Aëra
Brown Porter · 33 cl bottle
Roasted grains, burnt malt, dark chocolate
€3,85
What it is, and what is in it
Here the color isn't provided by an additive: it comes from the roasted grains and toasted malts, which are the only difference compared to a blonde beer. The result is an intense brown, and on the palate, burnt malt arrives first, followed by dark chocolate.
The surprising thing is the finish: sweet. The hops remain moderate — thirty bitterness units — precisely so as not to overpower the sweetness that the malts bring. The body is full, the carbonation light, and together they make a creamy rather than fizzy beer.
There are wheat flakes in the recipe, in addition to barley malt: they contribute to the body and head retention. Unfiltered, unpasteurized, re-fermented in the bottle.
- Fermentation
- Alta fermentazione, rifermentazione naturale in bottiglia
- Filtration
- Non filtrata, non pastorizzata
- Ingredients
- Water, barley malt, wheat flakes, hops, sugar, yeast.
- Allergens
- Gluten (barley malt, wheat flakes).
What it is like
Color
Bruno intenso
What the brewery drinks it with
The pairings declared for this beer.
- Sautéed mussels and oysters; braised meats
- Blue cheeses
- Chocolate desserts
The label’s terms, explained
What a Porter is
A dark top-fermented beer, born in eighteenth-century London and so called because it was drunk by the market porters. The color and the taste come not from a coloring but from the dark malts. «Brown» indicates the lighter version of the family: brown and not black, with the roasting stopping short of the dry burnt note of the stouts, and a body that stays drinkable.
Roasted grains and toasted malts
Before it goes into the copper, the barley is malted and then heated in the roaster. The longer it is roasted, the darker the grain and the more the aromas it will give change: from biscuit to caramel, then to cocoa, finally to coffee and burnt notes. In a porter the dark part of the blend is a minority of the total, but it is the part that decides color and aroma.
Wheat in a barley beer
Alongside the barley malt, the recipe contains wheat flakes. Wheat carries more protein than barley, and it is the proteins that hold up the head: a beer with wheat makes a denser head that lasts longer. It also gives a fuller sensation in the mouth. It is a cereal with gluten: that is why it appears among the allergens together with barley.
What IBUs are
International Bitterness Units: the laboratory measure of the bittering substances the hops have given to the beer. An industrial pale lager sits around 10-20, a pale ale between 30 and 45, a modern IPA often goes past 60. It is not a scale of taste: on a dark, malty beer the same number is perceived less, because the sweetness of the malt offsets the bitterness.
Plato degrees
It measures the sugars dissolved in the wort before the yeast starts working: one Plato degree is equivalent to one gram of extract per hundred grams of wort. It is from there that the alcohol the yeast will be able to produce and the body the beer will have in the glass both follow.
What it says on the bottle
The mandatory label information, transcribed from the label of the size on sale.
- Designation
- Sweet craft beer
- Ingredients
- Water, barley malt, wheat flakes, hops, sugar, yeast.
- Allergens
- Gluten (barley malt, wheat flakes).
- Alcoholic strength
- 5% vol.
- Contents
- 33 cl bottle
- Place of production
- Produced in San Pierino, Fucecchio (FI)
| Energy | 204 kJ / 49 kcal |
|---|---|
| Fat | 0 g |
| of which saturated fatty acids | 0 g |
| Carbohydrate | 4,9 g |
| of which sugars | 2,3 g |
| Protein | 0,5 g |
| Salt | 0,02 g |
| Alcohol (ethanol) | 4,0 g |
Where and how it is made
Daniele Nespeca, per Birrificio Aries, in Fucecchio.
A two-hectoliter brew · from barley to bottle, all in house
All 76 products by Birrificio Aries- How it is made
- Selection of raw materials, barley milling, mashing, filtration, whirlpool, yeast pitching, primary fermentation in fermenter, secondary fermentation in bottle or keg. All stages on-site: 2 hl brew kettle and two 600 l temperature-controlled stainless steel conical fermenters.
- Other sizes
- 33 cl and 75 cl bottle; 24 l and 30 l keg.
The brewery’s other beers
Gli elementi
Le speciali
