beer & food

Costco to pass on private brand beer?

Beer bloggers have proved adept at breaking news of upcoming beer releases by tracking label approvals. Only thing is, that not all labels turn into beers. We’re still waiting for the Faust Dubbel from Anheuser-Busch.

And perhaps we may also be waiting a while before we see the Kirkland beers from Costco.

We stayed in and RV park not far from Costco headquarters when we were in the Seattle area (a short beer report will be coming), and I heard an interesting but unsubstantiated rumor that the private label beer project currently is on hold. Not sure what that means, now it’s the weekend and we’re headed into Canada.

Sorry about the lousy job of reporting actual facts, but perhaps somebody else in the beer blogosphere will pick up on this and track down more information.

Monday morning musing: First, stupid beer stuff

Pabst beer coffinDid you hear the one about an Illinois man who plans to be buried in a coffin designed to look like a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon?

Bill Bramanti, 67, isn’t in a hurry to use it — for now it makes an excellent cooler. Saturday he threw a party for friends and packed the future coffin with ice and cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Am I the only one who finds it creepy he got in to see if he fit?

– JPD (Just Plain Dumb). The world’s 10 most disgusting beers, Florida style, does not need further comment.

– Enough silliness. So here’s a quick quiz: What do Rob Gerrity, Scott Kerkmans, Ron Kloth, Andrew Waer and Neil Witte have in common? Beyond the fact none of them is likely to be buried in a PBR coffin.

They are the first five to pass Certified Cicerone exam. Since January, 115 individuals have passed the online Certified Beer Server but these are the first to move on to the next level (Certified Cicerone, obviously).

The exam (conducted in San Diego during the Craft Brewers Conference) took three and a half hours and included 200 fill-in the blank and short-answer questions followed by three essay questions, a demonstration and 12 beer samples presented in the tasting portion of the exam.

Kerkams, as you may know, is the Chief Beer officer for Four Points by Sheraton. As you may not know, he grew up in Albuquerque .

Papago Brewing tap handlesKloth, as you may know, is the driving force beyond Papago Brewing, the Scottsdale, Ariz. beer establishment that’s as good as its considerable reputation. The beer there only gets better over a game of chess on the set Ron first used as a kid (really). As you may not know, Ron is the only one of the first five Certified Cicerones to have spent a night or three in our guest bedroom (the one with dozens of vintage hop boxes).

Just something to think about if you are considering taking the exam.

– I like this idea. Five-word beer reviews. Not that it was to be via Twitter.

Words to describe the beer you are tasting

More adjectives: 107 words to describe hop aroma and flavor.

Until robots take over our tasting world we’re left to consider how to communicate the aromas and flavors we experience with beer.

A review of “Perfumes: The Guide” in the current New Yorker magazine makes that point.

The words and the references are really useful only to people who have had the same experiences and use the same vocabulary: those references are to a shared basis of sensory experience and a shared language. To people who haven’t had those shared experiences, this way of talking can seem like horse manure, and not in a good way.

The book was written by Tania Sanchez and Luca Turin, and since Turin was the protagonist in the delightful book “Emperor of Scent” five years ago it gives me an excuse to quote this vaguely relevant passage:

“Look at beer, which is a very interesting cultural product. Beer smells like a burp. Gasses from someone’s stomach. Lovely. Again a product of fermentation, which is to say decay. Decay enhances smells and flavors, yet we have a sharp ability to identify decay, because decaying things will kill you. Bacterial and yeast decomposition.

“Which can give you ‘I wouldn’t touch that in a million years’ and, at the same time and in the same culture, mind you, ‘I will pay great sums to consumer Rodenbach,’ which is a miracle of a beer from Belgium. A miraculous, powdery apple flavor. Those Rodenbach yeast have an I.Q. of at least two hundred. Fucking genius yeast.”

Returning to the point. A shared tasting vocabulary serves a certain purpose. So I pass this along to do with as you please. It comes from the Merchant du Vin newsletter.

1. Words to describe malt flavors: Malty, biscuity, breadlike, grainy, rich, deep, roasty, cereal, cookie-like, coffeeish, caramelly, toffee-like, molasses-like, malt complexity, smoky, sweet, autumnal, burnt cream, scalded milk, oatmeal, rustic, layered.

2. Words to describe hop flavor and bitterness: Piney, citrusy, grapefruity, earthy, musty, spicy, sharp, bright, fresh, herbal, zippy, lemony, newly-mown lawn, aromatic, floral, springlike, brilliant, sprucelike, juniper-like, minty, pungent, elegant, grassy.

3. Words to describe fermentation flavors deriving from yeast: Fresh-baked bread, clovelike, bubblegum, yeasty, Belgiany, aromatic, tropical, subtle, fruity, clean, banana-like (and for some sour or extreme beers) horseblankety, earthy, musty.

4. Words to describe conditioning (carbonation): Soft, effervescent, spritzy, sparkling, zippy, pinpoint, bubbly, gentle, low carbonation, highly carbonated.

5. Words to describe body & mouthfeel: Rich, full, light, slick, creamy, oily, heavy, velvety, sweet, dry, thick, thin.

6. Words to describe warm ethanol (alcohol) flavors from strong beer: Warm finish, heat, vodka, esters, pungent, strength.

100 IBU beers got nothing on these guys

Hot hot chile sauce

Shocktop WheatYep, one of the reasons we moved to New Mexico was because we love the hot food.

For us the annual Fiery Foods Festival in Albuquerque, which wrapped up today, is as exciting as the Oregon Brewers Festival.

I did come across a beer story today, which I’ll post Tuesday, beyond the obvious — that the specialty beers Anheuser-Busch is distributing, such as its own Shock Top Belgian Top (pictured), Redhook and Widmer, Hoegaarden and Leffe Blond, are the ones the distributor is bringing for drinkers to sample and to buy. Much higher profile than a few years ago.

But there’s also a chile pepper/hops analogy that’s been obvious since our first visit to Fiery Foods in 1994.

You’ve got a set of vendors selling insane products. Sunday that would be sauces so hot they’d burn away several layers of taste buds, leaving you in pain and unable to taste anything for days. At a beer festival that would be beers with crazy amount of hops.

You’ve got another set who totally avoid excess, and can be seen wagging their fingers.

Then there are the folks who talk about flavor and heat. Or flavor and bitterness. Bless ’em.

So soon, Stone beers and hot sauces. In the same bottle. Be here.

Scallop Stout: What’s next? Monkfish?

Out of hops? Try scallops.

British brewer Shepherd Neame has used them to make Scallop Stout.

“There’s a hint of smokiness and a slight taste of the sea but no fishiness. I can find no scientific reason for why it works, but it does,” brewer Stewart Main said. The newspaper report states the 3.7% abv beer “is made using traditional methods but with a handful of scallops thrown in for an hour.”

Bivalves and stouts aren’t exactly strangers. Not only have Guinness and other producers long advertised serving oysters with stout but once in a while brewers even tossed them into kettle.

Guinness oysters ad

It can get confusing. For instance, Marston’s Oyster Stout contains no oysters.

Writing about oyster stouts several years ago, Michael Jackson made it clear (“Heaven sent – downing oysters by the pint“) there is a balance to be struck, be it stouts with oysters included or in finding the right stout to go with oysters.

A stout must lean to the dry side if it’s to accompany oysters. Despite its fullness of body, Guinness’s Dublin-brewed, strong (7.5 per cent) and quaintly named Foreign Extra Stout does the trick. especially if it is lightly chilled. The regular bottled or canned stuff is arguably too sweet and the jury is out on the draught version.

Murphy’s and Beamish are barely dry enough, but there is a case for the peppery, spicy Cain’s Superior Stout, from Liverpool. I have long loved the toasty, faintly anise-like porter from Harvey’s of Lewes, East Sussex.

Not sure what he would have written about Scallop Stout.

However, What to Drink with What You Eat includes a story from Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver:

“One of the funnest dinners I have ever done was with the Westchester association of country club chefs. I paired seared diver sea scallops with brown butter sauce with a Taddy Porter from Samuel Smith, which is a dark beer with a buttery, residual sugar and caramel taste to it, and a slightly chocolatey aroma.

“They were surprised to see a light dish with a dark beer. We deconstructed the scallop, which is sweet, with a caramel sear, and the butter in the brown butter sauce. With the beer, I am delivering a round, soft buttery flavor with caramel.

“You have carbonation that scrubs the palate and removes fat and oil. This audience of chefs was shocked, and said it was one of the best food and beverage combinations they ever had.”