Category Archives: Birra del Borgo

2 - Maybe (likely wouldn't buy, might drink), Beer Reviews, Belgian Flanders Oud Bruin, Birra del Borgo, Italy

Birra del Borgo Vecchia Ducale

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Brewery: Birra del Borgo
Country: Italy
ABV: 8.5%
Style: Belgian Flanders Oud Bruin

Brewer Description: (from website) Inspired by the Oud Bruin, we left our Ducale rest in barrel for over a year and then we bottled it with extra young beer. The result is a sweet and bitter beer, with wine hints and an astringent finish.

My rating: 2
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.12
My ratebeer.com rating: 2.9

Intro: A 330ml bottle with a best before date of February 2020. Poured into a Lost Abbey teku glass.
Appearance: Dark brown in colour with a bronze ruby hue and pretty much no head or lacing.
Aroma: Tart-ish, balsamic vinegar, cherry, prunes, vinous and lightly woody.
Taste: Oak, woody, sour, balsamic, cherry, vinous with hints of light toffee and astringency.
Mouthfeel: Acetic harshness, light to medium bodied with extremely low carbonation.
Overall: This was on and off for me. At times it seemed ok, but perhaps it was the combination of acetic harshness and the lack of carbonation that ultimately led me to lean on the lower end. Just didn’t work for me when compared to the classic Oud Bruin’s.

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4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Birra del Borgo, Farmhouse Saison, Italy

Birra del Borgo Duchessic

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Brewery: Birra del Borgo
Country: Italy
ABV: 5.3%
Style: Belgian Saison
Other Notes: Duchessa spelt beer cut with 20% of one year old lambic from Brasserie Cantillon

Brewer Description: (from website) A sort of “collaboration brew” with the famous Belgian brewery Brasserie Cantillon: an interesting experiment about spontaneous fermentations. Our traditional Duchessa – spelt beer – has been cut with a 20% of one year old lambic from Brasserie Cantillon. The result is a unique beer that extraordinarily merges the lambic sharp and sour characteristics with the gentle notes of Duchessa. A real gem not to be missed, as the former version’s great success confirms. Try it with different kinds of cheese, especially with blue cheese.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.44
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.3

Intro: A 330ml bottle with a nice unique bottle shape and a best before date of April 2017, poured into a Cantillon ballon glass.
Appearance: It poured a nice clear golden colour with a one finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly but leaves nice lacing.
Aroma: Tart, lemon peel and oak with a hint of apple and funkiness.
Taste: Tart and funky with fruity lemon and apple. Not overly sour, and in fact I got a lightly sweet apple cider finish.
Mouthfeel: Dry, light bodied with high spritzy carbonation.
Overall: This was nice and refreshing. I am lucky to have one more bottle, which is a good thing considering Birra del Borgo is now under AB InBev and seeing the lengths that Cantillon have gone to, it appears that, even if this beer is produced again, that it will NOT be with lambic from Cantillon. Therefore if you can still find this, it’s definitely worth a try, even possibly a last try!

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4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Birra del Borgo, Fruit Beer, Italy

Birra del Borgo Prunus

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Brewery: Birra del Borgo
Country: Italy
ABV: 5.8%
Style: Fruit Beer
Other Notes: 21 IBUs

Brewer Description: (from website) Prunus (from the cherry’s bothanical name, Prunus Avium or Cerasus according to variety) is made adding to our spelt beer Duchessa about 20% of fresh cherries with their stones. Differently from the typical Belgian kriek, it is not too sour as it keeps some of the Duchessa’s smoothness. Yet it’s not sugary indeed, thanks to the well balanced bitter aftertaste.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.92
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A 330ml bottle with a best before date of September 2017 and poured into a Duvel tulip glass.
Appearance: It poured a hazy orange golden colour with a thin white head that doesn’t stick around and only leaves some light lacing.
Aroma: Tart, sour, cherry, apple vinegar and light funkiness.
Taste: Like the aroma, taste is tart, sour cherry, sour apple and lemon.
Mouthfeel: Dry, crisp, light bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: Nice and easy to drink, but I preferred Rubus slightly more.

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3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Birra del Borgo, Herbed / Spiced Beer, Italy

Birra del Borgo Etrusca

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Brewery: Birra del Borgo
Country: Italy
ABV: 9.3%
Style: Herbed / Spiced Beer
Other Notes: Brewed with honey, pomegranate, hazelnut flour, pomegranate juice, raisins, natural resin and gentian root.

Brewer Description: (from website) A sip of history! Created together with our friends Sam Calagione and Dr. Pat McGovern from the States and Baladin’s founder Teo Musso, that’s really something unique: as we used unusual ingredients (for a beer) and most of all an unusual fermentation system (the amphoras!), the result is a real “archeological find”. The amber colour reminds the amphora-aged wines; the nose gives scents of honey and berries and quite uncommon mineral notes. When you taste it, sharpness is the main feature, and the honey notes are quickly followed by mineral ones, again. So, the few ones who will have the chance to taste this extremely rare beer (which has been made in a very limited quantity, of course) will be able to say that he had a sip of history!

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.27
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.1

Intro: A 330ml bottle with a best before date of March 2016, poured into a Duvel tulip glass.
Appearance: It poured a hazy murky dark orange colour with pretty much no head.
Aroma: Sour, tart, grapes, vinegar, woody and citrus lemon, maybe even a hint of apple juice.
Taste: Sour, tart, fruity pomegranate, apple, apple juice and apple cider vinegar with a minerally finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with low carbonation but with a prickly feel.
Overall: This was interesting. The sourness was nice, but I did not really like the minerally finish and it was on the flat side for me.

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4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Birra del Borgo, Country, Fruit Beer, Italy

Birra del Borgo Rubus

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Brewery: Birra del Borgo
Country: Italy
ABV: 5.8%
Style: Fruit Beer
Other Notes: 21 IBU

Brewer Description: (from website) A romantic love story in a shade of pink between raspberries and our Duchessa. A passionate adventure made of spontaneous and controlled fermentation, passion, time. An extraordinary plot, to be sipped until the last drop. Rubus idaeus – raspberry – is the main character, our spelt beer Duchessa is the starting point. 100 grams of fresh fruit are added for every liter of beer; they start a wild fermentation that gives the beer a unique profile with a marked sharpness, well balanced by the berries’ smell. It perfectly substitutes a pink sparkling wine as an aperitif.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.98
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.8

Intro: A unique bottle shape and raspberries practically sold itself to me. A 330ml bottle poured into a La Chouffe tulip glass. Label on the back says best before October 2016.
Appearance: Poured a pinkish copper (rosa according to their own website), small amount of haze and very light head
Aroma: First thought was apple juice, then lots of tart raspberries
Taste: Definitely sour, acidic, tart raspberries and strawberry
Mouthfeel: Very crisp, light body, light carbonation but a bit sticky at the end
Overall: Went down easy like drinking juice. I like the sour tart raspberry flavour but would have preferred more carbonation

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