Elgin Courier News: New partner for chocolate? It’s beer
Pairing chocolate with wine is so passé.
What’s in: pairing chocolate with beer.
Not as in a Hershey’s bar with a Bud. Rather, pieces of Cote d’Or Lait Intense with Brouwerij Lindemans Pomme Lambic.
It may seem strange to some, but there are people who truly believe beer goes better with food than wine does.
Ales and lagers are carbonated, for starters. Beer cuts through fried dishes. And some styles can complement courses that have a sour quality, which is a true challenge for wine.
Not strange to me nor, I suspect, to you.
Jamie Fulton, brewmaster at the Covey Restaurant & Brewery in Fort Worth, Texas, suggests these recipes to pair with his artisan brews or similarly styled beers on the market.
Cream of Roasted Garlic Soup (Covey’s Texas Wheat, Sierra Nevada Wheat, or New Belgium Sunshine Wheat)
Ginger Sriracha Halibut (Covey’s India Pale Ale, Breckenridge Small Batch IPA 471, Saint Arnold IPA, or Bridgeport IPA)
Honey Whipped Ricotta With Berries (Covey’s Chupacabra or Predicament, Allagash Double, Maredsous 8 or Unibroue Trois Pistoles)
Times Herald-Record: Tastings: Dishes that pair well with beer
October 30, 2007
All of the beer blogs are talking about the price increases recently hitting craft brewers, including Hop-Talk’s own beer blogger Al, and I wanted add my thoughts and a summary of an article I read in the Wall Street Journal, Why Price Increases are Brewing for Craft Beers.
Currently, craft brewers make up only 5% of the beer industry, but it is the fastest growing segment of the beer industry. Like many Americans, I am willing to pay more for a premium product and I am willing to pay the additional 50 cents to $1 more per six pack of beer for craft beer that is hitting the shelves now. I currently pay about $8-$9 for a six pack; I won’t notice the increase, that much.
But just because I’m willing to pay the extra, doesn’t mean everyone is willing. Not just that, my dollar is not completely covering the cost increase, the brewers are eating some the cost lowering their margin and that’s not good, especially in the long run.
The primary causes for this problem are contributed to the increase in cost for hops and barley, the main ingredients in beer. Their price has risen because of poor harvests around the world, the weak U.S. dollar, and farmers shift to more profitable crops. In the previous years there has been a glut of hop farmers, so there has been a recent shift to other crops, such as apples or corn. But that’s not all, glass, cardboard, gasoline and stainless steel are other areas of cost increase.
Big brewers like Anheuser-Busch will also face cost increases but will not be affected as much as craft brewers for a couple of reasons. For one, they use much less ingredients in their beer than a typical craft beer. A typical craft beer will use twice as much barley and 5 times the amount of hops. The second reason is because the big brewers are more likely to secure long term contracts with the producers of the raw ingredients.
An in-between sized brewer, like the Boston Beer Company has been affected and has raised prices 3% in the last year and will likely do so again next year. Boston Beer only buys its hops from Bavaria and the past few years the crops have been smaller making them more expensive, even though they can secure a large contract with the farmers.
Some craft brewers will be substituting the variety of hops in order to control costs. They will try to do so without drastically changing the taste of a successful product. Who knows… maybe it will taste even better? A tricky endeavour, for sure.
Each craft brewer could be affected differently. Some craft brewers obtain their ingredients locally, some secure large contracts, and some buy them on the open market as available. Those that go to the open market may be the most affected. Sadder still, it could put some of the smaller craft brewers out of business. Very sad, indeed.
Another twist on the issue is that products by craft brewers that are “imperial” or have an extra large portion of ingredients, such as Dogfish Head 60 or 90 minute IPA will have a greater cost increase for that particular style as compared to others that they make. It is possible some product lines see a bigger increase in price than others. As an IPA lover and all around hop-head, that is more bad news for me; and, if you read this blog, probably for you, too.
Found at CamelTap
My buddies and I have always said that the smartest people in advertising are the people who make beer commercials.
I certainly don’t disagree.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxDaP-U843s
I don’t agree with all of those on their list, and some of my favorites are certainly missing, but they’re good for a laugh. We’ve even featured a couple of them here. You can see the rest at CamelTap: Top 10 Beer Commercials in History.
When I see someone drinking a “predictable” beer I often want to take them by the hand and show them that there is an alternative, that there are beers with flavor. (On my less magnanimous days, I think “Oh good, they’ve left me the good beer.”)
Shawn Connelly, the Beer Philosopher, has started a new series to do just that.
No, he’s not hogging all the good beer. He is guiding people who are just starting to find their way to “better” beer.
These articles are not intended to be meticulous in their technical accuracy, and they are not exhaustive. This is by design. For those who know beer well, it becomes apparent very quickly that a comprehensive examination of a topic like Beer Styles, for example, can quickly reach book-length proportions. I’m not writing such a book … those with a lot more beer brains that I have already done so. Instead, I have chosen to gloss over or omit information that may be otherwise relevant, but not essential to a basic understanding of the subject matter. So for some of you, these articles may be remedial, at best, but hopefully even seasoned beer aficionados will find something useful.
Beer Fundamentals: A New Series for the “Brewbie”
A couple of weeks ago Tom Flores, the brewmaster at Brewer’s Alley stopped into our F.O.A.M. meeting to let us sample their Kölsch, which they’re now also bottling. (They’ve been bottling their pilsner for quite some time.)
He also let us know that we would start seeing rising prices for supplies. Malting barley as well as hops are in rather short supply. Granted, at the volume that homebrewers buy the price will be negligible at best, but that he’d already been having trouble even securing malt and hops, much less paying more. He said that for some varieties there just aren’t any available. Fortunately, there are some new varieties coming online that he’s experimenting with. (One of the benefits of being a craft brewer.)
Still, prices are going up for supplies, so the downstream consumer (that’s me) is going to see prices go up. The giants won’t be too bad off, since they contract for their supplies for years in advance and just buy so much. They also have enough money that they can probably absorb the extra cost, meaning a 30-pack of cans will probably cost the same.
The smaller guys are the ones who will feel it. Considering the craft beer scene is rife with “extreme” beers with many times more hops (by volume) than industrial-brewed light lagers. Economies of scale are working against them. It would be awful if some small brewers just couldn’t produce their beers or, perhaps worse, had to raise prices so much that sales suffer and result in a cash-crunch on the other end.
Why? Well, the big hops warehouse fire last year didn’t help, nor did some fires at a coupld of hop kilns. Many people are also blaming the focus on corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel. Farmers who would have planted hops (and barley) are instead getting more money with corn. Not to mention the disease- and pest-fighting properties of corn versus hops make it a “safer” way to go. And let’s not forget the record weakness of the U.S. Dollar. None of this is new news, however.
Of course, if you’ve spent any time at all reading beer blogs this comes as no surprise. It seems like everyone is talking about it. A quick search on the Beer Blog Search Engine for “hops shortage” reveals quite a few. Here’s a sampling:
Update: Trouble brewing for small beer makers over hops shortage (AP)
I was out furniture shopping the other day with my family. If you have kids, you probably already know the dangers of furniture shopping with children. They will start by trying to bounce from couch to couch like it was a big indoor playground, followed by sheer exhaustion and then crankiness ensues.
In order to prevent the meltdown that was about to occur after our first stop, I decided to try and get dinner in them to keep them going. I recalled of a new restaurant Al had told me about that opened about a month ago, the Old Chicago, home of 110 beers, and I was in the area (Wolf Road in Albany, New York).
We were told that it would be at least an hour wait for a table, which I didn’t like; but leaving and finding another place without a wait would probably take the same amount of time. However, a server came around to the waiting area with a tray full of samples of a pumpkin and spice ale. (I didn’t catch who made it) It was tasty and this adventure was off to a pretty good start.
The Old Chicago had an iPlay attached to it, where you can play arcade games, skee-ball, mini-bowling and the such to pass the time while waiting for dinner. The kids loved this, of course, but they were getting very hungry and the meltdown I was trying to avoid kept poking up its ugly head. I was starting to get frustrated and hungry as well.
A little investigation revealed that there was a ton of tables open in the dining room. This usually means either they are understaffed or the kitchen is backed up. It turned out to be the latter. I would think that after 5 weeks of being open that the kitchen problems would have been resolved, but our waitress told us this happens to them everyday. Not good. Perhaps they need Gordon Ramsey of Kitchen Nightmares to stop by and straighten them out.
Our waitress made a great effort to stop by and apologize for the kitchen. As I reviewed the beer list, I realized that I had just about every microbrew they offered. Many of the 110 were megabrews, both domestic and imported. That’s not to say they didn’t have good choices such as beers from Boulder, Sam Smith, Anchor, Saranac, and Brooklyn. Unfortunately, my wife did not get what she ordered, though the bartender insisted that he was correct. (Last I sampled the Red Hook Late Harvest Ale it was amber, not pitch black) We were too frustrated to give it an argument and she thought it was pretty good anyway – I wonder what it was… possibly the Planet Porter.
The fact that out of 110 beers I was disappointed speaks volumes. I’m sure there were some good ones in there, but finding one seemed like a shot in the dark. There was no description of the beer and our waitress wouldn’t have known the difference between a bock and an IPA.
We chose the pizza buffet to get a sample of their signature pizzas and they were pretty good, above average, but nothing to write home about.
Overall, it was a bad experience. I hope the kids remember the bowling and not the long wait or any of my frustration that I’m sure showed through. I have little desire to try the Old Chicago again unless they can fix their kitchen problem, and even then I’m not so sure.
We never made it to another furniture store as we were out of time. Maybe next weekend, but I think I’ll plan on a drive thru at McDonald’s.
Update: The Albany location has closed.
One of the beers I brought to Octoberfest 2007 was Orlio Organic IPA. I had no idea who Orlio Organic was at the time, but later learned that they are part of Magic Hat brewing in Vermont. The logo just kept catching my eye in the store, much like the eye of Sauron (from the Lord of the Rings). It caught my attention, but I hated it. It looked like a bad beer trying to look popular.
But, I’ve made that mistake before with Southern Tier’s Phin and Matt’s Extraordinary Ale passing up on it for a long time because of the marketing approach. I tried and liked it. No… loved it. I wasn’t about to make that mistake again.
We all tried the Orlio Organic IPA at Octoberfest 2007 and we all liked it. Everyone seemed surprised that we all liked it, too. I don’t know if we were suspecting less because it was organic, or because none of us had heard of it before, or because of the label.
I’m not a big fan of Magic Hat beers, but not knowing what the Orlio brand was gave them a fresh start with me and thus I bought a 6 pack of their common ale the other day.
I was looking forward to the Common Ale, but I was already disappointed during the pour. The head on this beer fizzed out like a Diet Coke. (I had to snap this photo quickly before the head disappeared – see photo below) I began to prepare my brain for something of less substance. It was weak in body as expected, despite its beautiful clear, copper color. It had a peculiar aroma, something that reminded me of other Magic Hat brews, and the primary reason I’m not a big fan of Magic Hat. All of Magic Hat’s beers seem to a perfume like essence to them; I’m sure there is an expert beer taster who can suggest what this is I’m perceiving. (a common hop among them perhaps?)
In summary, the Orlio IPA was great and enjoyed by many, but I don’t think the Common Ale will pass the mustard with my friends. Orlio Organic also has a black lager, but I think I will pass, for now.
Men’s Health wrote up a list of 32 things you can do with beer. It turns out that you can do most of these things with water, or just about any liquid. As a matter of fact, many of these things would be a waste of good beer, so if you want to put out a fire with beer, make sure it is a Miller High Life.
The list, obviously, was written to entertain. But some of them are of real interest, like the beer barbecue sauce recipe. Sounds good to me…
MAKE BEER BARBECUE SAUCE
Ingredients:
1 medium Spanish onion, diced
1 medium banana pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp capers
5 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 small can tomato paste
1/3 c each wine vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, brown sugar
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp each Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, honey, Dijon mustard, horseradish, oregano
2 Tbsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp cumin
Dash of ground clove
12 ounces amber ale or porterCombine all ingredients in a large saucepan and boil for 10 minutes. Lower heat and simmer about 4 hours until thickened. Cool and refrigerate for 24 hours so the flavors can meld. Then baste everything but the dog with it.
Octoberfest 2007 has come and gone and we sampled many, many, different types of beers. There were so many good beers, I can’t even begin to attempt to pick out my favorite. However, there was one that stood out… unfortunately, it stood out in a bad way.
Butternuts Porkslap Pale Ale had one of the funkiest tastes I have ever tasted. First off, it is barely a pale ale, but I don’t know how to classify it other than a specialty ale.
it a new interpretation if the English Pale Ale with a hint of fresh ginger spices
balanced, not overly bitter, easy to drink and incredibly refreshing
it pours orange and crystal clear with a frothy white head
I don’t know what the taste was, but it was funky; a bad funk. Perhaps it was a bad batch. Mine did not pour clear and had a weak head of foam supporting the “bad batch” theory. I didn’t taste ginger, unless what I did taste was supposed to be a hint of ginger. It is unfortunate.
My local beverage center now has a mixed twelve pack Butternut beers on the shelf — but I doubt I’m going try it even if this was a bad batch; consistency is just as important as taste. It is a factor of quality. I stopped buying the Saratoga Lager for the same reason.
Leave it to marketing and a cheap price that got me to taste it in the first place, but once bitten, twice shy.
Butternuts tells us…