The National Homebrewers Convention went out with a bang, with a massive beer dinner coordinated by the Homebrew Chef. The dinner was sponsored by Rogue, who provided all the beers, including a very special surprise for the last course. We started with a salad.

You’ve really got to give it to Chef Cosentino – he doesn’t do anything halfway.  When he says “I’m going to serve offal and make it delicious” he really means it, and when he says “I’m going to cook with beer,” he jumps in to the deep end of the pool. At the Incanto & [...]

After Pro Night and Club Night, on the Saturday of the National Homebrewer’s Conference I was finally able to attend some educational sessions.  Let’s dive right in, shall we?  Below you’ll find pictures and notes from sessions on Champagne beer, brewing with chocolate and brewing with anything else Tomme Arthur can get his hands on. [...]

Club night offers the chance for local homebrew clubs from all over the country to showcase their homemade creations for an appreciative crowd.  The breadth of offerings is staggering, ranging from traditional brews made to style, to fruit filtered golden pales, to stouts being filtered through a coffee machine – and coffee.   All told, [...]

The National Homebrewer’s Convention is off to a rocking start.  I can’t make it to the educational sessions during the week, but am trekking out on BART to Oakland in the evening for the festivities. Last night was Pro Brewers Night, and the brewers came out swinging.  They broke into some highly desirable beers for [...]

We’re just a few days away from the start of the National Homebrewer’s Conference in Oakland, and beer aficianados from far away lands are starting to arrive in the city.  City Beer Store is getting in on the action, and hosted a last minute tasting of beers from The Bruery.  Patrick Rue made the trip [...]

Two of my favorite local restaurants, Incanto and Magnolia, are teaming up for what will undoubtedly be a spectacular beer dinner. Chef Chris Cosentino will be providing his usual offal-tastic food (Duck bits!), with Dave McLean is digging deep into his barrel aging projects (Cab barrel Tripel!) hidden away in the Magnolia basement.  This looks like a [...]

Welcome to Beer & Nosh’s newest recurring column: Cooks & Kegs.  We’ll be highlight a local kitchen, and a beer and food pairing they have hand selected to present. Ideally, the pairing will be a reflection of modern toque thinking on beer and food pairing, and reflect the unique sensibilities and palettes of the kitchen. To [...]

Magnolia Brewpub is currently featuring the last of a special series of beers brewed with a farm-specific malt, from Branthill in East Anglia, UK.  Currently available is the Branthill Longbarn ESB, in both regular CO2, and classic British cask options. I tried both.

GreatBrewers.com has introduced a new tool called “Beer Sommelier” that has been making its way around the web via instant message, blog posts, and Twitter.  This elegant web 2.0 application is well designed, nicely illustrated, fast and straight forward.  You simply tell it a little bit about the dish you have in mind, and it [...]