My Milan Week In Beers 14.07.23
Milan is like if the popular Italian kid at school was a place. Fashionable, has a lot of followers and is friendly enough once you get to know them. Katie and I spent eight nights in the Navigli neighbourhood of Milan, a last minute spot we visited for our video project when navigating Lyon during riots seemed like it might be in poor taste. I’m very glad we stopped there.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (right) and the Navigli neighbourhood (left). That much water was such a tease in this heatwave. Quick video of our week.
Milan (or Milano in Italian) not only is home to my favourite cocktail, the negroni, but a fantastic range of local, Italian and European beers ready to wash down the amazing cuisine. The week we visited was also perfect beer drinking weather as it was during a scorching heatwave that meant I was never completely dry. Luckily, throat never was either.
Coming in from Genoa on Friday, we checked into our (unairconditioned) room and literally ran to the Trapizano shop where I had a delicious meatball trapizzano (a crunchy corner of fresh baked bread with pizza fillings inside) alongside an on tap Birra Morretti IPA which appeared almost like an amber but with a triple sweet and bitter tang.
Forgot to get a pic of the beer because I was enjoying the trapizzano too much.
Seriously though, I could drink a cup of bile alongside a trapizzano and still enjoy myself. I ate there two more times throughout the week.
Next we went down to the happening Navigli canal which is packed with great places to eat and drink. We took an unofficial canal-side seat at Navigli Craft beer, a skinny bar with about 12 taps of Italian craft beer with a focus on local. Katie and I each had two altbiers by Birra 100Venti, from nearby Borgomanero, which while a little hard at first really mellowed out and became a soothing drinking experience like catching up with an old friend. We also smashed a refreshing pilsner and a bresaola and brie sandwich as the sun set on what really felt like a magical evening.
Loved this place so much we made a video!
On Saturday I had a beer free day which is a rare sentence for me but while on a big working trip where beer is literally part of the job it is a sensible sentence.
On Sunday I had an alternate take of one of my Italian beer favourites Birra Moretti called filtrata a freddo which means cold filtered. It was appropriately cold but was overshadowed by these amazing sandwiches from La Prosciutteria which have locations around Northern Italy and it’s easy to see why. Seriously, eat here, it was great.
Linking their website so you can find the one near you.
After that we went to a really dingey craft beer bar not far from us where the hungover staff were playing music to themselves while smoking out the front. I had an unusual beer called Draco Is Cave which tasted like drinking a whole vineyard. Nice, dry, winey and really well rounded, reminiscent of a blended Wildflower beer from Sydney.
Can’t remember what IGA stands for. It’s quite possible this was just a wine and I was confused.
On Monday we tried beating the heat at a canal-side bar with those fans that spray water and lots of drunk guys who look like they ‘work in tech’. Sounds more appealing once you know it’s one of those places that give you free food for just sitting down and ordering a drink. I had another take on a Birra Moretti, this one called Birra de Rossa which started off easy with aromas of a bag of brown sugar before developing deep and sticky caramel notes and going down an absolute treat.
According to my notes however, ‘also, it’s just a beer’.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were both shooting days and because I want you to watch our show I won’t spoil what happened but I drank no beer on Tuesday and only one new beer on Wednesday, a Birra Denezia, an inoffensive Belgian blonde. On Thursday I drank a beer called Queer Beer which was a nice and distinct sharp lager.
Friday was our last day and with dinner I had a Menebrea at a brilliant Navigli pasta joint called Pasta Fresca where all the pasta is as fresh as advertised. Menebrea is one of my favourites, I often drink the imported stuff at home after first trying it in 2019. It is incredible, pure and like all great Italian beers, it’s standing out.
Then we headed up the road to a bar called Darsena Craft Beer where I reviewed a schwarzbier by Picobrew, a local brewery from Milan who have their tap room just down the street. I followed it up with another Picobrew a gluten free IPA called Ganassa. It was fruity and full at 6.5%, and well rounded enough that I wouldn’t have known it was gluten free.
Pasta Fresca (right) and Ganassa IPA at Darsena Craft Beer.
Hangovers pending, the craft beer community in Milan is very proud and very friendly. While completely different in style and taste, they have almost the German attitude towards good beer'; it’s a given, a standard and an expectation. Due to the heatwave it was so intensely hot that I don’t recommend going in summer unless the place you are staying has air conditioning because fighting the heat always ended with me coming up short or tipsy. Otherwise, prepare to eat incredibly well at unpretentious venues and enjoy the best beer Northern Italy has to offer.
