This post is a part of the 2015 New Beer Every Day Beer Diary Challenge, #ottbeerdiary. Over the course of 2015, I will be trying a new beer every day. Please read the background in the link above, and enjoy reading about the most recently tasted beers below. If you’d like to join the challenge as well, let me know in the comments below, and be sure to check out Grown-up Travel Guide and his #grownupbeerdiary, where Andy Higgs came up with the diary format in use below. You can catch up on all of our posts as part of the challenge under the tag ottbeerdiary.
Day 179: June 28, 2015
Diary entry:
We are currently in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy for this year’s Blogville project. We’ll be staying in Bologna, Rimini, and Reggio Emilia over the next two weeks, sampling the local foods, beers, and wines of Emilia Romagna. Follow along with the hashtags #Blogville, #inEmiliaRomagna, and #ViaEmilia.
We return today to Bologna, finishing off a great couple of days in Reggio Emilia. Unfortunately, today is our last full day in Emilia Romagna. 🙁
Originally we had some ambitious plans for today, such as heading down to the Festa Artusiana in Forlimpopoli or heading up to Parma for a quick dinner with my parents and sisters. But cooler heads prevailed and we finished up our packing for tomorrow so we could start loading up the car, since it was parked a little distance away and we had a few parcels to transit over to it, with all the food, beer and wine we had picked up over the past two weeks.
Instead, we made a quick run to Modena and the Ferrari Store to pick up the watch Erin’s mother wanted to buy her father for Father’s Day.
https://instagram.com/p/4g5anhh2uK/?taken-by=erindesantiago
Our return was spent on a mission…find sunflowers!
We had seen a number of sunflower fields from the train and highway the past few days, but never had a chance to pop into one. We figured we’d be sure to find one on the way to or from Modena.
After a few wrong turns and a little adventurous exploring, find them we did!
https://instagram.com/p/4iEPcFB2pP/?taken-by=erindesantiago
We finally made our return to the apartment in Bologna, a little later than we had hoped. Later enough, in fact, that most of our desired options for dinner were closed! Luckily the shop I wanted to visit for my last beer of the trip also had some meat and cheese, so I was able to pick up sandwiches to go with the beer.
The Beer:
Name: Alley Hop
Style: Imperial / Double IPA
Producer: Birra Bellazzi
Alcohol content: 8.5%
Bottle size: 0.33l
Purchased from: Aemilia Food in Bologna, Italy
From the same shop where I bought the Japa earlier in the week. A local double IPA from here in Bologna. Nice balanced bitterness. 8.5% ABV, so not overly strong. Very drinkable.
Commercial Description:
The hard way to go to the basket!
After setting the base malts to give good support to the beer while remaining in the background, we launched massive amounts of American hops to make the basket in the most spectacular way.
The result is this extremely hoppy Imperial IPA: substantially bitter, a deep amber, and absolute drinkability.
Style: Imperial IPA
Fermentation: High
Degrees sweetness: 17 plato
Alcohol: 8.5% vol
Color: 22.4 (EBC)
IBU: 84
