Every time I’m near a well stocked cheese counter, I poke around, looking for an elusive round of Cowgirl Creamery’s Sir Francis Drake.  This rare cheese is brought about by accident.  When a batch of Mt. Tam doesn’t set correctly (or something – I don’t entirely understand it, and the Cowgirl Website doesn’t offer any clues) the cheese is washed in Beaume de Venise (a fortified wine) and finished with a free currents on top.

The resulting cheese has the creaminess of Mt. Tam, but with a funky edge – not a harsh as Red Hawk, but with a slight briniess that everyone says reminds them of the sea (i agree.)

But what to drink with it?

Luckily for me, one of my favorite pours at the SF Beer Week Opening Gala has just appeared in bottles: Napa Smith‘s Organic IPA.

Organic hops are a difficult ingredient, which is one of the reasons you don’t see many Organic IPAs on the market.  But here, brewmaster Don Barkley has created a unique beverage – with a definite hop aroma, but not the one most of us expect.  Gone is the citrusy and piny aromas of most west coast style IPAs.  Instead, this heady brew has a much more floral, aromatic quality, backed by just a hint of alcohol heat.    This is one food friendly IPA.

I often recommend Napa Smith as a great starting place for wine drinkers interested in beer.  Their classic, balanced approach is easy to get along with.  Even their label reflects an old school approach to brewing, one of restraint and confidence is subtle balance.

Against this cheese, the beer was a great foil.  Besides offering a palate cleansing lift on the tongue, it bring out the earthy characteristics in the cheese, and emphasized the floral qualities of the funk it brought with it.  Where a traditional IPA might have run right over this cheese, this more nuanced delicate beer struck just the right chord.

In collaboration with Magnolia, 21A created the BRU/SFO, which near as I can tell, serves no other purpose than letting the brewmasters go nuts with Belgian style ales – a style that neither brewery regularly specializes in, but both adore.  The Homebrew Chef dinner was designed to pair up 21A’s BRU brews with food.

I think that’s about enough preamble, don’t you?  Let’s get to dinner.

Speaking of Sean’s favorite tropes – we started out with a cheese plate, with alllll the fixins.

Cheese Plate featuring: House-made Pork Pate – Local Sonoma Pig infused with Noir de Blanc and Dried Apricots, Cinnamon, Clove, Nutmeg and Allspice Corned Pig tongue, Flemish Style Cured Halibut, Spiced Nuts, Local Breads

This beast was served with two beers - The Beer Hunter ’07 – a strong dark belgian beer with some age on it, and Brew Libre! Ou Mourir, a belgian-yeast version of 21A’s namesake IPA.

This would probably be a good time to mention – this post is going to feature a LOT of beer-porn.

Everything on the cheese plate was outstanding, especially the cured halibut – it had just a hint of brininess, and a great texture. My favorite pairings centered around the Belgian style IPA, a very in-vogue style at the moment (i have a similar homebrew on tap at home.)  I thought the hops were a particularly strong pairing with the Humboldt Fog cheese, where the tangy cheese and the piney hops balanced each other.  It also was really great against the pickled pork tongue.  The tongue took on a lot of salt, making it almost have the texture of country ham.  The hops, supported nicely by the malt backbone balanced it nicely.

The next beer to come around was the VIA, a lighter belgian ale.

Sean paired this up against his Waterzooi, a seasonal twist on a classic belgian fish stew.

Waterzooi with PEI Mussels, Prawns, Pumpkin, Fennel, Purple Potatoes, Cippolini Onions and Herbs in a Enkel Spiked Cream Broth

The star of this plate was unquestionably the lobster broth.  Rich, balanced, with a indulgent lobster flavor, I want to take a bath in it.

Our next beer was St. Martin’s Abbey, a belgian Abby style beer – darker, with more carmel notes.

This was paired with:

Ravioli Filled with St. Martin’s Abbey Braised Lamb Necks, Caramelized Shallots, Thyme and Chanterelle Mushrooms and Dubbel Reduction

It’s not really fair, since I’m a sucker for lamb neck.   The filling was great – the beer braised lamb really shown through, and tied the filling back into the beer pairing perfectly. The pasta dough was thin, but with just enough tooth to hold the whole thing together.  A simple looking, but technically complex dish that really highlights the beer it was paired with – this was my favorite course of the night, and one that I think highlighted the relationship between food and beer, and how it can be deepened by using beer as an ingredient in the food.

Next up: the namesake beer of the night, Monk’s Blood.  The 21A boys were very excited to introduce their new baby.

The nose on Monk’s Blood is all fig.  The beer itself is very smooth, a bit heavy, with a nice complexity in the finish.  There’s a lot going on in this beer, and it is a great addition to the canned beer world. It’s also a stellar dinner beer, with a enough heft to stand up to big, rich seasonal fall dishes.

Duck Legs Slowly cooked in Monk’s Blood on a Bed of Ginger Butternut Squash Purée and Glazed Brussels Sprouts.  Served with Pomme Frites with Monk’s Blood Aioli

Who doesn’t love a good duck leg?  With it’s great, game-inflected flavor, it’s a natural fit for this beer. The brussel sprouts provided some much needed veggie relief, but for me, the star of the plate with the squash and ginger puree.  The ginger had a great, bright flavor, and really popped against the rich leg meat and thick beer – a great contrast, and very seasonal. The fries were crisp, and nicely accented by the monk’s blood aioli. Jay in particular, loved his fries.

For special treat, Sean produced some Monk’s blood from the batch brewed earlier in the year, that had been stored away in a bourbon barrel.

The earlier batch was noticeably sweeter, but also had been really smoothed over by the time on wood.  The bourbon nose was a great accent to the flavors that were already present in the beer – one of the great surprises for the night.

Our last beer and course came around, and the food coma induced crowed sat up at attention one more time.

Belgian Quad Spiked Waffles with TCHO Chocolate Whipping Cream, Cocoa Nibs, Noir de Blanc Poached Dried Cherries

Our last beer was Baby Horse, a belgian quad with a huge phenolic nose, and lots of banana and clove character.  It wasn’t my favorite for the night, but it may have just been that I was too full by this point.  I thought the bourbon barrel monk’s blood was a much better fit for dessert, and brought out the cherries and chocolate on the plate.  Our waffles were crisp, although they lacked that “just out of the iron” freshness that you look for at brunch. No matter – I was too full to care anyway.

All in all, a pretty solid showing from the Homebrew Chef.  I’m more and more convinced that his mission – to have beer fully realized as an ingredient in the kitchen – is a worthwhile one.  Integrating the beer into the food reveals new pairing options, and make more a more exciting, complete beer dinner.

Thanks for a great meal Sean!

Hey Beer & Nosh,

I would love your opinion on a beer pairing I’m planning in a week or two, which will be the start of an ongoing series. We’re starting with Witbier, and I’d love some cheese or food suggestions.  I had a few ideas in my head, like cavatina from Andante creamery to bring out the citrus/herbaceous notes, but I can’t just do all goat cheese (which could easily happen with me).  It should be fun, and everyone is bringing a different style of witbier or wheat beer.  I’m bringing Hitachino White Nest, Floris Apple Ale, and Black Orchard from the bruery (just to throw everyone off).  What cheeses or food (nuts, olives, fruit…) would you suggest to pair them with?

Best, Claire
The Kitchy Kitchen

Dear Claire -

I’m happy to provide a few starting points.  It sounds like a great series of events, and the Belgian Wit style is a natural starting place.  With their light malt, and wide variety belgian yeast notes, the style gives you very wide area to play around in.  In fact, one of my very first posts to this blog was a pairing made with a Belgian Wit style beer from Lakefront Brewery and grilled peached, wrapped in Prosciutto.

A great place to start your thinking about pairings is the spices.  The addition of spices to beer is a classic Belgian technique, and can give you a great flavor profile to build upon. I brew mine with bitter orange peel and coriander.  Maybe a clafoutis, with apricots (deliciously in season at the moment), orange zest and coriander?  Or use the orange and coriander as a base to build a homemade mustard.

On the more savory side, seafood (with its standard lemon pairing) is also a great match for wit beers.  The crisp, dry nature lends itself nicely to the sweet meat of shellfish.  Perhaps a shrimp cocktail, with a spicy lemon caper dipping sauce?  Or crab, which is what Hopmonk Tavern paired with New Belgium’s Mothership Wit?  I first had Hitachino Nest White Ale in a sushi restaurant, and its been my favorite sushi beer ever since.

Finally, on the cheese front, I think you’ve got a good intuition with goat cheese.  Why not start with a basic goat cheese, like Humbolt Fog or chèvre, and up the ante with additional adjuncts which bring out different flavors in the beer?  Fruit and nuts, of course, but if you visit your local homebrew shop you can get some real malt, and have use it recreate a mini version of the malt bill for one of these beers (the brew shop will be happy to help with with – go for about 1-2 lbs of malt total).  Steep the malt in 150 degree water for forty five minutes, then remove the husks and strain the remaining liquid.  If we were brewing, you’d then boil and add hops.  Instead, reduce to a syrup (adding spices, or blending with honey if desired) and serve alongside the goat cheese.  You could also buy wheat malt extract for a simpler procedure. (Hint: malt extract is killer for brining pork.)

I hope this helps you get your party going.  Take lots of pictures, and enjoy your wit beers!

- Beer & Nosh

I started with the cask option.  Serving it out of a cask means that the head is formed by mechanical motion when pumped out into the class.  The head on top of the beer is made up of large bubbles, which quickly dissipate. The beer is served slightly cool, and has only a faint hint of carbonation.  This serving style highlights the malt character (which is what this beer is all about.) The malt tone is medium, with only a faint hint of hops, and a slightly thin finish.  I could drink this all day  - which incidentally, is the exact idea behind this sort of low alcohol beer.  Traditionally beer is safer than water, and far more delicious as well.

In contrast, the CO2 keg is served colder, and the head is made up of many tight knit bubbles which held on for the the entire life of the pint. Full carbonation dramatically changed the character of the beer – it was notably hoppier, with a crisp finish. The light malt character was still present, but had to compete with other characteristics of the beer bolstered by the carbonation.

As a homebrewer, it’s amazing to study huge differences that small changes can make to a beer.  Changing the carbonation method led to beers with different perceived hop levels, and wildly different finishes.  All of this from the same beer recipes, simply split into two different dispensing methods.

Of course, this sort of beer investigation requires sustenance, so an order of Magnolia’s duck wings was called for.

Slightly sweet with just a bit of spice, Magnolia’s duck wings are one of my favorite indulgences. All the fun of chicken wings, with an savory richness that only duck can provide.  Alongside the beer, duck displayed the agreeable food friendliness of Magnolia’s classic ales, which when served with dinner saddle up and play nice.  These are good session drinking beers, which go down with disconcerting ease. Luckily, at 4.2% ABV, it’s easy to sit around all evening, comparing and contrasting the differences.

]]> http://beerandnosh.com/2009/06/branthill-esb-magnolia/feed/ 0 http://beerandnosh.com/2009/06/beer-sommelier/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-sommelier http://beerandnosh.com/2009/06/beer-sommelier/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:35:43 +0000 Jesse http://beerandnosh.com/?p=1769

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 suggests a beer.  Thinking about making beef enchiladas?  How about an American style IPA?  Chocolate brownies on the menu?  Beer Som thinks a Baltic style porter might be nice.  You then can click through to an in-depth description of the style, and commercial examples that might work well.

Here’s the rub – I don’t like this tool very much.  In fact, I downright dislike it.
I know, I know, it seems great, but here’s the thing: I think this tool does a disservice to the art of pairing beer and food. It paints with broad brush strokes, and a large, clumsy palate to suggest broad ranges of styles.  Worse, it discounts the direction that the food world seems to be heading.  This tool assumes all chocolate brownies are the same, as well as that many porters are the same.  It can provide a nice starting point, but what about the differences between local and not so local ingredients?  What about the notion of terroir being extended to beer and food pairings? While this tool can provide ok to good pairings, it’ll never provide the kind of great pairings that make Sommeliers necessary in restaurants with great wine programs, or gastropubs with stellar beers lists. This is the beer equivalent of “White wine with chicken and fish, red wine for beef and lamb.”

Let’s take this dish for example:

Cold smoked jumbo sea scallops, seared and served on a roasted fennel-celery root purée with a DBA demi-glaze

This dish was conceived , cooked and paired by the Homebrew Chef at his “Night of Ales” Firestone Walker Dinner.   The scallops were smoked using oak chips from the same barrels used to brew the Double Barrel Ale that this beer was served with Firestone Walker’s Double Barrel Ale.

The pairing worked great together, but what really took it to the next level were the small details of the composed dish.  Yes, seared scallops and an english pale is a natural starting point, as the beer sommelier tool points out.  But it’s the underlying details that make it work.  Smoking the scallops infuses them with some of the same wood flavors in the beer.  The sauce is created from the same beer, and the the celery root and fennel puree (which was nearly my undoing when helping prep the dish,) provided a continuation of the natural sweetness of the scallops.  Alongside the beer the celery brought out the aspects of the beer besides the wood and malt – the slight bitterness and the ale esters from the yeast.

Where broad flavor styles are a fine starting point, they miss the art altogether.  When pairing a dish and a beer, look not only at the big flavors, but pull out the specific notes that the beer can then contrast or enhance the food.  Looking back at the chocolate brownie example, try to use a high quality, local chocolate, and examine the characteristic of the cocoa product (or, let the chocolate maker help – try tasting and pairing with TCHO Chocolate). Does it have citrusy notes? Consider The Bruery’s Black Orchard. Perhaps roasted coffee flavors? Try AleSmith’s Speedway Stout.  Better yet, toy with the brownie recipe, and sweeten it with a touch of malt extract. Mix and match the individual elements to create a food and beer profile that is intertwined so much it’s nearly indistinguishable as two separate pieces, but rather an united culinary idea.

By investigating the unique deeper flavor notes in the individual components of a dish, you can begin to form a picture of a beer that doesn’t just quench your thirst, but becomes a part of the overall dish, and creates a flavor experience that would be lessened without the beer.  When you taste them together, you should not be able to imagine it any other way. In attempting to simplify the art of beer pairing down to its most basic elements, Beer Sommelier loses sight of what pairings can really bring to the culinary experience.

Isn’t he adorable?  He’s super friendly, and we’ve been trying to teach him tricks.  We tried to feed him, but it turns out, Traify doesn’t much like Caesar salads. 

(Aside: Does a Caesar salad by definition contain anchovies?  I vote no, since there are anchovies in Worchshire sauce, a key ingredient. Eli, and the rest of the civilized world, seem to disagree.  Do I have any defenders out there?) 

Traify is quite the diva, and insisted on professional lighting for this photoshoot.  <Shameless Plug> Thankfully, we were able to accommodate that thanks to some help from Lightspeed LA, your best source for set and event lighting in LA. </Shameless Plug> Thanks Avi!

As you can see in the above photo, we had prepared a nice place for Traify to sleep, in a pot of salted boiling water.  Sadly, our inexperience in raising pets really showed *sniffle* Traify didn’t make it. 

I cleaned and prepared Traify to be eaten over newspaper (as is the traditional burial in his culture,) and poured a beer that might pair well with his subtlety sweet meat.  I settled on a Eel River Brewing Acai Berry Wheat. 

People seem to have very strong feelings about fruit beers. I’m not including sour Lambic style beer in this discussion – rather, fruit beer with traditional yeast fermentations, like Apricot Ales or the Longshot Cranberry Wit. In this case, Eel river has used a gentle touch to balance this drink.  The fruit character is plainly evident, the the beer is more dry than sweet, and the wheat character shows through in the background.  It’s not  my favorite beer in the world, but I certainly had no trouble finishing a pint, and Elianna wants to know when I’ll get more.

It also happens to be a “Certified Organic”  beer, which is especially impressive given the inclusion of the fruit. It also provides me a great opportunity to plug a new entry into the beer blogging world: Sustainabrew.com.  Sustainabrew’s author Jason Sahler has created a website dedicated to craft beers that are green (as in environmentally sound – not in green bottles or too young to serve!)  I particularly like his tasting notes, which in addition to providing detailed flavor profiles, also provide the context of where the beer was enjoyed and how it was served.  All of this is illustrated with some stellar beer photography.

Back to dinner, and Traify, who by now, wasn’t fairing nearly as well as our houseplant. He was however, delicious.  We served Traify alongside of melted butter, and a caper-creme fresh sauce Eli put together.  He would have wanted it that way. 

He took the two types of malt  - carafa, a pitch black malt, and crystal 40, an amber toasted malt, and blended them with powdered sugar to create a malt infused garnish for the Coney Island Lager funnel cake. At dinner, Elianna was in back managing the fryer for these, mixing the batter with the Coney Island Lager on the fly, ensuring every funnel cake was fresh. It was this sort of attention to detail, with fresh made beer batter, malt sugar, and paired with the classic MSF buttermilk panna cotta that made the night really shine.  This was a common thread that ran through every plate.  But I’m getting ahead of myself – let’s go back to the beginning of the evening, starting with the line out front, and work our way back to dessert.

By six o’clock, the line in front of Lung Shan was huge, reaching down the street.   Inside, we were scrambling to get the finishing touches on everything, and taste a few sample of the food with the waitstaff so everyone could talk intelligently about what was being served tonight.  We also poured samples of the beer and talked about a few pairings that might be solid recommendations. Moving into service, Elianna shifted from frying latkes to frying funnel cakes.  We had arrived early in the afternoon to start preparing everything.  Eli set about frying latkes, while I sorted out the logistics of beer service with Karen for the front of the house.  Karen devised a great system of dim sum style checks for the beer that allowed Zak and I to help with beer service, without disrupting too much of the rest of the front of house operation. 

In the kitchen Eli was fighting a beast that would haunt us all night – the poor electricity in the back of the house required constant resetting of the circuit breaker, and only one electrical appliance could be used at a time.  The tabletop deep fryer, electric skillet and food processor were all vying for watts, and had to be swapped out as needed.  In spite of these obstacles, she did a great job powering through, first assembling the latkes with an initial fry session (they were then refried extra crispy to order during service.) 

Once the door were thrown open, the hungry masses descended into the small restaurant space and barely controlled chaos ensued. Zak and I rushed out onto the floor to start taking beer orders, and recommend a few pairings.  In back, another Zach was on-hand to assist with pouring the beer lineup.  The beer flights were there then loaded up into six back caddies and delivered to the tables. 

Our beer lineup for the night:

HE’BREW Messiah Bold – 5.6% alc.
Recommended Pairings: Olives, PB&J, Dumpling Soup, Brisket
HE’BREW Origin Pomegranate Strong Ale – 8% alc.
Recommended Pairings: Scallops, Dumpling Soup, Mushroom Salad, PB&J, Grilled Cheese, Funnel Cake, Ice Creams
HE’BREW Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A – 10% alc.
Recommended Pairings: Olives, Mushroom Salad, Grilled Cheese, Ice Creams
Coney Island Lager – 5.5% alc.
Recommended Pairings: Olives, Scallops, Brisket, Sausage, Funnel Cake

The pairings really seemed to come together.  The small pour flights encouraged pairing experimentation, which was the idea behind the night.  As for the food, Anthony really knocked it out of the park: 

 
Scallop Crudo with Beer-Carbonated Pomelo, Fennel, and Upland Cress

This was the one dish that I actually helped cook. I prepared the carbonated pomelo, which really popped.  The salad and scallops provided a great complement, and the final dish did a great job of highlighting the citrus and beer components, which is a great feat, given that it was sitting on a plate along side some really fresh seafood which could have easily overshadowed the rest of the dish. 

Caramelized Maitake Mushrooms with Farro, Grape, Walnut, and Malt-Aged Balsamic Vinaigrette

Another beer-inspired play on a MSF classic, this salad was a great vegetarian dish.  I was particularly fond of the grapes, which added a bit of sweetness and texture to the salad. Speaking of classics, we also served the street food standard, the PB&J. 

 
PB&J: Berkshire Kurobuta Pork Belly and marinated Jicama with pickled jalapeno and cilantro aioli  

“Don’t you have enough pictures of that sandwich?” remarked Emma when I poked in with my camera during service. Yes, Emma, I do.  But I figured one more couldn’t hurt.  Emma, by the way, I think is the unsung hero in the Mission Street Food kitchen.  She acts as the sous, making sure all of the details in the kitchen are taken care of, and greasing the wheels to run smoothly and enact Anthony’s plans for the night. She really contributed to help pull off the special beer-focused menu, including the IPA bread, which was a major component of one of my favorite dishes of the night.

Grilled Stilton Sandwich on IPA bread with seared Broccoli Rabe

A favorite pairing of mine is a big beer with stinky cheese.  This dish played off of that using the stilton, and the bitter rabe was a great counterpoint. It was fantastically rich and easily stood up the the RIPA beer, which at 10% alcohol needs a big dish to balance out the pairing. 

 
Brown Ale Brisket, with potato pancake and caramelized onion compote

I’ll just admit it: Anthony’s brisket was better than mine. The latkes, of course, were fantastic, since Eli personally hand made every one.  (Learn how to make your own, here)

Lager-Braised Sausage with cannelini beans, scallions and garlic confit

The sausage was the sleeper hit of the night.  While other dishes had more pizzaz and flourish, this rustic plate of beans and sausage was a soulful and rich dish that I heard raved about all through service.  When a sample was sent out for the wait staff to try at the beginning of the night, they descended on it like a plague of locusts, and licked the bowl clean in a matter of seconds. 

Finally, there was dessert.  I mentioned the funnel cake above, and we also had Humphrey Slocombe‘s great ice cream.  We served their Guinness Gingerbread ice cream, as well as a special batch made just for the night of RIPA ice cream, with a toasted caraway brittle folded into it. Jake was kind enough to furnish us with some extra brittle, which was sprinkled on top, and really brought out the rye character.  The brittle tasted like a candied loaf of rye bread – it sounds strange, but it worked. I have a empty five gallon tub from selling out ice cream to prove it. 

Lenny’s Rye IPA Ice Cream with Toasted Caraway Brittle

By the end of the night, I was exhausted.  My brain was turning to mush, which really came to fruition when I was taking a beer order, and discovered I was having a lot of trouble counting to 15 to write down the table number on the ticket. Doing front of the house work was hard, and gave me extra appreciation for the hard work that servers and hosts do.  The staff at Mission Street Food was a pleasure to work with.  Anthony and Karen have but together a great team, whose professionalism and energy really carry through onto the plate. They welcomed our intrusion with open arms, and made us feel like a part of the team. We just did out best to stay out of the way.

All told, I think everything worked out. We shoe-horned a beer dinner into the MSF food format, with great success. Anthony and the kitchen seemed to find inspiration in the beers, and delivered great dishes that reflected both the Mission Street Food and Shamltz brewing attitudes. Karen and her front of the house team adapted to the additional challenges of a complicated beer menu, and klutzy beer geeks helping with service.   I even saw a few tables who brought in wine (everyone loves a fair $5 corkage) go for a beer flight to share after seeing all of the other tables enjoying the brew.  From talking to patrons, we managed to introduce a lot of people to beer pairings that hadn’t been exposed before, and changed a few minds about this whole beer and food pairing thing.

A recent foray to the local farmer’s market yeilded an unexpected treat: cauliflower, but not the usual kind.  This breed had long, slender stalks, with tiny little buds at the top.  The farmers informed me it would cooks up extra sweet, as well as extra tender. Given all the rain and cold weather lately, it seemed like the perfect excuse to make soup.

I made just a basic vegetable soup: simply sweat an onion in a large pot, add spices (in this case, cardamon and coriander) add stock and cauliflower, and simmer until tender.  Once everything has cooked though, hit it was a stick blender, adjust seasoning as needed,  and you’re set.  No cream or milk needed.

Per Elianna’s suggestion, I reserved a handful of the tiny florets, and sauteed them separately to top the soup.  Feeling spicy, I coated them in a thick layer of curry powder. The florets took on and carried the powder, while the white stems took on a light green character.  The resulting soup toppers had a delightful textural element to the soup and bit of spice that was needed.  So what to drink?

Given the spice laden character of the soup, an equally aggressive beer seemed in order. I reached for a bottle of Hitachino’s Ginger Brew which I’d been saving in the fridge for just such an occasion.  So far, just about everything I’ve tried from this Japanese brewery had been a knock-out hit, so I had high hopes when I cracked the lid.  Their Belgian Wit style beer is my favorite sushi beer these days.

It’s a real stunner.  The ginger is perfectly blended into the light malt, resulting an ingrained flavor that is both unexpected, but welcome.  While other ginger beers often just feel like a layering of ginger on top of a standard beer, this particular bottled seemed to turn that relationship inside out: the ginger flowed through the entire flavor, and gave it a slightly tart bite that reminded me of some of the better brett-based sour beers I’ve had.  Against the soup, the beer almost took on the character of a dry ginger lassi-like drink, and provided a nice foil to the spice laden soup.

I’m going to need a few more bottles of this, for sure.  Perhaps a ginger homebrew is in order?  Anyone had any experience playing with ginger, either as part of the mash, or in bottling?

One of the things I really like about the Homebrew Chef’s approach to food is Sean’s intellectual bend towards his subject.  SF Beer Week provided the perfect opportunity to showcase this habit with some like-minded eaters and drinkers, who are onboard for a dinner that is also a culinary investigation.  Can one beer be showcased over and over again, to highlight different aspects of the beer, as both a beverage and an ingredient? It’s this freewheeling deconstruction and playful examination that’s all the rage in the molecular gastronomy these days, although here the cooking was a decided more upscale comfort execution.

Update: Like what you see?  I’m told there are just a few spots available for Sean’s Firestone Walker Dinner at the Toronado this Thursday.  Sean tells me “A rumored extra keg of Parabola might make an appearance.”  Stop by the Toronado to buy tickets before the last few seats get snapped up.

So what beer would this be? Sean’s own Monk’s Blood, which is a strong Belgium Ale.  With 11% ABV, it’s a bruiser of a beer, with a good deal of sweetness as well.  The result is a strong, sweet brew that packs a punch.  The residual sugar combines with the amber malt to provide some distinctly boysenberry and fig flavors.  It’s a provides a big base for Sean to build upon, both on the plate and in the glass 

We started out with Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk Cheese served with a dried fruit compote made with Monk’s Blood Belgian Ale, toasted spiced nuts and local breads.  I’m a sucker for this sort of pairing  - the beer reduced with  the fruit to bring out the sweetness and malt flavors, and stood up against the funky washed rind cheese. 

21st Amendment wasn’t stingy with the beer either.  Each course received a “contrast” beer for comparison. They first up served us their Hop Crisis Double IPA.  It turned out to be one of my favorites of the evening, partial because it provided a great example of how a completely different beer – in this case, dominated by hops – can pair with the farmhouse funk of the cheese and bring out different aspects of the dish.  Normally in pairings like these you’d have one beer and two cheeses – here we turned it on it’s head, and head two beers with one cheese, and the became the chameleon to the flavors around it. 

Next up: Crepes filled with beer braised duck, house cured bacon, fennel, thyme, cinnamon and leeks and a Monk’s Blood cream suace topped with toasted almonds.  Guess that was the star of the plate?  The beer braised duck? The bacon?  The fennel?  That’s what i would have guessed too. But instead, it’s the almonds.  The toasted carmel edges on the almonds really popped texturally and flavor-wise against the rich duck inside, and tied it to the beer. Those nuts really tied the plate together, and gave the beer more to work contrast with, since the duck has so readily married to the beer’s fruit flavors.  The second beer they served with it was an aggressively smokey imperial stout that I thought had too much smoke to go with, well, any dish.  A little pour was interesting – a full pour was too much. 

Next came our only lighter foray of the evening – Baby lollo rosso and curly endive with Humboldt Fog crostini, blood orange vinaigrette , candied pecans and shaved manchego cheese. The salad was crisp and refreshing, albeit didn’t really do much for the special beer of the evening. Our contrast beer for this was from left field – a pour of “Vinnie-ified” Watermelon Wheat that was the result of a collaboration with Russian River Brewing (William Brand is furiously scribing notes in the background, as 21A’s Shawn told the lengthy story of its creation.)  As far as our ongoing intellectual investigation goes the Humbolt Fog crostini was the most interesting part of the plate.  The sour, dry wheat embraced the tart cheese, while the Monk’s Blood contrasted against it.  

It was about this time that Sean suggested I come down and grab a few pictures of him working alongside the house kitchen staff to put out the next course: Beer braised lamb shank slow cooked Colorado lamb shanks with carrots, celery and thyme, dried figs and coriander served on a puree’ of parsnips.

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My Jurassic sized lamb shank looked like a Godzilla sea monster invading a small mirepoix village. Sean must know I have a soft spot of beer braised lamb.  Where this dish really shined was the thick caramelized glaze on the outside, which paired well with 21A’s Beer Hunter.  

Here “The Hunter” played as a comparisons in similarities rather than differences with both the meat and the Monk’s Blood.  Both are big Belgiums with residual sugers.  The fig notes in particular are brought out the the throughly braised figs in the sauce.  

And finally, it was time for dessert: Chocolate and ale mousse tart, filled in a hazelnut crust in a pool of sour cherry coulis with a Monk’s Blood Sabayon. I split a tart with Elianna, and still couldn’t finish this rich beast.  Brian, who was sitting next to me, was particularly smitten with the tart, asked Sean what was in it.  Sean explained that for contrast, there was a beer brittle that had been broken up, added a hard carmel chewiness to the mousse and toasted hazelnuts in the crust. On my other side, William Brand scribbled more notes.  I was surrounded by beer authors on all sides! 

The tart was delicious, although after this super rich dinner, my newly refilled glass of Monk’s Blood seemed even more intimidating, and the sweet on sweet with the tart was a bit much – by now, an espresso would have been really killer, as I was all loaded up on sugar. I think that’s the real challenge of attempting this sort of menu – in order for it to work, it has to be a big, complex beer, and have a lot of depth to stand up to the scrutiny of so many courses. Because it’s such a big beer, the defining characteristics of it – in this case sugar - will eventually fray around the edges.  I would also argue it shows more wear as a drink – as an ingredient, it stayed very, very strong. This may have again been the sugar at work.

But could any other type of beer be explored like this?  Most pale ales certainly couldn’t make it more than two courses.  And in serving contrasting beers with each course, we got to have our cake, and eat it too: the deep palate investigation of one beer, and a shallow flirtation with other beers for variety and contrast.  And so this culinary investigation worked – revealing under the microscope both the expansive depth and shallow areas of this beer, and leaving me with one final impression: It’s just fucking great with cheese. 

Thanks for an awesome dinner Sean – I can’t wait to see what else you’ve got in store for SF Beer Week.  You’ve got a captivated audience for exploring beer and food pairing in a more studious way that normal, and I think you’re fully taking advantage of it. 

PS – A special toast tonight for William Brand – hang in there, we’re all pulling for you. 

After a very filling dinner of Rejewvenator Braised Chicken, Zak was ready to show off for dessert.  Like any good dinner guest, he had arrived bearing two bottles of booze, and a bottle of beer.  Except the bottles of liquor weren’t for drinking: they were bound to be lit on fire.  Which is really the best part of Bananas Foster anyway. 

After the bananas were sliced, Zak added the brown sugar and butter to a nonstick pan, and under very, very low heat, combined them.  We were waiting for the suger to completely melt and it to stop appearing grainy. It in fact took so long, I got impatient, and opened the beer I intended to serve with dessert, a bottle of Brew Dog’s Paradox Islay #9, which is aged in Scotch barrels. 

I am supremely confident that there are people out there who must love this beer – people who adore scotch with a good cigar.  I’m just not one of them.  It was hugely peaty and smokey, to the point where Liz, Zak’s girlfriend, took one sip and announced that it “tastes like an ashtray.”  While I wouldn’t go that far, it was just too aggressive for me.  Luckily, all this tasting had given Zak enough time to finish melting the sugar, and he added the bananas, which cooked though in the sugar. 

Then it was time, finally, to start lighting things on fire.  Zak added the booze, tilted the pan, and an impressive flame lurched out of the pan.  Which I of course, didn’t catch on my camera as I fumbled with the settings.  Canon doesn’t include a “flambe” preset, but they should.  Not wanting to let the blog down, Zak dutifully added more booze.  I again, failed to capture the moment on film. 

Determined to capture the a flame in the pan, Eli and I later returned to the scene, and staged this dramatic flambe recreation for your viewing pleasure.  I hope it was worth it. 

This final dessert however, was not staged.  It was delicious. Plates were quickly assembled with vanilla ice cream and handed out to the awaiting diners.