Birra Basta – The Finale

So we come to the end of the story, at least this story that began with Kelly Whitaker and I challenging Patrick Rue to make a beer inspired by a pizza. If you’ve been following it from the start this finale segment is kind of a denouement, as we, sated and satisfied, drift off into the Denver sunset, having our own Pizza Quest version of a Rocky Mountain high. If you are just joining us, please go back, via the Webisodes button above, and catch up — it will quite enjoyable, I promise.

In this final segment, Kelly decided to tweak the “Challenge Pizza” by replacing the white anchovies with house cured pork belly. In retrospect, I wish we could have done one more version, with both the bacon and the anchovies but, hey, the sun was going down, we were were running out of ingredients, that amazing Birra Basta was waiting for us, and the keg was getting quickly drained by the rest of our thirsty crew. Besides, the switch to pork belly gave us a chance, after doing dozens of these webisodes, to get one of my all-time favorite sound bites, as you will hear, this one from beer maker extraordinaire, Patrick Rue: “Bacon is my favorite vegetable.”