Il Baladin: Beer, Anyone?
From
Cosa Bolle in Pentola, my
newsletter:
Though people generally associate Italy with wine, Italians are
also enthusiastic beer drinkers, and almost every town or city has a number of
pubs that usually fill up in the evening, especially during the summer. They
all sell bottled beer, some just a few standard varieties and others an
impressive range, and most have beer on tap, usually either British or German
or both. Few make their own, primarily because local bureaucracies make it
extremely difficult to set up a brewpub of the sort one might expect to find in
the US or northern Europe. However, things are beginning to happen, and I have
to thank Richard Cooper for introducing me to Teo Musso, whose establishment is
in Piozzo, a town down the hill behind Novello, in the heart of Piemonte's wine
country. Il Baladin is in the main square in the middle of town (Piazza 15
Luglio 15; tel. 0173 795 431), and as you enter it the décor will make
you feel as if you're somewhere else -- Amsterdam, perhaps, or one of the other
Northern European crossroads where all the cultures meet and mingle. With the
first sip of your beer, however, you'll realize that you've settled into a
corner of Belgium. Because that's where Teo learned the art; he opened the
Baladin in 1986, concentrating on Belgian beers and live music, and when he
realized that his list had mushroomed to several hundred labels he decided what
he really wanted to do was make his own. So he went to Belgium, where he
attracted the attention of Christian Van Haverbeke and Jean Louis Dits, two of
Belgium's (and therefore the world's) foremost brewmasters, and then returned
home to deal with the bureaucrats. Dealt quite well, and a few years later
Isaac (dedicated to his son) was declared one of the top beers at the Great
British Beer Festival in London.
In addition to Isaac, which is especially refreshing thanks to hints of coriander and orange peel, there's Super Baladin, a Belgian ale that draws from monastic traditions and was declared the Best Italian Beer in London in 2000, Wayan (dedicated to his second child), a multigrain organically brewed beer, Nora (dedicated to his wife), which is made with Kamut, the traditional Egyptian grain (the name Kamut is now registered; see here and here), and Nöel, a rich dark beer that Teo suggests one might meditate over. If you go on a quiet night you may also get to taste one of the beers Teo has set aside to age, or one of his experiments -- in either case you're in for a treat of terrific complexity and finesse -- and sample his beer jellies, which work very well with the cheese plates he serves (there are also salads and other things). On a busy night you'll instead get to take in a concert; the Baladin draws some of Europe's finest musicians and performers, and the tape that was playing the night Richard and I went was spellbinding.
Bottom line: If you visit Piemonte you should definitely include a stop in Piozzo in your itinerary, and before you go you'll want to check the concert listing at http://www.birreria.com (click on Concerti). And where is Piozzo? On the left bank of the Tanaro River, roughly across from Dogliani.
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