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Jax Beer Week — Day One

01 Apr

jaxBeerWeek2013Pele’s Wood Fire: Bell’s Brewing Co. Beer Dinner

In little over a year, Pele’s Wood Fire has established itself as a true destination restaurant. With over 50 craft beers on tap and many more in bottles, it has also proven itself as a gourmet eatery that is truly plugged in to what its guests are seek. So, it is not a surprise that they are opening this year’s Jax beer Week with an extravagant dinner paired with beers from Bell’s Brewing Co.

The menu, prepared by Chef Micah Windham, features his trademark flair for using organic ingredients with an artisan’s flair.

First Course

Prosciutto basil and tomato sandwich, beer cheese dip paired with Bell’s Amber ale.

Second Course

Arugula shaved fennel salad, spiced candy pecans, grapefruit segments, Oarsman vinaigrette served with Bell’s Oarsman a tart German style beer.

Third Course

Banana leaf wrap trout stuffed, beer bacon risotto, butter sauce paired with Bell’s Two Hearted Ale.

Fourth Course

Brown butter seared gnocchi duck confit, beer duck demi, shaved parmesan reggiano served with Bell’s Best Brown Ale.

Fifth Course

Ravioli with buffalo ragu, fresh tomato, garlic oil, basil, hand-pulled mozzarella paired with Expedition Stout.

Sixth Course

Hanger steak with Tuscan fries and a third coast malt shake, “Steak & Shake.” Paired with Third Coast Old Ale.

Seventh Course

Double Cream Stout infused vanilla pot de crem, beer candied nuts, baked cocoa nib meringue served with Bell’s Double Crème Stout.

The cost for the dinner – if tickets are still available — $75 per person including tax and gratuity.
Reservations must be made by calling 904/232-8545. Only 40 seats available.

Brewer’s Pizza: 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Brewer’s will host a night with Grassroots Natural Market. The guys from Grassroots of Riverside will come out and drink some brews, rub elbows and pour some beers for sampling.

M Shack

All week the burger wizards at the Beach’s M Shack will be featuring beer and burger parings. You could eat there every day, all week and still not have them all! But, from the looks of the menu, you sure will wnat them all.

M Shack daily specials include both beer and food combined:
  • Shipyard Monkey Fist IPA paired with Asian Burger, Sirracha Cole Slaw and Hoisin BBQ sauce & pepper jack cheese $9.95
  • Cigar City Maduro paired with Truffle Portobello Burger with Bacon Smoked Gouda and Sherry Glaze $12.45
  • Sea Dog Blueberry paired with super kale salad, apples, avocados,pecans, raisins, ginger garlic dressing $12.45
  • Narragansett Lager paired with classic combo with all beef Hebrew national hotdog $9
  • Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout paired with The Medurable: cheeseburger topped with foi gras and caramelized onions $24.95
  • Julian Cider paired with the Rooster and the Pig sandwich: marinated chicken breast, smoked ham and an over easy egg. $18.50
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Posted by on April 1, 2013 in Beer, Beer Food Pairing, Beer Tasting, Jax Beer Week

 

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All hopped up

25 Feb
Deutsch: Hopfengarten (Humulus lupulus) nahe A...

Deutsch: Hopfengarten (Humulus lupulus) nahe Au in der Hallertau (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Even though it only has four main ingredients, beer is an infinitely diverse beverage. I n skilled hands,, those four ingredients – water, malt, yeast, and hops – can be combined to create anything from a light, crisp pilsner to a thick and hearty stout. In between those two extremes are hundreds of styles and variations. Add in a variety of adjuncts, and the possibilities become astronomical.

But, beer did not always have all four of the main ingredients that we enjoy in the modern brew. In fact, one of the most famous beer purity laws, the German Reinheitsgebot, originally identified only three ingredients – water, malt, and hops when it was first enacted in 1516. The law was later amended when yeast was discovered by Louis Pasture in the late 1800s.

Still, there is one ingredient in what we know as beer that was not always a staple. That ingredient is hops. Used to add the characteristic bitterness inherent in many beers, hops are a relatively new addition to a beverage that has been with humanity since the very beginning of civilization. Tests of pieces of pottery found in modern day Iran have produced evidence that a fermented grain drink was produced and enjoyed over 7,000 years ago.

The first brews were thought to be rather simple concoctions of crushed grains and water that were left outside to ferment. Of course, the makers of these early brews had no idea that by leaving these early beers out in the open air, they were being spontaneously inoculated by wild yeast and thus the process of fermentation had begun. And, those first brewmasters had no idea about the flavor enhancing properties of hops.

It is not until 77 AD that hops are even mentioned in any historical text. And even then, the references to the plant were not connected to brewing. The first descriptions of the plant were more like botanical cataloging and were recorded by Pliney the Elder of the naturally occurring plant. The first written record of humans cultivating the plant does not appear until 736 AD nearly 660 years later. And it is another 82 years until the first known reference to hops being used in beer.

Contrary to popular belief, hops were not first used in beer by early Germans; instead it was the French that added the bitter cones to their brews first. The Germans were nearly 300 years behind. The key text that points to this is written by Abbot Adalhard of the Benedictine monastery of Corbie. In statutes that spell out how to run the monastery, the Abbot specifically mentions that hops gathered in the wild are to be given to the porter for the making of beer.

Since the introduction of hops into beer, things have never been the same. Hops, with their natural preservative properties, are responsible for the development of many of today’s favorite beer styles. The English introduced copious amounts of hops into ales that were shipped to India in order for the beer to arrive unspoiled bringing the world IPAs. Pilsners get their delicious crisp, dry flavor from the addition of hops. And, Imperial stouts get their impressive and deeply satisfying wallop from the bitter cones, too.

Depending on the flavors a brewer wants to impart to his brew, he or she will chose from the wide variety of hops. There are hops that will add citrusy flavors, piney flavors, and vegetal flavors. There are hops that are added specifically for the aroma they bring to a brew and there are hops that are used to add pleasant floral or fruity notes to beer. The bottom line is that brewers have a wide variety of hops to choose from both for bittering and aroma. In the right hands, this simple plant can be used to elevate a mediocre beer to heights that can only be described stratospherically.

 
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Posted by on February 25, 2013 in Beer, Beer Education

 

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The Czech Republic, land of pilsners

10 Oct
Pilsner Urquell Brewery

Pilsner Urquell Brewery (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 1838, the brewers of Plzen, Bohemia did something that would make the hardiest of beer drinkers shed tears in their brew. They rolled out 36 barrels of ale into the street, opened them, and watched as it all washed down the village streets and in to the Radbuza River. The ale, it is said, had become infected and was undrinkable. The brewers decided then and there that those would be the last kegs of spoiled brew to wet the streets ever again.

Over the next few years, plans were made to switch from brewing ales to brewing lagers in the style of the German brewers. In 1840, legend has it that a monk smuggled some Bavarian lager yeast to the small town in what is now The Czech Republic; shortly thereafter, Josef Groll was hired to pioneer the brewing of lagers in Plzen.

When Groll arrived in Plzen he found caves dug for lagering the beer and a ready supply of Saaz hops. He also found that the brewers had access to a well with remarkably soft water.  With these ingredients in place Groll needed only to decide on a type of barley to use. He decided to break with tradition and use partially malted, light barley instead of the darker roasted or smoked malts favored by German brewers.

This year, on October 5th, Pilsner Urquell celebrated the 170th anniversary of the day Groll and the brewers of Plzen first tapped the brew that became so popular, the brand name became the name of an entire style of beer. The beer poured from the keg a clear, light straw color that was completely unlike any ale they had brewed in the past.

Recently, local beer lover and the brains behind Team Hopheads, David Rigdon had an opportunity to visit the Pilsner Urquell brewery in Plzen and experience the process first-hand. He described a town rich in its traditions and architecture. He also described the brewing process as nothing less than amazing.

He also met with Vaslav Burka, head brewer at Pilsner Urquell  who, along with a company “story teller,” presented the story of how this classic lager is brewed still using traditional methods. Upon entering the brewery, Rigdon described it as, “Like entering Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory.”

His visit included a stop at the Pivovarské Muzeum, or brewery museum, where he was treated to the brewery’s brew, but in unfiltered form. “This museum,” he said, “Is the only place you can get their beer in the unfiltered state.”

During his exploration of the brewery, Rigdon learned that all the wooden kegs used by Pilsner Urquell are hand-made by their own in-house coopers, that the brew is fermented in open fermenters – but, it is not spontaneously fermented, and that the brewery uses a triple decoction method to brew their landmark beer.

But, perhaps the most memorable moments of Rigdon’s visit to the Czech Republic came when he learned about the different methods of pouring Pilsner Urquell. Like Belgians, Czechs take the pouring of beer very seriously. Pilsenr Urquell can be ordered four distinctly different ways which imparts three very different flavors to the brew. The first way is Neat; this means the beer is poured with no head and imparts a more bitter flavor. Secondly is Crisp or International; this is one of the most common ways to pour the brew and provides the drinker with a balance of bitter hops and sweet malts. The third way to pour is called a Slice or Smooth; this is a creamy mixture of beer and foam – four fingers worth – that presents a smooth, creamy, almost nitro-like, and slightly sweet flavor. Finally, the fourth pour is the Mliko; this pour is traditionally for the last beer of a session it is poured with approximately three-quarters foam and just a little beer at the bottom.

Any way you pour it though, Pilsner Urquell is a winner that forged the way for pilsner brews across the globe. It is also, one of the best examples of the world’s most popular beer style.

 
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Posted by on October 10, 2012 in Beer, Beer Styles

 

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Epcot German Beers a Big Hit

09 Nov

This past weekend I helped celebrate the birthday of one of my most dear friends at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. This annual event has been going on for 16 years and has just gotten bigger and better each year. But, don’t let the name fool you, wine is not the only adult beverage featured at the festival; there is also a significant amount of beer from around the world available.

If you have never been to Epcot, let me give you a brief overview. The original concept of the park was for it to be a self-sustaining community in which people worked, lived, and played. However, after the death of Walt Disney, the plans changed to a more theme-park approach. The park is broken into two main areas; Future World, which contains pavilions dedicated to Space, Energy, The Seas, The Land, Imagination, and Test Track. The second section of the park is the World Showcase with pavilions themed to specific countries like Mexico, China, Norway, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, France, England, and Canada. It is in the World Showcase that the Food & Wine Festival is held. During this festival, other countries are represented through food and drink as well as the permanent countries.

I met my friends at 11:00 near the giant geodesic ball called Spaceship Earth in the Future World section of the park. We checked the festival guide and made our strategy for the day, deciding to attack the World Showcase starting on the Mexican side of the lagoon. The Mexican pavilion was serving Dos Equis beers, nothing spectacular, so we moved on. It was early enough in the day that the throngs of crowds had not arrived yet and we were able to stroll in a leisurely fashion from country to country. A stop was made in China for some Salt and Pepper Shrimp on Sichuan Noodles and Pork Pot Stickers. China was serving Tsing Tau beer, but I passed knowing that ahead lay the Germany pavilion and it’s Bier Garten.

We stopped at Germany and decided it was time for a few beers. The Bier Garten was sponsored by the Radeberger Gruppe, a German beer company whose goal is to maintain the traditions of German beer-making by allowing breweries to remain autonomous in their regions. This is in stark contrast to many beer conglomerates who outsource brews to the least expensive producers or opt to change traditions by using cheap ingredients. Radeberger Gruppe sees itself as a guardian of authentic German beer culture and holds the traditions of the past in the highest of esteem.

Eight beers were on offer and I first opted for the three-beer flight of Sion Kolsch, Hovels, Braufactum Roog.

As any true Kolsch should be, Sion is brewed in Cologne and because of that it is legally protected to be able to use the term Kolsch. Sion uses pale barley and wheat malts to produce a very pleasant and interesting flavor. The nose presents sweet malts and subtle hops while the texture is crisp with a pleasant fruity flavor that gives way to biscuit malts and a slight hop finish.

Braufactum Roog is a Smoked Wheat Ale that combines the flavors of a wheat ale with the smokiness of malts that have been roasted over beechwood. Not quite as smoky as a rauchbier, but the smokiness is readily apparent in its aroma. The brew pours a deep reddish-brown and rewards the taster with a smoky, almost meaty flavor with juniper and orange zest, as well as hints of banana.

Hovels is a unique beer that defies categorization. It is a top-fermented beer brewed at Hovels Hausbrauerei in Dortmund, Germany from a recipe developed in 1893. This beer pours amber red with strong citrus aromas and caramel malts. The flavor is reminiscent of caramel, bread, and dark raisins with a semi-dry finish.

After the sampler I also wanted to try the Schofferhofer Weizen a relatively new beer first produced in 1978. This tasty brew has won many awards and is often referred as the champagne among wheat beers. As a true German Hefeweizen Schofferhofer pours pale and hazy with a sweet floral aroma. The flavor is what you would expect from a hefeweizen and is rich in yeast, clove and slight lemon zest.

Finally, after hitting a few more food stands, we returned to Germany to try the Braufactum Indra, a German IPA made with wheat as well as barley malts while still adhering to the German Purity Law of 1516. This excellent brew is dark orange in color and greets you with pleasing aromas of banana and cloves as well as earthy notes. The flavor is honey, blood orange, and herbs with the bitterness typical of an IPA.

Other beers that were available at the festival were more typical of the countries they were served in. The Belgian tent was serving Stella Artois, Hoegarten, and Leffe. The Moroccan pavilion had Casa. And Italy had Moretti. England was serving the usual Guinness, Bodingtons, Bass, and Harp while Canada was serving Moosehead. There was also a Craft Beer tent serving a selection of beer like Abita Purple Haze and Blue Moon.

The Epcot Food & Wine Festival concludes for this year next weekend, so if you want to drink around the world, I suggest you head to Orlando this weekend.

Until next time,

Long Live the Brewers!

Cheers!

Marc Wisdom

 
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Posted by on November 9, 2011 in Beer, Beer Styles

 

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