Thursday, April 18, 2013

Beer Review: Birra Etrusca Bronze

Dogfish Head has a long running Ancient Ale series. Sam digs up some ancient beer recipe from Egypt or Scandinavia or South America, visits the country or region to get a feel of it's history, native ingredients and culture and works with scientists and historians to try and best recreate what our ancient ancestors imbibed in their day. For me this is one of the coolest things going in the beer industry today, even if many dismiss it as a novelty. This is, at least at this point, by far the closest we will come to actually physically sharing a piece of history from thousands of years ago. Birra Etrusca Bronze is the resurrection of a recipe from Italy circa 800 BC! That's right, 1200 years old; how can this not make you excited to try it?

Dogfish Head Birra Etrusca Bronze - 8.5% ABV
Traditional Ale/Herbed/Spiced Beer
Limited Release
750 mL Dogfish Head Bomber poured into a tulip
Bottled 01/12

Appearance - Clear copper, almost honey-like color with a quickly diminishing nearly white head.

Aroma - Smells very sweet -- fruit, honey and almost a bit like candy hearts. Smells like Belgian yeast.

Taste - Similar base flavors to a Belgian style ale. Very sweet and mellow, lots of fruit flavors and LOTS of honey. Pomegranate, apples, lemon and honey. Really tasty.

Mouthfeel - Slightly thinner body and good carbonation. A slight dryness and effervescence similar to champagne.

Overall - I actually really like this. It's very different but really tasty. I'd definitely buy this again. If this is what they were drinking in Italy in 800 BC, they were some excellent brewers and a lucky group of consumers.
Overall 4/5 Style 4/5

Drink On,

Dan

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