My Bologna Week In Beers 01.07.23
Home to the world’s oldest university, an incredible list of local delicacies and 388,367 lucky locals who get to enjoy them, Bologna is an underrated but increasingly popular destination for lovers of Italian cuisine. Tortellini, bolognaise, lasagne, crescentina, mortadella; Bologna seems to boast an impressive line up of local delicacies that would be a favourite to win some sort of food world cup championship.
Excitingly, the young and progressive crowd in Bologna have led to a growing local beer scene which is best seen on the bar-rich street where Katie and I stayed; via del Pratello. Aside from a few bars serving espresso and a great crescentina place, the Pratello is pretty quiet during the day but comes to life at knock off, small bars lifting up their street-art decorated roller doors to keep you hydrated over a long warm evening.
Piazza del Nettuno (left) and via del Pratello (left).
One bar we visited extensively is the brew house for local brewery Zapap, where bartender Danny lead us through the entire range over our four separate visits. On our first night I started with a Lager Hell (4.9%) (which I didn’t realise was by German brewery Schnitzlbaumer) which my notes state was ‘sooo goood’ and a good bridge between Italian and German beers. Alongside a delicious pizza (of which I also sampled most of the menu) I had the Zapap Takedown DDH IPA (6%) that had tastes of guava, pineapple rind and a nice hoppy, distinctly ‘crafty’ punch that I hadn’t had in a long time. I finished the session at Zapap with a certified sesh finisher, Sick Boy Single Hop IPA (6.8%), a grizzly beer that tastes like honey dipped in distortion that will make you say ‘woah boy!’
Afterwards we went stopped at craft bar Birroteca Bukowski for a sessions red that confirmed that Sunday would be a beer free day where we explored the city and ate four courses at one of my favourite places on Earth, Tratoria Serghei.
Birroteca Bukowski (left) and our salumi course at Tratoria Serghei.
On Monday we returned to Birroteca Bukowski as the staff are so nice, they have a good beer lineup and give you bar snacks for free. I enjoyed a Revival Gose by Busa Del Brigrati from Padua which I reviewed.
The following day we decided to go for a beer crawl on the Pratello as a reward for a day we mostly spent working and to get good footage for a video about this amazing street. At a bar with a name I can’t remember I had a Sicilian Messina lager which went down a treat with one of the sides of chips venues provide for free and locals can somehow slowly graze on throughout the night rather than finishing them in one gulp like I always do.
After that we went over to the Craft Beer Bar where I had a large glass of kolsch brewed by an Italian brewer. It was nice but after having had the authentic thing (in the authentic setting) it just tasted a little wrong. What I enjoyed much more was the staff recommended Coal Wars Porter, a black IPA with some juicy, fruity, cheeky flavours.
They didn’t do free chips here though, just saying.
Unknowingly just halfway through our crawl we ended up back at Zapap for a pizza and an Alba Blance (4.5%) a piquant blonde that Danny tops with ginger powder for a distinct and weirdly harmonious kick. Danny then insisted on giving us a can of their Birra Bologna (4.3%) which was an easy going beer that could sit well alongside any of the brilliant Bolognese cuisine.
Somehow we ended up at one more bar with a mostly German selection that I wasn’t as in to after having just spent three week in Germany. I enjoyed a Menabrea (maybe two) which is one of my favourite easy to get Italian beers although it didn’t seem to have as much flavour at the end of the big night. We wanted to have a drunken crescentina but we were too late so we ended up having a weird deep fried calzone instead which is one of the most shameful drunken secret treasures I’ve ever indulged in.
Do you think I was enjoying it? I can’t tell.
Waking up on our last day in beautiful Bologna we got out for a big walk around the city and some tremendous plates of pasta. When we first visited four years ago I had thought it was an ugly city, possibly because we had just come from the 10/10 beauty of Lucerne, Switzerland. Walking through it on that last day I saw it in a different way, the warm red brick, the cosy plazas and ancient buildings ornate in the effortless way Italy manages to be. It really got me very thirsty.
Just off Pratello is an alleged Baladin bar, a taproom that looks as if it is a vendor of fresh beer from the fabled Baladin Brewery a few hours away in Piozzo. As you may be able to tell by my use of the word alleged, this venue was clearly just using the Baladin branding to trick crafty fools like me who are often too easily parted with their money. They had eight taps, two were working, the blonde I had was fine but was overshadowed by the bar snacks which, at least, were free.
Realising I couldn’t be far off trying the whole range, and wanting to say good bye to Danny, we went back to Zapap where I had the American IPA (7.5%), a marching band of flavours with a refined funk that is condensed into a dark and moody beer that makes a fantastic sipper or ‘just having one’ option. Finally we finished with their American Pale Ale, bold and rustic with something my notes say was ‘a rusty delivery’. It was a great one to finish on as if I’d had it first I might not have tried the rest of the menu. This beer can’t be missed.
The weather was too nice to not drink in the outside seating every day.
Returning to a city you once enjoyed can be a risky thing - what if you don’t like it as much? What if it’s changed? Despite the fact I’d only been there once and am in no way Italian, Bologna felt like coming back home again. From the honest shoe repairman, the welcoming restaurant owners and the food that unites the clued-in tourists and socially active locals, Bologna feels like one of those cities that I will keep making excuses to return to for the rest of my life.
