Starship
Birrificio L'Olmaia

Pours an amber color with a large foam head that displays good retention.
The aroma highlights leafy, grassy, minty and floral hops. The malt aroma has a graham cracker like essence.
Similar to the aroma, the taste is hops forward with a very leafy and grassy flavor along with a significant bitterness. Hops flavors are also floral, honey like and interact well with the cracker, honey and solid bready malt backbone.
Medium bodied and a cross between smooth and crisp. Nice pheasant carbonation. The finish is nice and dry with a grassy linger.
I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I liked the use of hops and found it very drinkable.

 

 

 

Bottle. Poured a turbid, milky orange color. Modest head. Aroma is interesting. Very subtle hop aroma. Some tea-like hops and a unique yeastiness. Flavor imparts much more hoppiness. It's actually quite bitter. Really raw hop flavor. Grassy, tea-like and admittedly pleasing. Has a sort of English-rooted malt/yeast combo that I didn't initially pick up in the aroma. The Italian take on an English style with an American-esque, wanton use of hops. I can dig it.

Pours a cloudy copper in the glass.

Some grapefruit aromas on the nose, but with a slight soapiness.

Very bitter palate with some slightly interesting chalkiness.

Not an easy beer to drink and did not offer much reward for getting past the bitterness.

I desperately wanted to like this more given the backstory: the beer is named after the Boeing 720 that Led Zeppelin used on their USA tour.