What's up Steemians!?

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So as I sip on my delicious Thursday beer, I cannot but wonder what is going on with Steem prices lately. After hovering around USD 1.4, it picked up some momentum and climbed back above USD 2.2 on what seemed to be the definite recovery time for it, but today once again it started to slow down and on even slightly decline again. My girlfriend and I have tested buying some currencies on the market with fiat but with just some small amounts for practice and we are following the trends closely. As we get more used to dealing with crypto as an investment we are certainly going to build a portfolio of several currencies, most importantly, including Steem. So in that sense, this low in Steem and other crypo values is representing a good time for us to invest and practice building a portfolio, which we look forward to doing while the opportunity stands.

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Today I'm going to review a delicious surprise from Italy, a country not known for its amazing stouts, but who managed to take a lot of what's great about Italian food and actually make a really amazing stout. So here is my take on the Piccolo Birrificio Clandestino - Montinera Imperial Stout.

The Stats:

The Montinera is an Imperial Stout with 7.0% abv, which is too low in my view to call it an Imperial, but ok, the IBU and EBC are unknown, and the label doesn't mention which hops are used. I wasn't able to find much on the website either, which didn't even mention this particular beer but rather another Russian Imperial Stout with 9% abv, so it must have been a totally different beer. Weird. Oh well let's see about the flavor profile.

The Review:

Color and Aroma

The Color is Pitch Black and absolutely gorgeous with a Tawny head which sits very densely and tall, pouring the beer at a right angle makes an immense foam as can be seen from the picture, this is done to test the foam profile of the beer. As for the Aroma, now things start to get interesting: coffee, dark chocolate and leather, with an absolutely fantastic background of roasted pine nuts, a brilliant touch for an Italian beer. I can't tell you how good this aroma is, it certainly surprised me and brought me so many memories of great Italian food, this looks quite promising!

For Color and Aroma, I give it 9/10

Flavor and Body

Intense notes of expresso (Italian for sure), as well as burned caramel, chocolate and a smoky heavy malts. The body is dense and very creamy and the same goes for the foam. The carbonation was medium/strong and slightly above my preference for an imperial stout. The strong aromas dissipate away quickly except for the bitterness and the smokiness of the malts. Overall, an explosion of flavors and I am immediately craving some porchetta, how odd.

For Flavor and Body, I give it 8/10

Finish

The finish is buttery, smoky and slightly bitter with very low traces of alcohol. I wish there was more potency in this beer though, since 7% abv seems too low and this could benefit from more strength to go with the wonderful flavors.

For the Finish, I give it 7/10

Overall Score: 8.0 - Highly Recommended!

Overall a beer very potent in flavor and aroma but which finishes light for an Imperial Stout. Highly recommended for pairing with Italian sausages and roasts.

Cheers!