Session #30: Beer Desserts

This month, David Jensen at Beer 47 asks us beer bloggers to blog-tificate on Beer Desserts, that is, dessert that features beer as an ingredient. You'd think by my last post that I'd already known this was the upcoming topic, but you'd think incorrectly.

Here's the snippet from my previous post dealing with this very subject that starts with two beers I chose to pair with the beer dessert I'd prepared:

O'Hanlon's Original Ruby Stout and Ale Asylum Mercy Grand Cru: I found this bottle of port barrel-aged stout at Beverage Warehouse in LA, and...I knew I had to try it. The Grand Cru...is of an ultra limited release from this Madison, Wisc. brewery and came into my possession c/o Tom Griffin, the Barrel Guy, which is an entirely different story altogether! I have many fine dessert beers in my possession, but for dolce, the mere appearance of port and the mere mention of Grand Cru made them custom-fit for a wine-themed beer dinner...These unique brews helped wash down the vanilla bean Tripel pot de creme, found on the Homebrew Chef, Sean Paxton's dessert recipe page. I've made creme brulee before, but this was my first (and certainly not last) pot de creme. It required reducing 12 ounces of the aforementioned Affligem Tripel into mere tablespoons, but it was worth it.

Now, just in case there's a story in The New York Times on beer desserts the way there was one on beer cocktails (cheers to Joe Ruvel), I posted a pre-scoop update on David's topic at SF Beer Examiner. Writing there about other area beer desserts, many of which are in ice cream form (stout flavors, stout reduction sauces, and one I've gotta try--21A Watermelon Wheat ice cream), I'm always puzzled when I see bitter beers suggested as dessert pairings. I love sweet beers (Gimme a bourbon-barrel-aged Imperial Stout over a DIPA any day), it's no surprise I think beer is the perfect dessert accompaniment, and "spice" as it were. I still wake up in a cocoa sweat when I dream about the Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Sean made for the National Homebrewers Conference dinner--decadent mousse with two kinds of chocolate and Hazelnut Brown Ale, topped with malted barley and paired with a flabberghastingly great Chocolate Stout (both Rogue ales).

That's it. This is killing me. I know I've got some chocolate hazelnut gelato in the freezer. The only question is, am I going to float it in a chocolate stout, a coffee stout, or one of the chocolate coffee stouts I've got?

SF Beer Examiner posts: Rum Month

So many outlets (mostly online), so little time. When the Examiner rolled out the red carpet for their Rum Month project, I thought I'd be left out in the cold. Being resourceful, I found two ways to incorporate rum into writing about beer.

The first was to write about rum barrel aged beers as well as a beer-and-rum cocktail.

The second was to write about the 3 craft breweries that have launched craft distilleries that produce rums (if you know of any others, please leave a comment or email).

Yo ho ho, indeed.

The coldest beer I ever drank was a Summer Ale in San Francisco

It's seriously in the chilly-50s and cloudy and doesn't feel like the holiday in which we usher in summer. But if we drink like we're Irish on St. Patty's Day, let's drink like it's summer in The City.

Don't forget to subscribe to this blog, and equally if not more important, my SF Craft Beer Examiner page.

Happy Memorial Day.

SF Craft Beer Examiner's 1st post

Whether is boiling or freezing this summer in San Francisco, it's the perfect weather for a beer fest. Or several. Check out a list I compiled here.

If you or anyone you know is putting on beer-related events in the Bay Area or have an idea for something beery and local, email me and I'll see if it's Examiner-appropriate.

Update: Thanks to hamachi for bringing this to my attn. Moylan's Breast Fest on 7/18 in Novato.