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 168: June 17, 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.
Today was an extremely fun day here at Blogville. Erin and I were asked what we wanted to do during our visit, and we asked to visit some local breweries from Emilia Romagna, and to visit a Parma Ham producer. So Nick, of course, delivered!
Our schedule for today was to visit two breweries and a ham producer, but due to some major rainstorms in the morning, and the associated major traffic on the autostrada, we wound up a little late to the first brewery, which then coupled with a longer visit there and some difficulty finding the ham producer, led to our having to cancel the second brewery. But we definitely had a great visit.
The brewery we visited was Panil Birrificio Torrechiara, sitting in the shadows of the Castle of Torrechiara. What started as a family-run winery over fifty years ago has gradually changed focus to craft brewing over the past 15 years. Now, they are recognized as one of the top brewers in Italy, with the highest overall ranking for breweries in Italy on untappd. The owner of Birrificio Torrchiara, Patrizia Losi, met us and gave us a very informative tour of the brewery, their brewing process, and her passion for brewing, and then proceeded to share not only a few of her beers and beer products, but also provided a spectacular lunch as well!
From Torrechiara, we headed further south towards the Apennines to Casa Graziano Prosciutto near Tizzano. Casa Graziano is a smaller, family-run producer of Proscuitto di Parma, operating since 1976. We had a chance to tour their current facility that they opened in 2001, producing up to 60,000 hams per year! And the best part is, we were led the whole way through by members of the Casa family, who demonstrated their passion for the process throughout the tour. And of course, the tasting that followed.
After these visits, we returned to the Blogville apartment in Bologna, full, and exhausted after a long day. We dined on fresh pasta from the Mercato di Mezzo located nearby the apartment, and tried to rest up for the coming days.
The Beer:
Name: Panil Barriquée
Style: Flanders Red Ae
Producer: Panil Birrificio Torrechiara
Alcohol content: 7.0%
Bottle size: 0.75l
Purchased from: Provided as a tasting at Panil Birrificio Torrechiara
The Panil Barriquée is one of the flagship beers of the Panil Birrificio Torrechiara. The Panil Barriquée is a spontaneously fermented Belgian Flanders-Style, aged in French oak barrels. Each batch is inoculated with 4-5 bottles of the previous batch. Spontaneous fermentation, followed by two years in oak. Bottle fermentation with sugar, no added yeast.
Make sure to serve at the proper temperature. So much great wood flavors with the sour. Some bitterness on the aftertaste. Very nice.
