One of the reasons I was most excited about GABF was the taste test sessions being held on the main convention floor.  In the middle of the madness was a series of plexiglass glass, holding a set of chairs, a stage, and a list of slated presenters to bring the latest in beer and food tasting.  I managed to make it to many, albeit not all of the sessions.

One theme became readily apparent at these sessions: less is more.  The logistics and complexity of serving in a conference like this, with everything going out on small paper plates made those who tried to cook and serve full dishes bound for difficulty.  In contrast, those who used simpler preparations (namely, cheese and chocolate, which are ready to go) were able to accomplishing more, by not biting off more than they could chew.

The Power of Aroma in Flavor Perception:  Fine cheese and The Vermonster beer with Brewer Matt Nadeau of Rock Art Brewery.

Matt of Rock Art set the bar very high at the very first presentation.  He paired his Vermonster, a very big barleywine with two different cheeses: a sharper cow’s milk cheese, and a second smoked gouda.  The first selection brought out the hops, the while in contrast the smokey gouda brought out the malt.  It was at once an interesting pairing, and an intellectual exercise in how to emphasize different parts of the beer.  Matt guided us through the pairing, and explained what to look for.  It was a simple, but highly effective pairing demo that’ll be great fun to replicate at home.  Also, as a big promoter of California and Wisconsin cheeses, it pains me to admit that Vermont makes some mighty fine cheeses as well.

 

Beer and Chocolate: Sam Calagione, Founder & President, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Shawn Askinosie, Founder and Chocolate Maker, Askinosie Chocolate present a pairing of threechocolates with three beers including Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, Maui Coconut Porter and New Belgium’s La Folie.

Sam and Shawn also did a bang up job.  Both were natural on stage, and Shawn provided great pictures of him visiting the South American sources for his chocolate (he only works with places he’s personally been.) Sam works with a lot of food ingredients in his beers, including chocolate from Askinosie in his Theobroma. The very first pairing the sent out… wow.  Just wow.  New Belgium’s La Folie, a tart, sour belgium ale with white chocolate, studded with pistachios. I’m not normally a white chocolate fan, but in this case I was completely taken in.  The tart beer cut through the richness of the white chocolate, and melded perfectly with the pistachios pieces. The other samples of dark beers with darker chocolate were good, but didn’t have the same impact on me that the first one did.

Contemporary Italian Cuisine & Belgian Style Beer: Mark Marrocco, executive Chef at Magnolias at the Mill in Purcellville, Virginia demonstrates Italian cuisine paired with Belgian Style Beer from Rob Tod’s Allagash Brewing Co.

Here is where things started to get a little hairy.  Chef Marrocco served a olive oil poached salmon over a fennel salad made with an Allagash White Vinaigrette. When the food came out, the vinaigrette was so mild you couldn’t taste the beer at all, and the salmon was cold and starting to go somewhat rubbery.  (I think the samples they handed out had been cooked MUCH earlier.) They tried to demonstrate some cooking on stage, but in this case, just seemed to be having trouble getting the points they wanted across. Eventually the two of them got to talking about beer pairings, and had some good suggestions.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think the intent translated particularly well to the plate, and didn’t reach into the creative options out there as well as it could of, or really dig into the IItalian flavors that can be paired with Belgium ales. 

Beer Pairings to Compliment a Main Course: Jim Koch – Founder and Brewer, Samuel Adams and Chef Jorge de la Torre, Dean of Culinary Education, Johnson & Wales University share beer pairings that will compliment heartier dishes. Sample Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Samuel Adams OctoberFest.

Although the pairing being handed out sounded great – I didn’t get a chance to try anything.  Thanks to portion problems and logistical nightmares, and having trouble even hearing what was being made, entire swaths of the seated audience didn’t get a chance to try anything.  Luckily, Jim kept up entertained with a steady stream of sage advice.

Beer and BBQ: “The Beer Chef” Bruce Paton, CEC, Cathedral Hill Hotel and Arne Johnson, Brewer, Marin Brewing Co. pair Point Reyes Porter and a Spicy Hoisin Barbeque Sauce.

The Beer Chef, who I know can really cook, also had some of the logistical problems that stymied earlier presentations.  He prepared a doctored hoisin sauce to go over pork, and paired it was a Porter.  The malty porter was a natural choice, but i would like to see it taken a bit farther.  On the grill, the sauce would caramelize and burn a little, leading to much deeper flavors.  Here, it was served over a small piece of cold pork tenderloin, and left us wanting.

More Beer and Chocolate: Jeremy Cowen, Owner, Schmaltz Brewing pairs up with artisan chocolate maker Steve DeVries of DeVries Chocolates.

The last tasting session was blast.  Jeremy, the founder and owner of He’Brew proved to be a natural on stage, which is no surprise from the man bringing us Coney Island Lagers.  He, along with Steve DeVries provided a series of tastes of tastes surrounding chocolate, and caramelized cocoa nibs.  The nibs turned out to be the perfect foil for the beer: not too sweet, very nutty, and with an almost “bar snack” like nosh-ability, they brought out the malty chocolate notes in the beer better than most chocolate samples.  This was especially true with Jewbelation 12, their winter seasonal.  A very, very big beer, the deep malt tones land it somewhere between a dark barleywine and an imperial stout.  The nibs slightly unfinished bitterness played against the residual sugar in the beer, and resulted in a delightful final pairing.

Final Thoughts: In the end, it might have been ambition that got the better of some of the pairings.  Hot dishes suffered from logistical snafus, while simple taste pairings that required no cooking excelled.  For next year, I think it would behoove presenters to think of cold preparations for this arena.  Charcuterie perhaps?  I also think the tastings could be expanded to serve more, especially if they center and cheese and chocolate.  Perhaps a food pairing pavilion where the samples and beer are laid out together? If they were to model it after a taste pavilion at Slow Food, I think they could really be on to something.

Overall, I took away a few great pairings (light sour ales & white chocolate, smoked gouda & barelywine) and a lot of lessons about how hard these sort of events can be to pull off just right. But when it is done just right, the results can be worth all the effort.

Tags: gabf, Pairings

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 11:28 pm and is filed under Pairings, Reviews, Stories, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.