See, it all started over a Kristall Weizen …

The news is that Texas Wheat is being discontinued.

*yawn*

At one time I was a huge fan of Kristall Weizen. I used to buy it by the case. I homebrewed a clone of it a number of times. Heck, I just made the clone again last year (there’s a recipe in the venerable DeFalcos book). I’ll never forget the flavor of that beer, and how unique it was. A slight sweetness to the wheat, but balanced with a nice hop flavor up front. Just a hint of hop bitterness,  floral and spicy. No notes at all of banana or clove, some of the Saint Arnold house yeast character and a whole lot of bready aftertaste. I loved this brew. However, back in the day when I was buying it by the case, I just knew I liked it. I hadn’t really thought about why.

When I was first getting into craft brewing, I went through the normal discovery period of wheat beers: hefeweizen (for me, Paulaner), witbiers (Hoegaarden) and the fun flavors those beers throw at your palate. However, during my ‘wheat discovery’ phase, most American craft brewers still were making an ‘American’ style wheat beer. These were most often brewed with a large percentage of malted wheat in the grain bill, just like their Belgian and German counterparts,  but were hopped a little more heavily, fermented with clean finishing yeast and usually (but not always) filtered clear. Here in Houston we didn’t get too many of these, and so having Kristall Weizen around was a real plus.

I absolutely fell in love with this style. I felt like it featured wheat flavor more prominently, and man oh man did I love that bread-like, wheat nuttiness on the finish. I must have gone through a sixer a week of Sierra Nevada Wheat (R.I.P.) alongside my Saint Arnold Kristall Weizen.

However, there was something slightly different about Kristall Weizen that I liked very much, and it wasn’t just the little hint of the Saint Arnold yeast character. As a beginning homebrewer, it was the first beer that I really wanted to understand – to know what the ‘trick’ was to it. I got my answers one Saturday afternoon about 11 years ago at the brewery. I tracked down Brock and asked him specifically about what made Kristall Weizen so darn tasty and sessionable.

He immediately started by explaining the critical importance of Liberty hops in the finish of the beer, pointing out the specific floral aroma and slightly spicy flavor it added. He went on to tell me how it wasn’t all that popular of a hop but was one he loved a lot for it’s balance between the traditional flavors of English and the Noble hop varieties. I was hooked. Before we had talked, I couldn’t have explained why I liked Kristall Weizen, just that I did. Brock had just nailed down a very specific flavor component that I definitely enjoyed very much. To this day I consider Liberty hops among my favorite varietals. Every time I buy them I think of this story. I rarely brew a batch of homebrew that doesn’t use them in some way. I also consider that conversation at the Saint Arnold tour as one of the big turning points for me to really start thinking about what I was tasting and why I liked it – the start of a true obsession with tasting and enjoying craft beer.

This was also a big reason why I began to try and learn about the different types of flavors that various hop varieties can contribute to beer, a pursuit I continue today. All because of a silly wheat beer Brock apparently didn’t even want to make.

The rebranding of the beer to ‘Texas Wheat’ was understandable. As general knowledge of craft beer grew, people expected a wheat beer with a German name to be a German hefeweizen. However, sales continued to underperform and that wasn’t helped by how hard it was to find a sixer or a tap, especially after the launch of Lawnmower. On top of that, tastes were changing, and the American Wheat Ale was getting squeezed in brewer’s portfolios by other more popular brews, including the now ubiquitous Blonde Ale and IPA.

At some point Saint Arnold changed the recipe for Texas Wheat and suddenly all that wonderful hop character was gone. I don’t know if this happened at the rebrand or sometime after, but ever since that time the brew might as well have been dead to me. It’s still a tasty wheat beer, but it’s not nearly as enjoyable and I stopped drinking it. Apparently so did everyone else, as now it has gone the way of most other American Wheat Ales.

Here’s hoping Brock dusts off that original Kristall Weizen recipe someday and gets inspired by his appreciation for Liberty hops to brew another batch. I’d be first in line to buy a case.

Note, I learned last week that there actually isn’t a recipe in the DeFalcos book. My recipe is one that Scott must have made up for me on the fly one visit.

Some thoughts on Moveable Yeast series

A comment on Ronnie Crocker’s ‘Beer TX’ blog got me riled up. I originally was posting a comment to his blog and realized I was getting into the hundreds of words. Ronnie had posted an update on the new Moveable Yeast release from Saint Arnold, the Brown Ale fermented with a saison yeast. You can read the post yourself for the deets, but the first comment got my hackles up:

“It’s been interesting and educational to see just how dramatically yeast — beer’s unheralded ingredient — can affect the way a beer tastes.”

Not interesting in the least. Homebrew 101. It’s a gimmick, and it’s not clever–except from a marketing standpoint. I wish St. Arnold’s well but I keep my expectations low.

Everything’s a gimmick. Here’s a few to choose from:

• The impossible to obtain, once a year release of a huge ‘Imperial Stout’ or ‘American Strong’  that only a small percentage of beer consumers will actually drink and enjoy. I happen to enjoy this gimmick myself.
• The ‘collaboration brew’ between two (or more) big famous creative breweries, and the resulting scramble all over the country to get each breweries ‘version’ of the beer. I like this gimmick too.
• The ‘commemoration brew’, either of the anniversary of the brewery’s start in business or some other beer-worthy event in history.
• The periodic release of a beer that needs to immediately be stored in a cellar-type environment for at least 6 months, maybe a year. This one I’m not so fond of, but I participate in it because I have the space to store the beer and often can get some really tasty results with some waiting.

I’ve left some out, but in my opinion those are the ‘big’ gimmicks that have bec0me relatively common in American craft brewing, and to a certain extent have been exported to Europe. On top of this, most breweries seem to follow a maxim of ‘bigger, stronger, rarer’ when brewing these beers, which in my opinion is a response to the craft beer community. In fact, it seems that most beer geeks (the kind that trade beer in the mail, travel around the country to buy beer and read obscure beer forums) seem to be valuing  ’rare’ more highly than flavor. That’s an entirely different blog post, but while I don’t think beer geeks have ruined themselves with this obsession with all things high alcohol, huge and rare, the trend does worry me.

Saint Arnold gets its fair share of criticism. Some of it’s deserved, but there’s a strong undercurrent that convicts them of not being ‘creative’ enough because they haven’t fallen lock-step in line with the ‘big, strong, rare’ approach of releasing special beers. That’s wrongheaded, and the above comment got me thinking about this

What I like about the Moveable Yeast series is that it breaks loose of these other more common gimmicks. Saint Arnold is one of just a few breweries that have done experiments with their ‘standard’ beer recipes and released the results commercially. They are the only ones I know of manipulating yeast and leaving the other elements the same. I count that as creative

That said, I haven’t been a huge fan of the results so far. I didn’t like Weedwacker, and I thought Altared Amber was OK. I prefer each of the original versions to the ‘changed’ ones. I am really looking forward to this Brown ale shift, and to the Elissa BPA. Both sound really tasty and have been talked up for their flavor by the folks at the brewery  - something that hadn’t really happened with the previous ones (most of the talk was about how ‘different’ they were)

I also think the ‘educational’ side of it has been overblown, because most accounts that I frequent are simply replacing a single St. A tap with the altered version – missing out on the chance to try it side-by-side with the base recipe. Given that there are barely any draft Brown Ale accounts as it is, and because I don’t think Silver Eagle is even halfway capable of managing that simple level of coordination I expect no different with this batch. That’s a missed opportunity – but the beer should be tasty, and ultimately that’s what matters.

So I’ll issue a call to the Houston beer community – it’s OK not to like the Moveable Yeast series, but stop hating on it because it doesn’t meet your expectation of what a beer marketing gimmick should be, and for goodness sakes – back off of Saint Arnold over their ‘lack of creativity’. That’s just nonsense. Let’s try the beer and THEN talk about it.

Requirements for making hard apple cider

Apple cider – preservative (potassium sorbate) free, and 100% apple juice – check ingredients lists on the label. Also, an unfiltered cider is best.

Stock pot that has not been used to boil/make spicy foods
Optional – stainless steel or enameled core stock pot of sufficient size to hold entire volume of your cider.

Cooking thermometer that can register at least 150-200 degrees F
Optimal – floating dairy style thermometer

A container large enough to hold the pot and cooling water in an immersion bath (sink w/drain plug or bathtub)

Sufficient ice to fill container above ~halfway

No-rinse liquid disinfectant (Iodophor)
Optimal – no-rinse powdered cleanser (PBW or B-
Optimal – cleaning brush (bottle cleaning brush) for fermentation vessel

6 feet of food grade flexible plastic tubing, 3/8″ inside diameter.
Optimal – racking cane
Optimal – slip on tubing pinch valve
Optimal – filter doohickey for end of racking cane/tubing
Optimal – test flask
Optimal – floating hydrometer
Optimal – counter-pressure bottle filler

Vessel(s) of sufficient volume to contain all cider for fermentation (plastic bucket, glass carboy, container cider came packaged in)
Optimal – Additional spare vessel of similar size

Fermentation lock for each vessel used for fermentation

Drilled rubber stopper of appropriate size for each fermentation vessel

Cider yeast
Optimal – liquid cider yeast
Optimal – yeast nutrient

Sufficient quantity of brown returnable glass bottles to bottle all cider
Optimal – kegging system

Bottle caps w/oxygen absorbing lining

Bottlecapper

Corn sugar
Optimal – carb tab drops

If I’ve missed anything let me know.

Discovering a Food Allergy

So, it’s not very much fun to discover that you have a food allergy. It’s even less fun to figure it out while on holiday in China.

I certainly do not feel special to now be a member of this club. I’ve always felt fortunate not to be one that has to avoid one or the other ingredient. Happily I’ve not had to worry about a bite of the wrong thing ruining my night before.

Given what I suspect the cause of my problem, I’ll unlikely need to have that worry going forward.

The cause of my troubles? Seahorse. I’ve googled away, and I cannot find a single decsription of a seahorse allergy anywhere on the web. What I have learned is that  seahorse is not something I should probably be eating anyway (if I have concern for the viability of seahorses in the wild), and that in traditional Chinese medicine, seahorse is viewed as ‘warm’, good for circulation, potency, and other things that I’m sure a vivid imagination can figure out.

Why was I eating seahorse? Well, that’s a much more interesting story that fits better into the travelog.

We arrived in Beijing on a cold wet morning, and set off to our hotel in the city center. The express train from the airport is a great way to get into town, and a simple 2 RMB subway transfer later we were at our digs for the next few days. We met up and headed out to Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City for a quick early evening walk-around. The majority of the square and Mao’s tomb was closed, but the part that was open was fascinating. A wild mix of tourists of all nationalities, soldiers and busloads of Chinese from the countryside were all milling around. everyone was fascinated by the gigantic hi-definition screens playing a looped video presentation about the country and snapping photographs. A number wanted pictures with the Americans – especially with the ladies – and we had a great time ourselves marveling at the sight.

As the last generation to really experience the cold war, seeing all of the austere communist architecture around the square is a little unnerving – giant statues honoring ‘the worker’ topped with big red flags stirs just a bit of the jingoistic capitalist in me – but a quick look around to the forbidden city solved any qualms I might have had. We walked into the outer entrance to to be confronted by hawkers of all types. T-shirts, People’s Army hats, panda hats, anything and everything with Mao’s photo on it – you name it, it’s for sale in the courtyard, and being shoved into the faces of the approaching westerners.

Most surprising was seeing so many army barracks inside the courtyard. The  troops were at the ready, riot gear sitting just next to their dorms. I suppose they need to be prepared in the event of impromptu public demonstrations in the public square – but it was a little strange.

Sadly the interior of the palace closed right as we approached, but we realized relatively quickly that just around the corner was a night market that was famous for food stalls. We figured out our location and headed that way. The Donghuamen night market was created in 1987 to honor the variety of foods available across China. Today it is a huge half-mile long line of stalls – most serving the same dumplings, mixed grills and bizarre fried foods, but some serving up unique barbecued selections.

The experience was worth the trip. The food was not especially great. I had a number of steamed dumplings – most were relatively flavorless and paled in comparison to things I tasted in other places in China and even from back home. It was also quite expensive, relatively speaking. I paid 30 RMB (~$5) for four crab buns. Not a crazy price, but certainly overpriced for Chinese street food.

What I missed out on was what I regret the most. Most non-white faces were picking up fabulous looking whole lamb shanks, roasted on the bone and seasoned to order. There was also a jolly old man making great noodle soup to order. His technique with the boiling pot was something to behold – his head bobbed as his arms swooped in and out, dropping small strainers of soup into the boiling broth.

Needless to say I missed these two highlights, because I decided to try something crazy.

Down the entire line of stalls about every other vendor had a long lineup of rather adventurous options. Snake was quite common, both skinned as well as whole with head (and scales) on. Other options included silkworm pupae, sheep kidney, scorpions, various beetles and even bats. A deep voiced vendor introduced his offering to us, with a throaty, heavily accented announcement, ‘Hello! Sheeeeep Testicle!’ All of these things were on long skewers and were intended to be fried in huge vats of hot oil just behind the counter.

I was considering trying something a little crazy long before one of the vendors asked me all too genuinely, ‘Do you have penis?’ after I turned down his offer for, well, bull penis. It took me a minute to figure out he was actually questioning my manhood and not making a sales pitch.

Although I resisted the fried phallus, I couldn’t resist two ‘delicacies’ at another stall – a skewer of 5 locusts and another of small dried seahorses. I’ve had locust/grasshopper before, and it’s quite tasty. My rule is – if the  insect eats plants, I eat the insect. If the insect eats garbage (see cockroach) or other insects (see wasps and scorpions), I generally avoid it. I figure if I can eat crabs and lobsters, why not insects and arachnids? What’s the difference really?

The seahorse was really a whim. It was the craziest thing in any of the stalls I was willing to eat – I just don’t think I can put pupae or scorpions in my mouth.

Needless to say, my companions were excited to get pictures of me with bugs in my mouth, and there is  a great shot somewhere of me with a seahorse tail sticking out from my lips. The grasshoppers were fine – fried to an absolute crisp, they tasted more like oil than anything else. The seahorses were faintly metallic and briny, and went down a little rough. I walked around for a few minutes with what I thought was seahorse stuck in my throat – then I realized my throat was swelling up and I was having trouble speaking. About 2 minutes later the hives started appearing on my face, and I could feel them on my torso as well. I drank some water, and fortunately was not having any trouble breathing – but we all knew I needed medical attention fast.

Fortunately, there was a medical clinic attached to our hotel, and after some intravenous steroids and some prescription antihistamine pills, I was on my way for a rest. Unfortunately my symptoms weren’t quite over yet. As if the hives and swollen throat weren’t enough, over the next few hours I experienced another few rounds of ‘attacks’ from the seahorses in my belly. One involved the rapid and rather disconcerting swelling of my face. My friend said it looked like I had put on a fat suit, and I couldn’t close my mouth because my lips and tongue were so swollen. After that, my feet and knees swelled up, turned beet red and started itching like crazy. After approximately 4 hours from first seahorse crunch, I finally got to sleep. I woke up the next morning none the worse, and was able to head out to the Great Wall – which was an amazing experience.

So after all these years of  feeling fortunate to have an iron gut, I finally found a weakness. Fortunately seahorse should be something relatively easy to avoid – but I have a newfound appreciation for those that have more common food allergies. The anaphylactic reaction was scary and not something I would ever want to repeat.

Previous Post

OK, so I can’t edit the previous post. I meant to put it into draft and  ended up sending the danged thing out to the world.

WordPress is weird over here in China. It seems to be filtered but not blocked.

FWIW, we have done other things other than visit Wal Mart, and I am aware that it’s the Giants and the Phillies in the NLCS.

China – The First Few Days

Day 1 – The Trip

The trip itself was as uneventful as could have been hoped. Trans-oceanic travel is never what someone would call pleasant or even good, but this itinerary was probably the best we could have hoped for in terms of timing. The overnight in San Francisco was a great way to breakup what would have otherwise been a 20+ hour travel day, and our stay at the airport Marriott was quite pleasant. The property was nicer than I would have expected, and was a combination hotel and conference center right on the water across from the airport. When we arrived at rather late (approx. midnight local) and the hotel bar was packed with the remnants of baseball fans – the Giants had just defeated the Phillies in game 1 of the NLCS. The bar had Speakeasy ‘Big Daddy’ IPA on tap, and I had a couple pints before we headed to bed.

I was able to squeeze in a 10K easy run along the bayside trail the next morning, as our flight was not until early afternoon.

Arrival into Hong Kong was easy, and a nice soft start to a trip in a foreign land. Everything is in English, the airport is big, easy to navigate and quite modern, and now has a ferry terminal for mainland transfers. In fact, the ferry desk will retrieve your checked bags for you and move them to the boat – there is not even a need to clear customs in Hong Kong proper. We knew this, but it was a very nice relaxing start to not have to worry about our bags. The only bit of confusion was that there were two Shenzhen ferries – one to Shekou and one to Fuyong terminal. We didn’t know which was our stop, but fortunately a man in front of us who had lived in Shenzhen previously knew of Evergreen and helped us pick the correct option – Shekou.

We had about a 90 minute wait so we sat and played Angry Birds on my iPhone and used the free wireless to update our fanatasy football rosters.

Our host for the week, Alan Yuan, was waiting for us at the terminal, and as we started our trip back to the resort we realized that Aileen and David would be arriving very shortly after us – they were transferring into Shenzhen direct from Bangkok, which was their latest stop on a 2 month asian holiday. The good news about this is we were able to meet them at the airport, and we all headed back to Evergreen together. We spoke with Chinglan during the journey, who worked her magic (even from her home in Baltimore she was coordinating our trip!) and had a late dinner of beef noodle soup waiting for us in the comfort of the villa.

We finished the night off with good conversation and a dram or two of duty-free MacAllan whisky. Needless to say both J and I collapsed into bed and slept quite well in spite of dealing with the +13 hour time difference.

Day 2 – Surprises

Day 2 started early, as all of us were awake and ready to get moving.

Breakfast at Evergreen is really a sight to behold. It’s a magnificent Chinese buffet, but with dishes that epitomize freshness and high quality ingredients. One station cooks eggs to order and has a small pot of boiling broth for blanching young vegetables – green beans, bok choy and cabbage. The broth infuses a wonderful salty, meaty goodness with just a hint of onion and garlic into the veggies, and makes a surprisingly good morning treat.

The second station has warm meats, including small bacon-wrapped chinese sausages that are very flavorful. It also has a steam table with BBQ pork buns (a specialty of the chef, who hails from Taiwan ), sweet bean curd buns and the most wonderful pork shu-mai (small pork sausage dumpling) I have ever tasted.

The last station serves a large pot of warmed soy milk – made onsite at the resort and the absolute best I have ever tasted. The flavor is so mellow – a little sweet, just a tad rich and without the ‘beany’ flavor that dominates so much of the commercial soy milk available in the states. Its a taste I have been unable to replicate at home and I was very much looking foeward to having again. I mixed this in with a sublime congee (rice bran porridge – not unlike the corn grits I favor at home, but with a faraway sweetness and just enough bite to be substantial). A little sprinkle of sugar was completely energized and ready to take on the day.

I had asked our wonderfully hospitable host about a local food market – somewhere where we could see the types of foods that local residents buy and prepare for their families. Surprisingly, he suggested Wal-Mart, and so we headed off, cameras in hand, for a tour.

All of us felt pretty sheepish about touring a Wal-Mart. Here we were, Americans in China and our first stop was a local outpost of the largest American retail store in the world? I imagined rows and rows of American made products, and felt like we might be falling into the trap of being taken only to the ‘sanitized’ local places. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The store itself is as strikingly familiar in structure as might have been expected. The same signage, the same cacophany of beeps from the POS systems when you walk in the door – but the similarities ended there. Our first stop was an area of prepared foods sold by the kilo – station after station of freestanding buffet style display cases. The first was 100% cabbage and pickled vegetables. The next, sausages and cured meats, including the largest pile of dried pig ears I have seen, and at least 6 preparations of chicken feet. Next up – noodles. Cold, warm, thick, thin, rice and wheat based – they had seemingly imaginable. The really enjoyable part of all of this was that our hosts (the aforementioned Alan and a young lady named Suki) were helping us translate the things we were seeing. Both were excited to work on their English and were using a magical little translation box to help us find the English word for the items we were looking at. It made for a really rich experience.

The folks doing their weekday shopping seemed somewhat surprised to see these westerners marveling at the foodstuffs and taking pictures – with the same reactions and sideways curious glances you would expect to give if you saw someone taking photos of donuts in your neighborhood Wal-Mart – a little embarrassed for our ostentatiousness, a little curious as to what in the heck we were doing and who we were.

As an aside, this experience reinforced something important to me. Sometimes it really is critical to unabashedly play the part of tourist in a foreign land – do things that would otherwise make you shake your head and mumble something about the damn tourists if you saw it at home. Snap photos in the middle of sidewalks. Ogle your surroundiings. Verbally stumble over poorly pronounced salutations and questions in the local language. Live in the moment – TAKE PICTURES IN A DAMN WAL-MART!

The prepared food bar also had a cook to-order noodle station, with at least 10 types of noodles (most the same type as in the carrel) and a selection of fresh vegetables. This is the one item I would love to bring back home with me.
We moved on to seafood – where there were equally large displays of dried fish, fresh fish (including a delicious-looking eel-like finfish prominently displayed in the middle of the aisle) and frozen fish. The highlights were a display of crabs which, as we took pictures were admonished by the attendant. The crabs were a very special type – I think the Taiwanese ‘big gate’ crabs – and were priced at about $60 each. They also were tagged with serial numbers for tracking!

The department also had live softshell turtles for sale by size, and while we were waiting a woman purchased one of the medium sized creatures. The attendant proceeded to butcher the turtle at the counter. She bled the animal out, removed the head and then soaked the body in a bowl of hot water – which pulled more blood from the body cavity and allowed her to peel off a membrane of some kind from the shell and body and to remove the claws. She then made a circular cut into the shell – making a flap of sorts – and cleaned out the viscera and removed the spine and neck. When she was done, the three large muscle sections were easily visible (one in the back of the turtle connecting the rear legs and tail, and two in the front over each front leg). She cut the muscle seams to loosen these and then put the fat, liver and heart back into the cavity – and reinserted the head back into the space where the neck had been!

This ‘franken-turtle’ was put into a plastic tray and was ready for sale. None of us had ever seen a turtle broken down like this, and I am the only one I think that has actually eaten turtle (it’s delicious). I assume this was for a soup – the woman was not too keen on speaking to the strange foreigners, so we didn’t find out.

This experience as well as our walk through the meat department illustrated how disconnected we Americans (and most Westerners) are from our food. The meat bins were not filled with plastic wrapped, sanitized-looking cuts of meat. Meat were separated by type and by cut, but were out and available for selection and inspection. Whole chickens (while wrapped in plastic) were sold with the head on and clearly displayed – the better to inspect the eyes and mouth for indications of animal health. The turtle butchery out on the retail floor was shocking in it’s bloody reality, but provided undeniable evidence of the freshness of the product. Too often we are displaced from our food – we forget and even are happy to deny that the meat we eat was at one point a living breathing animal. We like the concept (and the taste) of fresh food but struggle with the reality of what that means. Asian cultures seem not to quibble with these troublesome problems.

The rest of the store offered additional interesting displays: a 15 foot refrigerated case of different tofu and bean curd products. An entire nook with rows of teas and dried herbs/flavorings. An entire aisle of sauces, and another of ramen/dried noodles.

Surprisingly, the produce section was not as large as I might have expected, although there was a huge display of durian, complete with an attendant to break the fruit of your choice and pull out the stinking pods.

Our visit to the beer aisle was productive. Among the choices – Guinness Special Export Stout from Malaysia – the stronger, sweeter version popular in the Far east and Africa, but unavailable in the US. Additionally, a ‘Great Value’ (Wal-Mart house brand) regular and light beer were available, which is certainly not available at home. I haven’t had the courage to crack one of these open.

Just August Project – First visit notes

First visit – dined with K & D on 19-August.

We all agreed this was one of the most enjoyable tasting meals we had ever experienced, and the price was simply amazing given the quality of the dishes and the overall experience. I took some raw notes  down on my menu – just want to get them (and my thoughts) transcribed down somewhere so I don’t lose them!

Although I drank beer, we did bring some wine, and K, D and J all enjoyed these. I didn’t get the exact details of the wines, but I know the varietals. We opened a Sancerre, a Paso Robles Syrah and a Gruet.

I brought a 22 oz bottle of Stone Ruination (a double IPA), and a bottle each of the Spanish witbier Estrella Damm Inedit, and the Flemish red ale  Duchesse du Bourgogne. The wit and sour ale I bought based on recommendations made by the folks at Just August Project. The Ruination was my own choice – but only because I like it better than the recommendation of Stone IPA.

The words in bold and italics here are transcriptions from the menu. I’ve offset my comments with an indentation.

Snacks

pickled cabbage stems / roasted yeast aioli

avocado / harissa / pith puree / crumble / candied seeds

crackling / red wine vinegar / elderflower

The Stone Ruination was a fabulous and exceptionally tasty match with the cabbage dish. Just amazing play with the slight sourness of the pickle but especially the roasted yeast. None of us had ever heard of roasted yeast, but wow what a great flacor profile. Slightly bready, just a little crunchy. The garlic and oil really enhanced the yeasty flavors, and these just exploded the hops in the Ruination. I was really looking forward to how this was going to pair with the beer, and wow did it not disappoint. What a great start to the meal!

We enjoyed the powdered red wine vinegar very much, and were licking our fingers to mop up the excess. K & D really loved the crackling.

I don’t remember what kind of seeds were on the avocado. All of us liked the interesting balance between the bitter pith, sweet crumble and smoky fire from the harissa.

Raw Course

lamb / yogurt / melon / shiso

Although the Ruination didn’t match well with this dish, this was my favorite dish of the night. We all felt very fortunate to get this, as it was the last evening for the dish on the menu. The lamb was prepared like a tartare, using the yogurt as an acid. The yogurt was smoked (slightly), and this played off of the other flavors wonderfully – shiso, black garlic and the pickled canary melon. This dish was just artful in how it took some similar rich smoky and smoke-like components and melded them together to create a delicate and subtle balance of different flavors. Great.

Bread Course

cocoa nib rye

red miso pan au lait

I didn’t drink beer with this course, as I finished the Ruination bottle after we were done with the raw course. I think an old ale are even an english style barleywine would be great with the rye – something with some good malty sweetness would really be perfect. The bread itself had a really mellow chocolate flavor, although I didn’t get too much of the spiciness of rye. Granted, I’m used to rye in my beer where it hasn’t been cooked at 400+ degrees

The red miso pan au lait (we started calling them dinner rolls) was great. The miso paste had some up front and lagging heat that was great, and the bread was so darn tender and soft. We could have eaten these for dinner by themselves. The bread course was also served with a compound lardo butter that was excellent – as lardo always is. Again, a nice malty beer – maybe even a dunkel – would have been excellent with the lardo and the bread.

Fish Course

grouper / cucumber / pumpernickel / onion

This dish included pickled radish as well. Although the play on bread with the pumpernickel puree was interesting, this dish worked the least for me. To start (and maybe to end), it was just too salty. The grouper was poached in goats whey, and although there was a hint of goat’s milk ‘tang’ in the flavor, I think maybe that was the source of the saltiness. The cucumbers were prepared three ways – one I didn’t write down, but the other two were sauteed in brown butter and in a cucumber vinaigrette. The brown butter cucumbers were very bitter to me, and I did not finish mine. I opened up the Estrella Damm Inedit for this dish (I had been saving it for the fish course), and it is really an excellent beer – brewed as a wit but with some nice light floral notes. A very unique farmhouse/witbier.

Entremet – Houston Dairymaids Blue / honeycomb / pork salpicon sabayon

I *think* this is when we had this dish, which was a fun little break. I also am not entirely sure that what we were served was a salpicon – I didn’t quite understand what the chef said when he gave this to us, and I had to look up this word. I originally wrote down ‘Semillon’, which I know cannot be correct

Note, I was corrected later by none other than Justin Yu – this was a SABAYON, not a SALPICON. My bad!

Meat Course

old spot pork / sarsparilla / choucroute

This dish was amazing. All of us were looking forward to trying the Revival Meats pork belly and it did not disappoint. We three agreed – this was probably one of the best pork belly dishes (if not the best) any of us had ever had. The pork was meltingly tender, but had great pork flavor. The choucroute was a nice counterpoint, but the highlight of the dish for me were the micro leaves of oregano – these just smacked all the flavors of the dish together into a great whole. To be honest, I am not entirely sure if the sweetness came from the pork itself or the Sarsparilla. I would believe it was the meat, it was that good. That pork belly could move mountains. The Estrella Damm Inedit did OK with this dish, but quite honestly the dish was so good I could have been drinking Bud LIgh and probably wouldn’t have noticed.

If you can believe it, this didn’t even make my top three. That’s how great the next course was to me.

Pre-Dessert

horchata granita / goats milk

I love horchata – the mix of mexican cinnamon with nuts is just a classic combination. I also love hielos, so putting it over ice was great, and serving with fresh goats milk was just amazing.  This dish defined what the Just August Project was all about in my mind – globetrotting, cutting edge chef creativity, combined with a sense for what cuisine in Houston really means with a strong sense of treating fresh ingredients in a way that really makes them shine. I’m still thinking about this dish today, and how great it was. It really captured the moment in time that was our meal, and that’s why this dish nearly eclipsed the raw course as my favorite.

Dessert

chocolate namelaka / mushroom / thyme / figs

The mushroom was dried and integrated into the namelaka. The figs were split and simply roasted, and served with a sour cream ice cream.

The thyme was fried, and I could eat pounds of the stuff. I love fried basil and thyme

I cracked open the Duchesse for this course, and it was good – but I didn’t think it paired that amazingly well. We all had a little and finished the bottle over the remainder of the evening.

Mignardises

sunflower macarons

fennel truffle / saltine cracker

The sunflower macarons were good, but the fennel truffle had an interior that reminded me of a Three Musketeers bar – it had a nougat-y like consistency, but tasted of that unique anise-like flavor of fennel. The salt from the cruched cracker (the truffle was rolled in cracker crumbs) was a nice offset to the richness.

The Duchesse played really well with these flavors, as the funkiness and sour flavors were pretty well rounded out, and the fennel brought out the hint of malt sweetness that’s is in the beer.

Iced Coffee

60 % Brazil Carmo Estate, 25% Brazil Monte Alegre, 15% Costa Rica Finca San Luis

J really had it right – even if you don’t enjoy coffee, you have to enjoy David’s blends. It’s like a rule or something. This was just a magnificent brew that was (of course) designed to be served cold, and the flavors changed substantially from the beginning of a sip to after the last bit was swallowed down. Chocolate, roasted bread, cherries, stone fruits, earth  - all there, all balanced bu featured at some point during the overall taste. Awesome, awesome stuff.

The overall verdicts:

D: First – pork, Second – Raw Course, Third – Horchata

K: First – pork, Second – Raw Course, Third – Cracklin

J: First – pork, Second – Horchata, Third – Red Miso Pan au Lait

Me: First: Raw Course, Second – Pickled Cabbage, Third – Horchata

Details of the Malt Tasting on 29-August

OK, awesome. Who are you guys again?

I’m Chris White, AKA @beer_chris on Twitter and to a lesser extent (at least lately) on the Houston Chowhound forum. I’m a homebrewer, Houston Chowhound and all around beer nerd.

Ted Duchesne (@barleyvine) has a beer blog (Link) that he updates regularly. Ted is knowledgeable on all things beer and has hosted a number of events like this in the past.

Ted and I have been talking about hosting a beer tasting of sorts with Danielle Clark for some time now.

What the heck is malt and why would I want to taste it?

Malt is the name given to a cereal grain that has been allowed to germinate and had that sprouting stopped via kilning . This process turns the grain into malt. Malted barley is literally (with a few exceptions) the stuff that beer is made of.  The variety of barley and how it is malted can have a major effect on the taste and the color of a beer. There’s more detail to the magic of malting – that’s what we’ll discuss at the tasting.

OK great. You didn’t really answer my second question. Why a malt tasting? Why not just a beer tasting?

There’s been a lot of focus lately in the craft beer world on big, complex beers that redefine or even flaunt traditional styles. I love these as much as any beer geek, but lost somewhere in this big beer love is a simple appreciation for the most fundamental of ingredients – malt.

I’m not a beer geek, and I don’t want to be one. Should I consider this?

We have selected ‘accessible’ brews for the tasting. That means two things:

1. All can be purchased here in Houston, most at just about anywhere.
2. All are relatively straightforward beers, but are good examples of a specific variety of malt – either in flavor or color.

The complexity in these beers is coming from the malts, and the malts alone, or at least that’s the idea. If you like it you can go down the street to Kroger or Specs and buy it. It’s that simple.

<SOAPBOX>

We honestly believe that this is a great way for people that don’t usually like beer or are generally tentative about trying craft beer (that means you, oenophile!) to get a good solid foundation in one of the most fundamental flavor components. You may not leave the tasting loving every beer you try, but we think you’ll find something new here that will make you think differently about beer, and that’s a goal of the event.

</SOAPBOX>

Grandiose vision aside, Ted and I just like drinking, talking, blogging and tweeting about beer. We’re passionate about it. We would love to share some of that with you.

Sounds like fun! How will it work? How much beer do I get?

AHA! I knew that question was coming!

AGENDA: I’ll provide an introduction to the malting process and there will be examples of the various types of malt we will be tasting available to try. Ted will speak about the background of each beer, the type of malt we feel that brew best exemplifies and then we’ll drink and discuss.

BEERS: Approximately 10 beers will be tasted. Enough beer will be poured to give everyone ~4 oz tasting, with some to spare for those that are your special favorites. We will give everyone a written list of the beers, the prices and the background information.

TIMING: We will start promptly at 3 PM, and have four hours for the event which should be plenty of time.

FOOD: We will provide water crackers, pretzels and are trying to figure out exactly what small bites means . There will not be a meal served, so plan accordingly. Eating a later lunch would probably be a good plan

SAFETY: At the most this is 40 oz of beer (just over 3 bottles) in approximately 4 hours, which should be fine for most. If you feel you need a taxi or designated driver, let us know!

COST: Please plan on $20, although we feel it will be closer to $15. We’ll be ready to make change at the event, and will let those of you that sign up know the details ahead of the date.

Camp Beer Three – Raw Notes

Held 27-June-2010 at the Odd Fellows lodge in the Houston Heights

Goose Island Sofie (Saison/Farmhouse Ale)

Little sour edge. Undergoes short aging in wine casks – this was a 2010 vintage

Russian River Supplication (American Wild Ale)

Brewed with cherries. Like Duchess. Intense. Leather and saddle aromas. Very bitter.

Souther Tier Hop Sun (Wheat)

Little more bitter than Gumballhead. Very floral aroma. A lot like Gumball.

Bells Oberon (American Pale Wheat)

Used to be a homebrew shop in Kalamazoo. Plain Jane wheat.

Smuttynose Shoals (Pale Ale)

Classic English … w/Cascade and Chinook. Big Maris Otter flavor, strong hop bitterness.

Thre Floyds Gumballhead (Wheat)

Three Floyds Alpha King (Pale Ale)

Orange. Crazy hop profiles. I love this brew.

Lost Abbey Devotion (Belgian Pale Ale)

Lost Abbey owned by Port Brewing?

Stone Cali-Belgique (Belgian Style IPA)

Same base wort and tasted alongside Stone IPA

Port Brewing Hop 15 (Double Imperial IPA)

A rounder flavored Hopsicle

Southern Tier Unearthly (Imperial IPA)
Good east coast style – nice balance. Not especially orange. Typical sweet aroma.

Three Floyds Dreadnaught  (Imperial IPA – marked as one of my favorites)

Wow. Great hop profile – typical 3 floyds earthy/citrus/bitter mix. Nice malt profile – not too sweet.

Goose Island Matilda (Belgian Strong Pale Ale)

Wish we had this with Supplication

Troeg Troegenator (Double Bock – marked as one of my favorites)

From Harrisburg, PA. Great rich malty profile. Awesome. Nicely done – not too ‘hot’.

Ommegang Abbey Ale (Dubbel)

Jaime loved this one. The brewery has a relationship with Duvel. A little sour.

Goose Island Pere Jacques (Dubbel)

Very dry, malty, not a lot of esters (at least compared to Ommegang). Ton of fruit.

Stone Anniversary 13 (American Strong Ale)

They say it is coming apart. Would be good on cask.

Brooklyn Local 2 (Belgian Strong Dark Ale)

Cidery? Something off.

Bootlegger’s Brewery Black Phoenix (Coffee/Chipotle)

6.7%, 7 bbl brewhouse. Intense coffee flavor, a bit of chipotle

Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #3 (Double IPA)

Dogfish Head Beer Dinner

This 5 course dinner + hors d’oeuvre dinner was held at Vic & Anthony’s in downtown Houston on Friday, 25-June 2010.

Hors d’oeuvre were served with 60 minute IPA. All service was in white wine stemware.

• Tempura of Lobster w/Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce
• Prime Beef Croustade w/Horseradish and crispy shallots

First course – East Coast Clams steamed in Aprihop w/Portuguese chorizo and melted leeks, served with grilled garlic crostini, served with Aprihop (Jaime’s favorite)

Second course – ‘Pulled’ duck w/white corn arepa, smoked tomato BBQ sauce, shaved radish and baby greens, served with Raison D’Etre and 2006 Raison D’Extra (Chris’ favorite – and favorite beer of the night was the 2006 Raison D’Extra for both C & J)

Third course – Coffee Crusted Prime New York Strip with roasted cippolini onions and pasilla chile mole, served with Palo Santo Marron

Fourth course – cheese plate served with 2010 Red and White and 2008 Red and White

Fifth course – Almond financier with brown butter ice cream and Texas peach compote (dish by Rebecca Masson – wqinner of ‘shroom throwdown), served with 2009 120 Minute IPA and 2007 120 Minute IPA