Belfusto
Pale Ale · 33 cl bottle
English-style hops: herbaceous and resinous
€5,50
What it is, and what is in it
An English pale ale isn't about an explosion of aroma; it's about balance, and Belfusto delivers that. Blonde in color, with a substantial body—more than its color suggests—and an intense aroma.
The hops define its character, used in the English style: grassy and resinous notes return on the palate, not citrusy. Thirty bitterness units at five and a half degrees: the bitterness accompanies, it doesn't dominate, and that's why this beer can sustain an entire meal without becoming tiresome.
Top-fermented, unfiltered, unpasteurized, naturally re-fermented in the bottle.
- Fermentation
- Top fermentation, natural bottle conditioning
- Filtration
- Unfiltered, unpasteurized
- Ingredients
- Water, barley malt, hops, sugar, yeast.
- Allergens
- Gluten (barley malt).
What it is like
Color
Blond
What the brewery drinks it with
The pairings declared for this beer.
- Pizza
- Sandwiches
- Meat dishes
- White or red
The label’s terms, explained
What a Pale Ale is
“Pale”, light, as opposed to the dark beers: the name was born in England in the eighteenth century, when coke-fired kilns made it possible to dry the malt without smoking it and without burning it. It is the ancestor of the family the IPA later came out of, and it stands a step below: less hop, less alcohol, more balance between malt and bitterness. It is a beer made to accompany a meal, not to dominate it.
English-style hops
The historic English varieties — Fuggle, Golding and their descendants — do not give citrus and tropical fruit the way the American ones do: they give grassy notes, of earth, of resin and of tea. They are hops that accompany the malt instead of covering it. The brewery states that it uses them in this style, and those notes are what you find in the mouth.
What IBUs are
International Bitterness Units: the laboratory measure of the bittering compounds 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: at the same IBU a beer with more malt seems less bitter, because the sweetness compensates.
Unfiltered, unpasteurized, bottle conditioned
They are three separate things. Unfiltered: after fermentation the beer does not pass through filters, and the yeast stays in suspension. Unpasteurized: it is not heated to stop the biological activity. Bottle conditioned: a last dose of sugar is added and the yeast produces the carbon dioxide inside the closed bottle. A veil of yeast settles at the bottom: pour slowly and it stays there, pour it all out and the beer becomes cloudier.
What it says on the bottle
The mandatory label information, transcribed from the label of the size on sale.
- Ingredients
- Water, barley malt, hops, sugar, yeast.
- Allergens
- Gluten (barley malt).
- Alcoholic strength
- 5,5% vol.
- Contents
- 33 cl bottle
- Place of production
- Produced in San Pierino, Fucecchio (FI)
| Energy | 192 kJ / 46 kcal |
|---|---|
| Fat | 0 g |
| of which saturates | 0 g |
| Carbohydrate | 3,6 g |
| of which sugars | 0,6 g |
| Protein | 0,5 g |
| Salt | <0,01 g |
| Alcohol (ethanol) | 4,4 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 bottle; 24 l keg.
The brewery’s other beers
Gli elementi
