This is the monthly appointment
and I have with our pools of readers. It is our monthly appointment for an intra-newsletter dialogue where we jointly write here and on .Every month, we will explore a theme. The articles are free for our subscribers, but you can always think of giving us a donation!
Grape Ale (abbreviated to GA) is a beer flavoured with grape must. It is a top-fermented beer whose peculiarity lies in adding grapes, both as natural fruit or pomace and as grape must, in the form of silent, cooked or fermented must.
The first beer in Italy to include grapes was produced in 2006 by the Sardinian brewery Barley. Marketed under the name BB10, it was an Imperial Stout beer with the addition of sapa (cooked must) of Cannonau grapes, typical of the region.
I must admit that before
mentioned this topic in our joint newsletter. I had never even known such things existed.This realisation plunged me into a profound questioning about the endless realm of drinkable liquids: after all, there is a whole world to be explored outside Champagne and Burgundy.
I realise this even more now that I am exploring non-alcoholic beverages - and liking them.
For a very long time, BEER was an unknown entity for me. I never drank beer till my mid-twenties, when something changed, and I needed to escape wine. I started working in a winery in Tuscany, and as the months passed, so did my interest in grapes.
During weekends, when I was off work, I could not bring myself to order wine (oh no, not again! said every bit of me). So, I tentatively ventured into the beer realm. It was quite an easy feat, as microbreweries were all the rage back there, and seemingly everyone and their cousins were crafting beers.
Still, to this day (almost fifteen years have passed since then), my knowledge of beers is so limited that I usually stick to IPA (Indian, Italian, or whatever) and call it a day.
This is why I asked Cris what her favourite IGA is. Hop over to her blog,
to get the answer and the other half of this story.She, in turn, asked me:
Cuentame una historia de cerveza en 15 palabras!
Tell me a beer story of yours in just 15 words?
One sunny day on a beautiful beach in southern Puglia with many girlfriends, I laughed so much while drinking a Corona (with its lime slice) that I fell from a chair.
I was not inebriated (I just had that single Corona).
It was the first of many occasions where we went out for a weekend just by ourselves - no boyfriends or husbands or - later - children (except when someone in the group was pregnant, thus carrying the baby along in our escapade). It was a moment of joy: a summery evening, our skins hot and salty from the sea, and nowhere else to be, just there.
It is more than 15 words altogether with the explanation. Still, I hope it catches the spirit of these fundamental moments with girlfriends: days and evenings when we do not do much, we enjoy our respective company and “vibe”.
Here it is, a splendid memory of that day:
My beer story in 15 words:
Me: 'I have a strange request: half beer half lemonade'
Aussie Bartender: 'shandy coming up!'