Beer dinner III: All ESB Dinner? Bob's Your Uncle.

The exploits of my foray into the world of homebrewing were chronicled earlier. Last night was time to enjoy the fruits, or rather, beers, of my labor. Because my Crossroads ESB is quite a British-style ale, Half Pint & I decided it was time for another of our Beer Dinners and we'd basically only feature one style of beer! For our all-ESB dinner ("You can't do an entire pairing dinner only pouring one type of beer!" you say? I'll pick up that gauntlet) we went overboard with the Limey theme. Here's the menu for the 3-course, 7-ESB dinner:

Fuller's Extra Special Bitter (5.9% ABV, England) & AleSmith Anvil ESB (5.5%, San Diego, CA)
With finger or tea sand-wiches. I literally bought a loaf of white bread, cut the crusts off, and made the weirdest sandwiches that seemed English (shredded carrot and mayo, water chestnuts [since I couldn't find watercress] and butter w/ some garlic paste, English(!) cucumber and a sweet'n'sour carrot spread). I had to pour the Fuller's first--the benchmark of this style--to showcase what the brew is all about--a deceptively named middle-of-the-road mild, easy-drinking beer. I bought the Anvil at an AleSmith event during SF Beer Week and the owner, Peter Zien, signed my bottle. I hope it's not heresy to say I like the Yank version much better.

Sierra Nevada Early Spring Beer (5.9%, Chico, CA) and Elysian "The Wise" ESB (5.9%, Seattle, WA)
Cheese and biscuits. OK, crackers. But all the cheeses were imported from England including stilton and a 12-month cave-aged cheddar. Both the beers and cheeses were tip-top.

Anderson Valley Boont Extra Special Beer (6.5%, Boonville, CA) and Grand Teton Bitch Creek XX ESB (7.5%, Victor, ID)
Bangers & mash, shep-herd's pie, "salad," and crumpets. We whipped up a huge pot of mashed potatoes, which Half Pint made using a pale ale (yes, it's British) and it came out great. I grilled up some banger sausages with a bit of grilled onions and a brown gravy (from a packet, for extra authenticity). Our friends Chris and Carson brought the shepherd's pie. The salad consisted of just tomato and cucumber (English cucumber at that!) with olive oil and sea salt. And the crumpets, in lieu of a more traditional bread, were bought at the British import shop, "You Say Tomato."

While the AVBC beer was the strongest ESB I found, and it's a winner, mate, the Grand Teton bottle was the crowd favorite for the night. Bitch Creek is one of my favorite ESBs of all time, but it stopped showing up here, even at BevMo. But a few months ago, one trip there yielded an incredible find. To celebrate Grand Teton's 20th anniversary, they made a series of XX beers including this "Double ESB." It's the same ingredients of the regular ESB, but doubled. To me, doubling a mild beer and calling it a Double ESB is like doubling pink and calling it Double Pink, when it's clearly red. Once I opened the wax-dipped 750-ml bottle, the beer poured a dark brown compared to an ESB's clear coppery color. By kicking up the malt bill, it tasted like a strong, nutty ale with blasts of toffee and rich caramel. It could be paired with any bold, meaty dish. Too bad I'll never see this beer again.

Dessert:
Our friends Joe and Alexia (just engaged!) brought shortbread cookies and some other British sweets that were basically Mallomars (my fave) with a spot of raspberry jam. And, unable to resist, I prepared a tin of spotted dick. Yeah, that's a real thing and it's actually quite nice--a sort of warm and buttery spice cake with currants and raisins, served with homemade whipped cream. And to drink? Why, my homebrewed ESB of course. No clue what the ABV is. I was just plum-relieved, dare I say delighted, that it came out well. Don't just take my word for it; everyone agreed. (Though the color was a bit paler than I'd hoped.) Chris brought over his first homebrew as well, a great Amber Ale. We each bought our kits at the same time and discovered at the same time we have a knack for...following directions.And there we have it. Bob's our uncle.

SFBW Day 2: From Sea to Shining Sea

Other than my first beer of the day, which I'll get to in a sec, I spent the day celebrating breweries in San Diego, Calif. and Portland, Maine. And I did so on both sides of the Bay.

Not sure why I thought the AleSmith event @ City Beer started at noon, but it didn't start til 3. Oh well, three hours to kill surrounded by SF's most amazing bottle selection. In walked Jesse of Beer & Nosh fame, scooping up some Russian River Consecration and graciously sharing a glass of the official beer of SF Beer Week, Original Albion Ale. An easy drinking Pale Ale that tastes like history.

My friend Scott showed up and took Jesse's place at the bar (4 stools). Spying a Hitachino Nest beer new to me, Commemorative Ale (a.k.a. New Year Ale), brewed with a delicious sounding laundry list of vanilla bean, coriander, orange peel, nutmeg and cinnamon, this witbier-meets-Christmas ale didn't measure up, IMHO, to their line of beers. Luckily, the other bottle I shared with Scott--Hair of the Dog's Ruth, did. (I should note, it's named in honor of Alan Sprints's grandmother, Ruth. My grandmother Ruth has a bottle that I drank for her on her shelf.)

Three O'Clock High. $12 got us 5 AleSmith tasters--X (Pale Ale), YuleSmith, IPA, Wee Heavy, and the pappy of 'em all Speedway Stout. Sorry, traders, one-bottle limit.
It was my first time trying it, and regardless of the high ratings, I knew I'd love an imperial stout brewed with coffee then aged in bourbon barrels. I bought my one bottle as well as the Anvil ESB to commemorate my foray into homebrewing. AleSmith's owner/brewmaster, Peter Zien, was on hand to sign bottles. Cool guy.Afterward, I left while others were still in line to get in. I rendezvoused with Half Pint back at home base and she drove us to Oakland. At the Trappist, they had plenty of Allagash on tap including their collaboration with Belgium's De Struise Brewery, Fedelta. As with all Allagash beers I've ever had on tap, the lines are too cold so the beer improves immensely once it warms up. Half Pint and I shared Fedelta, our mutual favorite Curieux (see our post for The Session below), and one that I like to believe was named in my honor, Odyssey.

Allagash founder Rob Tod was on hand, as had a keg been on his hand (see below).
Sated and semi-schnockered, we hit Cato's Ale House in Oakland for some grub, capped by a half pint of Iron Springs Black Lager. There's no place like home.

Crossroads ESB

I'm the world's newest homebrewer.
Don't get into homebrewing to save money on beer. Longterm? Yeah. But if my arms fall off and I never brew again, I spent as much on these instruments and ingredients as I would've on 25 great six-packs of beer (and my batch will only yield as much as almost 9 six-packs).

But I didn't worry. I relaxed. And had a homebrew. (Thanks, Greg, for the Belgian Noir)

Steeping the grains (obviously my first batch was only partial-grain, the rest LME).

Prepping primary fermentation.

Which requires pitching the yeast. Look, Ma, I'm a zymurgist.

So what'd I make? An ESB. Though I'm all about American craft beers, I wanted to brew an easy-going British bitter. Since I'll have a ton, I needed to brew a session beer. And what was my soundtrack for homebrewing? It had to rock. I wanted it to be British. And I wanted it to reflect early steps. Disc 1 from Clapton's box set rocks his pre-classic stuff: Yardbirds, Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and of course Cream. So, as I switch paths from the freeway of commercial brew drinker to the road less traveled toward homebrewing..."Crossroads ESB."

And now we wait...