Searching for the line between "hobby" and "obsession"

Italy's beer – Peroni Lager or Angelo Poretti Pilsner?

As I’ve stated many times over, Italy is not really “into” beer. Most available by far was Peroni‘s standard lager, a SAB MIller product. This was definitely the country’s Bud/Miller/Coors beer of the masses, though I should note it’s a bit more flavorful. We had Peroni a few times while in Italy, both on tap and out of the bottle. I wasn’t ever super impressed or super disappointed. It was just kind of… there.

Once in Monterosso al Mare, the Northwestern most town of Cinque Terre, we were out to eat and the pizza place had one beer on tap though I wasn’t sure what it was. I ordered “the beer on tap” and when it came I had a little fun trying to guess what it was. Kinda tasted skunky and they had some Beck’s paraphernalia strewn about the place, so when the waitress came back over I submitted by guess.

“Oh no, no. You are drinking Angelo Poretti beer, Italy’s beer!” She was very enthused about it and made sure that I know it was to be appreciated. Ok, well it kinda tasted skunky like Beck’s. Maybe they just needed to clean their tap line or something.

So then I thought I might have stumbled upon an actual Italian microbrew. I did a little research after returning home and it looks like Poretti is owned by the Carlsberg Group, a substantial corporation. At least is’t not one of the BMCs.

To the waitress chick: if your country is going to hang it’s hat on a brew, I’d either focus more on clean tap lines or maybe just pick Peroni and be done with it. Orrrr… start giving some microbrews some love.

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