Beer and Food

Greetings,

This time we are going to discover the different flavors that malted barley brings to beer and ale.  To begin with, it is helpful to understand the reason for “malting” barley. 

First of all, the barley grain is not particularly suited to the baking of bread as it has far less gluten in it than its friend wheat.  However, if it is allowed to germinate, and then dried, the starches that are created in the germination process, helped along by enzymes that are already in the grain, are ideal for creating the sweet liquid that is the first step in modern brewing.  At the beginning of the brewing process. the mixtures of malts are crushed together to create “Grist” which becomes a “Mash” when the selection of different types of malted barley are ground up and added to hot water.  This allows the starches that I mentioned before, to come in contact with the enzymes, I also mention before, to create a sugary porridge. The liquid that is drained from this sugary portage is called “Wort”.

As I noted before, the germinated barley is dried at the end of the process called malting. The flavor of this grain resembles an unroasted nut like character on top of the fairly full mouth feel that the starch brings to the table. This is the basic flavor of malted barley. This malted barley is then roasted at different temperatures to create different flavors that the brewer can use in creating beer and ale.  The industry uses what is called a “standard reference method” scale ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Reference_Method ) I prefer the unscientific terms of “lightly roasted.”, “richly roasted.”, “fully roasted”, “black malt”. (There is of course a great deal of difference in flavors between the first and last mentioned malt.)  The amount of roasting creates the flavors that range from slightly sweet, to an almost tannic dryness.  Some of the favorite words used to describe these flavors are: nutty, grainy, toasted, roasted, woody, caramel, sugar candy, molasses, treacle, brown sugar, and one of my favorites “burn sugar cane”.  The brewers have names for the malts in the degree to which they are roasted.  A full listing of these, as far as I’ve gotten, can be found at my website.

To begin to fully experience the full flavor influence that malted barley has on beer, it is important to actually taste some malted barley. I suggest contacting either a homebrew supply shop, or natural/health foods store.  The homebrew supply shop should be able to supply you with a range of flavors, and the natural/health foods store should be able to supply you with the essential flavor.  As I mentioned in a previous blog many commercial breakfast cereals also include a high percentage of malt grains in their products as well.  Consult the fine print on your breakfast cereal to determine just how much malted grain is in your product.

After that first refreshing sensation of cold liquid satisfies your thirst and expectations, the first sweet notes of the malted barley should come through.  In this brief moment you have the chance to cross-indexed and categorize any remembrance of sweet that you have ever had.  A quick review of these sensations can give you the vocabulary starting points for the description of this beer or ale.  As I’ve mentioned before, it’s helpful not to think of this as a beer or and ale, rather to think of it as a refreshing carbonated beverage.  This way you do not approach the tasting with a great deal of preconceived notions. Two things will give you a greater appreciation of the malts used in the beer or ale that you are tasting.

The first thing to remember is the temperature has a great effect on how you taste any type of flavor.  The colder something as the less flavors, you will taste.  The warmer something is the greater the chance of flavors to develop.  I offer the following example: I will admit that almost any mass-produced yellow beer is very refreshing when it is ice cold, a sip of that same beverage after it is reached room temperature is almost intolerable.  I suggest you try the experiment yourself.  The second thing to remember, or should I say be reminded of, is that most taste is actually the reaction to aroma.  By exercising your old factory capabilities to their maximum between the lip and sip allows you to fully appreciate the influence that the malts use have on that particular beverage.

It is also important to keep in mind that the impression that the hops bring to the table soon follow on the impressions that you get from the malts.  Their rush to the altar to wed, and they’re hopefully happy marriage, will give you plenty of time at the ends to appreciate the influence of the hops.

But that is for another blog…

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance.

(Peter.LaFrance@beerbasics.com )

Greetings,

As I mentioned in a previous blog, you really only have three chances to experience the aromas of the particular beer or ale that you’re tasting. As I noted before, the reason for this is that the first experience provides you with sensual first impressions.  After brief reflection, the second chance allows you to experience the aromas of this particular beer or ale, confirm what you first perceived and perhaps find one or two other sensations hiding beneath the initial impression.  The third chance to experience the aromas of a particular beer or ale is actually the first step in “tasting” the beer.

And so we actually began tasting the beer. During that moment between lip and sip, the aromas that you have been experiencing have started to resonate in your nasal passages.  Once you have swallowed the first sip of beer, additional aromas will be released at the back of the throat to echo the first impressions in the nasal passages.  This is why “tasting” beer is different than “tasting” wine.  The technique for experiencing wine involves what is called a “bit bucket”.  This is a container for you to discreetly spit your wine after swirling it around in your mouth and experiencing the different taste and aroma sensations.  With wine, all of the essential sensations can be experienced in a sip aerate swirl and spit. To fully experience all of the flavors and aroma of beer, the beer must be swallowed. For that, beer tasters from the beginning have always been grateful.  But I digress…

And so you experience that first sip of beer.  Naturally, the first impression is one of the cool liquid.  If you are lucky and it is a well-made product, the next sensation should be a slightly prickly sensation on the tongue from the carbonation.  I hope you’ll notice that so far I haven’t mentioned anything about flavors.  It is important to understand these first physical sensations are present and have an effect on what you will taste.  The colder a product is the less you will be able to experience any of the flavors or aroma sensations.  On the other hand, the warmer a product is the more the faults of both flavor and aroma will stand out.  The faults would be anything that is considered to disturb the balance of a beer.  You are about to experience the second part of this balancing act. 

Now is the time that the sweet, grainy, cereal, roasted flavors should become evident.  Now it is time for the malt to show its stuff.  Here is where the brewmaster is able to play with a palette of flavors that no winemaker has at his or her hand.  Range in color and flavor of roasted malts is far too fast to be discussed here.  I can assure you that there are many websites covering this particular subject.  That said, I’ll concentrate on the basic sweet flavors that “pale malt” and “caramel” malt at to almost any fermented malt beverage.

If you have never been to a professional or home brewery, I can suggest that if you wish to experience the taste and aroma of malted barley that you check on the side of your commercial cereal box and see if the words “malt” is anywhere mentioned on that label.  If it is, it is usually considered one of the most dominant flavors. For those fortunate enough to have access to an old-fashioned candy store, both the malted milkshake, and malted milk balls will give you the impression similar to the flavor found in beer.  The not like flavor as a richness and roundedness that is unique to malted barley.  (For more information on how barley is malted please check my website: http://www.beerbasics.com/ ).

In the next edition of this blog I will go further into the different flavors that malted barley bring to the beers and ales.

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance.

(Peter.LaFrance@beerbasics.com )

Greetings,

Today I’m going to stay on the subject of aromas.  I find it amusing that the subject is called beer “tasting” or for that matter wine “tasting” when so much is involved in the olfactory sense. It has been agreed for a long time, in the culinary sense as well as a scientific sense that the actual things we taste consist mainly of variations on four themes: sweet, sour, bitter, and salt.  There are some of us who can taste more variations on these themes and there are some of us who can taste fewer variations on the same basic themes, but nevertheless, these are the basic “flavors”.  It is our sense of smell that adds the incredible range of nuance to what we call “taste”.

And so, it is almost impossible to begin to taste the beer without first smelling it.  Most beers, as soon as you open the bottle, give you an idea of the type of beer that they are by the aromas that give off.  (Should the beer be in a green glass bottle, there is a good chance you might experience the particularly memorable aroma of “skunk”.) This initial aroma explosion is particularly true of ales.  The reason for this is that the volatile oils in the hops used in making ales are particularly pungent.  There are also a great deal more hops used in the production of ales than there are in the production of lagers.  It is also noteworthy, that the actual fermentation of lager takes approximately 31 days, while the production of ale takes approximately 7 days.  Logically, there should be more volatile oils in the ale than they would be in the lager.  Once again I digress…

Appreciating the aroma of beer begins with the understanding of the theory of “three”.  You have three times to appreciate all of the different aromas that there are in a particular beer.  After that, you will have already thought about what you are experiencing and the chance to find a new flavor or a new aroma becomes remote.  You also have become familiar with some of the flavors and aromas from that particular beer and familiarity breeds less appreciation.

I would like to speak for a moment on the appreciation of aromas.  If you are lucky, or if you decide to pay attention, you should be able to ascertain the difference between the aromas of a slate sidewalk, and asphalt roadway, and the concrete sidewalk after a summer rain  For those of you who are not urban creatures, you should be able to tell by smell alone when you’ve crossed over from pasture or grassy area onto the plowed or bare earth.  The particular mix of petroleum and petroleum products that hover in the atmosphere when you are working on the engine of the automobile is a unique mixture of aromas.  You can say that these aromas are metallic, or oily, perhaps there is a hint of rubber, or asphalt.  All of these of the words are words that you would use to describe the atmosphere in an automobile garage. By naming particular things you call to mind, not only what they look like but what they smell like. It is this ability that is helpful to bring into mind when you are tasting and appreciating the aromatics of a beer.  In fact, I find it and interesting exercise to put words to any of aroma or flavor, of what I might experience at any particular time of the day or place I might be.  That sort of exercise doesn’t help with long-term thought processes and they can send them into quite interesting directions.  But once again I digress…

And so you have three chances to appreciate all of the aromas of the beer that you are about to “taste”.  How you go about executing these three chances will be the topic of the next blog.  Stay tuned…

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance.

( Peter.LaFrance@beerbasics.com )

Greetings,

When a group of people get together and discuss a particular topic that is common knowledge to all of them a sort of jargon develops. If you add a level of professionalism, the jargon becomes part of the conversation.  For instance, if a professional chef says that his “line got slammed”, it does not mean that an audience thought his joke was not funny.  It means the rest of the cooks in his kitchen had so many orders that they couldn’t get them out on time. Of course, for a comedian, anything that has to do with the kitchen is probably a foreign language.  But I digress…

When I taste beer, I try and think of it as simply a carbonated beverage of a particular color, smells a particular way and has some flavors.  If I do not think of it is beer, it makes it a lot easier to detect many of the flavors that are already there.  If I think of it is beer I start looking for particular flavors such as roasted malt, or that bitter tang of a particular hop a particular brewer is known to use. If I clear my mind and palate sufficiently, it is often possible to discover flavors and taste sensations that would be missed if the label had been affixed to that particular beer. Starting with that mindset, I get ready to experience the first set of flavor sensations that beg to be named.

The aromas are the first thing you’re going to experience when you taste beer.  A good deal of this comes from the aromas given off by the decomposition of the head, or crown of foam that floats on top of the beer.  Each of these bubbles release aromas that can be sensed as the beer is poured.  These aromas come particularly from the hops, and to a lesser degree from the type of malt used in the beer or ale. Exploring these aromas, the taster uses of the map of their particular past experiences.  For instance, I have experienced icy cold winter evenings in the state of Vermont.  I can tell you from that experience that the air has a slightly metallic taste to it.  Perhaps it is the temperature, perhaps it is the lack of moisture in the air, but there is a particular metallic taste to frigid air when the temperature gets below a certain degree.  I often find this metallic taste echoed in the aroma of the Cascade hop in particular.  Other hops can impart a blackberry aroma, or the distinct aroma of grapefruit.  So far, the association with fruit is helpful in understanding the aroma.  However, many rustic beers, such as French farmhouse, and many of the Belgian beers, present less delicate aromas.  The term “barnyard” aroma is often used.  For those of an urban persuasion this word might not mean much.  For those who have ever visited a working farm, the word takes on a homely dimension.  Along this line, I’ve often heard critics of white wine, described that product as tastings slightly of “cat urine.”  I have experienced some wheat beers, exhibiting slightly “fecal” aromas.  As for the cat image,  I’ve always believed that the cat chases the mouse in the brewery.

And this is just the beginning of our exploration of the vocabulary of the beer taster.  I invite you to stay tuned over the next few weeks for further additions.

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance.

( Peter.LaFrance@beerbasics.com )

Greetings,

Romantic tradition has it that after of these holiday meal.  The gentleman retired to the parlor, and the women stayed at the table to enjoy coffee.  In the parlor, the gentlemen were afforded small glasses of Porter and hearty slices of Stilton cheese.

Not being a traditional sort, I consider a good barley wine a better accompaniment to a fine slice of Stilton cheese.

Barley wine, or “strong beer”, as the flavor profile that borders on dry sherry, or tawny port.  What makes it more appealing, beside the fact that the flavors of almonds and other nuts accompany this type of cheese perfectly, is a slight acidic tingle that the carbonation provides, carbonation is essential in a barley wine. There are almost as many barley wines as there are port and sherry wines.

If the thought of strong beer and stinky cheese is not your favorite way to celebrate the end of the meal, perhaps a rich chocolate dessert with a pint of stout is more your speed.  It also tends to be a little bit lower and alcohol content.  Most commercial stouts, and Porter’s, go well with chocolate.  Lighter chocolate desserts such as a chocolate mousse, or a chocolate pot, enjoy the company of Porter.  The more substantial the chocolate, both in flavor and texture, the more a hearty Stout is called for.

For those of you who are truly experimental, and willing to contact me by e-mail, I have some recipes for Stout ice cream that some say is the perfect end to a great meal.

As for myself, I’m going to reach for another bottle of the French Farm style ale in the not too thin slab of Roquefort cheese, slice of apple, and a handful of hazelnuts.

The End…

A happy holiday to everyone!

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance.

( Peter.LaFrance@beerbasics.com )

Greetings,

And now we come to the fun part of the menu, the meat of the matter, you might say.

Depending on your particular tradition, one of the following three will probably find their way to your holiday celebration table: goose, ham, or beef.  Those of us who read the Christmas Carol as a ritual this time of year, are well aware of the Christmas Goose.  My mother’s side of the family, from the southern part of the United States, favor ham at this season.  There have been many stories of Christmases past, when she lived as a child in New Orleans, in which ham plays an important part.  As for me, the last twenty years or so have always featured a standing rib roast at the holiday celebration table.  This year, tradition will be broken and the table will feature a stuffed pork loin in Kriek sauce.

Bringing beer, rather than wine, to the table takes the holiday dining experience to a whole level. Let’s start with the Christmas Goose.

The Christmas Goose:

Goose is usually roasted in a hot oven, allowing the fat to render out, leaving the meat juicy and tender. If it is properly done, this is one rich flavored bird. I would be tempted to follow the romantic lead of Charles Dickens and pair it with a India Pale Ale.  It would not be far out of line to suggest a barley wine, either.

The Christmas Ham:

While a goose is a goose is a goose, a ham is not a ham is a ham.  There are fresh hams, smoked hams, cured hams, and the always popular pork butt. (Let’s not forget the spiral cut ham. That pig was the most considerate creature.) Those who would bring wine to the table are happy to bring a Bordeaux or a Chianti.  In the case of pairing beer with this pork, rustic is also good. With ham, what we have are two flavors, salt and sweet, so you are not looking for a heavy-duty palate cleanser here. Something refreshing, and slightly sweet would fit the bill perfectly.  If it is a baked ham, without a sauce, Pale Ale would be the perfect accompaniment.  If you’re looking for something a little bit more powerful, then Scottish Ale is called for.  Live dangerously, and pair it with one of the unusual Belgian fruit beers.

The “Roast Beast”:

If you are incredibly lucky this year, and find yourself standing before a beautifully rare seven-rib-standing-roast, you are in an outstanding situation to pick the perfect libation.  Traditionally, a hearty red wine is served in this situation.  With all of the side dishes that poor wine would have to battle with it would surely lose the war. Beer, on the other hand, of many kinds, is just itching to get into the competition.  There are so many choices; I will limit myself to my own favorite.  I would choose one of the many outstanding French Farm beers that are available on the market today.

And there you have it, a taste of the season… goose, ham, or roast beast!

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance.

Peter.LaFrance@beerbasics.com .

Greetings,

This time we take a look at the pairing of beer and cheese.

As a much younger journalist, covering the wine tastings held for the benefit of the importers, and the fourth estate, I soon learned how things worked. The importers got their products mentioned in the press and the press got to eat and drink gratis. I also received an education in the marketing of both products, tutored by some of the best in the writing business.

One of the first comandments was that there was an unspoken understanding amongst us all that cheese can make a cheap wine taste better than it actually was. The importers and the cheese mongers also had this romantic pairing tradition on their side, an easy “story hook.”

An academic take on the subject can be found at the following cite: “For her masters thesis at UC Davis, graduate student Berenice Madrigal proved that even the mildest cheeses mute the subtleties of the red wine drunk with them.” ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/molly-laas/beer-and-cheese-a-match-_b_51136.html )

A lot has happened since Cheese & Wine 101, when there were no more than twenty five or so commercial brewers in the United States. Today there are thousands of beers available in the North American market. There are also thousands of hand-made cheeses and breads to accompany the suds.

The pairing of beer and cheese is the subject of the following informative and entertaining works of intellectual property.

I strongly suggest you leave Fred Eckardt for last… he’s the best! (My bias.)

A DOZEN WISCONSIN CHEESE AND BEER PAIRINGS by Lucy Saunders

http://www.beercook.com/beercheese/pairingbeercheese.htm

Beer and Cheese: A Match Made in Heaven? by Molly Lass

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/molly-laas/beer-and-cheese-a-match-_b_51136.html

Beer and Cheese by The Alström Bros

http://beeradvocate.com/articles/282

Beer and Cheese It’s Better Than Wine and Cheese by F Eckhardt

http://www.allaboutbeer.com/food/232-cheeseandbeer.html

In the next few blogs I just might get through the soups, entrees and deserts…

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance

( peter.lafrance@beerbasics.com )

Greetings,

Today, I present some thoughts on seasonal food, and the beers to pair with them.

The first quote has to do with pairing with oysters.  Traditionally, this has been done with champagne.  However, Chef Rick Moonen, now running restaurants in Las Vegas, once told me something very interesting about pairing oysters and beer.

“One of the most interesting events I have attended was an “oyster tasting”. There were over a dozen East Coast oysters on the half-shell. It was very interesting to taste the same oyster from two or three beds in three different areas. You could tell by the flavor where the oyster had been harvested. What was even more interesting was the flavors that you found when you paired those same oysters with different beverages. We had the choice of Champagne, dry sherry or Guinness stout. Each beverage brought out different flavors from oysters that had been harvested from the same bed. I thought that the slight salty flavor of Guinness went especially well with many of the oysters from various harvest areas. That was a real education. “

Rick Moonen, OCEANA, New York, NY -

For those who are not particularly fond of bivalves, I offer the following observation from Walt Forrester, owner of the Parker House Inn, in Quechee, VT, master of the “beer dinners”, regarding his Tapenade based on chopped black olives.

            “We were doing a “beer dinner” with the beers from Catamount Brewery. We wanted to start with a Catamount Porter and the usual pairing with a porter is oysters. The porter flavors, roasty malt and dry hopps needed something briny. Our Black Olive Tapenade was just what we were looking for.

 I don’t really have a recipe for it. We use dry-cured, pitted black olives, some chopped garlic, a few capers, and a touch of hot pepper flakes and a splash of rum, for warmth. We put that altogether in a blender and chop it, careful not to puree it. Then we add just enough oil to get it the right consistency. Spread that on thin toast and serve it with a porter beer and the combination is very interesting. We also had a chicken breast marinated in ale with fresh hops ….”

Stay tuned, there is more to come!

Cheers,

Peter LaFrance

Peter.lafrance@beerbasics.com

A Taste of… Warrior IPA

Left Hand Brewing Co.

Longmont Colorado (USA)

Preface: This bottle of Warrior IPA was sent to me by the good folks at the Left Hand Brewing Company.  I will admit that this bottle of beer is probably about a month old.  However well it has been well taken care of, it must be noted that it is at least one month old. It was refrigerated one hour before it was open.

            I must admit also, I am rather glad to get back to a pint glass. However, sampling this big boy (650 ml) at 11 o’clock in the morning, on a Tuesday, is intimidating. Of course, nobody said I had to drink the whole thing.

Appearance: This ale is a very bright red amber color crystal clear and not to effervescent.  It is topped by a very rocky light tan head.  The immediate lacing his impressive.

Aroma: The initial sensation is of fresh mown grass with a very delicate undercurrent of mint.  In the end, however, there is very little to the nose.

Mouth feel: This beer is not a heavyweight, however, it has a quite attractive body does not fade out as the taste progresses.

Flavor: A rich malt flavor is the first thing you experience in tasting this beer. However, it is quickly followed by a rush of hops sensation that neither intensifies nor drops off until the finish. This is not to say it is only one note. It is a remarkable combination of bitter and tang. The label on the bottle tells me that Warrior IPA is, “Brewed only once a year of fresh hops hand-picked in Longmont California and Warrior hops straight off the vine from Yakima Washington.”

It is more than refreshing to taste and IPA that apparently has no cascade hop in. If there is any cascade I would be surprised. But then again I’ve been surprised before.

Finish: The finish to this beer is a wonderful wrestling match between the obviously fresh hops and the substantial malt presence.  The finish is long lasting and certainly not unpleasant. The final echoes of the hops are very palate cleansing.

Comments: this is the fifth or sixth fresh hopped beer that I’ve had the chance to taste.  When these beers came out this year, the national press paid quite a bit of attention to them.  I seem to remember that I also had some comments to make along the lines that this would promote what could be known as “vintage beer”.  If this is the truth, this is a seasonal beer that I will particularly look forward to over the next few years.

Left Hand Brewing Company: http://www.lefthandbrewing.com/

What others Say:

BeerAdvocate:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/418/9182

RateBeer: (2006 version)

http://www.ratebeer.com/Beer/left-hand-warrior-ipa/18691/

Greetings,

Beer and The Holidays - Perfect Together!

The month of December has the most food and beer friendly holidays of any month in the year. Here in the North East the weather is perfect for the enjoyment of rich and robust brews. Hearty ales, porters and dunkelbock are all welcome warmers and fine complements to conversations that last through early twilight and last until after dinner.

Best of all, the confluence of fests that are celebrated by various religious and cultural groups that fall in December allow the pairing of beer and foods that, at first might not be thought of. The wealth of traditional festive foods presents a wonderful challenge to the person who cares what beer they drink with the food they enjoy. The flavors of a traditional British roast beef, the aromas of African ancestors, and the sharing of the celebration of lights all offer special opportunities to pair favorite beers and festive foods. And should the marriage not work out, you will have learned that in rare cases, some good friends just don’t mingle well.

Take the opportunity this season to try a pairing you would never have thought of out of the holiday context. And, if you would be so kind, share your findings with the rest of us.

Once again, do you know of, or own, a restaurant that features beer and food pairings on a regular basis? If so please let me know, or have them send me a menu, so that they can be included.

Thank you all for being loyal readers and your support.

Cheers!

Peter LaFrance

Please address all comments and critiques to peter.lafrance@beerbasics.com