The opposite of extreme beer? ‘Comfort beer’

A very nice article in the current Zymurgy (the magazine mailed to members of the American Homebrewers Association and also available on newsstands) by Martyn Cornell and Antony Hayes titled “Burton Ale: A British Comfort Beer.”

I particularly like this paragraph: “Burton Ale is a comforting beer brewed for adults. It is not an extreme beer catering to childish tastes, but a strong, rich beer, playing off plenty of bitterness against a sweet, malty undertone. It has no rough edges.”

And this one: “When brewing a Burton Ale, it is best to remember the things that comforted you most as a child — your teddy bear or blanket perhaps — and then aim for a beer that will evoke similar emotions.”

(If you grew up hugging pine cones, then obviously you’re gonna brew a different beer. That’s a discussion for another day.)

I must admit my shoulders drooped a bit when I read the recipe (which calls for an alarming amount of East Kent Golding hops — comparable to well over 3 pounds per barrel before dry hopping — and discovered a bit of bad news: “Rack into maturation tanks and mature for a year.”

There’s a reason they call them maturation tanks.

Session #47: A recipe for Stilton Cheese Soup

The SessionDave Jensen at Beer 47 asks us to write about Cooking With Beer for the 47th gathering of The Session. Fifteen years ago Lucy Saunders wrote a book by with that title for Time-Life, and my wife (Daria Labinsky) and I then compiled a companion called The Brewpub Cookbook.

Not all the recipes we collected ended up in the book, but fortunately we saved them (first on 3½ floppies; it was a while ago) because several turned out to be favorites. That includes this one for Stilton Cheese Soup from Great Lakes Brewing in Cleveland.

It’s rich, with a powerful, sharp Stilton flavor. Great Lakes used, and may still use, its Dortmunder Gold in making the soup. It goes well with Burning River Pale Ale, because that beer has enough hops to “cut right through the cheese.”

Stilton Cheese Soup

1/2 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup lager beer
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 3/4 cups crumbled Stilton cheese

1. In a food processor or blender, purée carrots and onion until nearly smooth. Set aside.

2. In a large saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour until smooth. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes, or until mixture turns a copper color.

3. Carefully stir in chicken stock, cream, beer, carrot-onion mixture, pepper, Tabasco, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. In a small bowl, stir the cornstarch and water together. Add to the soup. Cook and stir until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Discard bay leaf.

5. Gradually add cheeses, cooking and stirring until melted.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Belated Happy New Year, links included

Happy New Year - Party like it's 1908

  • Beer is a local product. A study commissioned by SABMiller found that travelers want to drink the beer of the region when they are abroad: “When asked why they would choose to drink a local beer brand in a foreign country, 70% of respondents said that they did so because it is a crucial part of the overall travel experience, whilst 27% felt that it is important to support the economy of the place you are visiting and 25% said it was because they wanted to try something new.”

    Additionally, “The findings are backed up by figures which demonstrate the local nature of beer around the world, with only 6% of global beer volumes drunk outside their market of origin.”

  • Wine tasting: subjective or objective? Disregard that it’s wine and focus on the matters in the title as well as “the physiology, psychology and neurobiology of perception.”
  • Fine wine uncorks record gains. Notice that it’s wine and be happy that no matter how silly beer prices seem you’re not drinking an “asset class.”
  • Speaking of beer prices. The Six-Pack Equivalent Calculator is available as an android app. The math isn’t really that tough, but if you have trouble remembering that 750ml equals 25.3 ounces and working from there this makes price comparisons a little easier. Like which is the better deal for the same beer, the 750ml bottle at $9 or the 4-pack at $14?

    • When Duvel brewed Ommegang, round 1

    The story Adam has at beernews.org that Belgian brewery Duvel will produce Brewery Ommegang beers — otherwise made in Cooperstown, New York — may seem familiar. Duvel briefly brewed Ommegang beers five years ago when demand outstripped capacity.

    Back then I took samples of Ommegang Abbey Ale brewed both in Belgium and New York to a local brewpub and asked customers there on a Sunday afternoon — most of whom, it turned out, had never tried anything from Belgium or even inspired by Belgian beers — if they could tell the difference. I repeated the experiment twice more, including with friends as interested in wine as beer, then hard-core beer savvy types who viewed the test as a challenge.

    I’ve added the story that resulted to the library.

    ***SPOILER ALERT-SPOILER ALERT*** For those who don’t want to bother with the click the results are summarized below.

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    Quick summary of the results: Just over half (that’s chance) correctly picked out the odd beer in a “triangle tasting,” and 57 percent preferred the Cooperstown version.