Beer and Food

Greetings,

Last May, I had a chance to stop by Milly's, a brew pub in Manchester New Hampshire.



It is situated in a redeveloped industrial area with plenty of parking.

It was a late lunch stop.  So we had just missed the main rush and was in between the after work crowd. There were only three or four other people in the place, one of which was the brewmaster.

The person behind the bar told me that there was a little bit of chocolate Stout left. I can tell you that it was an excellent Stout.



The brewmaster sauntered over to discuss beer. 
I found out this particular chocolate Stout was made with actual chocolate. 
The brewmaster swears he will never do it again after what it did to his pipes. 
The pipes and the brewhouse...






I suggest most of the beers, if you're going to Millie's, but most of all, I suggest they're crunchy fries. These are modern examples of fast food art. And they're so bad for you!



And then it was on the road again, searching for the next brewpub... That would be in Norwich, Vermont. But that was another story...

Cheers!

Peter Lafrance
( peter.lafranec@beerbasics.com / http://www.beerbasics.com )

Greetings,

As the end of the year rolls around, holiday beers roll out. This is an interesting niche specie of beer because it ranges all the way from very high alcohol, high hopped products to things that taste more like pumpkin pie and in some cases, like candy cane. Where did these beers come from? Why are they here?

The granddaddy of them all must be the Anchor brewery “Our Special Ale.”  Legend has it the very first “Our Special Ale” was actually the bridal ale brewed by Fritz Maytag for his wedding.  I have fond memories of anxiously anticipating the arrival of kegs of this product at a place called CCC in Manhattan in the winter of 1980. 

What were being called microbrews were just beginning to take root in Colorado and California .  However, the Europeans decided that this was a good time to develop the North American market and did so with a passion.  Almost all of these beers were consistently copper colored relatively highly hopped and certainly highly priced.  The majority of the market in the United States remained golden colored mass-produced beer.

In major urban areas people with disposable income were able to support the beer importers with an almost insatiable thirst for the unusual. Naturally, there was a fascination with high alcohol beers. At the time the Swiss beer Samichlaus was the highest alcohol beer produced, and was also produced during the Christmas season.  This made it a “Christmas Beer” and it was marketed as such. 

In the part of the world where beer is considered part of daily life, as the weather gets colder the beers get stronger. Winters in a climate that produces four to six months of snow a year call for hearty appetites, and hefty beers. The cuisines of traditional beer strongholds in Germany , France and the United Kingdom offer a seemingly unlimited list of hearty stews, braised meats and roasted birds.  These dishes all demand beers that can stand up to them. Once the Europeans discovered that they could export these higher alcohol beers to the North America and call them “Holiday Beers”, the race was on.

With an understandable desire to emulate the European Brewers, the American microbrewers also began turning out relatively high alcohol beers for the winter seasons.  To the delight of marketing departments everywhere, seasonal beers have become part of the beer culture of North America . To the delight of Brewers, the beer market of North America seems to have no distinction when it comes to the type of beer they drink during a season.  It is not unusual, ring the dog days of summer, to see people enjoying a pint of double Bock.  Likewise, on the coldest day in winter, wheat beers are called for.  Nevertheless, brewers are glad to persevere and present each season with a certain style of beer.

And so, in the end, what is a holiday beer?  The answer to that question is that a holiday beer is a beer that a brewer produces to show off the best attributes of his brewery and of his recipe in the winter season.

In the end,it is the natural progression of beer styles from the cycle of Lite.

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance
( peter.lafrance@beerbasics.com / http://www.beerbasics.com )
 

1,300 Beer Enthusiasts Turnout for AHA Rallies Nationwide

Boulder , CO • October 24, 2007— The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) reports a surge of more than 1,300 new members into their organization over the past two years through AHA Rallies held at craft breweries and brewpubs across the country. The AHA Rallies are turning out to be a successful way to bring new and current members together to celebrate the strong ties between America’s professional and amateur craft brewers.
 

Brewers Association (BA) brewery members host the AHA rallies at their breweries and/or pubs. The rallies often include a VIP brewery tour, beer samples, door prizes, appetizers and a chance to meet the owners and brewers. Rallies are free for AHA members to attend; non-members can join at the door for a discounted rate and participate in all the fun.

Kathryn Porter, Membership Coordinator for the AHA says, “The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) is really trying to create an experience for the AHA member by pairing up homebrewers with craft brewers. It gives them the opportunity to share their passion for beer. Rallies allow our members to have a day to enjoy a local brewery, some beers, snacks, good conversations and meet some new friends.”

Upcoming AHA Rallies include: Boulder Beer Co. (Boulder, CO), Badaboomz Ale House & Grill (Indianapolis, IN), and Raccoon River Brewing Co. (Des Moines, IA). Totaling 23 rallies by the end of the year, January 2008 will be the beginning of the third year of AHA Rallies with several rallies already scheduled. Visit www.AHArally.org  for more details.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Brewers Association
Cindy Jones, Sales & Marketing Director
Phone: +1.303.447.0816, ext. 144
Fax: +1.303.447.2825
E-mail: cindy@brewersassociation.org
Web Site: www.beertown.org

Greetings,

Is very important that you know when and when not to drink beer.

You should drink beer when you want a beer.
You should drink a beer when there is one in front of you.
(Unless you already had five or six earlier in the last hour.)
You should drink a beer when someone buys a round.
When the menu calls for it, you should drink beer with your meal.
Despite what science tells us, you should drink beer on a hot summer day when you are thirsty.
(Science says it dehydrates you, I say not if you drink enough of them.)
You should drink beer to celebrate a special occasion.

You should not drink beer when you've had too many.

How do you tell when you've had too many?

When you can convince yourself that you're the smartest person in the pub, the most attractive person in the pub, in fact the very best person there is in the pub.

That's when you've had too many!

Cheers!
Peter LaFrance
(peter.lafrance@beerbasics.com - http://www.beerbasics.com )

Greetings,

It might not be front page news but the following news items should be noted:

Czech out the vending machines of the Czech Republic:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/22/business/EU-FIN-Czech-Beer-Machines.php


What I want to find under the Christmas Tree:
http://crunchgear.com/2007/10/23/patrolbot-brings-you-your-beer-warns-of-intruders/


The bovine of the United Kingdom are happy (at least some of them)!
http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=IPED21%20Oct%202007%2017%3A33%3A59%3A367

And the folks "Down Under" are seeing the cost of a beer going up!
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/a-hard-earned-dollar-buys-less-cold-beer/2007/10/20/1192301103432.html


I can't take any more good news...



Cheers!
Peter LaFrance


( peter.lafrance@beerbasics.com / http://www.beerbasics.com )

Greetings,

As the weather gets cooler and the days shorter here in New York I have a fond summer memory I would like to share with you.

This August my wife and I decided that instead of enduring the city heat we would drive out to Long Island for a short overnight trip  to Southhampton, stay in one of the local inns and visit a local brewpub. Long Island can boast of at least four brewpubs and a brewery, all put out good beer. However, on this particular day, the traffic was heavier than usual. As we passed through the small hamlet of Hampton Bays we decided we were hungry and thirsty enough to weigh anchor at a fishing boat station situated on the Shinacock Inlet; an unassuming pier where small boats tie up get petrol, bait, and beer, before spending a day out fishing.

On this particular afternoon that heat was stifling, and as I said earlier, we were both thirsty and hungry. We both remembered that the Shinacock boat station as having some of the best peel-your-own shrimp we have ever tasted. We were slightly disappointed to discover that they no longer serve this particular delicacy. Nevertheless, we sat down in the shade, and ordered what they had: fried clams, fried fish (type unknown), fried shrimp, and a pitcher of Budweiser beer.








Fried food and Budweiser, I plead guilty!

Cheers!
Peter LaFrance

( Peter.LaFrance@beerbasics.com / http://www.beerbasics.com )

 

Greetings,

There are a few ways to gain a real appreciation of beer. The first is to do a lot of beer tasting. The second is to cruse the World Wide Web and follow every link you can find. The former is more accurate and more expensive. The later is less expensive but can waste hours. Somewhere in between is the world of books.  Over the last two months I've acquired four books sent to me by the publishers for my comment.  I was especially pleased to get all four of them, because I at least knew of or about the people that wrote these books. 

The first to arrive was fermenting revolution by Christopher Mark O'Brien.  Before I had a chance to read this book I had a chance to meet Mr. O'Brien. We exchanged books,  I signed mine and he inscribed in his.

Fermenting revolution (How to Drink Beer and Save the World) by Christopher Mark O'Brien (ISBN 13: 978-0-86571-556-1):

The full title of this book is Fermenting Revolution (How to Drink Beer and Save the World)... I can tell you that Mr. O'Brien and I have one thing in common; we both truly enjoy drinking well made brews. (I am also rather sure that he and I also enjoy well prepared foods but I can not be sure of that. The venue for our book signing/exchange was a beer tasting at a vegan restaurant in Manhattan.) When it comes to politics and our views of history we disagree. I have a great deal of respect for zealots. Their dedication is something I will never be able to attain and I know it. Their point of view however, is by the nature of the situation, focused to such a fine point that supporting evidence becomes superfluous. Thanks to Mr. O'Brian I can tell you that most of the ills in the societies of this world today can be directly attributed to the fact that beer is no longer brewed as part of the family meal by women of the house. To paraphrase the cartoon character Homer Simpson: "Commercial beer is the cause and not the cure of all mans ills."

The Beer Guide (Edited by Josh Oakes) ISBN 1-892588-16-1

For those of you World Wide Web surfers this book's for you! Josh Oakes has compiled this pocket (well, big pocket) sized tome is, as we learn from the blurb on the back of the book: "Based on a consensus drawn from hundreds of thousands of reviews posted on RateBeer...". In short, what we have here is a print version of the RateBeer.com site with all of the shortcomings of being in print. (I like that because I can not take my lap top to the beer distributor and refuse to own a smaller Black$$$$ry.)

Grilling with Beer by Lucy Saunders (ISBN 13: 978-0-9769875-0-5)

I really wanted to like this book even though I live in an apartment and the chance of grilling food is infinitesimal. I wanted to like this book because I like and respect Lucy Saunders. I wanted to like this book because the design of the book. (It has spiral binding that makes it easy to open to the page you need and have it there in the cooking area, open to the page you need to see. Not flopping closed every time you move the heavy object you placed on it to hold it open.) You should like this book for all of the above reasons (except for my personal ones). If you have food grilling apparatus you can use, and you are just beginning to explore beer as a cooking ingredient I suggest you acquire this book. I can only hope the book stores place this book in the cooking section. In the "beer" section it will disappoint geeks and leave the newbie wanting more.

N.B.: Ambitious Brew (The Story of American Beer) by Maureen Ogle (ISBN 978-0-15-603359-6) is the paperback version of her book.

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance

( peter.lafrance@beerbasics.com / http://www.beerbasics.com/ )

Greetings,

The flight of Gilded Otter brews...

Greetings,

While it is not unusual for a restaurant to have a "house" beer, it is most unusual to hear of a beer brewed specifically to pair with a restaurant's menu. This is the story of such a beer.

Oleana, a James Beard Award winning restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, offers Eastern Mediterranean/Turkish cuisine and is known for its fine wine list. What makes this fine dining restaurant unique however is its C3, a unique beer brewed with cumin, coriander and cardamom, presented in 350 ml brown bottles with a distinctive label.

In early May of 2002,  I had a chance to taste this beer paired with three of the restaurants better known dishes. The beer added depth of flavors to the tamarind glazed beef short ribs with the malty base and pungent spice flavors in the finish. On a lighter side, it blended the flavors of broiled baby sole with raki, crab and eggplant soufflé and refreshed the pallet with a hint of sweet finish rather than bitter hop flavors. With grilled lamb steak the malty finish, and the cumin, coriander and cardamom, emphasized the spices used to rub the lamb. I would have been hard put to choose a wine from their well-appointed list that could have done the same.

On a stifling Sunday afternoon three months later, just before dinner service, I sat down with Chef Steve "Nookie" Postal in the garden of Oleana, to hear the story of C3.

First of all I wanted to know how Chef Postal "discovered" beer and just how serious he and Chef/Owner Ana Sortun were about the beers served at Oleana.

Postal's appreciation of unique beer began five years earlier when he was enjoying a night out with friends and choosing a beer from the tap list at the Toad in Porter Square, "It was Allagash White," recalled Postal. "I remember how great it was the first time I had it. They had twenty beers on tap and I had never heard of it, so I figured I'd give it a try. It was like no beer I had ever tasted before. After that I made a real effort to try new beers."

Chef Postal admitted that Oleana is best known for its wine list. "Our beer list is for the non-wine drinkers who are looking for familiar brands, and for regular customers who know Turkish beers and ask for them by name. In fact we probably use more beer in our "beer batter" dishes than we sell. The fact is that we are known for our wine list and 85-90% of our customers drink wine. But everyone who has tried the beer has told us they loved it."

He also admitted that, "After work on ‘the line' all night in the kitchen I don't want a heavy dark beer... My favorite is a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon."

Nevertheless, from the beginning he and Chef Sortun were determined to have a house beer that would pair well with their cuisine. While working on the details in the beginning stages they started looking for a brewery that took brewing as seriously as they did cooking. They happened on Cisco Brewers on Nantucket Island and it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

As Chef Postal told me, "In November and December of 2001 we approached Randy and Wendy Hudson at Cisco Brewers (a seven barrel brewery) on Nantucket Island. I went out to visit with them and Jason "Jay" Harmon offered to show me how to brew. I stayed with them for a while to get a real understanding of the brewing process."

From the beginning it was not smooth sailing. Postal said that, "The first experiment was with orange blossom water and rose rosewater but something happened during the fermentation and it didn't work. Then, in May and June we tried another batch using fifteen pounds of organic rose petals. It was amazing how many rose petals make up fifteen pounds. That batch also ran into problems and, again, something went wrong with the fermentation."

"Then we started thinking about hard spices," said Postal. "We knew we didn't want a "Christmas" style beer so we tried the three spices (cumin, coriander and cardamom) that we use in a lot of the dishes here at Oleana. The basic brew was an IPA and the spices were just enough to give it a unique flavor, but not overpowering. They brewed 65 cases the first time and in the eight or nine months we have had it on the beverage menu we have sold over sixty-one cases. We just ordered a second batch."

 "It is great working with the Cisco folks," said Postal. "They not only brew the beer, they are willing to hold them for us in the right environment so all we have to do is go and get what we need."

The entire process impresses Chef Postal and he made that clear when he told me quite bluntly, "I think they are true artisans."

And that's the way it was...

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance

( peter.lafrance@beerbasics.com / http://www.beerbasics.com )

 

De Proefbrouwerij Saison Imperial (Belgian Farmhouse Ale)

Good morning,

This is an effervescent little devil.  Poured at room temperature it threw (developed) quite a head. I had to wait a good few minutes for to settle down. This extra time allowed me to enjoy a wonderful aroma that came from this beer; a lime-citric and herbal scents that challenged the olfactory senses but in certainly less than offending way.

Appearance: This is a beautiful light red copper colored, very effervescent brew topped by a lacy frothy, almost linen white colored head that could never be described as dense, and yet it certainly is appropriate. (I alcohol beers have a tendency to lose their head very quickly.  And this one is marked at 8.5% alcohol by volume.)

Aroma: As noted earlier, this has a very friendly aroma.  In that it is not off-putting and yet it has a complexity of different aromas that remain interesting.

Mouth feel:  This beer has a very full effervescent creamy tingling mouth feel.  The first sip reveals its relatively high alcohol content.  However, this is not unpleasant.

Flavor: Throughout the flavor profile of this product, there is a distinctive Belgian yeast fermentation/ester and flavor profile that is, in this case, a most pleasant thing.  Again, the high alcohol content of this beer calls for a little bit of skill with the brewmaster.  In no way could this brew be called thick or viscous though the malts levels are very high. The same sense of balance can be said of the hops.  This brew has a distinctive bitter, sour flavor, but again, when it is taken in context with the alcohol content and the malt content is less than offensive and certainly enjoyable.

Finish: This brew has a remarkably light finish to it.  Again, I believe it is because of the excellent balance between the sour, the sweet and the bitter that makes this the beer that it is.

Comments: As noted earlier, this beer was served at what could be called cellar temperature that is 50°F.  At this temperature the flavors and aromas in this beer were able to show themselves to their best advantage.  This beer is labeled as a Saison Imperial Belgian farmhouse ale. If this was a beer that was drunk in the farmhouse I wonder what was drunk in the main hall. 

What it lacks is the crude appearance and flavors that make Belgian farmhouse ale, unique, in the classic sense of the word.  I will say that this is an excellent beer, and I intend to purchase a few bottles of my own. However, I find that the plastic used to "cork finish" the product a little off-putting.

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance

( peter.lafrance@beerbasics.com / http://www.beerbasics.com/ )