Tasting Notes: Birra Moretti La Rossa

First impression: Let's keep the Germans and Italians separate.

For full disclosure's sake, I admit that my experiences with Italian beer have been decidedly unenjoyable. I find Peroni to fall into the lower rungs of mass-produced brews, and my other tastings have fallen into the same categories.

So I was immediately skeptical of an Italian brewer attempting to do something Germans do so well. After all, when a country has so much enthusiasm for its wine production, how much can we expect of its grain-based alcohol.

On first smell, La Rossa (a doppelbock) reminded me of Newcastle and other brown ales. And yet, it clearly had the deeper color and persistently thick head that are typical of its family.

Again, I have to color my review by admitting that La Rossa falls into the dreaded middle between my preferred neighborhoods of really dark or really light beer (call it the Oreo syndrome). The malty-ness wasn't overpowering as it can be in some beers like this, but it was markedly sweet. I found the middle of the tongue to balance this with the toasted flavors.

Was it memorably bad? Not at all. But perhaps worse, it is easily forgettable.

Order a Pint: Eh
Buy a Six-Pack: No
Stock by the Case: No

Tasting Notes: Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter

First impressions: And a good day to you, guv'nah.


In my taste buds' younger days, I had a difficult time distinguishing between porters and stouts. You know the general terms: They're dark, viscous, and supposedly contain tastes of coffee and chocolate. Stouts just seemed to fit those characteristics a little more.

As my taste buds have passed through adolescence, a semester at taste bud community college, and a nasty breakup with cucumbers, I have come to appreciate the subtle differences in dark beers. And Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter highlights many of those best traits in the breed.

The Taddy Porter is a grown-up porter, dressed up in the sophisticated richness of its stout brothers. It carries the same quality of thickness that mid-stouts demonstrate, and tasted best on the back of the tongue. With that said, it avoids the sheer leaden heft of many stouts and is surprisingly drinkable with pace.

If stouts are the spells to cast against the coldest of winter's evil, the Taddy Porter is the vernacular of late fall, spoken in the weeks before we are prepared for the coming intemperate battle. Sipping it while insisting "It's not that cold yet" might just make you believe your claim.

Order a Pint: Yes
Buy a Six-Pack: Yes
Stock by the Case: If porter's your thing

Rating: 4.5 kegs out of 5

Tasting Notes: Cave Creek Chili Beer

First impressions: Yes, that is a chili pepper bottled in my beer.

With any novelty beer, I tend to immediately determine whether the gimmick is a marketing tool with little discernible impact on the beer or a legitimately recognizable part of the experience. After all, we don't typically pick up a lavender- or hibiscus-boasting beer for the hops.

My first smell confirmed the presence of a vegetable; it smells like a bottle of cantina salsa poured into a pint of Tecate. However, upon tasting, the flavors were clearly separated. The first second or two brought a light Mexican-style flavor, but once the beer hit my throat, the chili's wrath awoke. I consider myself moderately tolerant of heat, and the while the beer certainly did not immediately overwhelm my taste buds, the accumulation of capsaicin after about five sips was noticeable though not unpleasant.

The experience was comparable to drinking a Bloody Mary on the spicy end of the spectrum, though with less flavor. I would have been more disappointed if the beer tasted as it did and did not deliver on the chili novelty, but after I confirmed strange combination of beer and heat, there wasn't much left to discover.

Order a Pint: Yes, if you have an open-minded tongue
Buy a 6-pack: No
Stock by the case: No

Rating: 2 kegs out of 5