Italian brews worth tapping.

• Author: Jones, Marty
• Position: The beer guy

Sure, when gourmands think of Italy they think of red wine, red sauce, and pizzas and pastas accompanied by the same. (OK, maybe they think of Pavarotti and Sophia Loren, too.) No doubt it's the vino that puts Italy on the minds and lips of the drinking set.

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But like any good country or civilization, Italy also lays claim to a respectable beer culture. Unfortunately, like most nations, the most popular beers of Italy are corporate, mass-produced lagers that appeal to the most pedestrian section of the population.

Italy's biggest-selling beers can be found right here in many Colorado stores. At the top of the list (in sales, not flavor) is Peroni's Nastro Azzuro. A relatively ubiquitous beer in the U.S., this green-bottled brew is a diluted version of the classic Pilsener lager upon which America's biggest-selling beers are very loosely based.

As you might expect from a nation with a more sophisticated palate than that of the USA, Peroni boasts a tad more character than its big-selling American counterparts. The straw-colored, thin-bodied lager sports a fast-fading white head and faint aromas of pale malts and pilsener-style hops. It also offers a subdued hint of huskiness and a gently lingering hop bitterness. It's Italian lawn-mower beer, thirst quenching if not life changing.

Two of Italy's other mega brews are made by Birra Moretti, now owned by Heineken. The company's eponymously named flagship is a brassy colored beer that's maltier and less hopped than Peroni. It has a barley off-white head and a nose akin to the crust on fresh-baked ciabatta. Inside the beer are more toasted bread flavors in very measured, understated amounts. It's a refreshing, if unchallenging beer.

While neither of these two brews will cause craft beer fans to run out and by Italian flags for their dens, Moretti's La Rossa just might. This "doppio malto" amber ale is a beefy 7.2 percent alcohol by volume, crowned with a sturdy tan head and a big nose of pralined pecans and brown sugar. Its sugary body offers pronounced caramel flavors akin to a German dopplebock, and the beer's finish delivers more notes of toasted sugar paired with a wallop of alcohol. Surprisingly rich and robust, La Rossa is a very nice beer. Like a good Italian wine, it pairs nicely with much of its nation's cuisine, from rustic breads and meat-laden pizzas to hearty stews and grilled meats and seafoods.

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Granted, it's unfair to judge the beer...