Ölbeat 007: Birrificio del Ducato Machete Double IPA

Brewery: Birrificio del Ducato
Country: Italy
Style: Double IPA
Abv: 7,6 %
@RateBeer

Striking & slashing Italian job

Birrificio del Ducato, founded in 2007, is an awarded Italian brewery from Roncole Verdi, Parma county. Italy and especially Parma area aren't associated with beer but rather with other pleasures of life. Well, if you get quality food and quality wines from Italy then why not quality beer. Machete DIPA, named after the action film, was nicely available in an online store and got caught first.

What about the beer?
Colour is hazy light orange with a fuzzy white head. Aroma has quite mild hints of malt and citrus. Taste gives first a strike of sharp and sweet hops and then builds up with lemon and grapefruit. In the short aftertaste there is a bite of grape juice.

Initially a brutal India Pale Ale attack mellowed a bit down by citrus and the fruity aftertaste and gave some character to the beer. There were some rough attributes but nothing disturbing - decent stuff. After this first date I might keep the number of the brewery and get in contact later. Meanwhile there's time to get acquainted with the other competitors.

Ölbeat

Well, a violently named but nice beer might match with a violently named but nice music. Some power ballad from Slayer? Something worth listening from The Killers? Err, let's see what we found:

Alice in Chains: Rooster (YouTube)

From the 1992 album Dirt, the song launches off with a quiet but eery guitar-bass intro with some high "ooing" notes. After vocalist Layne Staley starts to sing, the song slowly builds angst and restlessness to the aggressive chorus: "Here they come to snuff the rooster... You know he ain't gonna die..." The lyrics were written by guitarist Jerry Cantrell for his father, a Vietnam veteran nicknamed "Rooster". Cantrell wrote the song without ever hearing about war experiences from him personally, but succeeded in capturing and wrapping up the father's feelings in the war. Thus, through a song with heavy anxiety a healing process started within the family. Something pleasant inside the rough shell, like in Machete DIPA.