heading to italy . what should i drink.

[fluketamer]

so i know limoncello and aperol spritz is the drink of choice but what about beer. i will be in sorrento for a week. is there decent beer to drink. is morettis there budweiser ( full of adjunct) or is it decent. thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Don't know about Southern Italy, but in the North I noriced when I visited that they have a bit more of a beer culture and a few pretty good micro-breweries, they probably distribute nation wide.
Birrifico del Ducato is a brewery I remember made some good beer, especially stouts and the like.

 

[day_trippr]

Peroni is pretty much everywhere. I always switch to wine when in Italy...

Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

is morettis there budweiser ( full of adjunct) or is it decent.

Moretti makes a lot of different styles, many of which you won't find in the US and several of which are post-Heineken takeover and seem kind of gimmicky based on what you read on the internet. The light lager (Ricetta Originale) is a pretty generic European light lager. They do list maize as an ingredient, but some of my homebrews use flaked maize so I can't get too snobbish about that. I very much doubt that I could tell the difference between it and a Peroni (or a Stella for that matter) in a blind taste test. But I could definitely pick any of those out from BMC (that's not a diss either; I quite like Miller High Life). I personally think that La Rossa is OK, but YMMV.

Anyway, skip the spritz and drink the wine.

 

[fluketamer]

thanks.
i have heard the same. i am not a big wine drinker but i might as well start now.

 

[Broken Crow]

I love the San Pellegrino sodas, but I don't know Italian beers. If you have a real hot day and no decent beer available I can highly recommend a tall glass, 1-2 ice-cubes, shot of vodka and a can of Limonata.
If you have the luggage space though: See what the local prices are on AEB kegs...IMHO; the finest cornys of all time, but pricey over here.

 

[mac_1103]

If you have the luggage space though: See what the local prices are on AEB kegs...

You can stuff them with socks and underwear.

 

[fluketamer]

You can stuff them with socks and underwear.

genius

 

[Broken Crow]

Awesome! I hadn't thought of that approach....make it believable that the keg is merely a piece of luggage meant to protect a bubble-wrapped bottle of wine that you do want to declare.... I used to have a PO box in Detroit and I once filled out the carnet to bring my Bolex Rex V across to shoot some footage.... I attached the expensive MST motor that I bought through the US mail to it while there and came home with 'nothing to declare'. The keg is merely "protective luggage".

 

[Vicjuve79]

Hi, I can recommend two craft breweries.
One is https://www.birrificiosorrento.com/chi-siamo/ and is right on the Sorrento Peninsula, the other is https://www.bonavena.it/ which is in Naples, but you might be able to find something in some places there in Sorrento. Unfortunately I've been missing from those areas for several years, back in the day I used to frequent “La Bottega della Birra,” which had a decent selection of craft beers. Moretti is a classic industrial beer full of corn.

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

From the northwest between Genoa and Monaco is

https://www.instagram.com/birrabaladin?igsh=aWR5c2Roc2E4b2t1

They make some crazy barley wines

I've also like

https://www.instagram.com/cadelbrado?igsh=cTExdTZ5a3IxY2p6

 

[sdbbp]

Not beer, but try a Chinotto soft drink, and any local amari.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

so i know limoncello and aperol spritz is the drink of choice

Well not really.

Italy is one of the countries that has perhaps embraced the craft beer thing most enthusiastically - considering it's historically a wine country it's remarkable that on a per capita basis it now has ~75% of the breweries of the US or UK. So there's a lot of breweries, although bear in mind that the south is a lot poorer than the north so may not have the economy to support the more "adventurous" brewers.

So there's a lot of pretty generic Citra etc pale ales, but there are two areas where there's an Italian contribution to world beer are in dry-hopped lagers inspired by Tipopils, and in interactions with their wine culture. I imagine that you may have to go to Naples to find Tipopils itself, which is one of the landmark beers of world beer, but there may be local knockoffs. And they have all sorts of grape/wine-beer hybrids and beer aged in interesting barrels which all tend to be very small and local but are usually interesting to try - I guess just look on Untappd or Ratebeer to see what's going on locally.

And yes they have their macro lagers, it's kinda fun to try the other beers in the ranges of eg Peroni beyond Nastro Azurro but I'm not sure I've ever had one that sticks in the memory.

 

[fluketamer]

so recap

beer very meh. (the exception was the range of peronis like stated above. )

morettis was all mostly adjuncty


proseco excellent

the wine was outstanding

it reminded me a lot of the house wines in small brooklyn italian restaurants in the 70's

rediculously good.

it seemed like the cheaper looking the container the better the wine.

in one small place on a side street in sorrento, the house wine was served from what i swear was a reused chlorox bleach bottle.

it was by far the finest chianti i have ever had.

there house limoncello that the grandma in the back made and aged for 100 days ( and that they tried to give the kids) was almost as good.

speaking of limoncello.
they said you can drink limoncello spritzers all day and not get drunk. yeah maybe if your ancestors were conquered by the moors. otherwise. i was asleep by 1 pm.

oh yeah and aperol tastes like cr@p no matter how much seltzer you add to it.

 

[mongonius]

so i know limoncello and aperol spritz is the drink of choice but what about beer. i will be in sorrento for a week. is there decent beer to drink. is morettis there budweiser ( full of adjunct) or is it decent. thanks for any suggestions.

Brunello di montalcino. Beer in Italy is underwhelming. At least it was when I lived in Rome.

 

[day_trippr]

Ah, yes, the Brunello di Montalcino that one of the purveyors in the city fell all over himself offering a sample to The Spousal Unit while giving me a "And you can step outside" look

My wife said it was wonderful...

 

[khannon]

Not sure where in Italy, but one of my favorites (if you like sour reds..) is Panil Barrique(SP?) Only have had it imported in 750ml bottles, but it was always amazing..

 

[passedpawn]

 

[DuncB]

I've had a few beers from this brewery. Quite good and still using their kegs so a real bonus.

https://www.baladin.it/en/

 

[sibelman]

Brunello, si. There are many superb Tuscans of course. Also Nebbiolo Nobile.