A Bologna beer shop

Some of the beer places I write about involve complicated treks by bus, train or taxi or long walks in strange neighbourhood. I am happy to tell you that this won’t be necessary in Bologna, as the beer shop La Tane del Luppolo is located just ten minute’s walk away from the main sights of the city, on the inside of the ring road that marks the old city walls. Bologna is an nice city to walk around in. Stylish without being too flashy, more opticians and hairdressers than other cities of its size, perhaps. People are still smoking, it even looks like cigarettes are seen as fashionabel accessories by some. It was 15 degrees, so I had a light jacket, while the locals were dressing up like Eskimo’s, as the song says.

But I digress, back to the beer shop. They have a good web site, which includes excel sheets of which beers are available at a given time. They also announce beer tastings and other events, though in Italian only.

I arrived just after the lunch break, and was warmly welcomed when I told them I was looking for Italian craft beers. They did not have any of the Panil or Baladin beers, but there are lots of other interesting brewers that deserve exposure.  The owner opened a few cartons of beers just in from the White Dog brewery, a micro to the south of Bologna run by an English expat that brews beers in British and US styles. There were also  interesting beers from Birra Del Borgo, including beers brewed with unusual ingredients like tea and tobacco (!)

There is a good range of Belgian, German and English beers – even some bottles from BrewDog in Scotland, including their excellent Paradox. Good to see that these beers are having such a a wide distribution, just a year after they started their company.

The customers tend to buy both domestic and imported beers. The shop has been running for about seven years, having moved to the present premises a few years ago. The room is dominated by a huge table, convenient when they have tastings, probably, but it leaves little room for shelves.

I bought a few more bottles than I had intended, but I managed to drag them all back to my hotel. After stocking up on Parmesan cheese, ham, olive oil and other delights of the area, my suitcase was way too heavy when I checked in the next morning. Luckily the staff at Bologna airport are more laid back than they are in Milan or Brussels!