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More Adventures with Beer and Food Posted: Thursday, June 28, 2007
For starters, we enjoyed Béchamel grilled cheese and jalapeño poppers with Lagunitas India Pale Ale from the Lagunitas Brewing Co. in Petaluma, California. Extremely hoppy, with lots of pine and citrus notes, the IPA cut through the spiciness of the jalapeños, while the grilled cheese reduced a lot of the overpowering hops.
Seared black bass with strawberry salad and white balsamic gastrique paired with a new Belgian-style beer from the Brooklyn Brewery called Local 1.
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Next came chilled Kumamoto oysters, prepared with Hitachino, a rice-based ale, and sansho pepper, and paired with Blue Moon, a Belgian-style white ale. The oysters could not have been better. The beer was light and crisp, with hints of coriander and orange, and that worked in harmony with the oysters without overpowering them or producing any funky fish notes.
Entrées followed, beginning with black pepper pork belly made with chili jam and stout. It was paired with Hex Nut Brown Ale from the Goose Island Beer Co. in Chicago, which was full of caramel and chocolate flavors and worked perfectly with the dish. The bitterness of the ale helped to cut through the fattiness. Next came seared black bass with strawberry salad and white balsamic gastrique paired with a new Belgian-style beer from the Brooklyn Brewery called Local 1. The beer is dry, high in alcohol (9 percent ABV) and bottle conditioned, and complements seafood beautifully. The carbonation acted as a wonderful palate cleanser, which can be necessary with any seafood dish, while the aromatics and alcohol content provided balance. It was also fruity enough to handle the strawberries. The final entrée was chorizo and squid poached in pilsner beer and served with tomatoes and micro herbs. The dish was paired with the original pilsner: Pilsner Urquell. Its bitter hops diffused much of the acidity from the tomatoes, while its bread and malt character and floral aromas refreshed the palate of some of the dish's spiciness.
The last dish, naturally, was dessert: panna cotta made with low-alcohol ginger brew and paired with Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout. The match was amazing. The roasted coffee flavors of the stout contrasted beautifully with the sweetness of panna cotta, while the sweet caramel and chocolate notes worked in harmony and weren't cloying in any way.
In the end, the pairings were fantastic, but begged the question: why has the concept of food and beer suddenly become the foremost topic in the beer industry at the moment? Oliver offers an excellent answer.
Panna cotta made with low-alcohol ginger brew and paired with Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout.
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As he sees it, today's beer drinker is very similar to a wine connoisseur or a cigar lover. Not only is he educating himself about beer and the brewing process, he is actively seeking out different styles and flavor profiles and pursuing the endless possibilities of pairing beer with food. Instead of the meat-and-potatoes mind-set that followed Prohibition and lasted into the 1980s, beer drinkers now want quality craftsmanship; they want choices and new experiences. Why eat Wonder Bread your whole life, Oliver asks, when so many other fabulous breads exist? Today, there are more than 1,400 breweries in the United States alone and, while the growth of premium beers from big domestic brewers has stagnated in recent years, craft beers and imports have seen double-digit increases.
"It's an exciting time to be a beer drinker in the United States," says Oliver, recalling the golden age of American beer brewing when, in the early part of the twentieth century, thousands of breweries dotted the American landscape. "People are realizing that it's weird to have only one type of beer and so are rediscovering beer culture. It's the new affordable luxury."
And one that more and more people are finding does just as well with food as wine does.
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