Why Even Keep Up The Pretenses

Are you excited? The latest Dane County BusinessWatch magazine is out! I know, as a beer geek you've been waiting all year for this issue. It's the issue where this bastion of fine business journalism looks at the "Best brews for BBQs. ... wines, too!" Don't forget the wines.

Well, imagine the shock, horror and amazement you would feel when you actually turned to page 31, to find ... this: (my comments in black)
Best Brews
for BBQs Wines too!
By Michael Muckian

Summertime, and the grilling is easy. Brats are jumping, and the temperature’s high. But what wines and beers go best with grilled meats? The answer often depends on what you’re preparing and for whom.

Wait a minute, now it's "wine and beer." What happened to "best beers" (and wines, too)? But still, the brats are jumping and the temperature's high. Perfect for an ice cold Capital US Pale Ale? A New Glarus Edel Pils? A Tyranena Three Beaches Honey Blonde? Heck, maybe a Furthermore Proper, a Central Waters IPA, or any of the dozens and dozens of Wisconsin summertime beers.

Grilled meats — burgers, brats, tuna steaks, hot dogs and ribs — appear either naked on the grill or dressed in tangy, sticky barbecue sauce that can alter the entrée’s flavor palette, dictating which beverages best match it.

mmm....ribs.

Sometimes it’s best to check with the experts before popping the wrong cork or twisting an incorrect cap.

Well, it's not always best to check with an expert first, but I understand what you're getting at.

“You want a wine that is imminently quaffable with a lower alcohol content,” says Craig Madigan, a registered first-level sommelier and general manager of Johnny Delmonico’s, the downtown Madison steakhouse. “A red wine with 14.5 percent alcohol level or more is too ‘hot’ for hot weather. Go with something lower in alcohol and more refreshing in character.”

I thought this was about beer (and wine, too)? This is starting to sound like it's more about wine. Moreover, it doesn't look like this "expert" would know a good, Wisconsin beer if it came gift wrapped. There's only three Wisconsin beers on the Delmonico's "Wine List" - Fauerbach Amber, Capital Amber, and Miller Mother-f'ing Lite. Now, I'm not slamming Fauerbach or Capital, they make fine beer, but, come on - Capital Amber?! This is a beer list chosen by a distributor, not by someone who knows anything about beer. I'm sure Mr. Madigan knows everything there is to know about wine, and admittedly, that's what he's talking about here, but I thought this was an article about "Best brews for BBQ ... and wines, too"?

Madigan says reasonably priced younger wines best complement outdoor grilling fare, something fruit-forward in character and acceptable to a broader array of palates. He recommends the following wines:
• Roshambo Zinfandel (about $14), from California’s Sonoma Valley, is not your typical fullbodied “peppery” Zin. Characterized by jammy fruit flavors, the wine is brighter than other zins and easier on the palate and the pocketbook.
• Qupé Vineyards Syrah ($19) is a richer, fuller wine, but one with good fruit, serving as a fine match for grilled fare.
• For something completely different, go with a Furst Gewürztraminer ($12). Gewurz is German for “spicy,” and the white wine, produced in France’s Alsace region, is redolent of fresh apricots and spice, delivering flavors both refreshing and unique to the average American wine palate.

Setting aside the derogatory "average American wine palate" we have now had descriptions of three wines and not a single beer even mentioned.

If you plan on serving beer,

Oh, here we go. The article about beer and we finally get the "if you plan on serving beer" like "not that you'd want to, but if you're going to ..."

Madigan

Because he's clearly so knowledgeable about beer

suggests Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale. Lighter in body, but with a nice caramel malt flavor, the British brew stands up to anything your picnic table can support without weighing the drinker down.

For a high temperature summer barbecue you recommend a nut brown?! Not to say you're not entitled to your opinion, but this suggestion is absurd from a professional. Besides the obvious fact that it's one of the few beers that he actually serves, who the heck orders a Samuel Smith Nut Brown in the middle of August to drink with burgers and ribs? If you're saying to yourself "nobody," you'd be pretty darn close. No Tyranena Bitter Woman, Lakefront Cream City, Lake Louie Premium. No. Screw all of those. You want a Samuel Smith Nut Brown. Does Mr. Madigan get a commission on the stuff?

For Josh Foley, a second-level sommelier and bar manager for the Capitol Chophouse in the Hilton Madison Monona Terrace,

ummm ... I thought this was about beer (and wines too)? Why are we still talking to sommeliers? You couldn't find a single person knowledgeable about beer to help you? The score is now 3 wines to 1 beer. Let's see, maybe Mr. Foley knows something about beer, at least the Capitol Chophouse sells Ale Asylum.

it’s food first, beverage second. The meat is always the constant, Foley says, but variations in sauces will drive the wine and beer selection. Sauces range from tangy vinegar and tomato-based variety to mustard-infused marinades to Asian hoisin and teriyaki sauces, each of which commands its own approach and colors beverage choices. Foley suggest the following matches:

• Tomato-vinegar basted meats call for a bold red, like the Castello Banfi Brunello (about $40). The structure and balance of
the Italian red wine, made from the Sangiovese grape, helps tame the sauce’s character and stands up to its more strident elements.
• Lighter sauces demand brighter wines, such as Campo Viejo Riserva ($15), a Spanish red made from the Tempranillo grape with a buoyancy that pairs an inherent earthiness with hints of wild strawberry.
• A mixed-meat grill – burgers, brats and chicken breasts are popular– calls for a more well-rounded wine, such as the Zilzie Shiraz ($12) from Australia’s Victoria region. The lighter body and brighter fruit make the wine a hit with more drinkers.

That's three more wines and so far, only one poorly suggested beer. This is absurd. Why was "beer" even in the title to this article? If you can't do something right, don't do it at all. Clearly, these guys know a lot about wine. The descriptions are interesting, and seem appropriate for the food. But so far, the beer knowledge is, excuse the phrase, piss poor.

Smoked meats create their own flavor demands, says Foley. A bold Zin can help cut the taste on the palate,

seven wines

while on the beer side he suggests extending that palate with a German rauch (smoked) beer.

Rauch beers with smoked food is widely considered obvious and a big no-no amongst the beer-food-pairing cognoscenti. The double smoked whammy is usually just too much - save the smoked beers for creamy, but firm cheeses like gouda and strong, rustic, non-smoked, foods where the smokiness adds flavor to the meal instead of compounding the flavors. So, Mr. Foley doesn't seem to be of any more help than Mr. Madigan.

Dan Carey, brewmaster for New Glarus Brewing Co., created his own version with Smoke on the Porter, part of his “Unplugged” series that mixes rauch beer elements within the body of a dark British porter. “I like Smoke on the Porter because the smoke element is more mellow and understated,” Foley says.

Besides the fact that this was New Glarus' winter seasonal beer and will likely be off the shelves by the time the summer grilling season rolls around, who would drink a full-bodied smoked porter in late July?

Sorry, but this article does absolutely nothing to educate consumers on beer choices for summer barbecues. It covered seven wines, and two beers that best consumed in the fall! And it was billed as a beer article, remember? "Best brews for BBQ's ... wines, too!" But it was actually, "Best wines for BBQ and a couple of beers that you will really like in late October."

In the coming weeks, I promise you we will post some actually usefully information about beers that you might actually enjoy with that bbq. In the meantime, please, please do not take the advice of these sommeliers.

Fruit Ales, Mixed Cheese, Fromagination and the Common Link of Lucy Saunders

When I heard about the cheese and beer tasting on April 24^th at 6:30pm at Fromagination, I had to get more information. I mean, cheese, beer, it is a match made in heaven. When I saw that Lucy Saunders was leading the tasting, I really needed more information. I had heard of Ms. Saunders quite some time ago. Originally published in 1996, her first book, Cooking With Beer is a classic. Cited by no less an authority than Michael Jackson (the beer hunter, not the singer) in his Great Beer Guide, it provides more information about cooking with beer than anyone could possibly have guessed. For example, most traditional cookbooks that use beer in a recipe (stout soups, for example) suggest using old beer both to get rid of it and because it has typically gone flat, Lucy advises otherwise: "Flat, old beer usually tastes oxidized and not so pleasant as fresh beer. Try whisking your beer in a separate bowl to release some of that excess carbonation, and let it settle before measuring into your recipe."

So, for all of you baking and pastry chefs wondering what to do with that dual Middle English/English Literature degree, if you like beer maybe you can write about beer. "I have always loved the taste of beer, and collected recipes that went well with beer. When I was studying baking and pastry in the 1980s, I began writing freelance articles about craft beer and continue to do so now."

Ms. Saunders has also written Grilling with Beer and her newest book is The Best of American Beer and Food: Pairing and Cooking with Craft Beer.

Beer has been paired with other foods in recipes since, well, the beginning of beer and food. "It has been an ingredient in stews (carbonnade), fritters and batters in the Middle Ages, and even used as an ingredient in desserts." The German monks used beer as sustenance during their fasting. The link between beer and other foods is so inextricable that brewers use traditional foods in preparing their beers. "The pumpkin ales, hot pepper beers, chocolate beers, fruit beers, are all related by the use of culinary ingredients and creativity on the part of the brewers. Jeff Hamilton of the Sprecher Brewery, which is making the Mamma Mia Pizza Beer, particularly enjoys cooking Italian sausages in the beer, along with peppers and onions."

It seems strange that there is no compunction over using wine when cooking. We do it all the time – we add some chardonnay or Riesling to a chicken dish to add some sweetness, we add Merlot or Cabernet to that stew to add some body and depth of flavor. But, when it comes to adding beer, there is a gap in knowledge and some hesitance. Ms. Saunders more than capably fills that information gap: "maltier brews will contribute more browning to foods such as poultry that are normally lighter in color, and bottle conditioned beers are more effervescent, and are good in a batter or sauce where the texture will make a difference. I prefer to use a fresh beer in good condition - because I want the flavor of the beer in the final dish to be good - those old recipes that start with 'Take a half-can of flat beer' … all I can say is, 'eeuwww'. Homebrewers can turn less-than-perfect brews into vinegar and mustard salad dressings or spicy barbecue sauces, but that's about all I would recommend. Truly, it is best to cook with something that you would enjoy drinking!"

As for pairing beer with your food, thankfully there are not any general rules of thumb with beer like the age-old "red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat" tropism.

People should taste widely and sample lots of different styles of beer - upon first tasting a beer, let the flavors guide your palate to think of food pairings you might enjoy. In general, I think of a pairing as a complement, contrast or an entirely new combination of flavors. Every person has differing thresholds of sensitivity to specific flavors and so I encourage people to be open to trying new beers, new combinations with foods. The color of a beer is not a reliable cue, as there are strong, vinous and light gold Belgian-style ales that would overwhelm fish or poultry, and dark ales that taste mild and sweet, and would be a bland match to spice-rubbed grilled steak. So, the best pairings start with tastings.

Speaking of pairing beer with food …

Ms. Saunders was originally introduced to Madison's wonderous Fromagination by a third-party, Jeanne Carpenter the blogger extraordinaire behind Cheese Underground. The tasting on April 24^th will be Ms. Saunders' third event: "It's been a fun mix of people - some are new to craft beer and tasting, and other attendees are very knowledgeable. It's a relaxed exchange, and very sociable."

The tasting itself will pair fruit ales with mixed-milk cheeses. Mixed-milk cheese? You know, cheeses that mix goat, or sheep and cow's milk.

The Carr Valley Cheese Co,'s Gran Canaria is one of the state's leading gold-medal mixed-milk cheeses, aged in olive oil, and it will be paired with a gold-medal ale – the New Glarus Brewing Co. Wisconsin Belgian Red Cherry Ale. The Belgian Red is made in the style of a Belgian kriek and aged in wooden vats. The smoothness of the cheese and its aromatic aged notes go so well with the tart cherry taste.

Why mixed-milk cheeses and fruit ales? "I thought it would be fun to experiment, and I hadn't seen a class devoted to a tasting of just mixed-milk cheeses." As good a reason as any. Like the Gran Canaria/Belgian Red combination, to develop the lineup for the event, Ms. Saunders says: "I taste each of the cheeses individually and think of beers that might go with them. I then taste the cheeses on a separate occasion with the 8-9 different brews, and winnow the selection down to my favorite matches. I have taste memories of the beer I've sampled, so I can think of possible pairings at the outset. I like to feature Wisconsin breweries as much as possible, but for the April class, there will be some imports because of the popularity of Belgian lambics. Since more Wisconsin cheesemakers are experimenting with mixed-milks, we'll sample mostly the award-winning cheeses from Wisconsin."

It promises to be an awesome experience. "I hope class participants enjoy learning about the creativity of the cheesemakers and brewers we will be featuring, taste something new to them, or at least a few pairings that will be new to them, and get a few samples to enjoy at home, too." The mixed-cheese and fruit ale tasting is April 24^th at 6:30pm at Fromagination. It costs a mere $30 per person and you can register in-person or give them a call – visit Fromagination online at www.fromagination.com

Ms. Saunders' newest book, The Best of American Beer and Food: Pairing and Cooking with Craft Beer, has an entire chapter dedicated to pairing cheese and beer. While signed copies of this book will be available for you to purchase at the tasting, she has some free advice:

Age, temperature, freshness, fat and saltiness all play a huge role in how well a pairing will work. One recommended pairing is that of a dry stout with blue cheese. But, I tried a stout with a very young blue cheese that turned metallic on the palate - not the result I'd anticipated at all. So, again, you have to taste what's in front of you, and have a selection of beers to pair. A cheese changes in flavor as it warms to room temperature, so be sure to try pairings at the proper temperature for best aromatics.

Sometimes Even We Go On Vacation

Sorry for the lack of notice, but a road trip came up rather suddenly and it is very difficult to publish this thing from a moving vehicle. I need to get me one of them super-fancy cell phones with full keyboard and internet access, I guess. Though, I suspect corporate may deny the reimbursement request. Anyway. In the coming weeks we'll publish some reviews of the awesome beer we acquired. But, first, we need to tie up a few loose-ends around here.

Central Waters' second Brewers' Reserve of the season is a Bourbon-Barrel Barleywine. A version of their Kosmyk Charley's Y2K Catastrophe Ale (our review can be found here) aged in Bourbon Barrels for one year. Expect there to be some earthy, woody, booziness to one of Central Waters' premiere beers.

Appearance: thin, bubbly off-white head quickly forms and dissipates over top of a deep coppery brown quasi-viscous body
Aroma: sweet and alcoholic, like a not-so-mild bourbon whiskey
Flavor: bright and bourbony, does not taste blended at all; a malty, roasted caramel attack; the bourbon-barrel flavors overwhelm any malt complexity; as the beer warms in the glass, the malts begin to assert themselves more and even some hops begin to poke through
Body: medium, boozy body, with lingering flavors that beg to be sipped
Drinkability: strong and boozy at first, mellows into a whiskey as it warms, then its malty beer base asserts itself
Summary: while fresh off the shelves this beer has already been aged for one year, the bourbon is almost overpowering and can benefit greatly from further aging; this beer changes significantly from cold to warm, yet its complexity is ultimately overshadowed by the unblended bourbon barrel aging - we bought two bottles of this, and maybe when we review it again next year or the year after it will have mellowed a bit

Speaking of (barley)wines. The awesome San Franciscans at Beer at Joe's have pointed us to a must-read article at Vinography about pairing food with wine. The gist of the article gets to one thing that I constantly preach: this is not rocket science - do not be afraid to experiment, and drink what you like.

Lie #1: For any given food/dish there is a "perfect," "ideal" or "correct" wine pairing.

Lie #2: There are a ton of mistakes and pitfalls out there -- lots of wines just "don't go" with certain foods and vice versa.

Lie #3: Because of #1 and #2, food and wine pairing is an art that is hard to learn, requires deep knowledge, and generally is best left to experts.

I can't say it better: "[T]he single most important variable in the success of wine and food pairing lies completely out of the control of every sommelier and chef in the world. And that variable is me, you, and every single person that sits down to a mouthful of food and a swig of wine." If you like American light lagers, drink a Miller Lite; but don't be afraid to experiment. Next time, try a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale with that pizza; try a Fuller's London Porter with your chicken; try an Ayinger Kristal Weizen with your steak salad. If you like it, great; if you don't, the worst case scenario is you are five dollars poorer. If you are someplace like Maduro or Brasserie V, do not be afraid to ask for samplers before you buy.

In other words, at the end of the day, it is only beer. Find out what you like. The experts are paid to be experts and they can tell you the differences between a Kristal Weizen and Berliner Weisse, but they can not tell you if you will like one or the other; be wary of any that purports to do so - they may say that they prefer one over the other, but the sommelier or bartender has no idea if you will like it or not.

One last bit of news: Miller will be expanding distribution of Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy to 40 of 50 states this summer. I can't say I'm suprised, Miller is going to ride the Leinkugel's "crafts are hot" thing for as long as they can. The fact is Leinie's is still a mere shadow of what it was and Brewery Creek (in Mineral Point) makes a shandy that you can actually taste the component beer and lemonade.