New UNESCO World Hertiage Sites near Vicenza

This is kind of late news, but it is good news nonetheless.  Two new "sites" (both were really for a string of sites tied together by a singular theme or "significance") were added by UNESCO to the World Heritage Site List, both within driving distance from Vicenza.  One is hailed by the Italian press as more significant due to it being completely housed within the country's borders, the other scattered across six countries but no less significant nonetheless.  

Italian Beer Series: Birrificio Italiano Vudu (Lurago Marinone)

Like Tipopils, Vudu is one of Birrificio Italiano's rifts on classic German recipes, many lost in time due to changing beer consumption habits.  In this case, the dark weizen, a version of the typical German weizen that went away due to the increasing popularity of the pilsner.  Unlike a bock-weizen, this beer is not so strong, at 5.6% alcohol.  Although dark like a dunkel, the flavor of roasted fruits or chocolate is not so pronounced, maintaining the clean fruitiness of a summer weizen.  On pour, the cloudy, dark amber beer produced an off-white large head that lingered on the sides of the glass.  The aroma is of chocolate and the grasiness of weizen, even with a little bit of banana.  The taste is of roasted fruits balanced by the lightness of very prominent carbonation, finished off by a pleasant bitterness.  A surprising beer from Birrificio Italiano, a balancing act of heavy and light that is pulled off with perfection.