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.

Fat, drunk, and broke. SF Beer Week is almost here.

Behold, the inaugural SF Beer Week. I've been eagerly anticipating this 10-day "week" for months.

Foreward. There are nearly 100 events scattered over all neighborhoods throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, from Carmel (a stretch even for the South Bay) to Petaluma in the North Bay, from Beach Chalet by the Pacific to Richmond out in the East Bay. It would be impossible to BART to hit them all.

The events range from "free"--you only pay for the beers and other incidentals like nibbles--to more than one $100 beer-pairing dinner. It would be impossible to afford to hit them all.

And let's not forget, though some Pilseners and lighter lagers will be poured, many barleywines, higher alcohol barrel-aged beers and other strong ales will be featured. It would be impossible to let your liver filter them all.

It is from this mind frame that, in my attempt to go, see, drink, eat, learn, and meet my full share of places, beers, foods, and people, respectively, that I devised this schedule. (Huge [p]regret: I'll be missing all the great-sounding events in Santa Cruz since it'd be impossible to return home safely.) I reserve the right to change any events based on opportunity, greatness, affordability, and downright whimsy.

Key:
SF=San Francisco
EB=East Bay
NB=North Bay

FRIDAY, FEB 6:
Day one eases me in, celebrating two of NorCal's biggest, best, and oldest breweries.
SF 11 a.m.-10 p.m. All things Anchor (beer, wine, whiskey, cheese) @ Murphy's Pub in SF's Union Square.
SF 6-8 p.m. Sierra Nevada tasting, including the new Torpedo Extra IPA @ The Jug Shop (in Russian Hill).

SATURDAY, FEB 7:
SF Noon+. AleSmith @ City Beer (in SOMA).
EB 6-8 p.m. Possibly heading out to the Trappist in Oakland for Allagash's Rob Tod. (Only problem is, he'll be in the City on Mon.)

SUNDAY, FEB 8
Woah. HUGE day. Like Hansel in Zoolander, "I'm going monk."
SF 11 a.m.-3ish. Beer2Brakers bike ride around the entire city. We don't need no stinkin' Gatorade. $10
SF 3-7 p.m. Dogfish Head's Sam Calagione holds court @ The Alembic (in Upper Haight).
SF 6-9 p.m. Beer dinner with the Homebrew Chef, Sean Paxton @ 21st Amendment Brewing. $50.
SF 10-midnight. Unless I'm in a food-and-beer coma, I'd like to head over to the Toronado(in Lower Haight) to meet Lost Abbey/Port's Tomme Arthur... and buy a bottle of Cable Car.

MONDAY, FEB 9
NB 1-5 p.m. Moylan's Brewing event @ Noonan's. What's this beer event about? Whisky, cheese, and chocolate. You know I've never taken the ferry up to Marin? I will this night. $29.
SF: 6-midnight. In case I didn't catch him @ Trappist, here's my 2nd chance. Allagash's Rob Tod hits the Toronado. (Stay tuned for my upcoming Beer Session #24 post on their "Curieux.")

TUESDAY, FEB 10
All day across the Bay.
EB 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Local beer and slow food pairings from Ground Zero. Not to mention, gotta try "Original Albion" beer @ Chez Panisse. A la carte (in the Gourmet Ghetto). This is going on the 9th-12th, lunch and dinner seatings.
EB 4 p.m. Barrel-aged beer tastings @ both Triple Rock & Jupiter brewpubs (in Berkeley). $10.
EB 6:30-9:30 p.m. "North County Cheese Off." Flights of North Bay brews @ The Bistro (in Hayward). $45

WEDNESDAY, FEB 11
If I wasn't allergic to 2 dishes that contain seafood, my C-note could be no better spent than at Scala's for Beer + Nosh's beer-pairing dinner. Think 7 courses prepared by a local celebrity chef paired with 7 beers including some you're not likely to try again. I look forward to the pictures!
SF 6-8 p.m. Chillax with Sierra Nevada's ass't brewmaster Terry Sullivan @ The Page (in Duboce Park).
scheduled February 11, 2009 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
SF 8-midnight. Nightcap for the beer+cheese night featuring Ommegang, in hopes of finding some more "Obamagang," er, I mean "Inauguration Ale" as well as their anniversary Chocolate Indulgence. Where else? @ the Toronado.

THURSDAY, FEB 12
To be sure, there are several awesome-sounding beer dinners in the City tonight, but I'll be heading over the Bay Bridge. Dig it:
EB 2-3 p.m. I'll probably pop back into Chez Panisse for another round of a la carte slow-grub and beer.
EB 6-8 p.m. Me. Yep, The Mad Zymurgists, the Tri-Valley's homebrew club and advocates of all manners of fermentation science, asked me to speak and sign books at the Hop Yard (in Pleasanton). Thanks to Brian of the Mad Zymurgists and Towne Center Books, the local indie bookstore for handling sales. (I'm not-so-secretly looking forward to trying some homebrew, too.)

FRIDAY, FEB 13
SF noon-2 p.m. Bavarian Beer Brunch @ Gordon-Biersch (in SOMA). Mit oompa band! $30.
SF 4-8 p.m. (or, as their other site says, 6-9 p.m.) "Meet the Brewers" @ Speakeasy Brewing (in Bayview/Hunter's Point). They hold these every month, but Speakeasy is the one SF brewery I haven't been to yet.

SATURDAY, FEB 14
SF Noon+. The only game in town! Barleywine Fest @ the Toronado.

SUNDAY, FEB 15
Oh no. Last day.
EB 1-2:30 p.m. Beer judging 101 in San Leandro. $25.
EB 3-8 p.m. Celebrator shindig @ the Oakland Convention Center. $35.

Should be one helluva week.

Sideways (viva la Hopmonk)

Think Sideways and you're apt to think of that movie with Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church. From now on, I'll think of the Dungeness crab dinner (the crustacean's lateral movement is a bit of a stretch, I know) at Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol, which, like the movie, is in wine country.
Because I had to head down to SoCal for Thanksgiving and a few book events, I've been remiss about updates, hence Jesse at Beer & Nosh beat me to this post. And all the photos below are his. Lastly, his beer dinner tasting notes are more on topic, since he loves crab and I can't touch the stuff, a point which bummed out our host, Dean Biersch, but didn't bother me because I love ordering off the menu there. (Yet somehow, I missed out on going up to the buffet table for the steamed artichokes, garlic buttered corn on the cob, and something involving sweet potato puree.)

What began as Dean's splendid idea to do a book signing there turned into another in their series of beer pairing dinners. For example, Half Pint and I spent election night at Hopmonk with fellow revelers all donning "I voted" stickers and enjoying beers brewed by Dean's long-time partner, Dan Gordon. As he says, "Never trust a skinny brewer." Pairings that night included their Hefeweizen + pork tenderloin medallions, Marzen + roasted duck & parsnip puree, and concluded with the deceptively strong Winterbock + gingerbread crepes. So really, I kid you not when I say that I love the increasingly popular beer dinners and that it's impossible to go wrong by partaking of one at Hopmonk.

As for the crabby one, guests were welcomed with a pilsener glass filled with my favorite house brew, the Kellerbier, an unfiltered pils. To accompany the potato gratin app, we were poured Anchor Liberty Ale. It may not knock the socks of Double IPA fans today, but Fritz Maytag debuted this beer back in 1975. Good luck finding anything remotely this hoppy back then, cowboy. That was pretty much the discussion Dean and I had as we all ate and the night turned into an exercise in face-stuffing, peppered with commentary on the beers by myself and Dean.
It didn't hurt that the next beer poured was New Belgium's Mothership Wit, another beer from the pages of Red, White, and Brew. New Belgium is renowned for eco-friendly brewing and to complement both the beer and the idea of sustainable cuisine, the meyer lemons appeared courtesy of Dean's backyard! My grandfather the citrus farmer would've been proud.

Speaking of citrus, the meal concluded with Brewery Rodenbach's Grand Cru, a sour belgian from the same brewery that New Belgium's brewmaster Peter Bouckaert hailed from before he hopped the pond. It washed down what I seem to recall was angel food cake drizzled in a citrusy reduction and kicked up by lemon flan. (Like I said, this was a beer dinner. All you need to remember is how much fun it was, not the specifics of what was served)

Beer Dinner II: Locavores

For the second installment of the Beer Dinner, we went with local beer (as opposed to la cerveza loco, the crazy beer). High-minded pairing be damned, I just filled the fridge with offerings from throughout Northern California, and one tipple only those present can smack their lips and reminisce fondly.
The opening round called for Butte Creek's Organic Revolution Imperial IPA (Chico) paired with crudite (I called a plate of veggies crudite), hummus, and three cheeses: raw, 16-month aged “San Juaquin Gold,” smoked gouda, and an awesome and stylish cheddar Irish porter, which I didn’t bust out my lone bottle of Anchor Porter, mainly because I was so digging the Imperial India Pale Ale, and that's not really like me. Everyone agreed it was a winner to wake up our taste buds.

Second bottle to be uncapped was MateVeza's Yerba Mate Ale (Chico) And to complete the Chico trifecta, I poured what Jesse called the farthest local beer possible: Sierra Nevada’s Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale. (But now how will the Kiwis hop their brews?)

For K’ro’s creation, she concocted a broccoli-riccota-chive dip (with beer) and we fashioned a recipe for sundried tomato, pimento-stuffed olives (and beer) bread into a thick crust for something akin to pizza using fresh mozzerela, roasted chicken, and a bottle of bbq sauce that we pilfered yesterday (scroll down for previous post!).

Jesse & Eliana arrived toting the pieces de resistance (or as Gavin is fond of saying, amuse bouche). Our intrepid homebrewer flaunted his bottle-conditioned Belgian Triple with Vanilla Bean, which astoundingly complemented the alumna of the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) Eli’s empenadas. Two kinds: lentil veggie and North African spiced lamb. When it comes to beer and nosh, they rocked the Casbah.

Richard, who I think wasn’t quite prepared for the depth of a beer dinner, brought a cheese pizza pie and his conversational reparte, such as his analysis about his current reading selection, God Against the Gods.
I then busted out a bomber I guess I picked up down in Banana Slug country: Santa Cruz Ale Works’ Hefeweizen. Not exactly a show stopper/dinner topper. So sue me.

Lora, one of my oldest friends who is out visiting from NYC, is scratching and clawing and julienning her way into the culinary world. I won’t even get into all the tasty vittels she made in my “test kitchen,” but will simply say this for her offering: Chocolate bread pudding with a Pyramid Apricot Ale reduction topped with farm-fresh raspberries. Pouring: Chocolate Stout from Bison Brewing (Berkeley, ergo organic). Delicioso. (Lora’s special friend Dan poured the last of the Belgian Triple and along with it, the vanilla bean. Unlike the worm, it’s not recommended drinking.)

Two last libations were brought out: Eli’s homemade apple (and pear) cider and El Toro’s Oatmeal Stout that, were it not for the fact that it’s from Morgan Hill and pretty tasty, is hardly worth mentioning after that cider.

Now I need to figure out the theme for the next beer dinner; fortunately this feast should last me until then.

Inaugural beer dinner: Stoutstanding!

Ages ago, when I was still in the early stages of "researching" my book, I dreamt of hosting some sort of beer tasting event. A few nights ago, I began what will hopefully become a tradition. Pairing beer with food--all the rage. From restaurants such as Monk's Kettle to books such as He Said Beer, She Said Wine to my very own b-day dinner with the notorious Beer Chef (oh, just scroll down a post), everyone's doin' it. I asked chef Bruce Patton if, instead of doing a beer dinner focused on just one brewery, if he'd ever thought of doing it with just one style of beer, it took him practically no time to reject that idea. Wouldn't work. I'm no Thomas Keller, no Garret Oliver, but I did have an overabundance of stouts in my fridge and figured an all-stout dinner was just the trick to lighten, if you catch my drift, my fridge. And in doing so, five friends and I agree that the Beer Chef doesn't get the final word on the matter.

The evite called for Sunday, 7 p.m. So K'ro and I hit a schmancy Berkeley grocery store on Saturday, which is when I started making my award-winning* 24-hour chili. (*For reals. At the Kenpo Not- so- annual Chili Cook- off.) Thick bacon, 5 lbs. of chuck beef (cubed), and a bottle of Indian Wells Brewing's Piute Stout (unless you live in the Mojave Desert, you are unlikely to find their beers. It was an old bottle, so I was afraid to serve it, but not too afraid to take a few swallows).

Seven p.m. rolled around and Jen, Gavin, Mara, Matt, and K'ro were all poured a beer of their choice as the only non-stout of the evening. I'll add that Matt had to sacrifice some of his Rogue Smoked Ale to the root veggie surprise, which made both an excellent side dish and chili topping.

To truly kick things off, Jen prepared three dips/spreads (a creamy smoked trout with horseradish, a savory tomato- onion

chutney, and a sweet cranberry- orange- fennel chutney) with a hearty German brown bread, and a plate of 3x cream brie, a smoked German cheese, and sliced stonefruit. Paired with Terminator Stout procured from a recent stay at the McMenamin’s Kennedy School in Portland, followed by Organic Devout Stout from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing., which I picked up after a half marathon down there.

For the main course, I first paired the chili with El Toro’s Imperial Stout. Though my chili didn’t have the heat I wanted it to (Gavin’s British and I didn’t know if his taste buds could handle it), I also cracked open Dick’s Oatmeal Stout. I happened upon this at the Bier Stein, a great deli and bottle shop in Eugene, Ore.

Finally, for dessert, I had a rare opportunity (or motivation) to bust out my crème brulee torch, which my sister regifted to me years ago. I figured, if I could think of it, someone’s already done it AND put it on the Interweb. Hence, I wound up making a chocolate “crème brew-lee” using Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, which was complemented by Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout.

Number of stouts used/drank: 7
Number of diners who thought the all-stout dinner went a'ight: 6

So, whether I pick a single style, brewery, or perhaps country to feature next time, at least I know I finally have my beer tasting tradition I’ve always wanted.