Birrificio dei Magi Bigi

Well first off, hello. Hopefully you haven't been too broken up about my being absent. Apologies, but the road of travel is a long one and internet is not always readily available. As I write this update, I am sitting in the flat of my friend watching the cars pass through the green early summer leaves of Munich. Please note that I have of course been consuming lots of delicious hard to find brews throughout Italy and now in Germany and I have plenty of updates queued up. I've just been needing a solid couple of hours of internet access to finalize them and post them. So you can expect (at least) weekly posts of new beers for the next 5 to 6 weeks, oh and also a couple of reviews of some of Munich's finest Brewhouses. It has been really fun for me, I hope you find equal enjoyment as you read through the posts to follow...

To kick things off I am going to take us back to Italy. To Citta di Castello, where I spent two weeks working in the hills above the city. To my surprise, three days before I would be leaving I discovered that there was a small brewery. I never visited the actual location, but did enjoy a bottle of their beer in a wine bar. It is Birrificio dei Magi Bigi and they are an extremely new establishment. Their website is currently under construction but you can find them on facebook. Unfortunately without further access to information I cannot fill in details about the brewery, but since it is so new, I am certain there won't be many reviews floating around the web. The side of the bottle failed to provide a description of what kind of beer was to be experienced (at least none that I was able to decipher with my less than adequate Italian language skills). I actually like that I had no idea what I was about to discover before jumping in. Upon tasting the elixir, I immediately decided it should fall under the Belgian Style Blonde/Tripel classification. Without the alcoholic strength backing it up I felt it aligned more closely with the Belgian Style Blondes, but I also detected similiar flavours to that of some Belgian Tripels/Strong Ales. In any case, as more information becomes available, we'll find out exactly what they've decided to classify this mystery beer. Now let's proceed to the tasting notes...


Brewer: Birrifcio dei Magi Bigi
Name: Unknown
Category/Style: Belgian Blonde
ABV: Unknown
IBU: Unknown
OG: Unknown
FG: Unknown
Malt Type(s): Unknown
Hop Type(s): Unknown
Yeast Type: Unknown
Special Additives: None
Bottled: Unknown
Bottle Size: 750 mL
Location Purchased: L'enoteca Syrah, Citta di Castello, Umbria, Italy

The Pour: Golden orange, light copper hues, head is white, some retention, some lacing.

The Nose: Bubblegum, bread and yeast, sweet and sugary, slight spice, quite inviting, quite fruity, smells like a Belgian blonde.

The Taste: High carbonation up front, yeasty and bready, not overly sweet. Body is medium a bit of spice and slight bitterness. Finish is slightly dry but not overly so. Very drinkable.

The Verdict: A really solid brew. Not too heavy, not too sweet, very well balanced. If I had to venture a guess, I'd surmise it would be a Belgian Style blonde or Tripel. The beer was high quality and just proves once again that Italy is up and coming in the world of beer :]


Thanks for reading!

Zach