There is still room and time to sign up for the Malty Beers event of the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club. This is the first of three events that will focus on the flavor contributions of individual beer ingredients. This month the ingredient is Malt. We’ll be tasting malty beers from Munich Lagers to Scottish Ales to Bocks, Porters, and maybe even a specialty beer or two…or three.
So which beverage pairs better with food, beer or wine? Dogfish head owner and brewer Sam Calagione and sommelier Marnie Old have been testing this question with beer vs. wine dinners across the country. In these dinners, a beer and a wine are paired with each course of the meal and diners are asked to vote for the beverage that they feel was the better pairing. According to their recent book He Said Beer She Said Wine, the answer is not quite as obvious as wine drinkers might believe or as clear cut as beer drinkers might desire.
He Said Beer She Said Wine is a decent primer on food pairing for either beer or wine. It begins with chapters giving the basics for each beverage, including ingredients, production process, and the flavor characteristics of major styles/varietals. Each writer then ties these things back to food pairing. For instance, Old writes about the source of and sensory perception of acidity in wine. She then goes on to explain how that acidity interacts with salt in foods to smooth out and enhance the flavors of each. Calagione describes the bittering effect and flavors of hops and explains why hoppy beer is a good match for rich fatty foods. Both Old and Calagione do a good job of outlining the basics of beer and wine tasting and providing some general guidelines for food pairing.
From the basics the book moves on to chapters dealing with different foods. There is a chapter for cheese, 
fruit, vegetables, shellfish, fish, poultry, meat, fruit deserts, and other deserts. Each chapter includes a section illuminating why the characteristics of wine or beer make each the perfect match for a given food group. Again, each writer does a reasonably good job of explaining the relative strengths and weaknesses of their chosen beverage as it relates to each type of food. Old sings the praises of white wine with fish, while being forced to admit that spicy foods are a tough match for most wines. Calagione trumpets the beauty of a variety of beers with meat, while conceding the difficulty of dealing with some vegetable treatments. Each chapter ends with a selection of dishes and a specific beer or wine pairing suggestion for each.
The final chapter is a guide for staging your own beer vs wine event at home. It includes common sense tips, recipes, and pairing suggestions.
The whole book is couched in the language of the beer vs wine challenge. While I love a good competition and can talk trash with the best of them, this was the part of the book that I found annoying. Each individual food section ends with a back-and-forth between the writers in which they supposedly made the arguments for their libation directly to one another. While this was sometimes witty, in most cases there was little of substance here. After a couple of chapters I was tempted to skip over these pages and move on to the meaty stuff. Despite this, He Said Beer She Said Wine is a good read for anyone interested in learning more about pairing beer with food.
So which beverage does pair better? Calagione and Old report that the results at their events have always been close. The winner usually edges out the loser by only one course and the overall tally is even.
Saint Somewhere Brewing
Tarpon Springs, Florida
Style: Saison
Serving Style: 750 ml Bottle
Aroma: Loads of fruit and perfumy spice. Pears. Bready malt.
Appearance: Crystal clear and deep golden in color. Second glass was cloudy from yeast in the bottle. Mousse-like white foam that lasted a long time.
Flavor: Pear, apple and strawberries. Light bready malt. Perfume spice flavors, coriander and star anise. Sweet with a dry, peppery finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium-light body with effervescent carbonation.
Overall Impression: This is a great Belgian style Saison. The fruit flavors are intense and are supported by a subdued but rich bready malt. Complex and refreshing.
Prior to moving to the Twin Cities I lived in Chicago. I still make regular trips down and even spend two-months a year here doing theatre work. Even with all this time in the Windy City, I had never made it to the Map Room, a great beer bar on the North Side. Last night, having finished work early, I decided to remedy this situation. I’m glad I did.
When I arrived, the place was packed. It turns out that Tuesday is “International Night.” With a two drink minimum you can partake of the free international buffet, which last night consisted of a so-so selection of Persian dishes like shawarma and stewed eggplant with pita and rice from Noon-O-Kebab. It was nothing to get excited about, but it was free. I used to live around the corner from Noon-O-Kebab and know that they have great food. I think I must have gotten my buffet plate after it had been sitting for a while.
Once the buffet crowd left, the place opened up a bit and a more serious beer crowd took over. It’s nice to look down a bar and see everyone seated there with a glass of great beer in front of them. By complete chance, I happened to pull up a stool at the bar next to the owner. He told me that Tuesday is not the best night to come as there tends to be a lot of people who just come to slam their two beers and eat the free food. I have to agree that it was better after this crowd cleared out. Another treat for me in this visit was meeting manager Jay Jankowski, another Certified Cicerone. We had taken the test in Chicago on the same day and were the only two people from our testing group to pass. There are very few of us at this point, so it is nice to have the opportunity to meet and talk beer.
The beer list at the Map room is fantastic. They offer over 200 unique brands with 26 taps, cask offerings on hand pump, and a bottle list that never ends. They always use the correct glassware and I was impressed to see that they have a device to rinse the glass with cold water before pouring. It’s a nice touch. They have a wide selection of beers that are not available in Minnesota, so that is where I headed. I started with Well’s Bombardier, a light English bitter loaded with toffee and caramel malt backed with a light earthy bitterness. I have seen this beer in bottles at the Four Firkins, but I have never seen it draft in the Twin Cities. Next was a Christmas ale from DeKoninck. I had only last week had the DeKoninck Belgian Pale Ale for the first time. The Christmas ale is basically a lightly spiced version of the original. While this was tasty, I think I prefer the original. The spices seemed to cover up some of the nice bready malt and fruity character that I enjoyed in that beer.
From there I went for the Alpha King pale ale from Three Floyds in Munster, Indiana. First let me reveal a bias that I have about Three Floyds. Like Surly, I find that Three Floyds has a reputation that is out of line with the actual beers that they produce. This is not to say that either brewery makes bad beer. In fact, they make very good beer. It’s just to say that there is an excessive level of hype surrounding their beers. I mean, it’s just beer. That said, I found Alpha King to be too over-the-top grapefruit hops for my taste. I like balance in a beer and I really wasn’t getting nearly enough malt from this beer to support the extreme level of citrus hop flavor.
Finally, I took some Cicerone advice from Jankowski and had a Red Eye porter from Two Brothers. This was my favorite beer of the night. A strong Baltic style porter brewed with coffee, this was a full bodied brew with tons of chocolate, coffee, and roasted malt character. The Two Brothers beers are available in the Twin Cities. If you see a bottle of Red Eye I recommend picking it up.
I am currently in Chicago working on a theatre project at a halfway house on the Westside. While here I am staying at a priory. For those not familiar with what a priory is, think convent for priests. In past years working on this same project, I have stayed in an actual convent. I have to say, the priests have it better than the nuns. While being shown around the place it was pointed out to me that the refrigerator in the TV room is normally stocked with beer, although tonight it seems to be sadly lacking. I may have to remedy this. The refrigerator in the second floor common room, a quite well appointed room I might add, did have a couple of cans of Busch. Seeing as the Prior invited me to make myself at home, I had to avail myself.
I grew up in St. Louis. The Anheuser-Busch brewery tour was a frequently visited local attraction during my years at college. While I do still enjoy a Budweiser on occasion, I had not had the pleasure of indulging in a can of Busch in many a year. According to the Anheuser-Busch website, “the brand is the country’s largest-selling subpremium-priced beer in all major demographics.” So…in keeping with the spirit of of cheap beer night, here are my tasting notes.
Anheuser-Busch
Style: American Lager
Serving Style: 12 oz Can
Aroma: Very light sweet malt and sulfur. Pronounced green apple.
Appearance: Pale yellow. Brilliantly clear. Small white head that collapsed almost immediately.
Flavor: Tart green apple and lime dominate. Fairly sweet with little other malt character. Low bitterness and no noticeable hop flavor. Finish is watery with some lingering apple tartness.
Mouthfeel: Light body. High carbonation. Not much else.
Overall Impression: There are no off flavors as green apple acetaldehyde is acceptable for the style. This beer is very clean, but like many of the beers from cheap beer night, this seems a little sugary sweet. Green apple tartness balances this to some degree. Would be refreshing outdoors on a hot summer day, but there really isn’t much here.