I'd read about Mamma Mia pizza flavored beer a few months ago in an article in the Chicago Tribune. I really thought it was more of a novelty than a beer that I'd really like to try. I was in Chicago recently and my buddy, Randy Adams, asked me to pick some up to bring back. I found the beer at Famous Liquors and brought 8 bottles home with me. I gave half to Randy and kept the other half for me.
First of all, Mamma Mia Pizza Beer is not that bad. It's a brown ale, so it doesn't have a bite to it. But the beer boasts ingredients of crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano and garlic, all of which can be discerned when tasting. I wouldn't say it's something that I'd slam back on a hot summer day, but I could see myself drinking this when I'm eating, say, pizza.
The story behind Mamma Mia starts out with Tom Seefurth, a real estate broker from the far west Chicago suburb of St. Charles. Seefurth decided to start brewing his own beer at home in 1998. He quickly graduated to a bigger and better brewing apparatus and began to play with ingredients along the way.
Seefurth, along with his wife, Athena (pictured right), came up with the pizza flavored concoction in 2006. Relying upon a large supply of tomatoes, garlic and herbs they grew in their own garden, Seefurth began to play around with the ingredients before he finally got what he thought was the proper taste he was looking for. The second batch was just as good and they made meticulous notes as to how much of what ingredient they added to the brewing process.
Word spread about this "Pizza Beer" that even included a mention by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show last June. Soon, the Seefurth's were looking for a brewery to brew and bottle the beer on a larger scale. They contracted with Sprecher Brewery in Milwaukee to make their pizza beer in bigger batches than what he was able to do in his garage. That's why when you see a bottle of Mamma Mia Pizza Beer it comes in a Sprecher brewery bottle. At first glance, I thought he possibly used Sprecher bottles during his brewing process. But then I saw that it was, indeed, brewed by Sprecher.
I met up with Randy and his girlfriend, Lorrie, at a bar in downtown Davenport. Along with a mutual friend, Connor, we all wanted to give the beer a try. I poured four small glasses of the pizza beer out of the 16 oz. Sprecher bottle. We were all a little apprehensive at first. After the usual smelling of the beer - which did smell like fresh herbs - we all took a drink.
As I said before, it wasn't bad. It definitely did have a pizza taste to it. Since it's brewed as a brown ale, it's not very heavy and is very smooth to drink. We all remarked that it would be good to drink with pizza, but Connor said, "I don't know if I'd be able to taste the beer if I had it with pizza."
I thought it was like taking a bite of pizza and washing it down with a quick drink of a beer. Randy said, "Oh, man. That's a lot better than I expected."
I said that I'd like to take a bottle over to Stashu's and Sons Pizza in Moline since they don't serve beer at the restaurant. I said, "Those guys would get a kick out of this stuff."
I have four bottles left of the beer and I can get more when I go into Chicago. It's only sold by the bottle and not in six-packs. ($1.99 a bottle at Famous Liquors.) Even though Seefurth calls it "The World's First Culinary Beer", I still view Mamma Mia Pizza Beer as a novelty. But it's an interesting beer, to say the least. I'd drink it before I'd have any of the fruit beers that seem to be such the rage. Yuck!
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