When I visited the
Pig’s Ear Beer Festival in Hackney, East London in December 2011 I noticed a
large Italian flag above an area where some of the casks of beer being dispensed were. Upon closer inspection I
realised that the casks did indeed contain real ale that had been brewed in
Italy. I admit to the following emotions that I felt upon this discovery: Pleased that there is more choice of
craft beers available; Proud that the
Italians have decided to emulate British beer styles and, I’m ashamed to admit,
I was Patronising that little Italy
is having an attempt at making proper beer, bless ‘em, even though they have
little heritage for it and would probably be blindly stumbling their way around
this strange new process of measuring larger amounts of hops and malt into the
brew and having the yeast work at the other end of the fermenting vessel than
they are used to. Yes, I felt like a father watching their 8 year old son in
the school play: I knew it would not be very good but so glad they were trying
their best. I was wrong. It turns out the boy has the talent of [insert
favourite actor’s name here]
playing [insert Shakespeare leading character’s name here]! I am still very pleased that the
Italians have joined the craft revolution but they have taken inspiration from
the USA, in the same way as England has done, by producing big flavoured IPAs
and robust stouts and not the English style brown beers, I’m so glad to say.
Obviously, cask beer travelling a thousand miles – yes even a proper IPA – is
not the best way to prepare a beer but the ones I tried were excellent and
certainly hinted at what they were attempting to achieve, even if they were a
little under-conditioned, but fair play to Pig’s
Ear for bringing them there and looking after them as well as they could
after their long journey over land, sea and more land - but more on ‘travelling beer’ in another blog.
Italy is not the
first of the Med countries to start brewing beer other than the yellow, fizzy
stuff. Greece has had a craft brewery for over a decade, the appropriately
named Craft Brewery in Athens. I’ve been. Their beers are excellent. I intend
on doing a beer blog on Greece sometime as there a few small, craft breweries
tucked away on their islands as well. Spain too has had some successes, notably
in Barcelona thanks in no small way to the efforts of one man. There may be
others but I’ve not discovered them. Yet.If you are visiting Rome –and who wouldn’t – you will find a very walkable city, whatever that means, but the best bars for great beer are spread out a fair bit so you may wish to use the public transport which is plentiful and cheap – only €1 flat fare on any bus, tram or metro or a day travelcard is less than €5 – just don’t forget to validate your ticket or you can be fined. The locals don’t bother but it’s probably best if you do.
The first place to visit
is the 'Ma Che Siete Venuti A Fa' football pub, as it calls itself, which roughly translated means ‘What did
you do’ or something equally profound, which has a dozen taps of craft beers from mostly Italy but also some
fine brews from other European countries. At €4 per half and €6 per pint for all the
beers, irrelevant of ABV, it is comparable in price to many of the fashionable
bars in Rome that only sell the ubiquitous Italian fizz and certainly no more
than any European cities that are getting the craft beer bar bug - including
London. They show football on the TV too.I won’t always say what beers I drank as I am recommending places to drink great beer rather than telling you what I think you should drink but, in cases where I do comment on the brews in order to add some perspective, I rate beers out of a (100) to give you an idea of what I think. I’m sure your tastes will differ from mine but I am only concerned here with informing you of what styles and quality you can expect. This is not a travelogue. I will not state every bar I visited and tell you about every beer I drank. Even I am not interested in that so I doubt you will be either.
Toccalmatto Brewery
from Videnza, Italy do a fantastic black IPA called 'B Space Invader' 6.3% (97).
So good. Like Buxton’s Black Rocks. Smooth, roast malt flavour with big hop
hit. It was after my first taste of this that I realised I had woefully
underestimated Italy’s new breweries. I know it was the first beer I had drunk
since the extremely nasty Nastro Azzuro chemical lager (that’s not it’s
advertised name but it should be) the day before, or the thin, grainy Peroni
bottled lager I had the day before that, but B Space Invader had just nudged
itself into my current Top 10 beers in the world. Everything a black IPA should
be. Superb. I wanted more but there was more that needed investigation.
I next tried the Brewfist
Brewery Spaceman IPA 7% which is nice and rounded but with a lower IBU than I
expected (90) but still very good, hazy US style craft beer. Maybe I should
have also tried the Elav Techno DIPA 9.2% as they are all the same price. Maybe
not at lunchtime! The place was very quite when I drank there on a Sunday
lunchtime but packed on Sunday night, as were all the bars and restaurants in
the area – and the trams!
This small, friendly
specialist place is the must visit bar if in Rome. It's a tiny little charming
bar in the quaint area of Trastevere which is picture postcard rustic pretty
with a maze of narrow cobbled streets full of fashionable but enticing
restaurants. An all round great experience.
The restaurant
opposite called 'Bir & Fud'
(which roughly translated means …. well, you try and work it out) also does an
excellent range of Italian-only craft beers (from some of the 300 breweries in
Italy) at €5 per 330ml. It is not very pubby although it is welcoming enough
and plenty of people were just drinking ‘Bir’ there in the evening whereas the
place was more ‘Fud’ at lunchtime, as is the way in Rome.
The historical centre
of the city, Centro Storico, has plenty of wonderful restaurants but there
isn’t the pub culture of what may be called central Europe (a line from Ireland
in the West to say Czech Republic in the East) and hanging out all night in a
bar is considered a bit rebellious or strange even but the world is getting
smaller (not according to scientists, I know) and if Europe is homogenising like
everywhere else then at least there may be some benefits, such as being able to
get great beer in more places. I never considered that this would happen with
corporate globalisation but it seems to be as niche products and markets become
more viable in more places despite brand-name ubiquity. Hooray for global
corporations!
Not far from the transport
hub of Largo Argentina is a tucked away pub restaurant that serves plenty of
Italian craft beers and also Brewdog beer on draft. It had dozens of beers on
tap and handpump including St Austell Tribute, of all beers! It is called Baladin and has that American brew-pub
feel to it. Everybody is eating but everybody is also drinking a beer from the
huge range of beers from all over Europe. The entrance is through an
unobtrusive door in Via del Specci (which means ‘Way of Mirrors’) in the area
of Zona Campo dei Fiori (which means Zone of Field of Flowers! Excuse the
Italian lesson but these are some crazy names). I never even photographed the
entrance because it doesn’t look like it’s going to lead into a huge
rectangular room packed with oblong tables and a long bar with stools all
along. But it does. It was noisy but the good kind of noisy produced by
high-spirited banter rather than drunkenness or obnoxiousness (I think you know
those other sort of places I’m talking about!)
The final
bar/restaurant of note is a bit out of town and is called Oasi Della Birra
(again, a degree in Italian is not
needed to translate). This is indeed an oasis on the square in the suburb of
Testaccio not far from a Protestant Cemetery. I doubt many tourists will find
their way out here but it looks like a great place to while away a few hours
over some fine food and drink from an amazing array. I didn’t eat here as I was
on my own at the time but it’s a special place to bring a friend or several. It is just off the bus routes from the city (to
Testaccio) and close to Pyramid
station on Metro B and not that far
from Roma-Ostia suburban railway
station if you do fancy somewhere a bit special. You could even walk there in
about half hour from Centro Storico if the weather is nice, and it will be, by
following the River Tiber/Tevere from Tiber Island (Isola Tiberina) round to
Testaccio Bridge then it’s a few minutes walk.
I didn't get out to Blind Pig, unfortunately, but that's
for another time. I suspect that from these few but impressive beginnings Rome
will blossom into a great city for drinking great beer – I would add that Rome
wasn’t built in a day but I think you get the idea anyway. The more people that
use them, the more there will be.
So, when in Rome, do
as the Romans do or, at least, are beginning to do: drink craft beer. Now do I
sign off this blog by saying ‘ciao’
or is that too cheesy? Think I’ll leave it.Where to get Great Beer in ROME:
Bars/Restaurants:Bir & Fud, Pizzeria Restaurant, Via di Benedetta 23, Trastevere http://birefud.blogspot.co.uk/
Blind Pig, Craft Brewery in Rome, Via Gino Capponi, 45 http://www.blindpig.it/ (South east of Rome centre near Furio Camillo stop on Metro A or Roma-Tuscolana on the suburban train network. I did not get to this great sounding restaurant/bar a bit out of the centre but hope to if I get back to Rome. Note that it does not open at lunchtimes.)
Bottle Shops:
Bir & Fud, Bottega Bottle Shop, Via Luca Valerio, 41, Marconi http://birefud.blogspot.co.uk/ (A great bottle shop tucked away south of the centre and west of the river IF you happen to be in the area.)
Birrae
Domus, Via Cavour 88 (Excellent bottled beer shop near Cavour stop on Metro A
that has 300 different worldwide bottles and specialises in home brewing
equipment as well. Bravo!)
Oasi Della BirraPiazza, Piazza Testaccio, 38, Testaccio http://www.oasidellabirra.com/
(Website under construction when I looked. This is indeed an oasis on the
square in the suburb of Testaccio not far from a Protestant Cemetery)
Useful links for Italian craft beer:
Italian
Beer Chronicles blog
(all things craft) http://www.cronachedibirra.it/ Rome Beer Festival (4th to 6th May 2012) http://www.degustatoribirra.it/index.php/italia-beer-festival/ibf-roma/
