by Prof. Mark Meli
Soralama is an Italian craft brewery located in the Susa Valley of the Piedmont region. They have been brewing for twenty years, yet their beers have just recently begun to be imported by Inpoint Japan. At present four beers under the Soralama brand and three more under the Bitrex brand are available. The former focuses on classic European beer styles, while the latter are more American in style. We had a chance to sample the whole lot recently, and were quite impressed.
Slurp Dry Hopped Pils was the first one we tried. Italian-style pilsners are getting more and more popular around the world, particularly in the USA. True to style, this one was dry, crisp, and hoppy, with Cascade hops giving off aromas of grapefruit and white grape, and a very bitter finish. Ex is a Belgian blond ale made with no less than five grains: wheat, oats, rye and spelt along with barley. It is rich and grainy, with notes of stone fruit and honey. On the stronger side, Oh is a Belgian strong dark, right smack in dubbel territory, with rich, chewy malts, and raisin and chocolate notes. Wow is a dunkler bock with a similar, rich and chewy malt bill, but lighter, and of course a lager.
The Belgian and lager yeast beers were all very enjoyable, but if anything, we enjoyed the American style Bitrex beers even more. They are numbered according to increasing IBU: 40, 50, and 60. Single Hop 40 is an American pale ale using only Simcoe hops. It was bright and resiny with grapefruit, lemon, and pine notes. Crisp and light, it was probably our favorite of the bunch. California 50 is a rarely seen California common beer, fermented with lager yeasts at high temperatures. It was very fruity, both from hop and malt, and finished extremely dry and clean. Bitrex 60 is an IPA made with English malts and American and Pacific hops. It is amber colored and comes out on the malty side, with honey, orange, and peach notes.
There are over 800 breweries in Italy now, where craft beer is more popular than ever. Among those there is a wide variety of quality to be found. Soralama is one of the older craft breweries there, surviving for twenty years on this broad selection of well-crafted beers. We look forward to trying more of their stuff in the future.
Inpoint Japan: info@japancapsule.com
This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.
