Alpen Birra
Castello Di Udine S.p.A.

-very pale bottle pour with an open cap of large bubbles.
The aroma is unremarkable, full with some earthy hop notes.
The flavor ( and body) are thin. Some off flavors, not a fresh malt base. Lacking any fresh hop aspects.

Birra Castello S.p.A. “Alpen Birra”
66cl brown glass bottle coded “09.20 20” and sampled on 12.06 19
€,67 @ PAM Panorama, Pisa, IT

Notes via stream of consciousness: Oddly it’s skunked, even with the brown glass. It seems fresh, and it wasn’t on a shelf in the sun in the super market. Oh well, that doesn’t really matter that much as the flavor’s not that good. It’s thin and tastes a little like a non-alcohol beer. The appearance is good though. It’s a clear deep gold that borders on becoming amber, and the white head rose up majestically and then dropped back into a creamy cap. The lacing is good too, so at least it’s got that. The aroma, apart from the skunkiness, is a bit generic, just “beer” with malt and some herbal hops mixed in. It smells like so many other inexpensive Euro lagers. Back to the flavor, generic “beer” seems to fit as well. I’m guessing there might be some adjunct in use but it’s hard to tell, the label simply reads “Contiene malto d’orzo” which is barley. No mention of hops, and we won’t worry about water and yeast. Ahhh, but it doesn’t matter, whether it’s 100% barley or adjunct malt it’s just not that good. A stiff bitterness balances it and at times you get a nice bitterness coming through the malt, and the finish is fairly dry. It just lacks quality processing and a bit of hops. In the mouth it’s medium bodied and crisp, which is surprising because the Italians seem to like their beers a little softer. Perhaps it’s got a little bit more carbonation because they were trying to replicate a German-style lager. It’s cheap enough, and it makes a good fernsehbier or something to wander around town with but I wouldn’t buy it for any other occasion.
Review #6,849

 

 

 

 

Bought in Venice. It came in a brown 66cl bottle Clear freshness dating.


Dark gold with an awesome white head and lacing.

Nice aroma of grains and fruit (plums)

The taste is balanced between the malts which add a sweetness with some light floral hopping. This is an easy drinker to pair with non-spicy food.

The mouth is yeoman like and seems well calibrated for the beer.

This is pretty enjoyable & I think the brewer managed a great session beer at 3.5%.

600ml bottle from Conad supermarket, Venice (€0.65):
This one was a pretty awful beer from Castello di Udine, it was far too much like drinking carbonated water for my liking with little in the way of flavour in any sense of the word; a real disappointment & definitely one to avoid.