Colomba

Colomba

Brasserie Pietra

Furiani, Corsica, France

This white beer is brewed with a mixture of arbutus, myrtle, juniper and other herbs found in the Maquis, a shrubland in Corsica.

ABV: 5.0

ABW: 3.9

COLOR: 5.3

BITTERNESS: 13

ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1052

AVAILABLE: BRAZIL, CA, CT, FL, FRANCE, IL, ITALY, JAPAN, LA, MA, MD, ME, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, SWITZERLAND, VT, WI

A wheat beer from an artisan brewery on the French island of Corsica, unfiltered and blond-colored, brewed with the addition of botanicals, including myrtle and juniper. It has a creamy and honeyed malt aroma with orange fruit, spices, herbs and pepper. It’s assertively dry in the mouth, with continuing notes of pepper and a strong juniper berry presence, balanced by creamy malt and gentle, bitter hops. The finish is dry, spicy and peppery, with creamy malt and light hops.
- Roger Protz

This cloudy yellow beer is certainly rather different, with nicely integrated Corsican herbs running from start to finish. The aroma is creamy and slightly nutty; the taste is just on the sweet side with a creamy, wheaty texture and a little squeeze of lemon to freshen things up. It’s hard to say which herbs are involved. I detected something lightly minty, such as sweet gale and perhaps some bay leaf, but I suspect the actual inclusions are more exotic. Gentle toffee characterizes the drying, softly bitter finish with those herbs still well in evidence.
- Jeff Evans

Roger Protz
Author of 300 Beers to Try Before You Die and 300 More Beers to Try Before You Die. Respected beer authority and editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and www.protzonbeer.co.uk.

Jeff Evans
Jeff Evans is author of the Good Bottled Beer Guide, The Book of Beer Knowledge and Beer Lover’s Britain. More of his writing can be found at www.insidebeer.com.