The Last of the ReAle's

Sad news was heard round the country a few days ago; Birra del Borgo beers will no longer be imported into the country! and to quote the famous band Metallica "O it's so sad but true."

Now grab the opportunity while you can people. Beer Ritz has done a good job of hovering up quite a lot of stock, so supplies shouldn't run low for a few weeks, but do what you can to try these beers while there still around. (who knows, if we buy it all quick enough maybe there may be a rethink of a restock)

I've taken the opportunity whilst down south to not drink much beer from either the north or south but lots of beer from Italy! Yes it's time to revisit some of my favorites in the Borgo range before they run dry, because I have loved them so much.

A few notable favorites include the ReAle Extra (above), the regular ReAle, My Antonia (Borgo and Dogfish Colab.), a tobacco porter - Ke To Re Porter and a strong 'bock' style ale - Ducale, as well as others. I drank the ReAle Extra yesterday, and it's such a great beer I'm considering buying a case of the stuff! I remember thinking when I first tried it that it was 'great to try beers of this flavour and quality' which weren't from the U.K. or the U.S.A. etc... and it was still true yesterday - this is a supreme brew!  

Now the supplier of this beer to our little island is Vertical Drinks - a small but impressive drinks importer. (which is rather useful to us at Beer Ritz as it's warehouse is just a few miles down the road!)
They are know to import great beers from such breweries like Dogfish Head, Stones, Odells and Sierra Nevada (mainly U.S. yes but unfortunately I'm not sure of there whole portfolio.) and are always devoted to making sure shops like ours and bars like North Bar have something different and interesting on offer.

The reason for the sudden cut of Italian ties is purely due to the fact that Vertical have not been able to shift as much stock as they would have liked, even with beers tasting this good. It's a huge shame, but as we know beers come and go.... and the brewery is not gonna shut down any time soon too (trip to Italy anyone?) Who knows maybe we could see a BrewDog-esk 'Bring back Chaos!' - 'Bring back Borgo!' sort of thing going - if enough people demand it then it would be back. For now though I'll enjoy revisiting a few beers which I thought were epic, and hopefully see them in my future.

P.S. - Holiday times all going well, though we were in a pub the other day where the etiquette out-shined the beer. I was forced by management to remove my very nice Highland Park Whisky hat before I was allowed to drink a single drop. Polite it may be to remove one's hat whilst indoors, but it's never been a point of being refused service! - took off hat and had a good pint of Timmy Taylors Landlord.