across the continent and around the globe.
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Introducing Stephen Beaumont's Brewpub Cookbook (Part III)
It's here! The i's have been dotted, the t's crossed and if everything goes according to plan, the first copies of my new Stephen Beaumont's Brewpub Cookbook will hit the warehouse of Macmillan Canada by the end of the month. That's the good news.The bad news, unfortunately, is that those self-same books will likely not make it to the shelves of Canadian bookstores until some time in May, and equally unfortunate, we won't be able to take on-line orders until then, either. But I promise you that it will be well worth the wait.
Oddly enough, seeing as I had anticipated the creation of a cookbook filled with donated recipes as being a relatively straight-forward affair, I believe that I have put more work into this book than into any of my previous projects. I know that it's taken longer to pull together than anything else I've done! I do think, however, that the effort has paid off, in spades!
I'm thrilled with each of the almost 100 recipes that have gone into the Brewpub Cookbook, and once again, Macmillan Canada has done a great job putting everything together. (Take a bow, editor Nicole de Montbrun, designer Kevin Connolly, 
photographer Hal Roth and everyone else along the line who put their blood and sweat into this oft-difficult project.) I know that this sounds terribly self-indulgent, but I really am pleased with how the book has turned out, and believe that you will be, too.
But enough blatant self-promotion, how about another recipe excerpted from the book? This one comes from a little beer bar and ferment pub in downtown Toronto called C'est What. (A ferment pub, for those unfamiliar with the term, is an establishment where the wort is brewed elsewhere but fermented on site, a process that C'est What arguably does better than anyone else.) At the risk of exhausting my allotted supply of blandishments, I've got to say that these are among the best olives I have ever tasted, if not THE best, and I've eaten a lot of olives in my day.
Spiced Olives
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From: The C'est What Brewery, Winery and Restaurant 67 Front Street East Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5E 1B5 Phone: 416-867-9791
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Created by: Jeff Sararas
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Before You Begin: This marinade can make good olives great but it cannot make poor olives good, so start with olives of the highest quality for excellent results. And when the olives are all gone, the marinade can be used as a dressing for a great Greek salad.
- 1 cup red wine vinegar
- 4 tbsp. oregano
- 1/2 tbsp. dijon mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cup vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp. chili flakes
- 2 tbsp. capers, whole (optional)
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 5 cup kalamata olives, whole
- 4 tbsp. oregano
Makes about 10 cups.
Recipe from the forthcoming Stephen Beaumont's Brewpub Cookbook. Watch this space next month for detailed ordering information.
Kitchen Table Tasting -- Michelob Specialty Ales and Lagers
In the latest attempt by the major breweries to cut into the craft beer market, Anheuser-Busch has launched five new beers under the Michelob Specialty Ales and Lagers label. The brands are Golden Pilsner, Honey Lager, Amber Bock, HefeWeizen and Pale Ale. In addition, there is a Porter currently being test-marketed.When I first received the press release touting these brands, my attention was caught by the apparently odd composition of many of the beers. A pale ale hopped with Pacific Northwest saaz, hallerau and tettnang -- all traditionally lager hops? A hefe-weizen hopped with Pacific Northwest cascades? Rice in a bock? Curious, indeed.
So when the samples arrived, I was naturally quite anxious to try them. Unfortunately, my tasting only confirmed what the ingredients list had led me to suspect; namely, that these were confused beers without distinct or definitive characters. But was my awareness of the fact that they were big brewery brands affecting my judgement? I thought not, but to be sure, I arranged a Kitchen Table Tasting the following week.
My panel for this KTT consisted of Tod Stewart, a freelance beverage writer and wine consultant; Mark DeWolf, a dedicated beer aficionado; and Loren Romano, the award-winning homebrewer who also participated in last month's Eisbock vertical tasting. To keep them bias-free, I told them only the styles of the beers and that they came from "a new craft brewery in the United States."
After only two beers -- the Pilsner and the Honey Lager -- a pattern began to form in the tasters' comments. "Too tentative," they said, "They taste like the brewery is trying to appeal to the major brewery market." They continued like this until they reached the last beer, the Porter, at which time they were announced that is was "clearly better than the rest."
After the tasting was over but before I told the trio who had made the beers, they all agreed that the brands probably wouldn't fare terribly well in the craft beer market. Further, they characterized the beers as likely coming from "a craft brewer with a big brewer mentality." Insight that perhaps A-B would do well to consider.
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An innovative two-hour audio book, an all-original and all-encompassing journey through every facet of this drinkable work of art we call beer. |
Selected Events for April
- Calgary, Alberta:
Brewtopia
- Join me at this year's CAMRA Calgary-sponsored beer festival at The Red & White Club. It will run from April 24 - 26 (4:00 - 10:00 on Thursday and Friday, 2:00 - 10:00 on Saturday) and feature some 25 breweries. Admission is $8.00 (includes a tasting glass) and beer tokens are $1.00. There are also a couple of pre-festival events on April 22 and 23. Call Jack Penfold at 403-239-3907 for more information.
- London, England:
10th Anniversary Beer on Broadway Beer Festival
- A Scottish theme will dominate this festival of over 100 beers, held at Ealing Town Hall, New Broadway from April 24 - 26. It will be open from 11:00 to 11:00 all three days and admission is £1.50 after 4pm, free all other times and always free for CAMRA members. For further info, contact Alex Kovac at 01923 826114.
- Buffalo, New York:
7th Annual Buffalo Beer Festival
- At the Convention Center on Pearl Street on April 25 - 26 from 5:00 to 9:00 on Friday and 2:00 to 6:00 on Saturday. This fest, costing $15 in advance and $18 at the door, will feature over 110 beers from some 50 breweries. Contact Keith Morgan at 716-632-0552 for details.
Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar
It was a Friday evening when Christine and I headed up to the Summit House Grill for a pint of just-tapped Murphy's Irish Stout. And it was delicious, but it's not the TOTM.Because I rarely like to drink the same beer twice in a row, I found myself searching the Summit's taps trying to find something that could follow the full, chocolaty body of the Murphy's. I settled on the relatively new Kawartha Lakes Brewing Nut Brown Ale, and it, too, was lovely. But it isn't the TOTM, either.
Faced with the same "don't want the same beer again" quandary as I, Christine opted for a bottle of the Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, a beer I had not tasted for quite some time. It was exquisite -- so much so that I finished my pint in short order so that I could order a bottle myself -- and it is the TOTM. Full-bodied, delicately sweet, blessed with a mild, pleasing aroma of hazelnut and hopped with an unusually light hand (for Rogue's normally hop-headed brewer, John Maier), this is simply a wonderful example of the brewing arts.
If you have yet to sample the Hazelnut Brown, I would recommend doing so in short order. It is particularly nice when there is still a nip in the air, and spring is coming fast upon us!
Planning Your Beer Dinner
Beer dinners now seem to be all the rage, with some places charging up to and beyond $75 dollars a head for five or six course feasts. And, in most cases, the meals are very much worth the money.But have you ever thought about hosting your own beer dinner? If you have, but have never followed through because you are intimidated by the process involved, or if you have never even considered it because you think it might be too complicated, think again. As someone who has organized dozens of successful beer dinners -- both for restaurants and bars and in my home -- let me tell you that it's not as tough as you might imagine. The trick is follow a few simple rules of thumb.
- Whenever possible, start with your food menu first and then progress to your beer selection. It is normally a lot easier to find a good beer to go with good food than it is to try to figure out which food will partner with a specific beer.
- If your beer selection is limited, or you have a beer theme you wish to showcase in your menu, the easiest way to select the appropriate dish is to marry complementary flavours. So, if you have a full-bodied beer you wish to serve, pick a robust menu item as its accompaniment. Likewise, nutty ales go with nutty dishes; citric wheats with fruity foods; dry lagers with light, delicate fare, and so on.
- Almost always progress from the lightest flavoured beer to the heaviest. I say "almost" because exceptions do exist; oysters with stout followed by salad with Belgian white beer, for example.
- Always progress from driest to sweetest in your beer selection. I'm sure that there are exceptions to this rule, too, but I have yet to find them.
- Try before you serve. This does not mean that you have to sample every dish with its chosen beer before company arrives, but it is a good idea to try the beer alongside the dominant flavours of the dish before you commit to it being on your menu. If you have a coriander and shrimp dish you wish to match with Duvel, for example, sprinkle a cooked shrimp with a little ground coriander and try it with the beer beforehand. (Incidentally, juiced up with a hint of chili, this is a beautiful match.)
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A refreshing look at beer enjoyment in all its forms, complete with a chapter on matching beer to your favourite foods, a guide to drinking beer with the seasons, 29 delicious recipes that take beer into the kitchen and a whimsical look at pairing beer with music and the movies. |
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Stephen Beaumont: A Taste For Beer
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(If you wish to learn more about beer and food pairing, please check out my book, A Taste for Beer. In it, I offer detailed explanations of how to organize a successful beer dinner or tasting and devote an entire chapter to the best beers to partner with certain foods.)
If you have a product -- beer, book, CD-ROM or whatever -- that you would like to see reviewed in this space, please send a message to worldofbeer@worldofbeer.com and we'll send you back instructions on how to get it to us.
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Stephen Beaumont's
A brewery-by-brewery and beer-to-beer guide to the Canadian brewing industry, from Labatt and Molson on down to Horseshoe Bay Brewing and the Bushwakker Brewpub.
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World of Beer Follow-Up
Back in the October, 1996, edition of World of Beer, I reported that an alert had been sounded by the United Kingdom beer consumer's group, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), regarding a threat they perceived as coming from the European Commission in Brussels. The issue was the guest beer law, which allows the landlords of tied houses (pubs owned by breweries) to offer one tap of a competing product for sale, as long as that guest beer is a cask-conditioned real ale. The EC, it appeared, thought that the law restricted international trade.Now, however, CAMRA is claiming victory, as they report that the EC has backed off from their challenge. Said CAMRA's Campaigns Manager Stephen Cox, "There is no doubt that without us, things would have been very different. CAMRA’s powerful and effective campaign won this important victory for British drinkers."
In a press release issued in March, CAMRA claims that new compromises will now be investigated, ones which will both increase British consumer selection and satisfy the Commission. The guest beer, it would appear, has been saved.
Congratulations, CAMRA!
March was a stellar month for Beaumonts as I received e-mails from three of them: Peter, Joe and my alter ego from London, Ontario, Stephen! And a woman researching the Beaumont family tree wrote in, as well. It really is a small world.
Now, on to your e-mails...
- How about some more on New Zealand beers?
- Darren Robinson - We've got more on Lion Nathan coming up, Darren. In the meantime, why don't you see if you can pay a visit to Kieran at Steam Brewing (see below)?
- Love this site. We're a brewery in New Zealand. There is no interaction in the micro-brewing industry and we NEED IT! Send us MORE, MORE, MORE. Cheers.
- Kieran Meyer STEAM BREWING CO- Glad I stumbled onto this on the web. Lived in Brussels for 2 years, before that I hated beer and now I am a drooling convert in constant search of fabulous Belgian-like brews. Do you know anyone in the states that sells Hoegaarden Grand Cru? I can get the Blanche here in Denver but have had no luck on Grand Cru.
- Deborah Stephens - Glad I stumbled onto this on the web. Lived in Brussels for 2 years, before that I hated beer and now I am a drooling convert in constant search of fabulous Belgian-like brews. Do you know anyone in the states that sells Hoegaarden Grand Cru? I can get the Blanche here in Denver but have had no luck on Grand Cru.
- I hate to say it, Deborah, but I think you're out of luck on the Grand Cru. Paulaner - North America (1-800-589-BIER) handles the Hoegaarden Blanche, though, so you might want to begin your quest there.
- Hi Steve,
While I would generally defer to Marty on all things homebrewing -- and you would too if you tasted most of our brewing efforts -- we know several homebrewers who don't use self-sticking labels for their bottles.
Just use a little bit of milk. The downside is that if you get the labels wet (like you take them to a picnic in a cooler of ice) they will come off. The upside is that if you get the labels wet they will come off -- so when you are ready to make the next batch you have clean bottles.
- Stan Hieronymus - Stan's response is a follow-up to a question raised last month. Thanks very much, Stan.
- l have just read ALL of your page and found it excellent.I can also recommend that it be accompanied with a glass of Boreal blonde!
- Peter John Keating - Thank you for the kind words. Please let me know the best accompaniment for this month's edition.
- Would be interested in your comments on Dave's Scotch Ale, released recently in Ontario. While partial to this style of ale, and generally positive on the products that Nichol sells (at least they are cheaper than the mainline brews) there is something artificial in the taste that puts me off. Are there others who feel the same way?
- Mark McElwain - The "artificial" taste you detect in Dave's Scotch Ale is adjunct. Most big North American brewers use a significant proportion of adjuncts such as corn, corn sugar or rice as cheap fermentables in their beers, and the Dave's line, brewed by Molson, is no exception. I have tried the Scotch Ale as well as the Massive Irish, the Doppelgold and others, and while I have found them to be cleanly made, I have also found them to be pretty uninspiring. Beware cheap beer!
- Mr. Beaumont,
In this month's editorial, "Time for Crazy Horse Malt Liquor to Just Go Away", you contend that the brand name is derogatory to the Native American. I am curious if you feel that this is therefore fundamentally different from Samuel Adams Boston Lager, etc.? Obviously, Sam Adams is not "one of [our] most revered leaders", but nevertheless, considered to be one of the great men on his generation. There are several reasons for naming a beer, and perhaps some of them are intentionally derogatory.
Maybe Crazy Horse Malt Liquor is one of them, but definitely so?
- Douglas (Doug) E. Moyer - Thank you for your comments. I think that there are three main points which separate a beer like Crazy Horse from one such as Sam Adams: 1) Malt liquors are generally perceived as "high octane" beers designed for cheap drunks, premium lagers are not; 2) Crazy Horse was, by many reports, against alcohol, which he viewed as a great danger to his people; and 3) Crazy Horse was a spiritual leader, Samuel Adams was not.
If you have any comments, questions, hints or tips for Stephen Beaumont's World of Beer, we'd love to hear from you. Although we unfortunately can't promise individual replies to everyone who writes, we will present your comments and answer some of your questions in this space each month.
Click Here: worldofbeer@worldofbeer.com.
