New year's beers

1 February is an important day in Norwegian supermarkets. The shelves are restocked, and new additions are placed in the shops. This also happens in the beer shelves, and some new beers make their way into the various supermarkets.

I entered two supermarkets I usually do not frequent last week, and among the new beers I could find Kronenbourg 1664, Birra Morretti and Jacobsen's Saaz Blonde. The first ones are beers I have already tried out. I was in France last year and tried both the ordinary Kronenbourg and 1664. The French 1664 was stronger in alcohol than the one I found in Norway. I believe the French version was 5.2% alcohol, while the one I found in Norway had 4.5% alcohol.

1664 is a pale lager with little carbonation. It is sold in 0.25 litre bottles, and as far as I know it is the only beer sold in Norway in such bottles. The price is high. It costs 20 NOK, which is slightly more than 2 GBP or 2 EUR.

In the nose there is little aroma, but there are some hints of flowers. In the mouth 1664 feels a little watery. It is thinbodied but has some malts. In the aftertaste there are some grains. This is a boring lager that lacks some of the alcohol punch found in the version I had in France. This will not be a frequent visitor to my fridge.

Birra Morretti was my favourite when I tried some Italian pale lagers last year. Also this beer offers very little aroma, but there are some malts in the nose. In the glass there is a lot of carbonation but it builds only a small head.

The beer is medium bodied with a lot of malts in it. The aftertaste is watery with a hint of hoppy bitterness. Birra Morretti is another beer that I will not seek out actively. The price at a Rema 1000 supermarket was 26 NOK for a 0.33 litre bottle.

Last out is Jacobsen's Saaz Blonde, which costs 29 NOK at a Coop supermarket. This is brewed by Carlsberg on their Jacobsens craft brewery and is a blonde in the Belgian style. The beer is golden in colour with a lot of carbonation and a small head. The nose is aromatic with some yeast and hints of hops and fruit.

In the mouth there is more fruitiness with hints of grapefruit before the hops take over in the aftertaste. This is a great beer, and one I hope still is available in shops when Summer comes. Carlsberg knows how to make a good blonde!

Italian lagers

It is Autumn and time to look at back at the Summer. As the leaves fall off the trees and the temperatures are getting closer to negative Centigrades, remembering sun and hot weather is very nice.

San Remo

During the Summer I had a day in Italy. I visited the city of San Remo close to the French border. San Remo has a fantastic beach, and walking along the esplanade was to my liking.

San Remo means beach life for many Italians.

There were no possibilities for me to taste Italian beers while visiting Italy. I drove a car, so tasting draught beers were out of the question. While in Italy I visited a supermarket in San Remo, and it had a nice selection of beers. Unfortunately there were more or less only international brands, but I also found some Italian beers.

The beer shelves at an Italian supermarket.

Italian lagers can be found here together with international beers.

Fellow Norwegian beer blogger Knut Albert has written about several Italian craft beers on his blog. One of his posts is about two exciting bars in Rome, so I was hoping for several craft beers to be found during my short visit to Italy. The supermarket I visited in San Remo only offered various lager beers, so I picked up three different Italian ones. That was a shame as I really wanted to try something special.

The first Italian beer I tasted was Nastro Azzurro when I visited Rome ten years ago. At that time I felt it was a nice lager beer that I really liked. Since 1999 I have found Nastro Azurro now and then while travelling abroad, but I have not picked it up.

Back in Italy Nastro Azzurro (English: blue ribbon) was a no-brainer, and I felt that I had to try the beer again. Nastro Azzurro is a pale lager beer with much carbonation and a large head that dissolves after a while. There is a malty feel to it, but otherwise this is a typical eurolager. I can recommend it as a nice session beer in the sun, but there are many more interesting lagers available.

The Rome based Peroni brewery, who makes Nastro Azzurro, offers several other beers. One of them is the Peroni lager. Peroni is not that different from Nastro Azzurro in look. It is as pale as Nastro Azuuro and it is rather fizzy. It builds a little head in the glass, but it disappears more or less at once. Peroni is a little bit sweeter than Nastro Azzurro and has a malty aftertaste. I would prefer Nastro Azzurro to Peroni lager, but both are not among the best lagers of Europe.

Birra Moretti is one of the Peroni brewery's competition in Italy. The brewery from Udine is owned by Heineken and has several beers on the market. Their Birra Moretti lager is also a pale lager. There is less carbonation here, and after poured into the glass the head stays longer than Nastro Azzurro. Tastewise Birra Moretti is another typical eurolager. It has a more bitter twist to it than the Peroni beers, and it becomes my favourite among the three Italian lagers.

I plan to return to Italy next year. That time I will spend more time in the country and try some of the craft beers. These three lagers from Italy were OK, but I will not seek them out when there are better lager beers to be found.