Day 458: Baladin Wayan and That Dog

This dog, man. 

This is the face that waits for me to get in bed every night. He sits on my side warming my spot, then he moves over and cuddles like it is his job.

***

Tonight's beer is the Baladin Wayan--a sour beer, a.k.a. my favorite kind of beer. OK, total correction here. Wayan is listed on both Baladin's website and Beer Advocate as being a saison. Strange. It was decidedly sour and was advertised as such. A sour saison? Indeed.

It poured a bright copper color with a thin white head. It had a light funk in the nose but there was also an underlying floral almost fruity scent. The flavor lived somewhere at the intersection of light sweetness and tart. It reminded me of fresh lemons and biscuits. It finished nice and dry--leaving me wanting more.

Here is the description from Baladin's translated website: It comes from a mixture of cereals, barley, spelt, wheat and evokes memories of sunny fields and orchards that with their scents blend well with its hints of orange blossom, pear and bergamot. Crisp and very refreshing, golden color load is slightly turbid, sometimes opalescent.

What I thought was an interesting beer is now even more interesting.

Beer stats
Style: Saison
ABV: 5.8%
IBUs: 8
Rating: Great

Previously reviewed from Baladin:
I nearly drop some bodies after Blogger steals my post about Nora, an Egyptian ale. Am I right, Snoop?
Gary's review of Super, a Belgian strong pale ale

Beer 46: Birraficio Le Baladin Nora or I'm too Tired to Care

So I just finished writing a pretty good post considering how braindead tired I am and fucking Blogger disappeared it. (Anyone?  Anyone?  Please go watch The Wire.)

***

Tonight I drank the Nora from Le Baladin in Italy.  As you can see from the photo, the bottle is adorable and that's pretty much how it made the cut to come home with us from the beer shop.  It's the little things in life.

Into my trusty tulip glass it went...all apricot colored liquid and barely-there head.  It smelled of sweetness and malt but was a little too perfumed for my nose.  It had average carbonation.  Not a bad thing at all, just making an observation.  It drank very light but sweet and maybe with a bit of citrus.  Honestly it reminded me of beer from college.  I did not drink good beer in college.  (Sorry, Phi Gams.  While you never served good beer, it was plentiful and free and that's all I needed back then!)

After finishing my review, I checked out Beer Advocate and that kind of blew me away.  This one is an Egyptian inspired brew with ginger, myrrh and orange peel.  That explains some of what I tasted.  It got an exceptional rating.  That adjective was not in my thinking at all when drinking the Nora.  Fascinating.

Gary had way better luck with Nora's sister beer, Super.  Check it out here.

I'm off to relax for a bit.  Tomorrow is a big day.  I have tickets to the memorial service for Joe Paterno at the Bryce Jordan Center.  It should be an emotional and profound day.

Cheers.

My People!

Beer #46 Super / Birraficio Le Baladin, Piozzo, Italy
Tried to cram a lot of work into today, which didn't go very well.  Hey, you can't win them all.  Out of the office again tomorrow, which probably isn't going to get me more caught up on my work.  However, the good news is that we're headed to State College for Joe Paterno's memorial service.  I imagine it's going to be an emotional day, but I'm very happy my schedule worked out so that I can say farewell in person.

Today's beer is my first foray of the 365 journey into Italian beers, courtesy of Birraficio Le Baladin.  My paternal grandfather was Italian, so I've now covered a solid 75% of my ancestral background in beer thanks to this plus the Polish beer, Zywiec.

I found this beer (and Marci's) in the ever-improving beer section at Whole Foods in Devon.  What their beer section lacks in size, it makes up in quality.  The Belgian strong pale ale is a cloudy amber hue, and has a good malt scent.  The taste is lighter than the scent suggests, with a good carbonation.  Warm but subtle hints of fruit and vanilla, with caramel in there somewhere.  In all, a pretty decent offering.  When you think of Italy, you instantly think of wine, but there are definitely some decent Italian breweries out there.

A nice 8% ABV, which came in an oddly shaped 8.45oz bottle.  Sort of wish there was more beer to have, I suppose.  The brewery is located in Northwest Italy, between Turin and Nice, which seems like a place I should probably visit.

"Super",  which is Italian for "pretty good"

Things to Think About Today:
Italy is one of the fashion capitals of the world, and everyone knows that I'm a fashion trend setter.

Now that you've stopped laughing, let me suggest we think about some famous American travelers and their quest for the hottest Italian fashions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9SPuUntnno

And I just realized that Dr. John was the guy singing the song in this video.  See?  We all learn something new every day.  Until we meet again, friends.