It’s been a busy few weeks, with stag dos, working at weekends and a cow-orker off looking after his newborn son leaving me to take the photos at work (having proper gear makes taking product shots much easier. In related news – congrats to Petras and Jurgita!), so the blog has lain fallow. However, behind the scenes I have been doing Things, and stuff. To kick start my posting again here’s another Italian beer from my GBBF 2011 stash, the un-Italianly named Grunge IPA from Birrificio Indipendente Elav.
Grungy background due to not tidying my flat in a while
From my usual Google Translated research through the website Birrificio Indipendente Elav kicked off around the turn of the millenium when the founder, whose name I can’t find, set up a beer company in Treviglio – La Pinta. He started out with a range of beers from around the world and soon turned to a local microbrewer to produce some beers for him. As demand grew he moved production to Lauterbacher in Germany and now has bottles going all over the world, as well as being served in The Clocktower in Treviglio, which seems to be his bar, as well as a number of other local establishments. (If anyone reading this knows more or sees mistakes please let me know – my reading of Italian is even worse than Google’s translation, so this may well be conjecture).
Anyways, the beer. It’s a 6.3% Red Ale with a load of American hops and lots of malt – you can taste both of those things in the beer. On the nose it’s a bit swimming ‘pool changing room’ – sweaty with a touch of chlorine – although it does have a nice bit of fruit (banana and pineapple) as soon as you pour it, quickly swamped by the other aromas. To taste the swimming pool comes back with a kick of green leafy hops and cleaning products up front. There’s a little bit of body, with some sour pineapple and malt, and then a long finish of green bitterness and sweet malt. All in all I’m undecided, as while I don’t like the chlorinated beginning, the rest is quite nice, if unbalanced. I suspect it’s another I’ve left in the bottle too long, although the best before date is May 2012, and it’s lost some of its freshness over the last 6 months. Luckily it’s a 75cl bottle (I think – the label says 33cl, which is definitely not true) which has given me some time to check that I’m undecided…
Grunge IPA
Italian Red Ale, 6.3%. No idea on the cost – it was late and I had been drinking all day…