Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Thankfully, these actually have beer in them. Now, it doesn’t say whose pale ale is part of the recipe for their frozen spud products or what the beer is actually contributing to the fries but considering the lengthy ingredient lists for many products that should just be three or four ingredients is another plus.
Still, not going to run out and buy them but would certainly put them in the middle of needed or not.
Beer journalist John Holl spent his pandemic in the kitchen with beer and it resulted in….
So flip the pages to find your favorite beers and see what recipes pair with them and see if you agree or not.
The cookbook releases on May 10th and make sure to buy from a local bookstore.
One of the SoCal secrets is Porto’s Bakery. Specifically their desserts and their potato balls. Whenever I drive by the Glendale branch, it is always hopping with a line snaking around the interior.
What does a bakery have to do with beer. Well on Sunday, April 29th from 2 to 4pm, you can attend a pairing event at the Craft Beer Cellar in Eagle Rock.
Here are the details: “Enjoy four of Porto’s Baked Bites paired with a flight of four 4oz pours of delicious craft beers carefully selected to compliment the flavor of each baked good respectively:
Potatoe Ball
Ham Croquette
Meat Pie
Guava Cheese Streudel”
Order up your tickets, right HERE.
I can be flexible at times. Case in point pumpkin beer. If you are a seasonal creeper, I ain’t got time for you. If it is after September 15th (preferably later) and you aren’t just doing some pie spice seasonal, then I will listen.
Toss in a high quality chocolate bar version of the beer and send me both and I will perk my ears up. Salazon Chocolate teamed with Flying Dog Brewery to do just that.
Here is the review: let’s start with the chocolate. Damn this has a lot going on. There is a rich dark chocolate base, salt kicks in as you as does a green hop bitterness that I had a hard time separating from the chocolate. But the subtle shades of each do show when you focus on it. I can’t pick up pumpkin notes but that is because the one-two bitter punch is just too strong. The beer has no pumpkin problem. I get more gourd than pie spice from the dark amber Maryland brew and it surprisingly works with the restrained hops that are used. The balance is quite well done. It’s not just a pumpkin ale with some hops added in.
I came in thinking that ate least the chocolate would be good but the beer is excellent. I don’t know if I would recommend sampling both together because the dark chocolate is just too bitter and rich. My palate needed water before I could fully enjoy the beer. Which I did.
There are people whose brains I would like to download. and thanks to the CraftBeer.com Beer & Food Course a 60-page digital manual that you can download. You can get the combined food and beer wisdom of Co-authors chef Adam Dulye, Brewers Association culinary consultant and Julia Herz, craft beer program director at the Brewers Association.
The download is “constructed as a five-day course that offers an introduction to the beverage of craft beer, pairing beer with food and how to pour and present beer at the table.” But don’t let that format or target market scare you off. This document has got a lot of good info. Especially once you get past the beer style and brewing 101 information. Though that too is helpful if you haven’t run across it before.
My suggestion is to check out the sections like this, which I sort of knew, but hadn’t read in one spot before:
Palate Interactions Between Craft Beer and Food
• Hop bitterness is balanced and settled on the palate by the addition of fat.
• Roasted malt notes are matched on the palate by sweetness.
• Carbonation is intensified by increasing the umami of a dish.
• Alcohol is calmed on the palate by both sweetness and fat.
• Notable malt flavor profiles match well with acidity.
• Hop aromas are transferred to the palate when paired with sweet aromas.
• Sweet malt notes calm spice on the palate.
• Hop bitterness enhances notes of spice.
• Carbonation is an effective tool to cleanse lighter fats.
It is a quick read and has a good section on beer and cheese as well. So check it out.
You will see semi-frequent posts about how I believe that craft beer and good food can be paired and now Mikkeller is putting his gypsy brewing stamp to it as well with the MAD project. He has teamed with Chef Jakob Mielcke to create a line of beers to pair with food specifically to very specific flavors. Such as….bitter, salt, sweet, sour and umami.
And here is how the Salt beer looks…
I would love to see a brewery and restaurant team up in LA and in every city and do this same sort of project.
http://madbeer.dk/?utm_source=RateBeer+Weekly&utm_campaign=24f16db828-rbweekly_83a3&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_33216a9626-24f16db828-307447785#!home
On Friday June 14, it is the Hoppy Daze of Summer IPA Fest and Poolside Beer Dinner starts at 6:30 pm at the Four Points Sheraton near LAX
The Price $40 (2 extra tasting chips with the Twitter Code)
Tastes of 12 Hoppy Beers – Sessionable, Big, & Huge
on draft:
Alesmith Summer Yulesmith Double IPA
Avery Twenty XX India Pale Ale
Flying Dog Imperial Citra
Anderson Valley Heelch O’ Hops
Clown Shoes Muffin Top Trippel IPA
Mystery – You’re going to love this one!
Bottles/Cans:
Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
Uinta Hop Notch IPA
Shipyard Monkey Fist IPA
Clown Shoes Hoppy Feet
2 more special bottles
Dinner Menu:
Tomato, Watermelon, Cucumber & Jicama Salad
with Mango Vinaigrette
Potato Salad with Grilled Red Onion & Basil Mayo
Chipotle Baked Beans
Grilled Zucchini with Balsamic & Parmesan
Bourbon Glazed Salmon with Roasted Pineapple
Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri
RSVP Requested
Email: phil.baxter@fourpointslax.com
The first session of 2011 is hosted by Beer47. The topic? Cooking and Beer.
I wish that I had grand culinary exploits to wow the crowd with. Sad to say but my cooking skills are limited to following directions on boxes. So no Imperial porter foam on a beer soaked flourless chocolate cake nor IPA infused garlic mashed potatoes. (though I do have that Sean Paxton recipe printed out on my desk).
And since I do not have many beer dinners under my belt either, I can’t really comment on what works really well and what doesn’t. I do know a good amount about beer floats (but that really doesn’t involve cooking).
That leaves me with proposing my ideal and still unrealized dream beer dinner. Not all choices may be winners or even work but I would certainly like to try it.
So here goes….
APPETIZER
Sharp cheddar quesadillas
BEER TO USE:Strand Brewing Atticus IPA
I like the combo of cheddar and IPA and would like something bold to wake up the tastebuds. The Strand pale ale would work here as well if a lesser hop kick is warranted.
MAIN COURSE
Kobe Flank Steak in a Flanders Red spiked sauce.
BEER TO USE: Cascade Brewing’s Kriek
I don’t know how to make a sauce for steak and it might be sacrilege to use this Kriek but I would to see the contrast between the sour and the butter.
DESSERT
Apple Pie a la mode with an apple beer ice cream
BEER TO USE: Unibroue Ephemere
A double shot of apple. Scoops in Los Angeles makes great beer ice creams/sorbets and I would to have two wildly different forms of apple on the palate.