Spring, Chili Beers, and the Grill

 I decided to take a little time away from writing the last month or so. First, I was in a funk from my Broncos getting absolutely annihilated in the Super Bowl. That coupled with the never ending winter here in Ohio left me a little bare on the inspiration front. I am now refreshed, over THAT game, and looking forward to posting a bunch more now that spring is more or less here. That means for me, more grilling time, and it’s time to get the garden up and running. I am not as enthralled with the beers of summer as some folks are, and they are just starting to slowly be released so we’ll save that for a post in the next month or so, but I have been paying some attention to the pulse of the beer world, and I have been playing around with food in my away time which should't shock anyone at all.So let's dive in.

Right now, there are some trends with beer that have been taking shape over the last year (or a little longer) that seem to have gained popularity among brewers and those of us who drink beers are taking a liking to. Much like a few years ago when the rage “trend” was the bourbon barrel aged blah-blah fill in the blank beer style; we now have a couple right now that I tend to prefer over that. After all beer was originally barrel aged, not necessarily in a craft whiskey cask or a wine barrel but you get the picture. It still is fairly popular and I do enjoy some, but I think that it’s almost a solely marketing tool and it’s been played out to the fullest. Christ, Miller has a bourbon flavored beer.  The trend that I am most interested in, that has got legs currently is the addition of chilies to beer. Sure it’s been around, we have all seen that shit lager with the chili pepper in it, but we are talking about something that has had a little more thought put into it. Contrary to what some may think I like this one. For the record I am not a don’t-put-things- in-my-beer-jerk-ass. The jerk-asses mentioned often pledge their allegiance to The Reinheitsgebot it is the German beer purity law (which has changed a little over time). Look it up for the full details on it but it basically has only a handful of ingredients that are allowed by law to make beer: water, hops, malted barley. You get the picture. I get some of the sentiment for this, putting corn or rice as the main grain on the bill to cheapen it, but other things can be done to beer that can be experimental and interesting. So up hold the “law” and miss out. Your ignorance and unwillingness to try new stuff means more for the rest of the sane people on the planet. Rant is over, let’s continue.

It seems that Ancho Chilies are the popular choice as far as what chilies are being used, which makes sense. They are ripened and dried poblano chilies that have a smoky, spicy, fruity flavor. They hit 3 distinct flavor notes which add 3 elements to a beer. I am assuming this is why it’s a great addition to a beer. 3 distinctive notes as opposed to one. This brings me to the next part, as a chef what can I do with this? What can I pair it up with? There are quite a few ways to go beyond the obvious Latin cuisines that the chili is used in. That brings us to the grill. These go great with grilled meats and poultry, I wouldn’t go the seafood route as they may be a little heavy for that; unless you want to experiment with some in a ceviche, or you could use it with a heavy oily fish like salmon or mackerel but I don’t think they are the best flavor combos for that but it could be worth a try. I am going to go out on a limb and say that pork would be the best vehicle to use one of these beers for part of a marinade. The other thing to look at will be what the original beer style is, Ommegang’s Fire and Blood is a Belgian style so it’s going to have different flavors than say the Rogue Farms Chipotle which is an amber with Chipotle. Most will work but weird things happen. As I said earlier my gears get turning when I see or try a beer about pairings and cooking, so I will be experimenting in the coming weeks with this and I will post any and all victories or failures on my Facebook page along with a recipe when we get one that is good. There will be a bunch more content upcoming including some  things I have wanted to try, and have been working on for a while that just aren't quite ready, and as always I'll be trying and seeking out beers and letting you know my feelings.  Also I will be doing something that I have wanted to test out for a while and that is a series of beer can chicken experiments, that will be this summer and it should be pretty cool if you like to grill and experiment, we'll do them together and at worst have chicken and beers!

Super Bowl party time!

 As many of you know I am probably one of the biggest pro football fans on the planet. So this week is the week of the 48^th annual Championship Game of the National Football League (I will not call it the “big game”) or The Super Bowl.

There I said the taboo name for the game, we can now move on. Being a hardcore fan, to me, this is the Christmas, New Year’s Eve, (name your favorite holiday) of my year. 90% of it is the game, but I love the party portion of it as well. Seeing that my Denver Broncos are in it this year it’s even more special to me (I like the Broncos to win 27-20 so if you read this after the game you can laugh or be impressed).  Food and beer take the center stage at almost every party, so why would you even contemplate drinking the official shit beer of the Super Bowl and serve the officially sponsored premade crap food for it? It’s a holiday, and it’s a party would you give people crappy pizza and reheated wings from a chain for a dinner party? Hell No. So why do it for the Super Bowl? So where do we go with the food you may ask?? Make it yourself. Homemade is the way to go, and if you are inept in the kitchen go to LOCAL restaurants, delis, or BBQ joints, to get your eats. I am going to help you out with a couple of Ideas here for the party as a whole.

First thing I do is figure out the beer, big shocker I know. All of the party type food for this event goes great with beer, and all types of it. Since I am a big cheese ball, I like to get beers from the cities or states of the teams in the game. So this current version is Denver and Seattle. Great year to give this a try. There are a ton of breweries from these 2 cities.  Here are a few that are readily available in most areas. Denver/Colorado (Coors and Blue Moon are not craft beers so don’t go there) has Oskar Blues, New Belgium, Great Divide to name a couple, Seattle/Washington you have Pyramid, Elysian, Red Hook there are a ton more in these cities and states. When your guests choose a beer they also are making a choice for the game as well. Like I said cheesy but fun. If that’s too cheesy get some local brews for the game or a couple growlers just none of that crap they are advertising during the game. Now for the food.

 Menu wise minus the chips and dips and whatever snack foods that you pick there are a lot of choices. In the cold weather nothing beats some good chili in my book. I am not going to throw a recipe out there mostly  because everyone has one, whether it’s a traditional beef, or a turkey, or a vegetarian, they always work just have some stuff to throw on it like cheese or sour cream and other fun stuff. Let’s focus on another big part of this game’s food the sandwich. Time to go big or go home! I like to do it different as well. There are about a thousand different ways to go here. Like Peyton Manning I am calling an audible at the line. Instead of a standard big cold cut sandwich try something like a Banh Mi or a giant Cuban sandwich. If you don’t cook or don’t want to, get some pulled pork or BBQ beef from a local BBQ joint, a loaf of good French bread some cheddar and make a giant BBQ sandwich. As for the other two I mentioned let’s go over construction.

The Banh Mi is a tasty and not so well known sandwich from Vietnam. For this you will need to do a little prep. I like doing a grilled chicken one but you can do it with pork or even with tofu or tempeh if you don’t eat meat. Since I am carnivorous let’s do the chicken one. Once again we are making this a big sandwich, so get a loaf of good French bread to start. You are going to need a pound of boneless chicken thighs that need to be marinated for a couple of hours or overnight. Recipe will be below. Now traditionally there are pickled carrots and Daikon radish, but I construct a simple slaw of sorts with carrots, red bell peppers, and some Napa cabbage. So the chicken is ready to go, guess what we are firing up the grill. Outside. In February. Why fear the cold and snow? Just because it’s not sunny and 75 doesn’t mean you need to stop grilling. So to the construction of this masterpiece. This is all about the layers. Cut the French bread so it’s opened up. This calls for a mayo but put it on the side, some people hate it, some bathe in it, so leave it up to them. First cut up the thighs and lay them down. Next a layer of sliced cucumbers, then your slaw, then some fresh cilantro and some sliced Jalapeños for some heat. Fold the bread up and cut it into chunks, however big or small you want to.

Banh Mi Marinade                                                                          Carrot slaw

¼ cup soy sauce                                                                                1 carrot julienned

½ of a lime juiced                                                             1 red pepper julienned

¼ cup cider vinegar                                                         1 green onion

2 cloves of garlic                                                               1 Cup of shredded cabbage

1 tablespoon of 5 spice blend                                     1 tablespoon of sugar

Salt and pepper to taste                                                               ¼ cup rice wine vinegar

                                                                                                Salt and pepper to taste

 Next we do the classic Cuban with a craft beer twist. We need the oven for this one. Set it to 375. French bread is your base again. Cut the bread in half like we did before so you can open it up. You will need roughly about a pound to a pound and a half of a good ham sliced thin. Lay it out on the bread on BOTH sides then we are going to put a layer of sliced pickles. Kosher deli style ones work best. Then a good layer of Swiss cheese. Put the whole thing in the oven and bake it until the cheese is melty. Normally this sandwich is pressed but since it’s a big sandwich we’ll skip that part. Take it out and fold it together. Wait, you are saying you forgot the mustard? Nope. Here’s the twist we are doing a whole grain IPA mustard for it. You can put this in the sandwich after the toasting or put it on the side if there are mustard haters around.  Recipe is as follows:

 IPA MUSTARD

1 jar of Whole grain mustard

3 garlic cloves roasted and chopped

¼ cup of Stone Ruination or other Imperial/double IPA

So there are a few ideas for your Super Bowl party, have a good time enjoy the game, the food, the commercials, and most importantly GO BRONCOS!!!!!!

Holiday Beer Party Part 2

The food is out of the way now on to the beer! The way this party was orchestrated was to try as many holiday beers as possible and have some interaction between the guests and make it fun. The first thing that  we did to make this fun and interactive was to put the beers on the table (in a cooler, tub, or something to keep them chilled); we also put out some clear plastic cocktail glasses so we could open multiple beers similar to a beer tasting event. I came up with a simple ballot for the event as well so we could see what the general consensus was for the best and worst of the bunch. I didn’t think it was necessary to go full on beer nerd with these, we just wanted to find out which was the crowd’s favorite without all of the minutia that goes into windbag reviews like I do on Facebook. We wanted best worst and that was it, maybe a comment or two on why. So everything is all set up, now the tasting begins! My wife and I brought a growler of Buckeye Brewing Ho! Ho! Ho! Magic Dubbel and a couple of bottles of Brooklyn Double Chocolate Stout. Two of my favorites, as I previewed them the week before the party.

I loved the atmosphere that a party like this created, it was fun hearing what people were trying, what they were going for next, and going around the rooms and talking about beer. The crowd was mixed from beer novices to people that drink craft beer regularly. The mix of people made it fun for me. Mostly because I usually don’t shut up anyway; add beer, plus people who want to learn about it, people who already enjoy it, end result - I had a blast. There were a lot of agreements on good and bad, likes and dislikes, one beer was even described as tasting “fishy”. I conveyed my major annoyance with the “spiced” beers tasting like a bowl of holiday potpourri, some agreed and some felt it made the beers more Christmassy like gingerbread. When all was said and done the beers that got the top votes from the vast array of beers that we had were:

1.       Revolution- Fistmas

2.       Buckeye Brewing- Ho! Ho! Ho! Magic Dubbel

3.       Delirium Noel

4.       Julie's-  homebrewed Holiday ale(side note it was really good

and was better than the vast majority of any of the beers we had from “professionals”, I loved it)

5.       Troegs- Mad Elf

 

That is the top 5. I think it's a real good list. The one noticeablefact with this list is that the "spiced" beers that dominate the holiday beer landscape were not in the top 5. In fact the most discussed "bad" ones were. One was Southern Tier's 2XMAS, which I didn't like, but it was better than others such as Lagerheads' Winter Mischief which was often described as bad and "all I taste is spice". This makes my point somewhat valid on these holiday beers. A good well-crafted English Winter warmer like Fistmas or a Belgian style Christmas Ale like Delirium Noel are more palatable than the kitschy, insipid, waste of my fucking time emptying the spice rack beers. Here's my top 5 from The party not overall. I'll have my top 5 overall up on my Facebook page in the near future.

1.  Revolution- Fistmas

2.  Julie's-  homebrewed Holiday ale

3. North Peak- Blitzen

4. Delirium Noel

5. Buckeye Brewing- Ho! Ho! Ho! Magic Dubbel

 

The masses have spoken, people. Men, women, experienced beer people and novices alike. So stop the madness will you please. Stick to making well-crafted beers like the ones on the lists above and the 3 ghosts may not pay you a visit this year.

I just want to wrap this one up by saying thanks to Lou and Dale for hosting and creating this party, and everyone who came making this party a fun and festive evening! I hope that everyone reading this who was not there decides to give this idea a try. It doesn't necessarily have to be a Holiday beer party it could be summer beers, stouts, god forbid a pumpkin beer party, however you want to do it!

 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL !!!