Aëra
Brown Porter · 75 cl bottle
Roasted grains, burnt malt, dark chocolate
€7,70
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
- Top fermentation, natural bottle conditioning
- Filtration
- Unfiltered, unpasteurized
- Ingredients
- Water, barley malt, wheat flakes, hops, sugar, yeast.
- Allergens
- Gluten (barley malt, wheat flakes).
What it is like
Color
Deep brown
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 London in the eighteenth century and so named because it was drunk by the market porters. The color and the taste do not come from a coloring but from the dark malts. «Brown» indicates the lighter version of the family: brown and not black, with the roasting stopping before the dry burnt note of the stouts, and a body that stays drinkable.
Roasted grains and toasted malts
Barley, before it goes into the kettle, is malted and then heated in a roaster. The longer it is roasted, the darker the grain gets and the more the aromas it will give up change: from biscuit to caramel, then to cocoa, finally to coffee and to burnt. In a porter the dark part of the mix is a minority of the total, but it is the part that decides the color and the aroma.
Wheat in a barley beer
Alongside the barley malt, the recipe has wheat flakes. Wheat carries more protein than barley, and the proteins are what hold the head up: a beer with wheat makes a denser head that lasts longer. It also gives a fuller feel in the mouth. It is a cereal containing gluten: that is why it appears among the allergens together with barley.
What IBUs are
International Bitterness Units: the laboratory measurement of the bittering compounds the hops have given up to the beer. An industrial pale lager sits at around 10-20, a pale ale between 30 and 45, a modern IPA often goes above 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.
The Plato degree
It measures the sugars dissolved in the wort before the yeast begins to work: one degree Plato is equal to one gram of extract per hundred grams of wort. It is from there that both the alcohol the yeast will be able to produce and the body the beer will have in the glass depend.
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
- 75 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
