Beer glassware: More than marketing drivel

Aug. 17, 2012

I recently completed the trifecta of glassware seminars presented by Riedel Crystal and its sister company, Spiegelau. The presentations on wine and spirits were mind blowing, but as a beer drinker, learning about the Spiegelau line of beer glasses was the most stunning and eye-opening experience of the three. I’ve told you about some of the history and vision behind making this specialized glassware, but here it is in practice.

From left, 1. wheat beer, 2. lager, 3. stemmed pilsner and
4. tall pilsner. Photo courtesy of Spiegelau.

>> 1. The brew: Ayinger Brau Weisse

The glass: Wheat beer

The proper glass can enhance all of our senses, said Doug Reed, of Spiegelau, starting with sight. We popped the top off this beautiful wheat beer and poured half into a standard pint glass and half into the Spiegelau wheat beer glass. Held side by side, the Spiegelau glass was much clearer, allowing us to see the beer’s color and effervescence. In contrast, the pint glass added an almost bluish hue, muddying the opaque, golden color of the unfiltered brew.

Another reason to ogle your beer is its head. Reed encouraged us to pour our brew into the glass with vigor, forming a thick, foamy beer beret. Here in America, we seem to shy away from this spume, tilting our glasses to get a “good pour.” But this is beer blasphemy. A two-fingered head on a beer releases aroma, which adds to your sipping enjoyment. This Hefe-Weizen was light and fragrant, with a slightly tart, fruity taste.

>> 2. The brew: Samuel Smith IPA

The glass: Lager

After carefully pouring the remaining Ayinger from the pint into the wheat glass so it could enjoy its remaining moments of life in a prettier funeral shroud, I popped the top off the next beer, an India pale ale, and split it between the pint and lager glasses. Another vigorous pour left me with that lovely lather floating on top, immediately releasing the floral aroma of hops and leading me to my next sensory step: smell.

I stuck my nose in and got a good whiff, nearly snorting suds in my excitement. European IPA’s are much milder than their highly hopped American counterparts, and this one had a flowery, only slightly bitter perfume. After sniffing around on the heady stuff, I set the glass down and picked up my pint. The head on the beer in the pint glass had already gone flat. Without it, the aroma was weak, almost nonexistent, the beer smelling lifeless and completely devoid of all of those earthy notes amplified by the Spiegelau glass, which still had a healthy head nearly 10 minutes later.

>> 3. The brew: Orval 12 ounce

The glass: Stemmed pilsner (beer tulip)

Orval is a Trappist brew that comes in a bowling-pin shaped bottle. Here’s another ingenious glass shape at work. Because Orval is bottle conditioned, it has a bunch of yeast floating around it in. The widest part of the bowling pin helps to trap the yeast as you pour the beer, keeping it in the bottle. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with consuming the yeast, and I prefer to slosh it onto the top of my beer, increasing the head and the fizz that tickles my nose when I take the first sip. The tulip shape of the glass focuses the aroma, and the wide bell creates a larger surface area to dissipate some of the alcohol hit of this slightly bigger beer.

Obviously, the highlight of beer drinking is taste. Orval has been cranking out beer since 1070, and the complexity and balance of this brew are nearly perfect. Even the pint glass couldn’t completely ruin it, but oh, how it opened up in the Spiegelau glass. The beer tasted bigger, bolder, and bitterer, with a sweet-dry aftertaste and all of that long-lasting, aroma-inducing foam.

>> 4. The brew: Samuel Smith Organic Lager

The glass: Tall pilsner

It seems counterintuitive to put a lager in a pilsner glass, but Reed said that unlike wine, choice of beer glass is less specific to varietals. The general shape is important, but it’s truly the composition and thickness of the glass that are paramount to the beer-drinking experience.

The key to what makes these glasses so superior to the average pint is how they are made. Most standard bar glasses are made of iron oxide-based glass. This type of glass is more brittle, so in order to make our unhappy friend the pint glass strong enough to survive in a bar setting, it has to be much thicker. This thick glass conducts heat from the air and your hand more readily than the thinner, stronger glass that Spiegelau uses.

The result is that your beer stays colder longer and creates more cool condensation on the outside of the Spiegelau glass, the sight of which sends the message to your brain that the beer is cold. But it’s not just a psychological trick. The beer actually is colder and has retained more carbonation than it would in a typical glass. We tasted the Samuel Smith Organic Lager first, and I let it sit in the Spiegelau glass throughout the rest of seminar. By the end of the hour and a half, the lager still had a slight head and was still cool and delicious. You just can’t get that from your standard pint.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

Broaden your horizons at a late-summer beer fest

Aug. 10, 2012

Summer may be dwindling, but there are still some fantastic opportunities to drink a new-to-you brew while enjoying the unpredictability of late-season Colorado weather — and maybe learning a little something or supporting a worthwhile cause along the way. Here’s a rundown of a few beer-centric events that are happening across the state:

August:

>> Winter Park Beer Festival 2012, Winter Park, Aug. 11

• Brewery to seek out: Grand Teton Brewing Co., Victor, Idaho.

More than 30 breweries will descend upon Hideaway Park in downtown Winter Park for the third-annual Winter Park Beer Festival on Saturday, Aug. 11, from noon to 5 p.m. Get a bottomless 5-ounce tasting cup for $25 in advance or $30 at the door to sample beers from all over Colorado, plus a handful of out-of-state visitors hailing from Idaho, California and even Hawaii. The shindig commences at noon and features live music from the Martin Harley Band, Good Old War and headliner Mike Doughty.

If you want to make a weekend of it, head up on Friday night for the Breckenridge Distillery Kickoff Party at Deno’s and stay late Saturday for the Beer Fest After Party at The Winter Park Pub. VIP packages also are available and include a commemorative stein and private beer tasting. The Winter Park Beer Festival is a fundraiser for The Grand Foundation, a philanthropic agency that seeks to improve the quality of life in Grand County. For more information or to buy tickets, visit http://winterparkbeerfestival.com.

>> The Wildlife Experience, Art & Ale Brew Festival, Parker, Aug. 17

• Brewery to seek out: Uinta Brewing Co., Salt Lake City.

Cozy up to more than 30 breweries and cider slingers at The Wildlife Experience educational museum in Parker from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 17. The venue’s galleries display animal art and sculpture from around the world, and festival attendees are invited to peruse the exhibits as they sample beer and food from local vendors. The night wraps up with live music from Denver cover band Flock of Beagles.

Tickets are $35 for members of The Wildlife Experience and $40 for nonmembers. You must be 21 or older to attend. Learn more at http://thewildlifeexperience.org/art-and-ale-brew-festival.

>> Ed Fest 2012, Edwards, Aug. 18

• Brewery to seek out: Green Flash Brewing Co., San Diego.

For the second year in a row, Crazy Mountain Brewing Co. will host Ed Fest at the Riverwalk of Edwards on Saturday, Aug 18, from 3 to 7 p.m. This community festival will feature beer from more than 20 breweries, including Colorado stalwarts and a few surprises from around the country.

Though the beer is the drinkable darling of this festival, Crazy Mountain has made the entertainment equally compelling this year by signing on the Emmitt-Nershi Band. Drew Emmitt, of Leftover Salmon, and Bill Nershi, from String Cheese Incident, will bring their progressive bluegrass to pair with your fist full of craft beer. Local rock and funk band Frogs Gone Fishin’ will open. Proceeds from Ed Fest will support the Eagle Valley Land Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving open space in the Vail Valley.

Tickets are $35 in advance or $40 at the door. You must be 21 or older to attend. For more information, call 970-926-3009 or visit www.edbeerfest.com.

September:

>> Boulder Brew Fest, Boulder, Sept. 1

• Brewery to seek out: Three Barrel Brewing Co., Del Norte.

The Boulder Theater will house more than 75 of the best brews in the nation in two sessions on Sept. 1. Each session offers an early-entry VIP option with a collectable tasting cup, and both VIP and general-admission tickets include unlimited samplings.

Live music from Chain Station will fill the theater with wall-to-wall sound for the first session; the second session entertainment has not yet been announced. Both sessions will include guest speakers from the brewing industry.

General-admission tickets for Boulder Brew Fest are $40 in advance or $45 at the door. VIP tickets will be available through LivingSocial Adventures starting Tuesday, Aug. 14. For more information, visit http://www.boulderbrewfest.com.

>> Brew at the Zoo, Denver, Sept. 7

• Brewery to seek out: Renegade Brewing Co., Denver.

If your social life has been lacking in fur and feathers, check out Brew at the Zoo from 7 to 10 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 7, at the Denver Zoo. This “suds safari” features unlimited samples from more than 40 Colorado breweries, a souvenir tasting mug and appetizers from some of Denver’s favorite haunts.

Tickets are $70, or spend $100 for a preview ticket that gets you into the event an hour early. The money raised by Brew at the Zoo will benefit the Denver Zoo’s Red Apple Fund for Lifelong Learning, which opens the doors of animal education to those who otherwise may not be able to afford it. For more information, visit http://www.denverzoo.org/brew.

>> Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, Telluride, Sept. 14-16

• Brewery to seek out: Four Peaks Brewing Co., Tempe, Ariz.

Telluride festivals are typically all about the music, but this one puts equal focus on what’s in your tasting glass. The event starts on Sept. 14, but the beer-tasting portion takes place from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 15. Of the aforementioned festivals, this one has the biggest consortium of breweries, featuring more than 50 houses and close to 150 brews. Entrance into the Grand Tasting is included with all single-day Saturday passes (sold out) and three-day festival passes ($170).

Jam to Gov’t Mule, Trombone Shorty and Robert Randolph and the Family Band, among others, at this celebration of beer and blues. To learn more, visit http://www.tellurideblues.com.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

Your pint glass is so passe

Aug. 3, 2012

An article appeared on my desk not too long ago, lovingly torn from the pages of The Denver Post, with a headline that implored me to “Shatter those pint glasses, for the love of beer.” In the clip, Josh Noel, of the Chicago Tribune, spelled out the latest step in the ascension of beer culture: glassware.

Noel lamented the fact that though American beer is no longer “largely terrible,” most establishments continue to serve everything from mass-produced domestics to high-octane specialty beers in pint glasses. These glasses are durable, stackable and can withstand the constant abuse of commercial dishwashers and clumsy patrons, but believe it or not, they can actually detract from your beer-drinking experience.

In the 1950s, the idea was introduced to wine-quaffing circles that the size, shape and even thickness of a glass can dramatically change the aromas and flavors that are imparted to the consumer. The father of this radical deviation in drinking was Claus Josef Riedel, a ninth-generation glassmaker from Austria.

Since then, the Riedel company has produced a slew of varietal-specific wine glasses, enlisting help from panels of vintners who compare style after style of glass to determine the perfect vessel for each vintage. So, what does this have to do with beer and, more specifically, the notion that my collection of pints should be pitched off the nearest rooftop?

With the advent of the craft-brewing boom, a few companies started creating glasses specifically for their brews. According to Maximilian Riedel, Claus’ grandson and CEO of Riedel Crystal of America, those original forays into matching a beer with a glass were more marketing ploy than science. This still left a vapid gap between the ever-evolving glassware for wine and the archaic mugs and clunky glasses into which bartenders were sloshing our precious brews. Into this void marched Spiegelau, which is attempting a beer glass revolution in the same vein as parent company Riedel’s mind-blowing epiphany of the 1950s.

Maximilian said consumers in North America are educated about their beer and brewers are starting to demand that the care and quality put into each craft brew be mirrored in the shell that Spiegelau builds to contain it. To accomplish this, the same method is employed with beer glasses as is used with Riedel’s wine glasses. Panels of brewers taste their specific styles of beer in different glasses, narrowing them down to which shapes capture the aromas, which sizes help dissipate the alcohol hit in the bigger beers and which glass thicknesses direct the beer to the proper parts of the palate.

The research has paid off, and Spiegelau now makes a handful of glasses for specific beer styles — wheat, lager and pilsner among them — which have been fine-tuned over the past few years. The latest project for the company is a collaboration with Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head to create an India pale ale glass. I’m looking forward to building a new collection of proper beer glasses as they roll off the line — from now on, the pints will be reserved for vodka root beers and margaritas.

If you want to learn more about the beer-glass revolution, check out the Beaver Creek Wine & Spirits Festival’s Spiegelau beer glass seminar on Aug. 10. For more information or to buy tickets, visit www.beavercreek.com and click on “Events and Activities” and then “Wine & Spirits Festival.”

From the Fridge: Left Hand Milk Stout

As I haven’t yet had the opportunity to grow my collection of beer glasses, I poured this sweet, dark beer into a wine glass. Specifically, I put it in a rose bud-shaped Riedel glass designed for pinot noir. The bell of the glass opened up the flavors of the beer, and the tapered and flared lip concentrated the aromas of cream-and-sugar coffee. If you already have a collection of wine glasses, they can serve in a pinch to elevate your beer. As Noel said, even leaving it in a bottle is better than ruining it in a pint glass.

Glass snobbery aside, this beer is one of my favorite stalwarts of the Colorado brewery compendium. The hue is a deep brown, almost black, with a thick brown head, and the blend of six different malts weaves an intricate pattern below the easy-drinking surface. Left Hand made this beer sweet by using milk sugar, commonly known as lactose, in the brewing process, which gives it a much different aftertaste and mouth feel than other sweet stouts.

Pair this beer with sweet barbecue or chicken and waffles with a giant pat of maple butter. Or bake it into cupcakes with one of the recipes on the Left Hand website.

I dumped this beer from the wine glass into a pint glass just to see what all of the fuss was about. Almost immediately, the coffee and chocolate notes disappeared, leaving behind a sort of flat, milky nose. The pretty head on the beer also receded rapidly. Though still delicious, it proved that perhaps the Spiegelau guys are on to something.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

Another stepping stone to becoming a beer gourmand

July 27, 2012

Last week, I shared a simple method for making beer-can chicken, but the uses for beer on the grill and in the kitchen don’t stop there.

There are two ways to incorporate beer into your dinner plans. The first is simply to choose a beer (or beers) that pairs well with the dishes that you are serving. Find a cookbook that includes beer recommendations for each dish. Another good reference is the cicerone or beer buyer at your local liquor store. He or she has tried every beer on the shelf and can point you in the right direction.

If you have a good grasp on your spice rack and the flavor profiles of various beer styles, you can choose your own pairings. Pairing food with beer is a lesson in complements and contradictions, said Steven Pauwels, brewmaster for Boulevard Brewing Co. in Kansas City, Mo. Pauwels’ credentials include a first-place finish at the 2011 Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival Beer & Food Pairing Smackdown.

Pauwels said people might think that a raspberry wheat would go well with a raspberry dessert, but often, the sweetness of the dessert makes the beer taste overly bitter. He said a contradictory beer, such as a coffee or chocolate stout, is a much better choice to enhance the flavors of the dessert and the brew. For other dishes, complementary flavors can enhance the dining experience. Blue cheese works well with bitter, hoppy beers with intense flavors, Pauwels said. Funky beers — with a wet dog or horse blanket aroma — complement the funky flavor of blue cheese. Practice matching and contradicting flavors to see how each bite can change or enhance the taste of each beer and vice versa.

The second way to incorporate beer into your meal is to add it to your recipe. Venturing outside the box, and away from the cookbook, can be a daunting task. But here’s a tip: You can cheat. Start with the beer. Choose one with a flavor or aroma that gets your taste buds going, and then take the time to do a little research. Read the label or find the beer online to get an idea of the ingredients that were used to make it and what each adds to the flavor experience of the beer. Does it have a unique spice or a particular combination of hops or malts? Brewers choose every ingredient carefully to add to the complexity of a brew. Dissect the beer into its components to find one that stands out.

Armed with your knowledge of the beer’s elements, you can choose recipes that enhance each ingredient. Incorporate a chocolate stout into a mole, matching the cocoa notes of the beer with the smoky chocolate flavor of the sauce. Add a peppery beer or a framboise to a pork marinade and then create a sweet or spicy reduction from the same brew to drizzle over it. To help boost your cooking confidence, learn some tricks from a cookbook such as “The Best of American Beer and Food: Pairing & Cooking​ with Craft Beer,” by Lucy Saunders. Just be sure to choose a book that recognizes a specific style of beer for each recipe — not just “a can of beer” — so you can make the most of the brew’s built-in spice packet.

From the Fridge: Samuel Adams Summer Ale

At Samuel Adams, they take their beer cooking seriously. The brewery even has a chef partner, David Burke, who comes up with recipes ranging from beer-infused lobster rolls to beer ice cream floats using the Sam Adams brews. I decided to try my hand with one of Burke’s concoctions, grilled summer vegetables with Summer Ale vinaigrette.

The beer vinaigrette imparted a slightly spicy flavor to the veggies, bringing out the Grains of Paradise and just a hint of the lemon it’s brewed with. As the recipe only calls for a couple of tablespoons of beer, I had most of a bottle left after finishing my food prep. I poured it into a bag with a couple of chicken breasts and added a bit of lemon juice, coriander and cloves to amplify the spice, letting it marinate before throwing it on the grill.

To round it all out, I grabbed another bottle of Summer Ale to pair with the meal. Once again, I cheated, knowing full well that the beer would match the food since I was already cooking with the stuff. This ale has a lot of flavor for a summer brew, with a citrus-spice balance and a golden hue. It’s dynamite to cook with, just make sure you have a few bottles left over to sip as you sup.

Grilled summer vegetables with Samuel Adams Summer Ale vinaigrette

1 bunch asparagus
8-10 peeled baby carrots
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 medium zucchini cut into 1/3-inch slices
1 large red onion cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Marinade
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon minced shallot
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
1 cup canola oil

Vinaigrette
2 cups extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ cup white balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Samuel Adams Summer Ale
2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (chives, tarragon, parsley) 

Salt and pepper

Separately blanch asparagus and carrots in boiling, salted water. Cut carrots in half lengthwise. Whisk together all ingredients for marinade, and coat zucchini, yellow squash and red onion. Lightly coat peppers in olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Grill, turning frequently, until pepper is charred all around. Wrap each pepper in a paper towel, and set aside. Season vegetables with salt and pepper, and grill on both sides until warmed through. When peppers cool slightly, remove paper and carefully remove stem and seeds. Using the back of a paring knife, carefully remove skin. Whisk together all vinaigrette ingredients, and lightly dress vegetables.

Source: Samuel Adams chef partner David Burke.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

Beer: It’s what’s for dinner

July 20, 2012

When it comes to putzing around in the kitchen, most home cooks who fancy themselves gourmands reach for dry wines when deglazing, simmering or marinating. I call shenanigans. As I was taught a few years ago at a luncheon hosted by chef Daniel Joly, of the Mirabelle Restaurant at Beaver Creek, at its base, beer is nothing but water and spice. You need only choose the style of beer that compliments your dish and exploit its pre-made spice packet.

I'm not sure who first discovered that putting a beer can up a
chicken's butt would land you such a tasty dinner, but I
applaud that person.

There are hundreds of different uses for beer in food preparation, from saucing fresh veggies to saucing the chef, but we’ll start off easy with one of my favorites: beer can chicken. There are a lot of different routes to arrive at the finish line with this one, but this is the easiest way I have found to do it that yields excellent results.

We’re in the middle of a fire ban, so charcoal grilling is definitely out. You wouldn’t be able to keep it hot enough for long enough anyway, so we’ll be using a gas grill for this project. The lid of the grill needs to be tall enough to clear the chicken when it’s set on end. There are two other key pieces of hardware you’ll need to assemble: a flat, cast-iron pan and a chicken stand.

The flavor of your fowl will depend on which beer you choose and the additional spices you chuck into it. Crank your grill up to high heat, making sure you have plenty of propane to do the job. Drink the can of beer down about halfway and cut off the top with a sharp, serrated knife. Carefully slide the can into the center of the chicken stand, and set it in the middle of the cast-iron pan. Pull all of the insides out of your no longer feathered friend, and shake in some spices. Use whatever will compliment the existing mood of your chosen beer. With a slightly fruity summer number, shave in some lemon zest. For heavier, stronger beers, use savory spices such as thyme or sage. If you’d rather be a beer-flavor purist, stick to a pinch or two of salt.

Stretch the empty cavity of the chicken over the chicken stand, and pull it down as far as it will go. The stand will keep the bird sitting upright so it cooks evenly without toppling over. Pat more spices onto the skin. Chunky sea salt is my go-to for this; you can find the flavored Hawaiian stuff at specialty food stores if you’re feeling fancy. Once your chicken is properly dressed, place the cast-iron ship with its poultry sailor in the center of your grill rack and close the lid. Depending on the size of the chicken, you’ll need to leave it on high heat for about 45 minutes, checking occasionally for flare-ups. The pan will help protect the chicken skin from getting charred, but there will be a lot of flammable juices rolling off the sides and you want to make sure you don’t have an unattended fireball on your hands.

Your bird is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Use a meat thermometer to check, making sure not to rest it on a bone. Remove the grill pan, and set it aside for another five minutes or so, as the chicken will continue to cook. Pull the chicken off the stand, and carve it up. The meat will be moist and tender on the inside from its beer steam bath and crispy but not scorched on the outside. Pair it with some buttery Olathe sweet corn and another can of your chosen brew.

From the Fridge: Big Sky Moose Drool brown ale

Brown ales are an interesting breed. They sit on the spectrum near the same point as dunkels and some porters and stouts, dark beers that are relatively easy drinking. In the glass, Big Sky’s Moose Drool is a deep chocolate color, almost black. The beer uses four different malts to arrive at its slightly sweet, roasty flavor, and the brewery also squeezes in four hop additions to add complexity.

Moose Drool pairs well with slightly sweet flavors, such as pork tenderloin with cherry jam or smoky chipotle raspberry sauce drizzled over cream cheese and served with crackers.

The folks in Missoula must have had a spectacular time naming this beer. If you’ve ever seen a moose lift its head after taking a drink from a lake, you know what they’re talking about. Beer named after the musky torrent running from a gigantic animal’s jowls? As long as it tastes as good as this brew, I’ll take it.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly

The best way to spend $20 in the valley

July 13, 2012 

We live in an expensive place, a place where 10 percent off barely covers the sales tax and people ride their bikes to work because it’s healthy, yes, but also because gas hovers right around $4 per gallon. So we adapt, we pick and choose when and where we splurge, and we’re constantly looking for the next slamming local deal. Well, my beer-drinking friends, I’ve found it.

Avery brewmaster Matt Thrall, bottom right, and his crew from
Avery Brewing, Dustin Lemoine, center, and Jason Hardwick,
left, taste food pairings from Executive Chef Todd Bemis,
rear, during Vail Cascade's Brewmaster Weekend recently
at Atwater restaurant in Vail.
Photo by Justin McCarty, Vail Daily.

The Vail Cascade, home of the annual Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines festival, prides itself on its craft-beer program, and in March, the resort’s Atwater restaurant rolled out a new Brewmaster’s Weekend series. Each month, a new brewer shows up to show off a handful of select beers from one of Colorado’s craft breweries. The beers are paired with inventive small plates from executive chef Todd Bemis and his kitchen cronies, and the price tag comes in at a whopping $20.

To give you an idea of what you get for your hard-earned Andrew Jackson, I recently attended one of these small-plate sessions, co-hosted by Matt Thrall, head brewer at Avery Brewing Co., and scribbled some illegible notes on my placemat between bites. This is what I could derive from my shoddy penmanship:

The first beer was Avery’s Maharaja. We obviously wouldn’t be easing our palates into anything here. Thrall calls this beer “a slap in the face” — if you don’t like hops, you won’t like Maharaja. The double IPA is brewed with six to seven pounds of hops per barrel, a blend of Simcoe, Centennial and Chinook that imparts a piney, citrus-forward flavor. Bemis needed something that would stand up to the hops in the beer without elevating the spiciness. He and his crew of chefs landed on pulled Jidori chicken sopes with roasted poblano fennel and salsa verde.

My favorite thing about pairing beer with food is that each bite can bring out new flavors in the brew. In this case, the corn in the sopes helped mute the spice in the Maharaja so you could catch the more fragile flavors of floral and citrus. To bring the hops roaring back, we needed only to take a nibble of the gooseberry that garnished the plate.

For the second course, Bemis had the challenge of pairing one plate with two very different beers from Avery’s Holy Trinity series. The first, Salvation, is made with a Slovenian hop that lends a white-pepper flavor to the beer. The second beer was The Reverend, a strong, dark Belgian quad with a more malty profile — think caramel or raisin flavors. The solution was twofold: mango nigiri with smoked strawberry caviar and braised pork in a lop chung steamed bun.

On to the third beer of the Holy Trinity: Hog Heaven. Thrall calls this his desert-island beer: “If you were on a desert island, you’d want a case — no, a pallet — of this beer to wash up.” The beer has a dank aroma, which lends to its nickname of “dime bag in a bottle.” Originally a home brew created by Adam Avery himself, this one ranks at 100 international bittering units and 9.24 percent alcohol by volume.

Bemis’ “hogs and frogs” pairing for this beer was the first to cause me pause: I’d never had frog legs. I’m from Iowa; we used to catch frogs to use as fish bait. I wasn’t the only one at my table who seemed a bit apprehensive about it, but after a brief inspection, I dived right in. The amphibious little limbs were wrapped in beignet pillows with saffron mayo and sauce puttanesca, a sort of bastardized Southern tomato salsa. Once again, the pairing was dead on.

The fourth and final round was the knock-out punch. The beer, Samael’s (sch-males) oak-aged ale, comes from Avery’s demonic series.

“Samael was God’s knee-breaker,” Thrall said, and this 15.4 percent brute definitely packs a wallop. Thrall said it’s brewed more in the style of an English ale, heavy on the malt and light on the hops. The limited-release beer has a dark caramel color and a woody aroma that comes from being aged in American oak.

Bemis was given explicit instructions not to pair this sweet, strong ale with dessert. So the Atwater boys brainstormed and came up with a savory spin on bananas Foster. The dish featured seared foie gras with a slice of banana drizzled with pineapple sweet and sour and garnished with a fin of delicate dried pineapple. Bemis was able to showcase the fruit and malt characteristics of the beer without resorting to a cloying, syrupy finishing course.

Next up on the docket for this monthly frugal foray into beer and food pairing is a visit from Odell Brewing Co. on Aug. 17 and 18. Call the Vail Cascade at 970-476-7111 for more information or to reserve your spot.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly 

Taming the gluten beast

July 6, 2012

I asked Terry Michaelson, CEO of the Craft Brewers Alliance, what it’s like for him to ingest gluten, a protein found in many grains.

“Predominantly, it impacts the stomach, that’s the first reaction … very bad indigestion,” he said. “People have other reactions — rashes, headaches, feeling bad like they have the flu — that can be associated with it. The initial reaction is a negative, but it also has a long-term impact on your intestines.”

Widmer's new Omission line of beers contains less than 20
parts per million of gluten per bottle. This means it's low-gluten
but not completely gluten-free. Stay tuned for another blog
post about the difference between the two and why it matters.

Doesn’t quite sound like a walk in the park. Now imagine that any or all of those not-so-fun symptoms hit you every time you have a beer. That’s the harsh reality for Michaelson and the many other card-carrying members of Team Gluten-Free who have been diagnosed with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that impacts the intestines.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of celiac disease is unknown, but one article in the journal Gastroenterology estimated that between 1 in 105 and 1 in 1,750 individuals in the U.S. might be affected. That’s a lot of people who are forbidden from enjoying a foamy, fresh pint, simply because they were unlucky enough to be born with faulty genes.

Brewers around the country have taken notice of the increasing number of people diagnosed with celiac disease each year, and they have come up with some pretty inventive ways to circumvent the gluten-carrying culprit in beer: barley. Most of these solutions throw out the barley altogether and replace it with other grains that don’t contain that protein. But the Craft Brewers Alliance has chosen a different route.

Rather than find a new grain to malt to make beer, brewmaster Joe Casey and the team at Widmer Bros. have employed a process that removes the gluten protein from the barley, creating a series of beers under a new label called Omission.

“We have what we call a program because it’s not one particular thing,” Casey said. “It starts with regular barley that contains gluten. We use barley with less protein, and any time there’s a place where there’s a typical reduction in protein, we make sure we’re doing what we can to reduce that protein.”

The process involves an enzyme called Brewers Clarex, which was originally developed as a clarifying agent but is used in the brewing process of Omission to break down the proteins in the beer. Each finished batch of Omission is then tested for gluten levels. Casey said that in order for something to be declared gluten-free, the global standard holds that product at a level of 20 parts per million or less of the protein.

“It was important to us to test,” Michaelson said. “There are two outside groups that we have test it. And we post that on the website, so people can see the batch number and go online and see what the test level is for that beer. … We wanted something that assured people what the levels are.”

The website, www.omissiontest.com, has the drinker select either the pale ale or the lager and enter the date found in the corner of the bottle’s label. The site pulls up the corresponding batch and the test report for that specific beer, allowing celiacs to put their minds and stomachs at ease and enjoy the brew in front of them. To ensure that all of the results are accurate, Omission is only sold in bottles, thus eliminating possible cross-contamination from other beers that could occur if the beer was distributed in kegs and run through less-than-pristine tap lines.

“Once it leaves the brewery and goes to a bar, someone could order a pint of gluten-free beer and be served something different,” Casey said. “By keeping it in a bottle, we have the highest degree of integrity for the product.”

From the Fridge: Omission Lager and Pale Ale

I’ll admit I was a little skeptical of the Omission beers when I first popped the tops. I have tried a few gluten-free beers: Some of them tasted like varying shades of cardboard or chalk, and some, though tasty, resembled beer about as much as whisky resembles water.

The Omission series is different. Because the beers are still made with traditional beer ingredients — including barley — the result is beer that actually tastes like beer. The lager has the golden color and clean flavor of a traditional American lager.

“There’s a lot of people who are celiacs who haven’t had beer in a while,” Casey said. “We wanted a lighter offering on the spectrum, so people’s mouths didn’t explode when they took a drink. It’s got a little bit of hop character but not a lot; it’s an easy-drinking, smooth, crisp beer.”

The pale ale is a light amber hue with a good balance of hoppy bitterness and a clean aftertaste. I used it to wash down a snack of Gouda cheese chunks and slices of fresh cucumber. The beer had the spiciness to stand up to the cheese with those palate-cleansing bubbles to cut through the fat, but I also found that it wasn’t overpowering to the more delicate cucumber.

“With the pale ale, we did want to have an offering on the craft side of things,” Casey said. “It’s got a little bit of malt character and color, as well as a lot of hop flavor, mostly Cascade.”

My particular bottles of pale ale and lager both ranked at less than 10 parts per million on the Omission website. Casey said the brewers are looking at future offerings for the series but haven’t made any decisions at this point. I will definitely be getting my hands on any new tasty, gluten-free marvels as they come off the line.

Krista Driscoll

Hophead

Vail Daily Weekly