I'm in Rome, Italy this week (but back by the end of the week for the Weekend of Compelling Ales & Whatnot!) with Dr. Pat and our Birreria Brothers partners-in-crime.

Before heading over, Dr. Pat and I had a pre-flight dinner at the Philly airport. Dr. Pat is the molecular archeologist we've partnered with on some of our Ancient Ales. We are off to work with our pals Leo (of Birra del Borgo) and Teo (of Baladin brewery) to bring a 800 BC Etruscan recipe back to life. We know it had grapes and grains in it and we believe there were at least a couple other unique local ingredients as well.

Dr. Pat readies for travel at the airport.

Here's Dr. Pat marrying the two key ingredients before we even get on the plane. It's like that scene with Belushi in 'Animal House' but a different kind of angel and devil on each shoulder.

Once in Rome, I had the chance to check out the new Eataly store under construction. Here I am with my brewing brethren Leo (Birra del Borgo) and Teo (La Baladin) next to the building. Safety first.

Making plans for the brewery at Eataly Rome.

Today we toured and tech-talked the Birreria floorspace which will be on the second floor of Eataly Rome. The brewery floorspace and tanks will be slightly larger than Eataly NYC with three 10 hectoliter unitanks.This Eataly store is breathtaking and I'm pretty sure it will be the largest retail store in the world. Itll be abutting the train station, so foodies and beer enthusiasts from as far away as Paris and London can make it from home, shop, back to home in less then a day (if they absolutely had to!).

Tonight we have our beer dinner at Open Baladin and a pre-meeting to start digging deeper into technical decisions for tomorrow's test brew of the ancient Etruscan beer.

Ciao for now....