Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

On New Year’s Day…

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Well, I’m sorry I missed it, folks. I had plans of getting a post up about how you might want to try something besides Champagne for your toast, and I was going to suggest big Belgian Tripels, and… well I got lazy and didn’t get to it.

Then I got busy buying up some interesting beers at Honeygo — Sam Smith’s Stingo Oak Aged Ale, Great Divide’s Old Ruffian and Oak Aged Yeti, and some of those interesting Belgians instead of Champagne — to enjoy while I slaved over a hot stove to make a latin New Years feast. Braised pork, chicken and chile soup with epazote, and the requisite beans. And I just didn’t get back before right now.

I’ll have some posts up for you this week, and if we’re lucky we’ll get a couple more entries in our contest.

Hope this new year is great for you.

Posted in Beer, Food | 2 Comments »

Which Beer? Thanksgiving

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

If you’ve read much in the way of beer blogs lately you may have caught a few posts about what kind of beer pairings work with turkey, and thanksgiving food in general. Rob Kasper — thankfully back to blogging at his own site — wrote a guest post on Liz @ Large earlier this week, and mentioned the pairings suggested by Great Brewers’ sommelier functionality on the Beer Cloud app that Brad over at Beer in Baltimore mentioned as well. The app suggests some interesting things, not all of which I agree with:

  • Vienna Lager — Which I fully agree with. That’s a great beer. Not too strong, not too heavy. Exactly what you want when you’re going to be eating a ton of food.
  • Traditional German Bock — Not my style, for sure. It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s pretty alcoholic, and the cloying malt sweetness would overwhelm a lot of the flavors you associate with Thanksgiving.
  • German Dunkel — Not a bad choice, and similar to what I would choose myself.
  • Belgian Dubbel — Sure, but only for dessert.

So what would I choose?

Easy — A Northern English Brown like Newcastle or Sam Smith’s Nut Brown Ale; or a Dark Mild like Moorhouse Black Cat; or maybe the lighter side of American Brown Ale, like Brooklyn Brown. (more…)

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Posted in Food, Which Beer? | 5 Comments »

Travel Report: Buffalo

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

I was in Buffalo on business twice in the past month, and I had the opportunity to check out the local microbrew pub, Pearl Street Grill & Brewery for a couple of beers. Not too shabby, all in all —both the city and the pub.

Buffalo exhibits some interesting Victorian and Edwardian architecture. I was most impressed by the city hall’s huge art deco facade. It’s an industrial city that has declined in similar fashion to Baltimore, and seems to be on the verge of the same kinds of resurgence that we hope for in Mobtown.

That post-industrial nature seemed to have a pretty healthy effect on the populace’s attitude toward beer also. While I was mostly meeting people related to work, they all seemed to have an interest in the fact that I am a brewer and I write about beer — maybe they were just beng nice to the beer geek, but maybe it’s an indication that the city has an innate interest in the proletariat’s beverage of choice. (more…)

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Posted in Brewing, Food, Travel Report | 2 Comments »

Not sure how I feel about this: Beer Chips?

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

You can check them out here. And if you do, let me know how they are. Something just screams either full-on marketing fail or pure genius.

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Posted in Aesthetics, Food | No Comments »

Release the Yeast: Sourdough

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

In the last Release the Yeast we talked about how yeast does the work that eventually gives us alcohol; this time we’re turning our eyes to the other staff of life – bread, more specifically sourdough bread. Funny thing is, sourdough cultures aren’t just exclusively used for breads and bread products like pancakes and biscuits; you can conceivably make beer with them too.

So what is it?

Sourdoughs are symbiotic relationships between wild yeasts and a lactobacillus bacteria; one such is named Lactobacillus Sanfranciscensis, for its discovery in San Francisco — the spiritual home of modern sourdough. The yeasts provide the leavening action — or puff — to the dough. The sour flavor is the result of the growth of the bacteria, and its acid production. Different lactobacillus strains produce different levels of sourness, some like San Francisco’s are very aggressive, others — like the Parisian strains — are much more mild in character.

In antiquity, all breads were sourdough breads. Most anthropologists believe that the first leavened breads were baked in Egypt. You can imagine how this was discovered, unused flatbread dough suddenly rising with the breath of the gods out of nowhere, that was then baked and deemed divine in flavor and texture. Not until yeasts were actually isolated and then made widely available did humanity know how to make a bread that wasn’t the result of a yeast organism captured in the wild and then cultivated as sourdough. (more…)

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Posted in Brewing, Food, Geek-Out, How do I do that?, Release the Yeast, Science | No Comments »