Birra del Borgo just a little bit zen!
17/04/12 20:52
Well we just couldn’t resist it any longer we had to hop on the plane and head down for a quick visit to the team at Birra del Borgo. Having met face to face over year ago upon our discovery meeting at the Slow Food Cheese event I was very much looking forward to catching up in person with Leo, Alfredo and all the team. Flying into Rome and heading off in the hire car ( let me tell you I thought I was used to Italian driving but in Rome they are MAD!) following signs for L’Aquila I soon left the big noisy city behind and headed up through the wild countryside towards the snow covered Apennines. Birra del Borgo is situated at the foot of these lovely mountains and I was soon to discover what an influence they had on Leonardo and his beers. Was a little hard to contain my excitement driving into the BdB headquarters and even harder once I got the tour from Leo and heard all the amazing things they are up to. Before we talk about the beers, lets talk about Leonardo. He is what I think of as the Zen man of beer. He’s a biochemist by background who followed his passion for craft beer which has now grown into a successful business. He’s not your average beer geek, he’s a meeting of minds and culture and is quite about the ying and yang, this applies even to his music with a music collection that goes from reggae to Rod Stewart! He’s got the strong science theory mixed with the artie creativity that enable him to make amazing beers, never just by chance! I was afraid that my “oh wow that’s amazing response” was getting a bit repetitive but I just couldn’t help it! They’re doing some amazing things like researching indigenous yeast off the island of Monte Cristo that hasn’t had any external contact to harvest this and use it in their beers. The Duchessa mountain behind ( hence the Duchessa beer and yes all you aussies it’s dukessa, not dutchess!) up in the hills is where they collect the gentian root for the Genziana beer and where they’ve discovered another indigenous yeast that they are currently researching for future use in a brew….oh so many amazing things. It’s not just the ingredients it’s the methods he uses, there’s an ancient clay pot that he and Sam Calagione from DogFish Head are currently making their antique beer in, there’s wine barrels, champagne stands did I forget to say wow it’s amazing! So he’s amazing, the ingredients and methods are amazing well what about the beers? I was lucky enough to share some of Leo’s special collection over lunch including the Equilibrista, made with 50% chianti and 50% beer and made in a champenois method, a big 10.9% but it pours a gorgeous rose colour and is so delicate and full of flavour in the mouth. And then the famous seidici gradi ( 16%) yep that’s right. 12 months in wine barrels this wine is more like a marsala than any beer I’ve ever tasted but did I mention, it’s amazing!!! After my day there I was so pumped and excited about the introduction of BdB to everyone in Oz. Landing mid April we’ve got some great events with Slow Beer, Beer Deluxe and The Local Taphouse that will give anyone and everyone the chance to do as i did and say “wow that’s amazing!”
