Session #8 Wrapup: Best of Beer & Food

The Best of American Beer & FoodCaptain Hops wraps up Session #8 with a haiku of course:

Another Session
Connects, satisfies, and builds
Beer community

He reports: “By my (non-scientific) count there were 28 participants, 16 recipes, descriptions of 4 formal beer dinners, and at least 60 beer and food pairing recommendations. In addition, I counted 7 first time Session participants.”

Session #9 will be hosted by Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey Brewing. Expect an announcement soon, but pardon him if it takes a few days. Yesterday was his birthday and tomorrow he travels to Denver. There’s a little beer festival going on there later this week.

Back to Beer & Food: Lucy Saunders rolled out her new blog in time for the Session, supporting her book The best of American Beer & Food: Pairing & Cooking with Craft Beer.

She’s going to be very busy at the Great American Beer Festival, but I plan to grab a minute here and there and post an interview as well as a review of her book (sneak preview: thumbs up).

Serious beer talk – but today ‘just’ beer will do

The Best of American Beer & FoodDespite concerns it might by too windy several hundred balloons lifted off this morning as the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta kicked off.

A picture with hundreds of balloon mostly shows a bunch of little dots. So here are a few of them (view from our back patio – known as a portal in these parts of the country).

The wind has kicked up since, but I expect to be able to sit out back tonight – inspired by Lew Bryson’s barbecue adventures of yesterday – eating properly smoked (trust me, Lew, it will be smokey) Texas-style ‘cue and drinking Flying Dog Dogtoberfest.

Fact is, though, thoughts about the beer will be way in the background. We’ll talk about the Illinois and Northwestern football games and monitor the progress of the Chicago Cubs.

New Beer Rule #5 will be in full effect: It is only beer.

But if you need some serious beer talk there are worthy discussions going on.

First, Jay Brooks’ wrapup on the beer bloggin’ brewhaha (it’s about ethics, but that would have screwed up my alliteration).

Pair that with the Wall Street Journal’s story about food blogs and free meals. Connect the dots.

Second, Alan McLeod wraps up a ménage à trois involving Ron Pattinson, Garrett Oliver and the Beer Advocate community (so it is a lot more than trois, plus Stonch was in there). I was already planning on pointing you to Ron’s original post, but much more fun broke out in the meantime.

Great stuff. That is if you are inclined to be thinking about beer today.

You knew this: Beer prices going up

BarleyWhat happens when you use about twice the malt and as many as five times the hops of a mass-market brew, like Budweiser or Miller High Life and commodity prices go up?

The Wall Street Journal joins the conversation about looming higher prices for craft beer that’s been going on in multiple beer blogs the past month.

It appears the Journal has posted the story in its free area (I hope I have that figured out) so just a couple of highlights – since I’ve written about it here, while Lew, Rick, Jay and others have reported much that’s in the Journal.

– “The cost increases have been the largest we’ve ever faced, both in barley and in hops,” says Boston beer (Samuel Adams) founder Jim Koch.

– Larger brewers won’t be forced to increase prices as much – in part because of buying power and in part because they use less malt and hops.

– Malt prices are up 40% to 80%, hops prices 20% to 100%.

– “I think there’s going to be some brewers out there,” says Dogfish Craft Brewery brewmaster Andy Tveekrem, “if they haven’t looked that far ahead, that actually might run out of malt or hops, which would be a catastrophe.”

Session #8: As Gouda it gets

The SessionSince the theme for Session #8 (What’s the Session? Start here) is Beer and Food in that order let’s get right to the beer, an Oktober beer. A Fest bier. Now what about the food?

Eleven years ago my wife (the first beer writer in our family and still everybody’s favorite) assembled the Brewpub Cookbook for Time-Life books, giving us a chance to pry favorite recipes from chefs.

It had taken us one bite to fall in love with the Smoked Gouda Cheese Loaves with Roasted Peppers and Balsamic Vinaigrette at Victory Brewing in Downington, Pa., earlier in 1996. As happens sometimes, when the book designer ran out of room and something had to go an editor decided that recipe would be one of the victims.

We felt bad, but not as bad as we would have if we didn’t have the recipe for ourselves. We’ve made it for Valentine’s Day, my birthday and other special occasions. Meanwhile it fell off the menu at Victory, though it was resurrected for a dinner last year when the brewery celebrated its 10th anniversary. Good choice.

The recipe for Smoked Gouda was conceived to show off the restaurant’s woodburning ovens. The wedges of cheese are combined with whole-grain mustard and spices and wrapped in puff pastry, and served with marinated roasted red peppers atop a bed of specialty greens tossed with balsamic vinaigrette. The acidity of the peppers and vinegar contrasts nicely with the creamy cheese and rich pastry.

You can see why the dish matches wonderfully with Victory Festbier. Not a beer we can get around here, so we usually substitute something German brewed – the Ayinger Fest-Marzen or the Spaten Ur-Marzen. This time of year we can grab an American seasonal, with the current house favorite being Flying Dog Dogtoberfest.

Marinade for Roasted Peppers
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh green onions
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup pure olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine all ingredients, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

4 yellow peppers
4 red peppers
1/4 cup olive oil

1. Coat the red and yellow peppers in olive oil, and roast over an open flame (grill or stovetop gas burner) until skins blacken and blister. Put the peppers in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let steam for 10 minutes. Remove the burnt skins, ribs, stems, and seeds. Cut the peppers in 1/4-inch-wide strips, and put back in bowl. Add marinade ingredients, stir and refrigerate at least 1 hour and preferably overnight.

Cheese Loaves
1 12×15-inch sheet puff pastry dough
1 pound smoked Gouda cheese, cubed
1/4 cup whole-grain mustard
4 green onions, thinly sliced
4 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked and chopped
2 tablespoons cracked black peppercorns
Egg wash (egg beaten with few tablespoons water)
1 cup Balsamic Vinaigrette (see recipe below)
Garnish: mixed greens, chopped green onions, cracked peppercorns

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Divide sheet of puff pastry into 4 equal pieces, and set aside to reach room temperature.
2. In a medium bowl, combine smoked Gouda, mustard, green onions, sun-dried tomatoes, and peppercorns. Mix well.
3. To assemble loaves: Brush each piece of puff pastry on edge closest to you and the two side edges with egg wash. Place cheese mixture in center of dough, dividing mixture between the 4 pieces. Fold over and seal all edges with a fork. Brush top with egg wash.
4. Place loaves on a greased cookie sheet, and place in preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Rotate pan once halfway through cooking. Loaves should be golden brown when done.
5. While loaves are cooking, prepare Balsamic Vinaigrette.
6. To assemble plate: Place lettuce garnish at top of plate. At bottom of plate, place a quarter-cup puddle of the vinaigrette. Place roasted peppers on either side of garnish. Place loaf on top of vinaigrette. Scatter chopped green onions and peppercorns over entire plate.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
Leftover vinaigrette makes a great salad dressing.

2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup honey
3 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
3 cups blended oil (25 percent olive oil, 75 percent vegetable oil)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked and chopped
2 tablespoons cracked peppercorn melange (a mixture of different peppercorns)
1/2 cup roasted pine nuts
Salt to taste

1. In a bowl, combine garlic, vinegar, honey, and mustard. Slowly add oil while whisking to create an emulsion. Add remaining ingredients and adjust seasoning.

Makes 4 servings, but we never seem to have leftovers.

What’s the 12 in Westvleteren 12 mean?

InventorSpot has posted what Seth Plattner calls the 10 Best Beers with Balls of 2007. The premise is that the “beers on this list push the limits of conventional brewing.” So you get Midas Touch Golden Elixir- The King’s Beer and BILK – The Weird Guy’s Beer (since it is made with milk).

Also Westvleteren 12 – The Monk’s Beer. This entry could have used a little fact checking. Besides referring to a distributor (the monastery sells beer only at its gate and the inn it runs next door) there’s the assertion the beer is “so named due to its 12% alcohol by volume.” This despite the fact you can read 10.2% on the photo with the story.

Inside Westvleteren

So why Westvleteren 8 (not quite so strong) and 12? And why Rochefort 6, 8, and 10?

Until the early 1990s, Belgian brewers measured gravity in Belgian degrees. This could, and can, be calculated by subtracting 1 from a beer’s specific gravity and multiplying by 100. Thus a 1.060 beer would be 6 degrees.

Today brewers measure in degrees Plato, but the beers may take their names from the former standard. Thus, Achel referred to its initial beers as Blond 4 and Bruin 5 when it resumed brewing. Westvleteren and Rochefort also call their beers by degree numbers as well as by the color of their crown caps.

When Westvleteren 12 was introduced in the 1930s it apparently started at 12 degrees (28 °P!) and was 12% abv. These days the starting gravity is about 21.5 °P. About because it truly varies from batch to batch. When I visited the brewery I saw notes where consecutive batches started at 21.5, 21.1 and 21.7.

That’s one of the things that makes Westvleteren special. Even though these batches will be blended into a larger lagering tank after primary fermentation not every — heck, not any — Westy 12 is exactly the same. It 12 will lager until it is appropriately clear. That’s generally about eight weeks, but can be 10, the monk in charge of brewing explains, “when you get a difficult one.”

The photo at the top reflects this. Brother Filip, the brewer in the late 1990s, wrote these words that mean, “Quiet… here matures the Trappist.” They mimic a much larger sign across a warehouse at the Moortgat Brewery north of Brussels, which admonishes drivers who speed by on the adjoining four-lane road not to disturb “den Duvel.”

Belgian law permits brewers more tolerance when listing alcohol content than in the United States. The listed content may vary by 1% alcohol by volume, compared to .3% in the States. The Westvleteren 12 will be between 10% and 10.5%