The Grand Allsopp's Tour of Italy
A beer research and sales trip to Northern Italy with Steve and Lisa Holt and Rob Warriner of Kirkstall to visit Italian pubs serving our beers. Who knew that cask ale is 100% a ‘thing’ in Northern Italy? I can assure you it very much is. Although we kicked off proceedings with that most traditional of British airport occasions, a crisp pint of Continental lager in Wetherspoons. Aided and abetted by our excellent Head of Sales, Rob Warriner. Truly the breakfast of champions.
Bologna was our first stop, as guests of our excellent partners, Veltins, to meet distributors and visit the bars and English-style pubs that serve our beers — and especially cask ale. The City of Colonnades was glorious; we paid homage to the great San Petronio and did not let a cut of cured meat pass us by. As intrepid gastro pilgrims, we patronised the famous Ristorante Diana to have their bollito misto trolley of very wobbly cuts of boiled meats and mustard fruits. Hopefully there will be a Stoopsian version on the menu in the not too distant future.
Then by train to Rimini, an old-fashioned seaside resort — in summer an endless horizon of colourful lido grids, but in winter rain, Blackpool came to mind.
We were here for the catchily named "Beer and Food Attraction Exhibition" (orat least that is the English translation), a veritable city of warehouses filled to overflowing with beer and other lesser comestibles. Further evidence of how seriously the Italians take their beer — and due to the proximity of Germany, some fantastic lagers too. With an astonishing 500 individual exhibitors to get round, we spent two days mesmerised by the sheer scale of the event. Our host, Massimo, from Veltins had a sleek stand designed by Porsche, abeacon to retreat to from the bustle, and we were grateful for the refreshing qualities of exceptionally crisp lager.
After these exertions we sought out the famous Rose and Crown in Rimini, the original Italian pub, founded in 1964. The owner proudly announced, to our absolute delight, that he was the first importer of Double Diamond in Italy 40 years ago— evidenced by two Double Diamond mirrors hung on the wall. That night, the revellers from the Exhibition left only when the lights came up and 36 kegs of 50-litre lager had been drunk. Italians do lock-ins differently.
We also ventured into the North Italian countryside with our urbane distributor, Marco,to a fantastic restaurant in Sant'Arcangelo, where we ate, all for the firsttime, a pasta of donkey alongside a terrific pork ragù. Steve mentioned inpassing that the dinner was a little like a retelling of Winnie the Pooh astragedy, in which Eeyore and Piglet are served up for supper at the end.
Onto Vicenza, a spectacular Palladian city, where we visited the Red Quill pub, serving delicious pints of Kirkstall's Best Bitter and Allsopp's Arctic Ale — all the cask in exceptional condition. Rather amazingly, this is the first time a cask of Arctic Ale had been out of the country since it went on an actual arctic expedition in 1875. Little did I know that Vicenza has two pubs serving our beers; the second being the King's Head, where we drank Kirkstall's Virtuous IPA late into the night as a heady playlist of heavy metal unsteadied us.
A trip which was rapidly becoming a grand tour continued next morning to Venice,where we wandered the streets and floated down the canals towards Cannaregio. There we encountered an immaculate pint of Allsopp's Pale Ale at our new friend Giacomo's establishment, the Marciano pub — a must visit. Who would have known that in this of all cities, Allsopp's Pale Ale pours? A supremely proud moment!
After a little sightseeing and a restorative tramezzino e ombra (the first a local mini-sandwiches, the latter a marvellous unfiltered sparkling white wine) in some darkling backstreet bar, we headed off with Marco and Giacomo to Treviso, to the North Bar. There we drank the delicious Leeds Midnight Bell,Kirkstall Jasper, and yet more Allsopp's Arctic Ale. In the Blue Stoops we tend to serve our 11% winter warmer in a half-pint glass, but I witnessed hardy Italians drinking Arctic Ale by the pint — one gentleman had three and was seemingly unaffected.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: selling beer is a dirty business, but someone's got to do it. Next stop might be Finland, where Double Diamond is well on its way to becoming a national brand!
