged from original tick of Sasso Rosso on 11 Feb 2025 at 04:56 - Score: Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7. Original review text: Bottiglia. Il naso riconosce indizi di orzo tostato. La finezza olfattiva è normale e l'esistenza olfattiva è sufficiente. Il manto birroso superiore resiste abbastanza. La grandezza delle bollicine è medio-fine. Il liquido appare opalescente. Il colore è ambrato. Il corpo è pieno. L'amaro è medio. La forza gustativa è normale e permane in maniera sufficiente. Il gusto è piacevole. Le sensazioni boccali finali risultano di pronta beva. Il retrogusto è di media intensità. Al palato prevalgono impressioni di caramello, miele, pane tostato, erbaceo, agrumi e farro.