Birreria Nerone

Brewed by The Birreria at Eataly
Style: Porter
New York, New York USA

Serve in English pint, Stem glass

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Cask. Black foamy color. Lighter then a porter, almost like a mild ale. Malty and nutty. Not bad

Cask at Birreria at Eataly on October 24, 2011. This was described to me by the waiter as a "wet hopped porter". The pour yields a really dark mahogany body that appears black at first glance. A thick, frothy, dark khaki head is as tall, or taller, than any other cask beer I’ve ever seen. The foam is slow to recede, leaving behind some slow moving lace that eventually rejoins the body. Bold aromas of pine resin leap from the glass, clearly a dominant trait here. Beneath the sharp bite of the hops lies a base of robust coffee, dry bittersweet chocolate, burnt caramel, and toasted nuts. The flavor is quite bitter, not only showing plenty of resinous pine hop bite, but also lots of darkly roasted, almost burnt coffee and bitter dark baking chocolate. Unfortunately, the coffee and the pine make for strange bedfellows, and they linger well after the swallow. The palate is predictably light on carbonation, with a medium, drying body. I found this to be too aggressively hopped for my liking. It’s decent, but the intensity is a little overwhelming.