When Will Italian Pilsners Be A Category?

In Portugal it is Tinto. I've been drinking a lot of Tinto. When I try a beer I realize this is wine country and having a beer is disappointing (diacetyl, dirty glasses, uninspired mass produced beer). Then I drink more Tinto.

 

Aren’t Alsatian Pilsners just German Pilsners that became French Pilsners after the Treaty of Versailles?

 

I'm not very knowledgeable about Portuguese breweries.
But if you come to Italy and after two beers taken at random you are not satisfied and you start drinking red wine, the problem could be traced back to the total inability to know how to orient yourself in totally new and unknown products, not to the fact that being a country of tradition wine producers, our Brewmasters don't know how to produce good beers.
There are different qualities of products and manufacturers.
I imagine it's like this in Portugal too, but I speak more carefully about how it works in my home.
Now I'll let you continue with your clichés on which, however, you are very well prepared.

I'm reading so much about that indifference and superficiality that I'm almost happy to be portrayed with these words.

This is a useful database, dialogues are more constructive in person, where maybe if you say something stupid you do it with your face and not incognito with your keyboard.

 

I’ve found good breweries or beer bars in both Italy and Portugal, however I find myself drinking way more wine in Europe when I’m there and barely touch the stuff in the US. That’s because good wine is far more accessible than good craft beer in many EU countries. Plus some of them subsidize wine so you are getting high quality stuff at low prices vs the craft beer which isn’t discounted and not available at most of the tourist restaurants.

 

I think the point being made wasn’t that you CAN’T find a respectable beer, but more the average quality of both. In Portugal, France and Italy, you should be able to find world class wine by throwing a stone (blind) in any direction. To find beer on the same quality scale will take a lot more work. Unless you absolutely abhor wine, just enjoy wine while you are visiting (the case for that person visiting). If you live there, that is obviously a different case.

The same case can be made for styles of beer within specific areas. For example, Germany obviously produces a lot of beer, but you’ll have to search high and low to find stouts, and even harder to find a world class BA stout. Unless you abhor lagers, maybe just drink lagers while you visit.

I agree on this. If and when I ever get to visit Italy, I don’t know if I will have a beer the entire time I am there. I am going to enjoy all the great wine. Almost for sure I will have had better beers all over the world compared to the ones in Italy, but the same wouldn’t be true of the wine I have while there.

 

I've seen quite a few posts on these boards lately about different breweries doing Alsatian Pilsners. Before Notch did their first years ago I had never heard of the style. I wonder if they were the first to do it in the US? They certainly were for many of the lager trends popping up in the US (Lukrs...etc.).

 

The best Portuguese beer was Coral Lager which I found in the University town of Coimbra. It was well made, reminded me of a Franconian Helles. It's brewed on the island of Madera and was 3.0€ for 0.5 Liter.

Duque brewing in Lisbon had an OK German Pilsner, but a phenolic note was noticed and detracted from the enjoyment.

Super Bock was everywhere. That's a mass-produced industrial lager. No defects, low flavors, think Heineken.

Sangres was the other big brand. There were fermentation issues to my palate, including diacytel.

I've told my Ciccerone friends about all the dirty glasses. Had a few, and saw many.

The wine was wonderful for the price. The worst one by far was a Tinto for 2.50€, and that was similar to what I've been served in the US for $8 to $10. The next one was much better as I moved up to a 4.00€ glass.

 

Damn, dude, I forgot all about you.

 

I’ve heard chicken parm isn’t actually a thing Italy. Could be wrong, never been.

 

LOL..Ill move that WBAYDN.

 

Yeah, it's Italian-American. Eggplant Parmesan is Italian, though. Some regions also use zucchini.
Spaghetti and meatballs is also Italian-American.

 

I believe that when Italians came over to America they had to switch the parm from eggplant to chicken because they were getting into too much trouble when they’d text people to come over to eat using emojis….

 

This is where the belief that Italians are hot blooded comes from.

 

@Jack_14, try not to take the rampant stereotyping of Italians too seriously. Stereotyping the cultures and behaviors of countries around the world is a big part of American culture. We love to hand wring over this behavior when it suits us for domestic political purposes, but the truth is we all love a good stereotyping.

Try not to take it too personally and also realize that Americans mock and tease each other as a sign of affection, so it's not (always) rooted in animosity

 

Yep, like I said before, my grandma was first generation Sicilian. I rip on the Polish a lot (ask @JackHorzempa), but they're my favorite non-Irish Europeans. And they're all over Ireland now, too.

 

And in the recent past, England as well.

My wife is a BIG fan of Clarkson's Farm and she told me about an episode where Jeremy needed a plumber right away and the company told him that it would take many hours before they could come over. Jeremy responded with something like: where is a Polish plumber now! I guess with Brexit lots of the Polish immigrants were 'forced' out?

Cheers!

 

My understanding is that the Poles are to Britain and Ireland what Latinos are to the US when it comes to the trades. Main difference being that they haven't made Polish food beloved in those islands like Latin food is here.

 

Are we really stereotyping Italians if we haven’t talked about how greasy they are though? I mean, come on. We stuffed them in the coal mines for a reason. Well, ok, we didn’t stuff them - they just slid right in.