beer & food

Fantasy Beer Dinner #1: Neal Stewart

Neal StewartAnd we’re off. For more about what this is part of look here.

Neal Stewart is director of marketing at Flying Dog Brewery. BeerDinners.com was/is his idea. His personal web site is the Turkey Sandwich Report.

In case you forgot, the questions are: If you could invite four people dead or alive to a beer dinner who would they be? What four beers would you serve?

Babe Ruth – I can’t think of anyone who dominated a sport like Babe Ruth and I assume that he dominated the Dinner Table the same way. It seems like Babe appreciated a lot of the finer things in life and I’m pretty sure that included beer and food.

Mick Jagger – When it comes to the Beatles vs. The Stones, I have always been a Stones guy. And it stand to figure that a front man from one of the world’s biggest bands for the last 40 years would have some good stories to tell.

Andre The Giant – I’ve heard a lot of stories about Andre The Giant but the one that I always remember is that he would order one of everything on the menu just to freak people out. I would invite him just to see how much he could put away.

John McEnroe – I grew up playing tennis and McEnroe was always one of my favorites. John would be good at interviewing my other guests and have some good stories himself. Plus, he strikes me as a beer guy.

1st Course
Toasted Ravioli with Marinara paired with Schlafly Hefeweizen
Schalfly was one of the first craft beers I was introduced to and I’ve always liked their beer and respected the way they have built their business in the shadows of A-B. I’m going with Toasted Ravioli because it is one of my favorite foods and it’s hard to find anywhere except for St. Louis (where I am from).

2nd Course
Mixed Greens with Strawberries, Gorgonzola Cheese and Balsamic Vinaigrette paired with New Glarus Raspberry Tart
I was given a bottle of Raspberry Tart as a gift a few weeks ago and loved it. This beer would really accentuate all of the salad’s flavors.

3rd Course
Beer Cheese Soup paired with Double Dog Pale Ale
I’m a sucker for Beer Cheese Soup and even though it is normally served with a Pale Ale, I would step up the hops on the beer selection to compliment the sharp cheddar flavors from the soup. And not to be a “homer” but I just really like Double Dog.

4th Course
Grilled Pork Chops with Pineapple Salsa paired with Avery Hog Heaven
Eric always makes fun of me because whenever we’re out to dinner I order Pork Chops. This might be because eight years ago I was the official spokesperson for A1 Steak sauce on a mobile marketing tour. For 20 straight weeks I traveled around the country preaching the virtues of marinating steak in A1. Needless to say, I had unlimited access to steak and quite possibly could have burned out on the red meat. I love our Horn Dog, but I also really like Avery’s version of this style and I think a sweet Barley Wine with the spicy/sweet Pineapple Salsa would be really good.

5th Course
Gonzo Imperial Porter Float
We feature this on BeerDinners.com and I’ve made this at home a few times. The thick and creamy Gonzo goes perfectly with Vanilla Ice Cream. If you can top it with chocolate covered cherry, it’s even better.

Fantasy Beer Dinner: Who would you invite?

If you could invite four people dead or alive to a beer dinner who would they be?

What four beers would you serve?

Yes, I want your answers.

First, to jump start everybody’s brain I asked a few folks known to drink beer these questions. The resulting answers were way too cool to jam into a single post, so instead I’m making it a series — which might be a little strange in a blogging format. We’ll see.

Beer, Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Beer Belongs at ThanksgivingWe’ve got turkey brining for tomorrow, using one of many recipes The Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton has generously posted at his web site.

If you’ve been procrastinating and are still looking for ideas about what to cook for Thanksgiving then you’ll find some different ones here &#151 although in some cases you needed to start preparations several days ago. You do have time to consider deep frying a turkey. Sean has instructions or here’s the recipe we use.

So Thanksgiving is looking beery. Now if the Brewers Association, which has done a fine job the last three years of getting newspapers and magazines to notice beer at the holiday table could turn its attention to Black Friday.

Why aren’t there flyers in my Thursday paper advertising a case of Sierra Celebration on sale at 6 a.m. for $6.99 for the first 50 customers? Shouldn’t somebody have a DOORBUSTER! featuring Samuel Adams Holiday Sampler ($2.99, at least 10 per store)? Hey, Borders, please e-mail some coupons for beer books.

For now I’d smile if I found a local event like Black Friday Fest in Durham, N.C. (Courtesy of The Beer Mapping Project.)

Bell’s Java Stout, Duck-Rabbit Baltic Porter . . . hmmm. They need to start before 3 p.m.

Or if you are one of The Lost Abbey Patron Saints you can pick up your allotment from the release of three seasonal beers that otherwise go on sale at 11 a.m. Saturday. (When then the brewery is going to look a little like Best Buy at 5 a.m. Friday.)

Or you could save your money for Saturday, when the auction for a 2004 bottle of Three Floyds Dark Lord Imperial Stout closes. Current bid is $127.50.

Would you brave the 4 a.m. Friday crowd at Wal-Mart to get a deal on Dark Lord? (I’m sorta making the time up; the closest Wal-Mart to us is open 24 hours.)

Stuff to read while drinking a winter beer . . .

A few things to read this evening instead of watching “Dancing with the Stars” or “Two Dudes Catering” (even though cheese is involved) and perhaps while doing research for The Session #10:

– Andrew Jefford, multi-purpose UK drinks writer, asks a question.

One day, fortunes will be made with fine beer. Why not one day soon?

In case you overlook it, he makes a great point: “all wine is able to profit from the locomotive effect of fine or great wine: the existence of fabulous bottles enables more ordinary bottles to bask in a little of their allure. Whereas, for most beer drinkers, great beer doesn’t exist.”

– And what might be a fabulous bottle?

Many would say Lost Abbey’s Angel Share (and I won’t disagree). Look at the ruckus Saturday’s release (and almost immediate posting on eBay) caused at Rate Beer. You’ll find reviews at Rate Beer, or at Summer of Beer.

Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur explains where all the bottles went and the behind-the-scenes volunteer effort involved.

Savor– The Brewers Association has more information about SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience.

It would appear somebody has been reading Andrew Jefford.

The part beer drinkers care about: “Tickets for each of the three sessions (May 16-17) are limited to the first 700 ticket purchasers. The $85 ticket includes a commemorative tasting glass, souvenir program and Craft Beer Taster’s Commemorative Journal, fabulous food and craft beer pairings, seminars, and 2- ounce samples of specially selected craft beer.”

And what beer will be there? 48 breweries from eight regions will participate. The BA will randomly select five breweries from eight regions of the country, plus eight supporting brewery sponsors, to participate in the event. It’s a lottery, with winners announced in December.

– Dr. Vino partners on a paper to calculate the carbon footprint of wine. I’m hoping somebody does this for beer (because I’m too lazy). Notice the “green line” that runs from Ohio into Texas, because east of there wine from France leaves a smaller footprint than bottles from California. Think the same is true of beer?

Chocolate: Homebrew gone awry?

Researchers are reporting (I like the National Geographic version) that chocolate was discovered by accident by Central American Indians who were making beer.

“In the course of beer brewing, you discover that if you ferment the seeds of the plant you get this chocolate taste,” said John Henderson, an anthropologist at Cornell University. “It may be that the roots of the modern chocolate industry can be traced back to this primitive fermented drink.”

Duvel shaped chocolate

In a new study scientists chemically analyzed the Honduran pottery fragments.

“It was beer with a high kick,” said study author Rosemary Joyce, an anthropologist at University of California, Berkeley. “But it would not have tasted anything like the chocolate we have today.”

The Geographic suggests this could inspire new chocolate dishes.

(It) could “fuel creativity and spark the imagination of chocolatiers and chefs,” Alice Medrich, author of Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate, said by email.

“As a result, we get new ideas about using chocolate in savory as well as sweet dishes and about pairing the flavors of chocolate with other flavors, too,” Medrich said.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking that if you performed an MRI on the brain of Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery — the master at turning what scientists discover in ancient pots into beers we could never imagine — you’d see the wheels spinning at record speed.

Of course this only confirms a beer and chocolate connection that’s hardly a secret. Lucy Saunders devotes a chapter to “Chocolate: Another Fermented Favorite” in the recently released The Best of American Beer & Food: Pairing & Cooking with Craft Beer.

The photo above is from a chocolate shop in Brugges, where they shape really good chocolate into all manner of things, including a Duvel bottle and glass.

Further Reading:
– Pete Slosberg talks about shifting from the beer business to the chocolate business.
– A “chocolate companion” from Stephen Beaumont.
– Saunders offers recipes at her beercook.com site.