Beer – #892 – Birra del Borgo – My Antonia

Birra del Borgo My Antonia. Beer Jerk Beer club with another interesting and unusual beer, that is in one of the prettiest bottle I’ve seen for a while.

mouth feel is explosive

This is a thing with 76 IBU in a beer that is bottled as 375ml and of 7.5% ABV, making this would be 2.22 standard drinks in NZ/

Brewed by Birra del Borgo (AB InBev) and also Dogfish Head Brewery in the style: Imperial Pils/Strong Pale Lager and that’s from Borgorose (RI), Italy

More alcoholic and dense compared to the classic Pils, is surprising in its intensity explosive but proving to be balanced. A blonde “toasts” that you will love, just like the protagonist of the novel by

man less pretty than a bottle

WillaCather from which it takes its name – My Antonia is a 1912 novel by Willa Cather and the title character is a ‘bold and free-hearted young Bohemian girl who moves to Nebraska’.

This here beer is a lagerific departure for our ale-centric brewery. A marriage of old world tradition and new world innovation, My Antonia is brewed with pilsner malt and continually-hopped with a blend of Noble and West Coast hops.

The mouth feel is explosive but balanced at the same time. The honey notes form the malts and the peppery ones from the hops mix in a very elegant and precise finish.

So, What could possibly go wrong? Well two things happened on the good side, a new brewer, and a new bottle cap for the jar (which I will write about one day)

On opening that is a deep rich aroma, but it is fleeting.

Bright orange golden pour with significant head that is bright white and alive. Aroma is a rich full hop but not wild or loud, just full.

Oh my, that’s a beer that envelops you, rich soapy hop bitterness, soft mouthfeel, but just enough to top that bitterness and then it leaves a kiss of dry at the back. Gosh.

It’s a really decent beer, and there isn’t a hint at all that it has the higher ABV content.

As it warms you get a much bigger sense of the layers of hop flavour in this as it becomes a lot, for want of a better description, rougher at the front, but this also releases some of that sweetness and aromatics which is a bit of a party in the mouth.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 of its things from the thing. It’s a wonderful beer that develops character and layers as it warms, becomes a really complex bit of adventure that defies being labeled or tied down. Truly a fine bit of beering.

The double dip review

Where did I get it? Beer Jerk Beer Club
Am I enjoying it? It’s wonderful
Would I have another?I would indeed, bring me some and we’d be mates for ever
Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? I would, but it’s a beer that is best left to develop and be itself, whilst we talk of how much a decent person Antonia must have been, and how we never knew her, but wish we did.

Music for this: ” Train ” with ” A Girl a Bottle a Boat ” on Spotify

Train is an American roots rock band from San Francisco, formed in 1993.

Strong Pale Lager/Imperial Pils

Most commonly found in Poland, but also in other European countries as well, especially the East. These are essentially stronger versions of pilsners, though the increased malt and alcohol will noticeably reduce the hop accent. Because these are usually all-malt, and comfortably hopped, they are easily distinguishable from malt liquors. Without the malt character of bocks, these are worthy of a style all their own. In the US, a similar idea has been derived and is usually called Imperial Pilsner.