Cascinazza Amber
Birra Cascinazza

My wife picked this up for me from the local enoteca. The beer pours as a rusty, earth color - cloudy, with a tremendous white head. Very nice lace. The aroma is subtle and sweet-smelling. Slightly estery, with some raisin notable, and a little pepper and flower phenols. Very quite aroma, though - it could be more pronounced. The taste is sweet, bready, and yeasty. Low hop flavor, and some alcohol warming. The beer is fairly smooth, fully in body, and quite drinkable. Not outstanding, but nonetheless very good.

Italian barley and german hops, mix them with the trappist belgian way of brewing, but dilute it with typical italian taste and you have the Cascinazza Amber.
This is the first italian trappist brew, made in a real monastery near Milan by monks who learned the brewing secrets directly from Chimay, Achel and Westvleteren. Only 35000 bottles per year, not sold in their monastery, but exclusively in selected stores and other abbeys.
Orange-amber color, a good thick foam with low carbonation. Scent of flowers, with herbal and citric hints. Mouthfeel is not so good as I expected, less full and creamy than a beer with this credentials could have had. Smooth, fresh, inviting for another sip, balanced (maybe too much) but a bit disappointing. Starts like a Chimay red, finishes like a Birra Moretti.