Menabrea 1846
Birra Menabrea SpA

 

 

Pretty sure this is the original. On tap in Bussana. White head with lace. Clear golden color.

A bit more bready and malty than some pils. Definitely has the euro pale lager flavor profile. A bit more crisp. Earthy hops. Smooth and drinkable. Solid.

 

 

 

It's ok, probably in the "slightly better than Tennant's" bracket. Brewed competently but still lacking in flavour,aroma,hops. A decent dry finish and long lasting head are probably the beers best traits. corny taste and aroma the worst. Has more to it than standard peroni, but only just.

On tap at the hostel We_Bologna.
Average lager but fine to see it's local and craft. Well a big craft brewery, almost industrial. A lot on the malt, crisp

I'm not usually a euro lager drinker, but I tried this at a beer festival in London. Outdoor beer festival atmosphere always makes it hard to smell the beers properly, but this had light grain and citrus. Taste was standard euro lager, but fortunately very clean and no off flavors. Pretty easy drinking. Overall okay, although I probably would not want this from a bottle.

 

Bright dark straw color with moderate activity. Foamy light beige 3 finger head, lasting around 5-10 minutes, legs. Flavors of corn, sweet grains, light lemon and cabbage, soft caramel, with floral hops. Slick full body with prickly carbonation. Light strength finish, a bit flowery with a decent corn feel, not too adjunct feeling. Special likable malty smell and roasted barley taste. Good balance and freshness, decent attenuation, although not much intensity and complexion. Overall decent quality craft.

Clear pale golden color with a bit of white foam. Aroma has mostly pale malt and some fusel and dusty cereal. Taste is clean and malty with some bread notes and a light hop bitterness on the finish. Feels watery and has a medium carbonation. It's a quite clean lager but very boring and bland.

Copper filtered with a little carbonation, and 2 fingers of white head.

Smells of apple cider, white wine, sourdough biscuit and yeast.

Tastes of sourdough with hints of coppery hops. Quite bready.

Light body, moderate to low carbonation.

Had shipped from Bangkok, drinking in Chiang Mai, Sept 26th, 2017.

It's way too light to be considered a larger and the taste collapses on itself, not worth trying if you enjoy largers.

 

 

 

Ah, travel. I was up to Eataly (Manhattan) several months ago and snagged this out of an innate sense of curiosity. We had this gorgeous, tall Italianate beauty in at The Friendly Greek Bottle Shop as a rep last night & I was regaling her with my bocce prowess. How did I never know that "bocce" = kiss?!? The famous roll is called "La Bocce della Morte", one for which I am renowned, thanks to Giuseppe, my tutor on Sardinia in 1985. I will not reveal it here, but one night at Brooklyn's Floyd's Bar on Atlantic Avenue, I not only stunned a pair of jagov champs, but I flabbergasted my buddy & set off a riot! We barely escaped, but I realized that I have not lost it. I'm not sure that she was buying my patter, but I had everybody's attention within earshot. Good times!

From the bottle: "Quality assured by over a century of brewing tradition" (trans.).

I Pop!ped and then I Pop!ped the cap. Whoops! TMI. At any rate, the aggro pour raised two-plus fingers of fluffy, foamy, rocky, bone-white head that withered in the face of today's heat & humidity. Color was a gorgeous Yellow-Gold (SRM = 4 - 5) with NE-quality clarity, prompting yet another visit from The Gelt Gang of Midas, Mammon & Croesus, all shoving each other to get a taste. They did not have far to go as they were on my living room couch, watching the PSU/Pitt game while their TV is on the fritz. Nose smelled of honey, a clue to a good, adjunct-free lager, as well as a bready maltiness. Mmmm, a slice of freshly-baked bread drizzled with honey? Like being at my maternal grandmother's house in the summer. Take it down to the meadow and while away the hours. Last night, I invoked Enrico's Biscotti in Pixburgh's Strip District & man, did her eyebrows shoot up! How does a short Irish-English American with a strong Jewish cast know so much about her heritage? Back to the birra. It was such a pleasure NOT to be subjected to unnecessary adjuncts in a lager that I cannot adequately explain. I get that it is not an attractive style on this site, but one should rate to style, NOT to taste. Man, if this was CANned, I could drink it all day on the shore of the Med. Been there, done that. I am also almost done with this beer & its review. It finished semi-dry to dry and was entirely refreshing. It was clean, crisp, slightly malty. I wonder what others want from the style. This was A-OK by me.

 

Clear, dark gold body; lively carbonation; one-finger thick, foamy head. Balanced blend of esters and malt in the nose. Gently sweet, cereal grain malt flavor; wheat; light, dry grass hop flavor; nice, easy going bitterness towards the finish. Medium body; somewhat coarse on the palate; mostly dry finish.

A very pleasant, easy drinking beer. I don't get much of a fruity/floral aroma as per the BA commercial description, yet everything mixes well and comes across with a deft balance. It reminds me more of a German kölsch in both flavor and mouthfeel. Regardless, this is a pleasant find and warrants repeat visits.

Italian lagers are nowhere as good as those of their neighboring German and Austrian counterparts, even if they look it. Menabrea 1846 has the standard brilliantly clear, shined golden complexion, the lively bubbles and moderate, bleach-white head. It glistens when held to the light and has that classically quenching, tempting appearance.

But expect to cry foul about that aroma. Unlike other European nations, Italy doesn't have any legislative regulations when it comes to integrity of ingredients nor do they have a culture of beer drinkers sophisticated enough to notice, much less protest the use of adjuncts and additives. This lager smells replete with them.

How can you tell? Well, aside from the explicit wet cardboard and moldy rice notes in the aroma, the taste is also notably starchy and cloyingly sweet. Corn grits and Wonder-bread are imposed over the conventional flavours of pale malt. There's no bitterness or hops to note and the finish tastes something like a plain baked potato.

You'd think it'd be pretty easy to impress when Moretti and Peroni are your only competition. Alas, Menabrea obviously seeks not only to be as insipid, adulterated and characterless as those lagers - it actually does a better job at it! Clearly the people at Heineken and Asahi have nothing to fear, unless Italians decide they want an even worse beer as their national brand.

The only other time I've had Menabrea beer was on a hot summer day at the beach of a small, medieval Italian town on the Tyrrhenian Sea. That beer was as awful as this one but I'd be lying if I said the scenery and surroundings didn't make up for it. It's true there's a right moment for every beer - but Menabrea 1846 requires one like that to be justified.

 

330ml bottle, poured into Stone snifter.

A: Pale golden, clear, medium sized head which resembled bath bubbles and didn’t hang around for too long.

S: Floral noble hop aroma.

T: Hints of sweetish apple balanced out by a slightly bitter wheaty finish.

M: Medium body, not quite as carbonated as a typical Euro lager, but went down quite well.

O: This was pretty decent, had more in it’s locker than a Euro style lager. A kind of expensive premium brand beer served by pricey Italian restaurants.

 

 

Poured from an 11.2 OZ bottle into a pint glass. Appearance is a clear golden yellow with a small white head. The aroma is slightly skunky which matches the watery taste. Not a good beer.

 

 

 

Pin on-tap at Sweeney's on the Park ,Glasgow (£3.10):
This one was quite an easy going but ultimately a disappointing pale lager that didn't have the worst balance but just seemed far too light, almost weak. I really can't see this one being a memorable beer, there was just so little going on with it and it failed to grab my attention at any point as I drank it.

 

 

Been a while since I had a pale lager. The thing that caught me by surprise is how smooth and actually quite sweet it is. The words note maize in the bill, and it is noticeable. Goes well with Italian - (no surprise). It is what it is, drinakable and the score reflects that.

Flashback #365

Poured vigorously from a 330ml bottle into a 350ml beer glass.

Poured a pale yellow, nothing special, with a good, tight head that lasted a few minuted.

Strong hop aroma with some lemon zest.

Some malt on the palate, slightly bitter hoppy finish with some sweetness. Finish short but some lasting bitterness.

Nothing particularly special overall, but a fairly good thirst quencher on a hot day.

Not Recommended. (Worth a try for fans of the style)

A: The beer is crystal clear deep yellow in color and has no visible carbonation. It poured with just a collar of large bubbles around the edge of the glass that eventually completely faded away.
S: Light aromas of skunk and pale malts are present in the nose.
T: The taste is rather skunky, and these flavors stand out in front of notes of underlying pale malts and hints of corn-like adjuncts.
M: It feels medium-bodied and clean on the palate and has no carbonation.
O: The lack of carbonation and flat mouthfeel of this beer do not lend to its drinkability. It seems like the green bottle also lends some skunked flavors to the taste.

Serving type: bottle