A Rant On Public Beer Review sites.

Posted on February 1, 2012

This is just a break away from my normal posts to post an honest opinion….OK it’s actually a rant to be more specific, after some frustrating reading on some public beer review sites, sites like Rate Beer and Beer Advocate for example. If you do not like rants, please disregard this post all together. But, I have noticed a trend on these sites, more so than you see even in the beer blogger community which seems to be made fun of from time to time. That trend? A hardcore elitist attitude towards beer and a general bashing of any beer that is not big, bold, exuberant. Now, don’t get me wrong and jump down my throat right away, I’m not saying all of the people on these sites are that way, I would say 2 out of 5 people who post on there actually seem to understand beer and beer styles, and the reason behind them. When I read someone post a bashing review of a cream ale, then say “It’s no Pliney the Younger”, I say….well duh!

It really gets under my skin to read reviews of beers that are clearly within style, clearly brewed well, then bashed because they are not hoppy enough or big enough even when the beer is not intended to be hoppy or big. Then to read about beers that I know are just brewed to be innovative and new, and get rave reviews from these people just because they are the newest fad. Again, I am not knocking the breweries for brewing them, or people who drink them. Hell, I am one of those guys myself. But you need to take a beer for what it is and judge or review it fairly. Something it seems so many of these self-proclaimed “beer connoisseurs” lack the ability to do. Below are is a sampling of some interesting numbers I gathered from Beer Advocate and the scores for the top rated beers for these styles. See if you notice a trend.

Standard American Lager (Adjunct Lager): Highest Rated Score=84
Cream Ale: Highest Rated Score=88
Light Lager: Highest Rated Score=81
Low Alcohol Beer: Highest Rated Score=77
American Amber/Red: Highest Rate Score=87
Euro Lager (like Becks, Heineken, St. Pauly Girl, ect): Highest Rated Score=87

English Barleywine: Highest Rated Score=100
American Barleywine: Highest Rated Score=96
American IPA: Highest Rated Score=98
Belgian Dark Strong: Highest Rated Score=96
Oud Bruin: Highest Rated Score=94
Belgian Lambic: Highest Rated Score=99

Now I chose the beers categories above for one reason, one group is considered “trash” by the elitist beer snob, the other group is the biggest of the big, the boldest of the bold, or considered styles that only “those in the know” would find appealing, like the sour beers. See the difference? Do you mean to tell me the BEST CREAM ALE in the world is at best a 88 out of 100? Look at those poor low alcohol beers? Not a good one in the bunch. I find that hard to believe if you were taking a beer for what it is supposed to be, the best of that style will always be world class examples of that style. Something many of the type who frequent these websites don’t seem to understand. If you are to consider yourself a connoisseur, you need to understand and respect a beer for what it is, not what you think is worthy of your palate.

With that said, there are some bloggers out there who will call a light lager garbage, or say they suck. I just don’t buy into that mentality. Granted, they are not my go to beer styles either because they just don’t excite me, but if I am going to review one, or judge one in competition, I will take the beer for what it is supposed to be. That is how a beer review should be done, regardless of whether or not you like it, as long as you judged it according to style, that is all that matters. I am NOT saying every beer is worthy of praise and bad beers should not be called bad beers. I feel the Alstrom Brothers from Beer Advocate do a great job of that, the members of their website, not so much. I have read some great, fair, and honest reviews according to what the beer is supposed to be. I respect those people for doing so. But sadly the elitists seem to outnumber the competent ones on there. If you are offended by that statement, all I can do is apologize and say you must be part of the problem, because if you are doing a fair review for what the beer is, then you should not be offended at all. Also, I must add that I am not talking about the forums or conversations going on in there, I am talking strictly the beer reviews.

Bloggers also are not free from guilt on that matter. I have read several reviews that made me think, “What the hell were you comparing that beer to?” because I have read some reviews on some blogs that could be reviewing an English IPA for example, then according to their review list some of the attributes one would expect in an English Style IPA, like a nice malt backbone, moderate hop flavor, aroma, and bitterness and so on, then go on to say it’s one of the worst IPA’s they have ever had. It’s my opinion that you cannot compare an English IPA to an American IPA and bash it for being an English IPA. Sorry, but that’s like bashing the delicious chicken dish you ordered because you prefer steak.What really is even worse is when only beer from a certain brewery’s is considered good. That also gets me going. LOL.

In the end, my point is, not every beer is good and not every craft beer is great; but you do need to evaluate it according to what it is, not what style you prefer and every other beer that does not fit that flavor/aroma profile is a crappy beer. That’s just not fair evaluation. If you are or want to be a beer judge, you do need to let go of that mindset.

Sprecher Brewery Tour

Posted on November 23, 2011

Sprecher Brewery, Milwaukee Wisconsin

As part of my winnings from this summer’s grilling with beer competition, I received a coupon for a case of Sprecher beer and 2 tickets for a brewery tour. So Brian Lesperance and I headed down to Milwaukee this past Monday for a day to geek out on beer. We stopped at Northern Brewer in Milwaukee, then headed over to the Ale House for lunch. The Ale House was great! I enjoyed their Weekend at Louie’s beer which is their Louies Demise brewed with blueberry rooibos and Hibiscus tea. The blueberry tea came though the most for me. I also had one of their cask ales, a vanilla bean stout. Both were outstanding. Brian had the Ale Houses Monkey Paw which is a big 7% beer which we found funny that they had listed in their session beer section. He also asked for Black and Tan of their Solomon Juneau Extra Pale Ale and Sheepshead stout. After the Ale House we headed to Downer’s Wine and Spirits based off a beer advocate review of beer stores in the area, Downer’s got an A+ rating and we could see why. The store is small, but packed with one hell of a selection. But the purpose of this post is to talk about the brewery tour at Sprecher, so with that let’s get started.

Sprecher has tours Monday through Friday at 4pm, and also has tours on the weekend at 1pm, 2pm, and 3pm. The cost of the tour is $5. You do have to call ahead for reservations. They also have a gift shop that you can hit at the front end or back end of tour. They have all of their beers and soda, as well as shirts and glasses you can purchase. They also have some interesting beer food, like beer flavored chips, BBQ sauce, and candy. I should also note that children are allowed on these tours because they offer soda. So if you are the type who would like to bring your children on a brewery tour, and sample some beers while your kids drink soda, you can do that. Personally, I don’t care for that idea because I know some people that even after 5 sample sized glasses of beer, probably shouldn’t be driving even more so with kids in the car. But that’s just my opinion. You don’t have to drink the beer I guess, but that sort of is the highlight of any tour, sampling the beer after.

Sprecher Brewery Tour

So now at the start of the tour, everything seemed to start as any other tour in general. We started out in the brewing room with a very brief explanation of the brewing process. Now normally, I expect things to go into a bit more depth, than saying we mix different grains with filtered municipal water and heat it up. It makes a syrupy liquid that get’s pumped over there, then cooled and moved to our fermentors, where we mix that with different yeast and the yeast makes CO2 and of course alcohol. The beer will sit for 2 -21 weeks depending on the beer. Then he pointed to where the spent grains go. Honestly, that was the gist of the tour. No mention of hops at all, no talk about lagers or ales or where they get their grains from. No showing us the equipment or explaining how it works. You can see where the tour guide stood and he just pointed over in the direction of the equipment. Brian and I were very disappointed. All in all it was less than 5 minutes on the entire brewing process and introduction. We then breezed through by the fermentation tanks without stopping or the tour guide even telling the people what they were, what was inside, or how they lager.

Bottling Line

This is where we spent the most time on our tour. The bottling line. Brian and I had a theory that the guy who gave us our tour worked on the bottling line. We spent a disproportionate amount of time on bottling, labels, dates, and a very odd amount of time discussing neck labels. We spent more time here listening about the bottling process than we did about the brewing process. Here we heard every detail. I took a picture behind us, of all the ingredients which which we didn’t talk about where they may be used or what beers/soda the go in.

What are these for? Where do they come from? What are they used in? Are they in something going right now?

From the bottling line we went into the tasting room, which was quite nice. You got a tasting glass and 5 samples of any beer you wanted, and unlimited soda samples. Between Brian and I we sampled the Dopplebock, IPA2, Abbey Triple, Pub Brown (which is what I used in Skirt Steak Fajitas), a contract brewed IPA, and Oktoberfest. The part that also bothered us was that Brian asked our guide a few questions and we got an answer of I’ll have to go ask someone and I will get back to you. But as we sat and sampled our beer, we never saw him go ask anyone. It was clear to us that the tour is not so much a tour for the beer fanatic, but more for general public who has a mild interest in beer. Unlike the New Glarus Hard Hat Tour which was a tour that any beer lover would love to take, this brewery tour (at least the one we were on) was just a glorified sample session. We didn’t learn anything about the brewery or it’s processes, which was disappointing to us. A discussion on Facebook came up shortly after and some I did hear from another beer loving friend who lives in Milwaukee that his tours there went down the same way so we were not alone. In the end, I’d say it’s worth the $5 price for the sampling, but the tour itself is nothing to write home about.

Tasting Room

Another Great Lakes Brewfest is in the Books

Posted on September 25, 2011

Great Lakes Brewfest

This was another great year for the Great Lakes Brewfest, one of my favorite beer festivals of the year. The new venue was not what I was expecting at all, which was a plus. I was a bit apprehensive about it being at the zoo, because I was thinking we would be among the animals and who knows what could have happened when you get 4,000 people drinking some great craft beer among a bunch of caged animals. But the area was not around the cages and was a very nice open area.

I was unable to make the Friday event, but from the postings on their facebook page, that event had a great turnout and some very positive feedback. I cannot comment on this portion of the event because we did not travel down Friday and stay the extra night. You can probably place that blame on the economy.

The staging area beautiful. There was some entertainment as the monkey cage was right there. They seemed a bit confused about what all those people were doing there. I also like the castle-like entrance. All that though was small potatoes compared to the electric feel of the anticipation of the doors opening.

Waiting for the gates to open to the GLBF

One the gates opened it was a mad dash to your fist tent. If you are an experienced fest participant, it is smart of have a game plan for your first few beers. We had a game plan and that was to bypass the first few tents because like every year, those seem to be the first hit, so we made a dash for some of the back tents. This brings me to my first noticeable difference in the fest at the zoo compared to the Festival grounds. At the festival grounds, a bulk of your breweries were located in a central location. It got a bit crowded and at times hard to get into the beers you wanted. While the tent situation scattered the breweries all around the grounds, which lead to more moving about from station to station, it did open up the area and it was not as congested as it is at the Festival grounds. Each setup had it’s advantages and disadvantages I guess. I didn’t mind either way. I do have to say I had a hard time finding (and in the end never got to) the stone brewery tent which was not where it said it was on the map. I was a bit disappointed in that. But it’s not like I didn’t have other choices.

Here is a shot of the festival grounds at the zoo.

There were many great craft brewers represented at the fest, as well as a few mead and cider producers as well. A few local breweries to note were Ale Asylum, New Glarus, Aeppletreow Winery, Hinterland Brewery, Furthermore, and Titletown brewing. On the National level you had heavy hitters like Stone, Left Hand, Avery, New Belgium, Rogue, Moylens, Dogfish Head, Ommegang, and Flying dog…..just to name a few. In the end there were hundreds of beers represented, some special firken tappings, or special offerings that were tapped at specific times. You had over 90 different brewers to choose from. If you couldn’t find something you like, you were not looking. That’s for sure. A few of my personal favorites from the day were Ale Asylum’s Hopalicious, Ommegang’s Aphrodite, and Left Hand Brewing’s 400 Pound Monkey. But really when you think about it, how many great beers do you have after you’re already well on your way? LOL.

Kilties

I’m going to be honest. I was so engrossed in the beer tasting, that I didn’t even notice the band playing. From time to time I recall hearing some background music but I didn’t get to pay much attention. The area was so big, perhaps the sound just was not carrying. I did get to stop and see the Kilties perform which is a treat every year. The Kilties help sponsor the event every year.

The Food is top notch for a beer festival. Although I didn’t get to sample much, I do go right for the pig roast sandwich. It has become my favorite meal at the fest. However, inside the food tent I did see that there were crepes, roasted corn, popcorn, brats and burgers, chili fries, and beer candy. There may have been more, but that was what I saw.

If you are concerned with driving, the GLBF takes good care of you. This was the first year I took advantage of the shuttles to and from the hotel, and I have to say it was a lot of fun both on the way there, and a lot more fun on the way back. There are other services available as well, from cabs to a designated driver program. There should be no excuse for drinking and driving from the festival.

So in the end, again year after year the Great Lakes Brewfest provides an outstanding assortment of craft beers, great food, and good good solid entertainment. I can’t stress enough that if you life in Wisconsin (or even if you don’t) this event is the one to hit. I’ve been going for years, and plan to keep going for many many more. This year, I did do something a little different. I asked a couple of other Fest goers about what they thought of the fest and below are their thoughts.

Brian Lesperance

My first set of feedback is from Fest Goer, Brian Lesperance. I asked Brian the following questions.

Is this your first year at the fest? No.

Did you like the new venue, or did you prefer the Festival Park grounds? I Like the new venue it’s more open and not as maze like.

Was it easy to locate all the beers/brewery’s you wanted to try? Pretty much. But I could not find tent 19 with Stone and Lagunitas.

What did you think of the choices of brewery’s? I am always looking for new brewery’s and beers to sample and regionally undistributed beers are great to sample.

Did you attend the Friday night event? No. We come down on Friday night but we sample the local cuisine and tour the Racine area.

What was your favorite beer of the night? Four Wolves English Ale from Stonefly, Left Hand’s 400 Pound Monkey, I also enjoyed Alaskan Amber by Alaskan Brewing Co.

Did you like the Entertainment? I Didn’t care for this years band. The Kilties performance is always top notch.

Were you happy with food choices? Hell yeah! Pulled pork is awesome, as well as the usual fair of burgers and brats. The chili cheese fries were yummy.

What do you like most about the Fest? The beer of course. But the other fest goers at the GLBF are the most friendly group I’ve been around. for the most part No fights, No raging drunks and everyone is friendly and courteous!

What do you like the least of the fest? Staggered Sampling.

Will you attend next year? Yes!

I also received feedback from a first time Great Lakes Brewfest Attendee, David Taylor.

David Taylor

Was this your first year at the fest? Yes.
Did you like the new venue, or did you prefer the Festival Park grounds? I have no way to compare but I think I would prefer a more circular shape so that the path from any one brewery to any other is more 2-dimensional. But that’s just being picky.

Was it easy to locate all the beers/brewery’s you wanted to try? Yes, for the most part, although I did miss a couple that I would have loved to have seen.

What did you think of the choices of brewery’s? Excellent!

Did you attend the Friday night event? No

What was your favorite beer of the night? Does it have to be beer? I loved Aeppeltreow’s Cyser Rose the best. For beer it would be one of two of Bear Republic’s — Racer 5 IPA or the Stout.

How would you describe the atmosphere of the festival? Big and beautiful, and pretty laid back. There were a lot of lines but you didn’t hear people complaining much about them either.

Did you like the Entertainment? I didn’t pay attention.

Were you happy with food choices? Yes, it all looked very good.

What do you like most about the Fest? The selection and the outdoorsy-ness.

What do you like the least of the fest? The sheer size and the lines. Need more port-a-potties!

Will you attend next year? Honestly, probably not. It’s a great fest, but a little too huge for my personal taste. I like being able to get from point A to B in zero minutes with no lines.

I would like to thank Brian and David for their feedback on the fest. It’s always good to give the readers a different opinion other than just my own. I hope to see you next year, I already have my room reserved.

Great Lakes Brewfest Fast Approaching!

Posted on August 20, 2011

If there is one event in Wisconsin that I hit every year, it’s the Great Lakes Brew Fest (GLBF). This year is no exception. With over 250 different craft beers being offered from 100 different brewery’s, it is a craft beer lovers wet dream. I started going to the GLBF back in 2006 and have been back every year since. Attendance is limited to 4,000 people for the main fest on Saturday and limited to 2,500 on Friday. The fest has been selling out in past years so you should get your ticket soon. It’s a great time, I have never seen anyone at the fest not having fun. In past years the event was held at Festival Park in Racine, but several events this year lead to the Great lakes Brew Fest needing to change it’s location. This year it will held at The Racine Zoological Gardens, at 200 Gold Street in Racine. It will be interesting to see how this affects the festivals turnout, but I saw pictures on the GLBF website and it looks to be a beautiful location.

The Festival is a two-day event with Friday September 16th being a showcase to Wisconsin’s Craft Beer scene. The “On Wisconsin Brews” portion of the Festival will showcase over 100 of Wisconsin’s finest craft beer offerings from about 35 different brewery’s from around the state. If you would like to see a line-up of the beers being offered, I will provide a link here. This particular event runs from 6:30pm until 10:30pm. Aside from the beer there will food and live music as well. Last year I had a pulled pork sandwich which was awesome, I hope that same vendor is there this year.

Saturday is the “Full Monty” which runs from 3pm till 7pm for general admission and from 2pm-7pm for Vip ticket holders. This Saturday event is the one I make sure I hit not matter what. The most exciting part of the whole thing is the choices you have. You have all of these brewery’s to choose from (select Wisconsin or Nationwide to see the full list). From my experience, each of these stands will offer anywhere from 3 to 5 different beers to choose from and many of them them will have special tappings of their specials or seasonal beers. Generally there is a few different musical performers staged at a few different locations of the festival so Entertainment is never an issue. Sometime about mid-fest you also are treated to a performance by the Kilties Drum and Bugle Corps as well. There is a large food tent,(Again, pulled pork my friends. Pulled Pork!) with several vendors offering a wide variety of food.I should also note that there will be a prize for the best animal costume too. So if you love to dress up, this is your chance.

So, are you ready to buy a ticket yet? Ticket prices are $40 for each day of the fest, or $71 if you buy tickets to both days at the same time. VIP tickets for Saturday only will run you $85 each, or $116 if you bundle with a general admission Friday ticket too. designated driver tickets are $15 each for general admission and $25 for VIP designated driver tickets. You can purchase tickets Here.

Since drinking and driving is not the responsible way to attend a fest, I have to add that if you don’t have a designated driver ticket, you should seriously think of purchasing a shuttle ticket if you are staying at one of the hotels. For either $4 or $8 round trip, it is really worth it. You can purchase those Here.

So hopefully you can make September 16th and/or the 17th. If you can’t make this year, make a plan for next year because this fest is one you don’t want to miss!

Sprecher’s Grilling with Beer Contest 2011

Posted on August 10, 2011

The recipe poster in front of my grilling station

A week ago I posted that I was selected as one of eight finalists in the Sprecher Grilling with beer contest. The event was a great time, and I give a lot of thanks to Sprecher Brewing, Keg-a-Que, and the Beef council for sponsoring such a cool event. Anything that spreads awareness as beer as an ingredient in great cooking is A+ in my book. I am also happy to say I took a 2nd place spot in this competition with my Pub Style Skirt Steak Fajitas. I am sad to say at this time I don’t remember who took the 1st and 3rd place spots, but I promise to update this post with that information once Sprecher updates their site with the other winners. I did get a chance to sample some of the other contestants food around me and I have to say their recipes were very tasty, I can see why they were selected for the contest.

The day started at noon when I arrived to let the people at Sprecher know that I was indeed there to compete. However, since my turn-in time was 2:10 and my dish only takes approximately 45 minutes to prepare and cook, I didn’t have to start cooking until just before 1:30. At about 1:25 I start slicing my peppers and onions and turned on the grill. Once hot, it was just a matter of cooking the skirt steak to about 7 minutes a side. Normally on my charcoal grill I do about 5 minutes each side, but this grill seemed to feel a bit less intense than when I use charcoal. This worked well. I ended up pulling my steak off just shy of 1:50 and got started on the peppers and onions. Shortly after, the steak was done resting about 2pm and I sliced the steak. By the time I was done slicing the vegetables were done, and I had time to quickly grill a tortilla. I was nervous about my serving because I didn’t have time to make another or make it look pretty, so I bet I didn’t get the best score for presentation. But the meat was spot on for what I was going for and the vegetables were of good flavor and texture. Below are some pics from the event.

Here I am receiving my instructions for turn in times and so forth.

Here is the grilled skirt steak as it rests.

Here is the beer braised onions and peppers.

Here is the sliced skirt steak.

Finished product, I also quickly warmed the tortilla on the grill as well.

This is just a shot of the judges eating my entry. I'm probably the only one who likes this pic.

Called up on stage for 2nd place!!

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All three of us winners up on stage. 1st place was a rueben burger, then my skirt steak fajitas, and at third place was Farmer's Fantastic Ribeyes grilled by Shana Johnson (no relation).

For second place I received a grill, various beef shwag, a gift certificate for beef, a grilling with beer cookbook, a case of Sprecher beer, and 2 tour passes.

Sprecher Grilling With Beer Contest

Posted on August 4, 2011

This is just a quick post. I have been selected to compete in the Sprecher Grilling with Beer Competition. I will be bringing you a full account of what happened probably sometime next week. I’m pretty excited, this is the second year I have been selected. However last year I had to back out because of an obligation at work. This year, I am able to make it down. I will be grilling a pub style skirt steak with beer braised onions and peppers.

Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival Approaching

Posted on June 17, 2011

With beer festival season in full swing this summer there are a few Wisconsin festivals worth making your way to this summer. The first is the Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival on July 23rd, a date which is fast approaching. The Milwaukee Firkin is a celebration of Milwaukee brewing traditions of the Past, Present, and future. So what can you expect if you plan to attend this event? That is what this article is going to cover.

The Beer!

The beer is the most important part of any beer festival, but that should go without saying. Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival will have over 90 beers from the Milwaukee area for you to sample. The brewery lineup is quite good with some craft beer lover classics like Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee Ale House, Milwaukee Brewing Co, and Sprecher. But the lineup does not stop at those classics. Also making a showing at Firkin will be Horney Goat, St. Francis Brewery, Stonefly Brewing Company, Water Street Brewery, Rock Bottom Brewery, Buffalo Water Brewing Company, Leinenkugels, III Dachshunds Beer and Cider, Chameleon Brewing Company, Miller Valley Brewery, and Big Bay Brewing. So you can see there is quite a great representation of Milwaukee brewing tradition here as well as newer breweries that starting to make a solid mark in the craft beer world. Many of these breweries are favorites of mine. For example Milwaukee Brewing Company has their Sai Son Farmhouse Ale which I will be reviewing shortly on here. I think it is fantastic. I have also heard a rumor that there may be a special commemorative beers being served at the festival as well.

Something else that unique and exciting that the Firkin Festival is offering that you may not find at many other craft beer festival is that they are serving 10 authentic cask ales served from Firkins. People who have been to Oktoberfest may be familiar with Firkins. They are about the size of a quarter barrel and hold roughly 40 liters of cask conditioned beer. If you want to see exactly what a Firkin is, check out this link on Youtube. A huge part of the fun is tapping the Firkin. But this festival offers more than just beer.

The Music

There are two musical acts in the line-up for the fest. First is the Milwaukee blues band Reverend Raven and the Chain Smokin’ Altar Boys (Click the link for a taste of their music). There is not much better drinking music than some good old classic blues if you ask me. Reverend Raven is a well seasoned, and fairly well known blues band. I have seen them perform here locally before and they were quite good. One of the songs featured on their website is a funny blues tune called Jiggle My Junk which is a satirical look at Airport security, the scanners in particular, and wondering what Uncle Sam wants with those photos.

What Wisconsin festival would be complete without a Polka Band? Well, if you ask most Wisconsinites, the answer would be none. The Squeezettes bring polka to life like I have never seen before. I listened to some of the their music and with rock styled vocals and what they are calling Power Polka, they sort of remind me of a combination of the low rock styling of The Twinemen meets Irish folk music. Personally I am not a fan of Polka music, but this band I could really listen too. Let’s just say it’s not your Grandpa’s Polka.

Wait, there’s More?

So what else is going down at the Firkin Craft Beer Festival? There is more than just beer an music going down at the Festival. There will be a talk given by renowned Milwaukee beer historian Len Jurgensen. You will also be able to view various displays of Breweriana as well as beer exhibits put on by Discovery World and the Pabst Museum. You will also be able to find a beer kiosk on the grounds as well.

The Low Down

So the bottom line is where is this fest located, how much are tickets, and what do I have to bring? The Milwaukee Firkin Festival is located at Cathedral Square Park in Downtown Milwaukee on July 23rd from 3pm to 7pm (Unless you purchase a VIP ticket in which case the doors open at 2pm)

You have two options, you can with a regular admission ticket for $40 and get unlimited sampling of the 90+ beers on tap plus a Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival Pint Glass. You can also roll like VIP and get the unlimited sampling and pint glass, but you will also get in an hour before the general admission (no risk of missing out on your favorite beers) , a T-shirt, a chance to mingle with the brewmasters, and some crackers and cheese sampling in the VIP tent. All that for $25 more ($65). You can purchase tickets directly here.

To answer the question about what to bring, you only need to bring your love of great craft beer, a thirst for some good music, and bring an appetite. There will be local food available at the fest as well. One other thing to consider bringing is a designated driver. The Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival does off designated driver tickets for only $15. Always remember, have fun but be safe. Drinking and driving does not just endanger yourself, but everyone who shares the road with you.

This craft beer festival should prove to be a Firkin good time, and with Milwaukee’s rich brewing tradition, provide some solid craft beer choices. Prost!

How to build a Chest Freezer Kegerator, on the cheap

Posted on May 3, 2011

Most homebrewers, who are not doing so already, always want to move to kegging. I have been kegging for a few years now, but over the last year went back to bottling because I wanted to build a new kegerator, my old stand up fridge with a single tap in the front was not cutting it. I wanted to have the ability to not only expand, but also keep my a place to store my bottles. So I set out to find a cheap, or free, used chest freezer that is newer than my old unit to convert. It took a few months of searching and asking around, but months later, I got lucky. A friend of mine purchased a house and it had a chest freezer in the basement. A nice 10.5 cubic foot model. Even better yet, my friend didn’t want it, and he was giving it to me for free! So now I have a project to do, here is the way I converted this free chest freezer for around $60 (not including the taps and hoses I already have).

Step 1 is plan way ahead and be patient. In other words, the key to building a Kegerator on a tight budget is to not get all your parts in one purchase. Once you know you are going to build one, start watching for sales and scouring craigslist, ebay, ask around at your homebrew club for someone with extra equipment they may want to sell, and sign up to hear about special deals from online homebrew supply stores. Morebeer’s deal of the day is a good one to check daily. For the chest freezer, if your patient you will find a heck of deal in your area if you give it time. I know that Menards in our area sells used but working units that they remove from people’s homes. So it may be worth checking places like that as well. Chances are one will turn up in your family or among your friends soon enough. Sometimes if you offer to move it out of the house or offer up a case or two of homebrew some people will part with an older chest freezer. Worst case, you may have buy one, but do not spend over $100 for a used model. Heck, I wouldn’t spend over $45 which was my cap limit until I found one for free. The most expensive unit on my kegerator is the temperature controller, you can find these used on ebay or buy them without the plug wired and wire it yourself. A digital one will run you a bit more, but the analog one I got ran me $45+shipping.

Parts List

Used Chest Freezer
1 Tube of Caulk
1 small box of Roofing nails
2 – 1x4x8 premium boards
about 8 small L brackets
small Sheet Metal and 1 1/4″ wood screws.
6 plastic cable clips
Super Glue (For attaching the cable clips)
Then you will need a faucet, some tubing, a keg, a CO2 tank, Regulator, gas and beer disconnects, ect. (Prices vary based on used equipment prices or new, and where you purchase these. But count on at least $150 minimum for this portion of the investment)

The Process

First things first. You should block the hinges because they are spring loaded. Then, once you have them blocked to they don’t snap you in the fingers, unscrew the lid from the hinges.

If you don't block the hinges, you run a risk of some broken fingers.

Once you remove the lid. You want to use a pry bar to gently remove the gasket, while keeping the snap in buttons in tact as much as possible. If you break a few, don’t worry we have a remedy for that. You will also be removing the plastic cover if your lid has one.

Then, like in the picture below. You want to cut your wood with a miter saw and screw the wood pieces together getting them as square as possible. Then line it up with the lid. It is important to measure twice and cut once in this instance. Plan out where the collar is going to go in relation to not only the lid but also the main part of the freezer.

Cut to Fit.

Once you have it figured out, cut, and put together, you want to attach the collar to the lid (If you are wondering why I attached the collar to the lid, it’s because the extra height of the collar on the freezer would make it difficult to reach the bottom. If you prefer to attach the collar to the bottom of the freezer, that is your choice. It will be easier to put together, but harder to reach the bottom on large freezers). To do this I used small L brackets. When possible I drilled directly into the lid to fasten the collar, where it was not, I placed the L bracket below the sheet metal and attached the part to the wood. I also used caulk around the edge to help create a seal and to act as an adhesive. See below 2 pictures.

Here it is attached directly to the lid with sheet metal bolts.

Here is the shot of how I used the L bracket to hook under the sheet metal of the lid to hold the lid in place.

Now that the collar is firmly attached to the lid. It’s time to put on the gasket and plastic cover. To do this I placed the plastic cover on the collar. This plastic cover on my model had the holes for putting back in the plastic buttons. So I used that as a template then drilled small holes to fit the button prongs in the place of the holes. That way I could snap the buttons into the holes, and use a bit of caulk adhesive to help reinforce the hold. I also used caulk between the plastic and the collar as well as the gasket and plastic. It worked out pretty well. See below for pictures.

Lining it up

Attaching the gasket.

Snap the plastic buttons into the holes you drilled.

Remember when I told you if you break a few, I have a fix for you? I had a small box of left over roofing nails and used those to nail the gasket into place where the buttons were missing. Just remember how many you broke and don't drill holes for those spots.

Now we are in the home stretch. Figure out where you are going to put your taps. In my case, I was not going to use the whole freezer for taps, but just 2 for now and up to 4 later. The rest of the space if for bottle storage. So I cut a space in the plastic for access to 2 taps.

Space for taps. However this picture was taken after I already had one beer in and tapped, but you get the idea.

I used some plastic cable clamps to hold my hoses. Having the collar on top and the taps to lift when you open your lid would leave hoses in the way. So I used the clamps to manage the hoses. EDIT: Although I forgot to mention it here, don’t forget to install your temperature controller. I attached mine to outside on the collar, on the rear corner. I then took the probe and placed it in a bottle of water. You can see it in the second picture below in the corner on the compressor hump. That ensures that your beer will be at the temperature you are setting the controller at and reduce the cycles of the freezer, or so I have been lead to believe.

Hoses kept out of the way as they are now attached to the lid as it opens.

Inside the Kegerator, I know it's a mess. But it's a beautiful mess.

All that’s left is to add any accessories you have purchased and/or clean and paint the kegerator. I chose to repaint it since the one I got was a bit dingy on the outside. Here is the completed kegerator from the outside.

The finished product.I probably shouldn't have gone with all white, but oh well. The black on the edge is caulk board paint we had left over from another project. That will work well for writing what is on tap there.

Cleaning your Faucets

Posted on April 18, 2011

We all know to clean and sanitize our tap lines, we know to clean and sanitize our kegs, and we even know to run beer line cleaner and sanitizer through our faucets. But how many of us clean our faucets? I mean really take them apart and clean them? I’m sure many do and some don’t, some probably don’t know you can take these faucets apart. I like to take mine apart from time to time and really inspect the gaskets and clean off any grim that may have built up that the beer line cleaner and sanitizer may not hit that well. I will quickly show you how to take apart a basic faucet for cleaning.

Your basic run of the mill faucet.

First you want to remove the top portion of the faucet, right below where the tap handle is attached to.

Remove this part of the faucet. You may need a pliers, but you can usually do this with just your fingers.

Next, simply pull out the stem that the tap handle attached to.

Pull out the stem that the tap handle attaches to

Pull out the stem that the tap handle attached to

Now last, pull out the assembly inside the faucet from the back.

Pull out internal assembly

There you have it. That is all you need to do in order to take apart your faucet to inspect the gaskets and O-rings as well as clean off the internal components. If you paid attention to what it looked like when you took it apart, you will notice that the only part you really have to pay attention to when putting it back together is the slot in the internal part that hooks into the stem that the tap handle attached to . All you have to do it line up the slot with the flat part on the stem and screw on the top part. Your good. It’s that simple.

To clean them, I like to give them a quick soak in beer line cleaner then just wipe them off with a clean rag. Then rinse and pat dry. To clean inside the faucet I use a large q-tip and scrub out the inside. Then prior to reattaching it to the kegerator, I sanitize it. Then run sanitizer through the lines before tapping my beer. Overkill? Maybe or maybe not. But it’s better than infecting your beer once it’s tapped by having dirty kegging equipment.

Making Beersmith Portable

Posted on April 3, 2011

Portable apps is a convenient way to carry some basic applications along with you on a flash drive. I wanted to be able to carry my brewing software with me between computers and not have to reinstall it and transfer my data between my main computer and laptop. Portable apps seemed like the answer, but there was no official portable version of Beersmith or Beer Tools Pro, which is the software I own (if you are interested in a comparison between the three major brewing software brands, check out my review of all three here. Part 1 and Part 2). As it turns out, creating a portable version of Beersmith is as easy as just copying your entire Beersmith folder from your hard drive to your flash drive. But I’ll show you all an easy way to get it on a portable app drive. I will just do Beersmith on this tutorial because Brad from Beersmith says how to do this on the official Beersmith site. The same can be done with other brewing software you own with a few minor tweaks, but the legality of it would be in question because of licensing agreements. The reason I choose Beersmith like I said is because Brad has it posted on Beersmith.com. Plus, it is the easiest to make portable, you don’t need to make any adjustments. Please note this does not work in Beersmith 2.0.

What you will need:

1 licensed copy of Beersmith (again, this does not work with version 2 of Beersmith)
1 flash drive (I would go with a 1 gigabyte or better drive)
An Internet connection

Your first step to create a nice interface to use. You don’t have to do this, you could just copy and past your Beersmith folder into the flash drive and be done with it, but this easy step will make things a bit easier to access, plus you can add other useful programs to it. To get this interface, go to portableapps.com and download the Portable Apps Platform. Once Downloaded, run the install and point to your flash drive as the place to install the program to. Once it is installed, navigate to the flash drive. It should look similar to the image below.

Now find your Beersmith folder on your C drive. Most of the time it will be in C:>Program File (or Programs)>Beersmith. Now copy the entire Beersmith folder. Then open the folder on your flash Drive called “Portable Apps” and paste (or drag and drop your Beersmith folder) in here.

This is the folder you want to either Install Beersmith to, drag and drop your Beersmith folder to from your Hard Drive, or copy and paste to.

Now, you can either click the “Start Portable Apps” Icon, or just pull out and insert your flash drive and it should appear as the shown below. Alternatively, you could just install Beersmith into your Portable Apps folder then register it from there, But by dragging and dropping the folder, all of your settings and past recipes should remain. Again, this needs to be a purchased and licensed copy of Beersmith for this to work.

Now you have a portable copy of Beersmith without having to install on multiple machines.

Now you can have your licensed copy of Beersmith on a portable drive that you can take with you on your laptop and insert into your main PC. You can also take this drive with you to your friends house if you are going to be doing a brew there, or take it with you to club meetings to collaborate with your Homebrew Club members. You can also easily make a backup copy on another flash drive in case one gets lost or damaged. There are a lot of advantages to having your Beersmith program portable, but it’s up to you on the reasons why. I do want to stress that it is important to only use this portable copy yourself. If you don’t, you are not only breaking the license agreement but also steeling from someone who put a lot of work into the development of this program. Beersmith is only $21.95 so there is no reason to not purchase it, especially if you make it portable.

The Ultimate Hophead treat……Hop Extract from Vodka (Lupulin Extraction)

Posted on March 6, 2011

Making a hop martini is one of the many things you can do with elixir!

Calling all hopheads out there! Have you ever craved the Ultimate hophead experience? Well, I have it here for you. I have made a hop infused vodka with my homegrown glacier hops that you can spruce up almost anything to fit your hophead needs….even a full on hop martini. The process is simple, and the possibilities are endless.

The process is very simple, you just take hops and place them in a vessel, say a mason jar. Then fill it 1/2 full (or more. I did about 3/4 full) then let it sit for 4 days or more (I did four days). The hops will absorb some vodka, so you may need to add vodka throughout the process if you used a lot of hops. What I also did, was every day I gently shook the jar to help bring out more hop goodness. I don’t have any scientific evidence on if it dissolves more lupulin, but hey, it worked for me. What you see in the picture was 4 days of infusing glacier hops in the Vodka. From there, I strained off the vodka and placed the hops in a strainer. I gently squeezed the hops to extract more liquid, but I did not wring them out. I wanted mostly lupulin and not so much of the leafy matter that I would get if I abused the cones too much. I took it to my homebrew club for evaluation, and we all agree, there is a ton of hop flavor and aroma dissolved in that Vodka. For me, the first two swallows are bit harsh, but after that, its smooth sailing.

Some will say the type of vodka you choose really doesn’t make a difference, but I disagree. If you use a cheap vodka that you have to mix with something to taste good, you probably will still end up with vodka infusion you really are not happy with. My favorite vodka by far is Tito’s Handmade Vodka. It is relatively inexpensive ($16.95 for 750ml here where I live), fairly easy to find, and is a top-notch vodka you can easily drink straight. To me, it’s the perfect vodka for this task. But you can use whatever you want.

So what can you do with it? Well, obviously you can have a hoptini of any type, you can use this either straight like I did or find something sweet to mix it with. You could serve some hop shots with this for some hophead fun. But you can also use this to hop flavor to marinades, or other aspects of cooking. You can also make small batches to test the characteristics of different hops compared to each other. This would be an excellent tool for training your palate for judging. The last think I am going to mention is adding hop character to an underhopped beer. Let’s say you brewed a beer that just seems a bit bland to you. You can add this homemade hop extract to not only add a bit of bitterness, but mostly hop flavor and aroma to your brew. I have tested this with beer poured into a glass and adding a small amount of this hop extract to it. It works. I don’t know exactly how to measure up for a 5 gallon batch, but it could be done. The amount of alcohol you are adding is minimal. You have to think that Vodka is only 40% abv, so just under half of whatever you add is contributing to the alcohol content of the brew.

Mmmmm, hops.

Beer and Food Pairing by Beer Style

Posted on February 27, 2011

Hello, It’s finally done!! It has taken me a lot longer to put this list together than I thought it would. What I did to shorten the time is take the BJCP guidelines, eliminate all the style info except the commercial examples, and then go through all the styles and add the general foods that pair well with that beer style. It sounded easy when I started, but took about 10x as long as I thought it would. Anyway, I have created it in PDF format and will make it available for download for whomever wants it. Just keep in mind that this is not the be all and end all list for food and beer pairing. It is near impossible to list every dish and every variation of dish, on top of that every variation of a beer style. But this list will get you in the general territory you may want to be in if you want to pair food with a specific type of beer style. But remember, in the end, it always falls down to your personal preference and your own creative ideas on what to pair. Enjoy!

Beer and Food Pairing by Beer Style Download. (you can download this document by clicking the “File” tab in the upper left corner in the Google Docs section then selecting “download original”. )

A Great Beer Sauce you can Make for Christmas gifts!

Posted on December 20, 2010

If you are like me, you probably like to toss in some homebrew to your gift pool around Christmas time. This year I am aiming to try something different. Introduce people to cooking with the beer. So earlier this season I found two good sauces made with beer, but I tweaked them to make them a bit better (at least according to my taste). This year I am giving out some of this sauce to people as Christmas gifts. It’s also a great crunch-time last-minute, easy to make, home-made gift for those who have everything. I am including only one of the sauces because the other is only good for a few days, it does not make for a great gift idea. But I will post it later under a regular food/beer posting.

DoppleBock Sauce

2 cups of Apple Cider
1 Bottle of Sprecher Dopplebock (or your favorite Dopplebock)
1 1/4 cup Ketchup
1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 Cup Honey Dijon Mustard
1/2 Cup Yellow Mustard
1/2 Cup light dry Malt Extract (you can substitute Brown Sugar)
1/2 cup of Honey
1/2 Cup Molasses
2 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce
2 TBSP Frank’s Red Hot (or your favorite Hot Sauce)
2 TBSP Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon celery Salt
1 Teaspoon Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Hot Madras Curry Powder (optional)
1 Medium Onion (chopped)
2 Cloves of Garlic (chopped)
1 Roasted, peeled, and chopped Anaheim Pepper
Kosher Salt to taste (or sea salt, do not use Iodized salt)

Roast the Anaheim Pepper by brushing it with olive oil and either grilling it until the skin starts to char, or placing in the oven at a low broil. Turning every minute or two until the skin starts to char.Then place in a plastic bag to steam for about 15 minutes. When cool, the skin should peel off easily.

Add all the ingredients above to a large non-stick sauce pan. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer from 30 to 60 minutes, or the sauce starts to thicken. Allow to cool, then quickly run it through a blender or food processor to smooth out the peppers. Transfer to jars and keep cool until you give them away as gifts, or till you cook with it. This sauce will keep in the fridge for several months.

This sauce goes great with Chicken and Pork. However, try it with some grilled shrimp and you will fall in love. I guess you could use it on Lamb or even as a sauce for cocktail weiners too. It may be a bit too sweet to be used on Beef, but that’s your call. (EDIT: I have since tried it on a few beef dishes like Salisbury steak and as the liquid in beef stew, and it turned out great. Turns out it’s not too sweet for beef. My wife actually liked it so much she demanded we have some in the fridge at all times. )

Do you want some BEER (not wine), with that Cheese?

Posted on November 23, 2010

For many years now I have heard of people boasting about going to Wine and Cheese tastings. It all sounded so sophisticated and “high society” to me at the time. So imagine my surprise when about two years ago I found out that Wine really does not make a good pairing for cheese. It all made sense when it was explained to me. Wine does not fare well against the fatty texture of the cheese. There is nothing useful for cutting through the fat and cleansing the palate. The wide variety of textures and flavors that cheese produces, is a hard pairing for wine. Now, if you look at a lot of the flavor and aroma profiles of beer, it matches a lot more closely. If you remember back to my last post, you want to look for balance and harmony. Look for similar flavors and aromas, similar intensities, and match that with your food. Cheese can be pungent, tart, nutty, goaty, sweet, meaty, and so on. Beer matches up nicely here, and beer has two palate cleansing components that wine does not. Bitterness and carbonation. These two aspects of beer make it a much better companion to cheese than wine.

Now, being a solid beer guy, I get upset with the stigma that Wine is a drink for the sophisticated palate. The fact that some people drink wine simply for the image, really gets under my skin. But all that aside, I really don’t hate wine, and have enjoyed a glass from time to time. What I don’t like is that people think if you are having a wine and anything party, be it a wine tasting, a wine dinner, or wine and cheese tasting, they think that is the best thing ever. But let’s be honest, for quite a few people, wine is really nothing more than another alcoholic drink just like beer…..except this one brings an image of class and sophistication. Beer still carries the image of pounding down a six-pack of flavorless barley water with alcohol just for the sake of getting a buzz. The truth is, beer has just as much (if not more), complexity and sophistication as wine. Plus, beer does have one huge weapon against wine when it comes to pairing well with cheese. Can you guess what that is? That’s right Carbonation (if you were paying attention, you would remember that from earlier on). So you would be hard pressed to find a cheese (or any food for that matter) that you cannot pair well with beer. But, for the sake of this article, lets focus strictly on cheese and beer……an easy subject for me because let’s face it, I’m from Wisconsin. We have a strong beer history and German heritage here, and we have some of the finest cheese in the US here.

There are some classic cheese and beer pairings. Well, at least to me they are classic. Because of region, I will stay fairly generic and stay with the most popular brands. Just keep in mind that some specific beers will pair better with specific cheeses from certain cheese makers. This is only a rough (very rough) guideline. One classic pairing is aged (not baby) Swiss Cheese and a good Bock or better yet, a dopplebock. The silky velvety and slightly nuttiness from the cheese pairs so well with toasty and melanoidin flavors and aromas from the bock. Both are smooth and silky, its a good basic pairing. Another one of my favorites is a good solid sharp well aged cheddar cheese and a good quality American IPA. Only a few short miles from my house is Pine River Dairy, once in a while they have an 11-year-old cheddar they sell which is to die for. It’s pungent, it’s sharp and borderline bitter. There are also some very deep earthy tones to the beer, in an odd way it reminds me slightly of the red clay we have here in the soil. I love to pair that beer with Dogfish Head’s 90 minute IPA. I also found it goes well with Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. The sharp bitterness of the beer travels right along side the slightly bitter nature of the aged cheese, yet can overtake it to cut through the fat. One last basic pairing for today is your classic aged Gouda. I really like pairing that one with Norther English Brown ales. One beer in particular I like is New Glarus Fat Squirrel. When you can get that beer fresh, it is so nutty and sweet up front, and has some great malt depth to it. It’s fairly well carbonated and finishes slightly dry, even though it is sweet up front. To me it’s the quintessential beer to enjoy with Gouda. To me, Gouda is smooth, creamy, a bit sweet, and quite nutty for a cheese. Those are some great pairs for my personal taste.

There are a few sort of odd pairings I am very fond of as well that I suggest you try. Oddly, both of them that I mention include Framboise (Raspberry Tart from New Glarus in particular). I found two cheeses that I simply love with this beer are Gorgonzola and Parmesan cheese. That’s right Parmesan cheese. Not the grated kind you buy near the pasta, I mean the wedge or block of real hard, nutty, tangy, salty Parmesan cheese. There is something about the tangy character that also goes with the sour raspberry of the beer. The sweetness is the yin to the salty cheese yang. Honestly consider Parmesan cheese as a snack cheese sometime and pair it with a local Framboise. You will not be disappointed. As far as the Gorgonzola goes, I know it is an odd pairing, Barleywine traditionally goes well with the Blue Cheese family, but for me, I like the sour sweetness that opposes the sharp tang from the blue cheese. It’s an odd pairing, but one I really enjoy.

Food Recipe: Lamb Stew with Pere Jacques (Belgian Dubbel)

Posted on October 16, 2010

Lamb Stew with Pere Jacques

Today I’m going to do things a bit differently. Instead of simply talking beer, or talking beer and food pairing, or cooking with beer. I am going to invite you in and show you a recipe I created using Pere Jacques from Goose Island. Although in this recipe I used lamb, this will work with pork or beef as well since dubbels pair nicely with both those. There are a few beer styles that pair well with lamb, but I chose the Belgian Dubbel because I felt the yeast character, particularly of Pere Jacques, would work well with the mild gameiness of the lamb.

My wife and I have discovered the joys of grass-fed animals. Come to find out, corn is not the natural food for cows, and this can lead to health issues, not only with the cow (or other grass-eating animals) meat, but some say it can be linked to the presence of E. Coli in the meat. Now, I’m not going get all preachy on it, but this was something interesting I learned. Moreover, grass-fed meat does taste a bit different, and I actually like the flavor. We get our meats from a place called grassway organics.

With all that, here is the recipe I came up with.

Lamb Stew with Belgian Dubbel

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil (more if needed)
2 pounds lamb shoulder or leg meat, trimmed of fat and cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
Salt and pepper to taste
1 bottle (12-ounces) belgian dubbel
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1-1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 tablespoon mediterranean seasoning
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 large onions, sliced into rings
4 shallots
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large potato cut into large cubes
3 medium-sized carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 celery stalks
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary*
2 fresh basil leaves*
a few sprigs of fresh mint
3 bay leaves

*use dry store bought if fresh is not available.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add lamb to skillet in batches, being careful not to crowd the pan, and sear well on all sides.

Sear the meat.....

Remove from skillet.When all the lamb is seared well, return it to the skillet. Sprinkle with flour and stir to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Cook 3 minutes. Remove to a Dutch oven or slow cooker.

Degrease skillet. Place over medium-high heat; add beer and stir, scraping up any browned bits. Blend in vinegar, mustard, and mediterranean seasoning. Pour over meat mixture.

Add the beer mixture

Melt butter in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and shallots and sauté until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté an additional 2 minutes. Mix onions and garlic into meat. Add carrots and potatoes along with rosemary, mint, bay leaves, and celery.

Ready to cook.

Bring stew to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until meat is tender, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours.If the stew is too thick or dry, add a little more beer as needed. If too liquidy, cook uncovered until desired consistency or use a cornstarch and water mixture.

Now reap the rewards of your labor!

The How’s and Why’s of beer with food

Posted on October 1, 2010

There is a lot of info on the web and in books about pairing beer with food, and what beer styles to go with what specific dishes. Generally I find the books to be a lot more in-depth than the websites, but that is to be expected. In one of my earlier posts, I briefly gave some insight and pairing suggestions that were listed in on of my favorite books, The Brewmaster’s Table. This is an excellent book for anyone remotely interested in beer and food pairing. But what I want to do today is touch on the how’s and why’s of beer and food pairing. The reason is, you may have some beef stew you are looking to pair with a particular beer, but your beef stew will more than likely have a different flavor than the way I make it. You may add chili powder, or other spicy components. Maybe you add a lot of fresh ground pepper, and I don’t. Having the ability to figure out what is in your dish, and what beer to pair it with is not a static skill. What I mean, is that you can’t always pair a chocolate cake with a stout, and expect the combination to be the same each time. Generally, a sweet stout is a sweet stout, but they all are a bit different. These differences, and knowing them, can be the difference between a so-so pairing, and a spectacular pairing.

The first step is a bit dry. You have to become familiar with beer styles and generally flavors, aromas, and mouthfeel you can expect from these generic styles. There are a few sources for this information and they are all free. First you have the BJCP style Guidelines, but you also have the Brewer’s Association’s Style Guidelines. I find the Brewer’s Association’s guidelines a little less detailed, but those would work great for a quick reference of what to expect. For a more detailed breakdown, go to the BJCP styles guide. Also, you will find some slight differences in the naming and grouping of the styles, but both will get you what you need to know. Without having a general knowledge of these generic styles, it will be very difficult to figure out beer pairing on your own. So, as boring as it may be. Read at least one of these guidelines and become familiar with at the very least, the major styles.

The second thing you need to be familiar with is the ingredients, at least the key players, in the food you are pairing. Let’s take something I simply love, BBQ. I mean the real deal. Low and slow pulled pork. How would you go about pairing a BBQ meal with your favorite beer? It is a bit easier to pair if you are also the cook. You will know what ingredients and what type of food you are making. If you are asked to bring a beer to pair with someone elses dish that takes a bit of investigation. So you have to dissect what you are making. The base of your food is going to be a pork shoulder, slightly salty, a touch sweet, and sort of fatty. But chances are that is not going to be the key flavors of the dish. There, you look at your rub, your sauce, and consider the smoke. Is your rub going to be salty? Is it going to have some spice? What type of spice? Is your sauce going to be vinegar based or tomato based? Sour or sweet? Maybe spicy? How is it cooked? Is it roasted, charred, boiled? What type of flavor does this cooking method add? All these factors are going to have some influence on your choice of beer, but whatever your main flavor component is going to be, that is probably going to be your biggest factor. Just don’t forget the supporting flavors and aromas of your dish. This holds true for every dish you want to pair. Even something simple like roasted chicken. Are you going to use rosemary or just basic salt and pepper?

Now you want to put it all together. Looking at the pairing from a very high level, you have two basic interactions, balance or accentuate. Here is where you do have some easy to remember rules. Some attributes help balance others. Here are the three rules of thumb to live by when pairing.

1. Roasty, Bitterness (hops), alcohol, and carbonation in the beer will balance fat, sweetness, and Umami in the food (for more on Umami please refer back to my article “Being Honest with the Beer“.)

2. Sweetness and Malt in the beer will balance acidity and spiciness in the food.

3. Bitterness (hops) in the beer will accentuate spiciness in the food.

here is the dish we want to pair. Here is my pulled pork sandwich which is some Slow smoked BBQ pork shoulder, Sweet Salty and Spicy Rub, and homemade BBQ sauce. Topped with a bit of creamy cole slaw.

Now, one last stage of pairing is putting it all together. Generally, you probably want to balance. With balance comes haromony….most of the time. There may be times you want to accentuate a flavor or aroma. Both of these can be obtained by using the rules above, and combining it with finding common ground in steps 1 and 2 above. By understanding the flavor and aroma components of the beer, you can find flavor and aroma components that compare to your dish. You can have earthy, citrusy, roasted, burnt, sweet, caramel, Spice (like clove, vanilla, chocolate, allspice, ect), spice (heat, think pepper beers), and so on. Almost any flavor in food you can find a close match or at lease a balancing component in beer.

So now you want to think about what you want to do as far as finding balance or accentuate the flavor of the dish. So using our example above of the BBQ pork shoulder, let’s find a type of beer that may pair well with it. In my pork shoulder, I use my own rub (See the bottom of this post for my Rub Recipe) which is a bit salty, sweet, and spicy. I tend to use a vinegar based homemade sauce with sweet onions, and hard rolls baked here at a local bakery. So I have a dish that is fairly balanced between the salty, sweet, and spicy, has some acidity from the vinegar. Since the meat is sweet, there is some sweetness to the rub and sauce, I want to work on balancing the sweetness of the dish with the beer. Since it is smoked (I use maple, cherry, and applewood), I have some earthy and woody tones I can use as well.

Since I want balance, Look at rule #1 above. I may want something with a bit of roast, some carbonation, and maybe some alcohol or bitterness. Yet, I don’t want an overly roasty beer because I want some malt and sweetness to balance the spiciness from the rub. So here I am looking at a beer that is slightly roasty, has some malt depth and sweetness, a mild amount of bitterness, decent carbonation and/or alcohol. Since I don’t want to accentuate the spiciness of the food, I want to avoid highly hopped beers.

You want to match the intensity of the food. So it wouldn’t make sense to pair this pulled pork with a a heffeweizen or cream ale type of beer. I also want to match up the woodieness of the smoke. The smoke flavor is a key attribute to traditional BBQ. So I am thinking of getting a beer with some wood or smoke character. Although a Rauchbier is smokey, it is probably too smokey for my taste….although by all means it would pair nicely. Scottish ales may be a bit too sweet or not bold enough to stand up to our dish. A Marzen/Oktoberfest would fit the bill nicely. It has the malt, with a toasty character (toasty is not roasty, but can help match up well with grilled food), not a lot of hops, but it does have decent carbonation. It would be a good pairing, but we can do better. What Marzen is lacking in this case is the earthy woody character I am seeking. In this case I am looking at a porter, perhaps a brown ale. Some barrel aged English browns may work and pair nicely, Barrel aged American Browns may also work, but in some cases may be a bit too hoppy for the amount of heat in the dish. What I am looking for is a safe bet. So I am looking to the porters. A robust porter may provide too much roast. So here I have narrowed it down to a barrel aged brown porter or a barrel aged robust porter. If you look at the style guidelines for these two styles and add some wood from the barrel aging, you may have a very nice pairing for what we are looking to do in our dish.

That is the basic process and probably sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. But if you follow these simplified rules, this will get you into the right process for creating your own pairings. Just remember, it’s all about planning and understanding your ingredients, understanding your beer, and coming up with a plan on what you want your pairing to do. Balance and harmonize, or accentuate and showcase. Ido want you to keep in mind that there is no right or wrong pairing when it comes to food and beer. There are just some that are better than others. With my dish here, you could have easily gone with a Belgain Dubbel, where the malt, yeast, and alcoholic strength also would have enhanced the dish. For my taste perspective, I wanted a bit more roast than that. Also, you will need to consider the specific brand of beer. Some may appeal to you more than others. But finding this generic range, will help you narrow down your pairing. If you don’t know what is available at your local beer store, having this information will help one of the employees point you in the right direction. If you are able to tell them you are looking for a barrel aged porter, or a Belgian style dubbel, they should be able to steer you in the right direction (if they are good store and have somewhat educated people working the counter). You can also quickly deduce a good pairing based off the offerings in a resteraunt by knowing generally what you want to order, and a broad range of style that may go with the dish. That is if the resteraunt you are at offers a bit more than the big three and one or two other offerings.

As always, feel free to contact me if you feel I’ve missed something, have any questions, or just want to talk beer!

Barleypopmaker’s Triple “S” Rub

1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/3 Cup Kosher Salt
1 1/2 tbsp Black Pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp Paprika
1 1/2 Tbsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp Chipotle Pepper Powder
1 Tbsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Cinnamon

Cooking With Beer

Posted on September 20, 2010

It’s fairly common, once your doors of perception have been opened to the real flavors and aroma of beer, that appreciation widens to food…..or vice-versa. Most commonly, beer lovers are concerned with pairing the right beer with the right dishes. If you look in most cookbooks however, you will receive generic descriptions for any recipe calling for beer. Most of the time it will say “1 can/bottle of beer” or if you are lucky it may actually specify, “1 bottle of dark beer”. But if you are reading this, you already know that beer is more than just light, amber, or dark. Even comparing similar styles between different brewerys provide different flavors, sugar content, levels of bitterness ect. I was very happy with the announcement from the Brewing Network, that they were going to be having a show hosted by Sean Paxton, the Homebrew Chef. Now I am no Sean Paxton, my level of cooking skill and interest takes a more low brow approach. But, just because I have no interest in cooking five-star type of meals, does not mean that you cannot adapt the same approach Sean Paxton uses for beer and food, in more common food types that you like to cook. I am an avid low and slow BBQ fan, quite often taken 10+ hours on making a smoked pork butt or beef brisket. I also love grilling steaks, burgers, brats, and chicken. The trick is to create a marriage between the two, the hard part is deciding what and where to incorporate beer into the equation. Sometimes it’s a pairing, and sometimes it’s using beer as an ingredient. What I loved most about the first episode of the show, was it explained exactly that, and I knew from that point this latest edition of the Brewing Networks line-up was going to be easily understood by anyone who has even the slightest interest in cooking will be able to pick up something.

So before I proceed, I just want to give a you a bit of my cooking background, all of which is as an amateur. Now, I admit, listening to that episode of The Home Brewed Chef inspired me to try something they had on the show, and that cooking experience I had today inspired me to write about it. But I have been cooking with beer for quite some time, just not at Sean’s level. I did however, receive some email comments from Sean on my other site (which I have not transferred my food section over to this blog yet) that he liked what I was presenting and it could get people on the right track with some simple cooking with beer recipes. Coming from him that was a big compliment. Many of his ideas on his site, were incorporated into the type of cooking I do. For example, I have my variation of his Chocolate Ancho Chili Spice rub, into a variation that uses Chipotle peppers instead and a bit of brown sugar instead of organic sugar. I have also made his Stout BBQ Sauce as well. Also, I entered a cooking with beer contest, and I ended up as a top 10 finalist, but had to back out of the final cook-off because I just started a new job four days before the final cooking, and I didn’t want to ask off, four days after starting. At the end of this article, I will provide that recipe I had. But for now, I will talk a bit about cooking with beer, and give a simple recipe based off an idea that they talked about on the first episode of The Home Brewed Chef.

In my experience (and from what it sounds like others do too) is when cooking with beer you want to consider three things. The flavor of the dish you are creating, the style and flavor of the beer you want to use, and how these two forces will collide. As an example, you wouldn’t want to use a Heffeweizen in a hearty sauce, because it may be completely lost in the dish. If you are like me and light a slight sweetness to the sauce, you will want to find a slightly sweet, and more full flavored beer. Something that can stand up to the boldness of the tomatoes and beef, yet not overtake the dish or come across as bitter. I like to use an English style old ale. I have found for me, the character of the beer comes through well, and the slightly wine-like vineous flavors mesh well with tomatoes. Same holds true for other aspects to consider, for example when pairing grilled ribeyes with an American amber ale, you could incorporate something with that amber ale into a side dish, or sauce that would go with that steak. That is where I was interested in an off the cuff idea that Sean Paxton shot out during that first show. You could take a roasty stout, where the roasted flavors of the grain may pair well with a grilled steak, and take some onions and shallots, saute them, then use a broth and the beer, reduce it to a sauce and pour it over the steak. It sounded so good I had to try it. So here is my version of that idea below. I used a smoked imperial porter with Chipotle peppers (Benji’s Smoked Imperial Porter with Chipotle Peppers from Tyranena to be exact) that I had in my beer cellar instead of a stout, but that’s what is great about cooking, you can change anything to fit your taste. Here was mine.

Here are the Ingredients, 1 cup of Benji's Smoked Imperial Porter with Chipotle Peppers, 3 shallots, 1 medium sweet onion, 1 garlic clove (not visible), butter, and 1 can of beef broth.

I sauteed the onions, shallots, and garlic until they started to clear.

I then added the broth and beer and continued to cook until reduced to a medium thick sauce.

These are just tenderloin steaks with hop salt and pepper. I have a hard time smothering fatty steaks like ribeyes. But tenderloins don't have much flavor on their own.

Grill 'em how you like 'em. I like medium myself.

Once the sauce is reduced to where you like it, plate the steak, let it rest, then just before eating spoon the sauce and onions on it. This was very delicious. I ended up serving it with pan roasted potatoes I also drizzled with the beer.

So that was it. When cooking with beer, you want to think about how the flavors are going to meld with your food. Will the bitterness go well in that cake? Probably not, but a great raspberry lambic may. Another think to remember is that when you are cooking with the beer, some of the water will evaporate, so you may also concentrate the flavors, this can work to both your advantage, or it will work against you. So if you are cooking with a hoppy IPA, and you concentrate that bitterness, you better have a bit of sweetness in the dish to try to balance out that part of the beers contribution.

Cooking Brats tip

Living here in Wisconsin, we have a strong German heritage. Brats, among other sausages are very popular. But in summer, brats are everywhere. People often par boil their brats in beer, or soak them afterwards in beer. Normally this is just some Bud, Miller, or Coors. But, this really doesn’t do much. The skin of the brat prevents the liquid from really penetrating the brat in that short amount of time. If anything, you get the aroma of the pot while it is boiling or steeping afterwards. But when you eat the brat, 9 times out of 10 you don’t get much flavor from the beer. I did find that if you soak the brats in beer 24 hours prior to grilling, you do get a lot of beer flavor. I like to use Capital Brewery’s Wisconsin Amber as my soaking beer of choice. Also as a side note, a true brat cooker will never par boil them. They should be cooked raw on the grill. But I promise you that if you soak them for 24 hours, then grill them, you will get many compliments on how much beer flavor your brats have.

Pub Skirt Steak Fajitas with Beer Braised Onions and Peppers

With that, here was my Pub Style Skirt Steak fajita’s recipe I promised earlier in this post. This is the one that earned me a top 10 spot, and I would put money on winning the thing I would have been able to compete. In all honesty, the amounts are estimated, I normally don’t cook with exact measurements. So play around with it and suite it to your taste.

Skirt Steak
1-2 lb skirt steak (Fat trimmed)
1 cup of Sprecher Pub Ale (1/4 cup reserved for grilling)
2 limes (you will need the juice from 1 and 1/2 limes or about 3 tablespoons for the marinade and the other half a lime for grilling)
1 teaspoon of cumin
3 dashes of Tobasco sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Place the skirt steak in a gallon freezer bag, along with the beer, 3 tablespoons of lime juice lime juice, cumin, and tobasco sauce. Allow to marinade overnight. If in a hurry, allow to marinade at least 3 hours before grilling.

When ready to grill combine 1/4 cup of Pub Ale and juice from 1/2 lime into a bowl or pour into a clean spray bottle.

Remove steak from the marinade and lightly salt and pepper the meat. Place it on a medium high heat grill and grill using direct heat. For an average skirt steak grill for about 5-6 minutes per side, while spritzing with the beer and lime mixture (or basting if you used a bowl)

When done, allow to rest for 5 minutes before cutting into 1/4″ slices. Cut the skirt steak at an angle.

Serve on warm tortillas with the below onion and pepper mixture.

Beer Braised Onions and Peppers

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 medium sliced red onion sliced thin and in half
1 small red pepper grilled then cut into strips
1 small green pepper grilled then cut into strips
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 cup of Sprecher Pub Ale
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Melt butter under medium heat (use a side burner on the gas grill if you have it), then add onions and sugar cook until the onions soften. Stir in the ale, vinegar, grilled peppers, and salt. Cook over medium heat while stirring until all the liquid has nearly all evaporated.

Serve with the above flank steak on tortillas (This mixture also goes great with brats. I soak my brats in beer 24 hours prior to grilling, do not par boil. Just grill them. Serve with this same pepper and onion mixture)

Creating Your Own Beer Style

Posted on July 20, 2010

The beer world has no shortage of beer styles. The BJCP recognizes 23 categories of beer with a total of 80 substyles, and that’s not including the meads and ciders. Often people claim to not brew to any specific style, and that is fine. But most of the time many of these beers do fall into a style category in some way, shape, or form. For example if someone brews a stout but adds some cinnamon and nutmeg to make it more festive, well my friend, you have just brewed category 21b, Christmas/Winter/specialty spiced beers. But once in a while, someone finds a beer style that does not really fit snugly into any category other than squarely into category 23 (Specialty Beer, Sometimes refered to as Experimental Beer). If these beers become popular, the can become a style all their own. Most recently are the Imperial IPA’s and now Black IPA’s and even Belgian IPA’s are becoming all the rage. For me, I have an idea for a roasty all German Ale I am calling a German Porter. I brewed a roggenbier with a lot of chocolate rye and that was what sparked the idea. I have just brewed revision 2 for the beer to see if it is a style worth pursuing. I have worked up a rough idea on what I am thinking of the style. Doing this, helps you develop an idea by putting what you want the beer to smell and taste like, down on paper. It really makes you imagine the beer and helps you develop the recipe. You could actually do this for your beers as well, if you had the time to create a guideline for what you want a specific beer to taste like. Here is my draft of the German Porter Style.

So what do you need to do to produce your own style? Nothing, you can pretty much do anything you want and call it anything you want. But if your goal is to get your style recognized, that is a bit beyond your control. You can however, spark a trend that may move in that direction. Generally, creative homebrewers do spark the new styles. Here is one way it may work. Let’s say you are the first person to brew the Black IPA. You are on a homebrewing forum and mention you have this idea for an IPA, but you want it to look like a porter or stout. Some others are intrigued and ask you to try it and let them know how it turns out, post the recipe, and so on. So you do it and you like the results. You post back that it turned out great and maybe you are planning on sending some to some competitions under category 23. A few others try your recipe you posted and report back that they too liked this version of the beer (A few also may tweak it to their taste). Now you win a few awards for your beer, and maybe even a Best of Show. More and more homebrewers brew that style and enter it into competitions and do fairly well. Now you are getting close. Soon enough a few craft brewers pick up on the trend and brew a version of their own. Now several competitions are getting so many “Black IPA’s” that they can have a whole flight of them. The BJCP may consider making it a recognized style and need to come up with a guideline for it (which you can also do yourself here ). Now that is just one way a beer that is not a historical example can become a beer style. Sometimes style comes out of need. For example, with the hop shortage that happened a few years back, there was speculation that a few new beer styles that used other bittering agents besides hops would emerge, and although it would have been interesting, I still prefer my hopped beer to beers similar to gruit.

Granted, you can’t expect to brew a new style, like it yourself, and send off that template to the BJCP and expect them to create a style. There has to be a large enough demand for it, and preferably a few commercial examples that can be used for comparison. But creating new styles is something that we as homebrewers can be proud of. So get creative, and try to come up with something new. Who knows, you may be the next creator of a new recognized beer style.

Kohler Festival of Beer, well worth the price….

Posted on June 3, 2010

Wood Lake at Kohler

If you are like me, you may be on a budget, but allow a few splurges when it comes to beer, and beer events. Generally these events run upwards of $30 and up but rarely over $100 for a single event. Heck, I have yet to pay over $60 for a single ticket (however I think this year things are going to change because of price hikes). Kohler runs their event a bit differently. They have several events over 3 day, these events range from a golf tourney to beer and food pairing demos. Each event requires a ticket, excluding the golf tourney these prices range between $25-$65 per event. Or you can opt for a day or weekend pass for a bit less than buying all the tickets. This year I was lucky enough to receive an all access pass for all the events, as well as a ticket to bring a guest to the Homebrew Festival, Cheers to Beers, Blues Brews and BBQ, and Shorts and Chefs. I could not attend the Blues, Brews, and BBQ because of a prior commitment, but I did attend a few events Saturday and Sunday that was well worth a write-up.

The Homebrew Festival (ticket price $25)

3 of us Judged Best of Show, which was 10 beers sent on to BOS.

The Homebrew festival actually starts at 10am, way before the doors open to the event. They host a homebrew contest which at first glance seemed a bit off-putting to some from what I heard in the homebrew community, but once I experienced it, it made total sense. The entry fee was a bit steep however, at $10 per entry. As judges we did end up discussing the cost of entry. One positive side it added to the contest is that the beer sent in was really good. The thought behind it was if you are going to spend $10 to enter a beer, you want to make sure you had a really good beer to send. I don’t know if this was Kohler’s intent, but it was a theory we came up with on why such a large entry fee for such a small event. Most of the entries were local however. It was clearly stated in the rules that in order to win best of show, you had to be present at the homebrew festival to serve your homebrew. You needed to bring 5 gallons of beer. It did not have to be 5 gallons of the beer you entered, but it did have to be homebrew. Although this limited the entries to mostly local brewers, it also does promote the hobby. I do wish though, that if if they required you to serve up your homebrew, you didn’t have to pay the hefty entry fee. If you break it down, you have $25+ for ingredient cost to bring 5 gallons of beer, plus the $10 entry fee. That comes out to a conservative $35 per entry. Each category received 1st-3rd place award ribbons. The Best of Show had trophy’s awarded for 1st-3rd place in BOS as well. And the trophy’s were not cheap plastic, but a metal and marble, so that was a plus. The actual event was quite nice. I am not sure how much homebrew there was there, but they had a good turn out ( I estimate 100 people attended this small event, but that is not an official number), and some good beers were served as well.As you can see below in the picture I took as the doors opened, food was included in the ticket cost. The spread was pretty decent as you can see.

Food was included in the $25 ticket price

Cheers To Beers (Ticket Price $50)

Cheers to beers was a lot of fun and the lineup of beers was worth the price, the food was just a bonus. It was held at the Kohler Design Center which houses displays of many bathroom fixtures that are produced at Kohler. This made for an interesting evening when combined with some top-notch beers. For example, the first booth you saw when you walked in was from Mikkeller, and featured the Black Hole Series of beers and the single hop IPA’s. I stuck around here for a while and sampled the same beer, but aged in different types of barrels (port, rum, whiskey, and bourbon) as well as the single hop Amarillo, Simcoe, and Tomahawk beers.

Mikkeller Black hole Imperial Stouts, and Single Hop IPA's

Also present were a wide variety of Belgian Beers, one of my favorites of the night was and Oud Bruin from Brouwerij Bavik called Petrus Aged Pale Grand Reserve. It was pleasantly sour, with hints of cherry and vanilla goodness. All your major players were also there in full strength: Goose Island, New Glarus, Capital Brewery, Dogfish Head, Left Hand, Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat with Maredsous 8 just to name a few. The food here was also provided, this included a full dessert table, which I didn’t have time to sample because I kept heading back to the cheese bar. here are a few pics for your enjoyment before I move on to Shorts and Chefs.

Cheese Bar

Authentic Cask Ale

because it's just not a brewfest without it, and a random drunk guy pic

Yeah, Eiffel Tower baby!

Shorts and Chefs (ticket price $45)

Shorts and Chefs

First I have to make it clear that shorts and chefs is not a food and beer pairing event, which the Kohler Festival of Beer did have, but rather a showcase of the top chefs in the state of Wisconsin. Each chef was paired up with a brewery, but the pairing of the food and particular beer was not intended to be a pairing. You were on your own for finding a good pairing for various foods. With that said, I loved this event and when you see the pics you will see why. Although this event was casual, the cuisine was not. You had everything from ribs and pulled pork, to lamb chops and couscous to choose from. The breweries featured were the same as Saturday nights Cheers to Beers event, so it was not difficult to find some very nice pairings. Again, the food and the beer was all included in your ticket cost, and you could each as much from as many chefs as you wanted. Of my top four favorite dishes, the number one for me was a lamb chop smothered in a yogurt and curry mixture atop some Israeli couscous which I paired up with some more Maredsous 8. It was excellent. My other top three was some type of tiny squash hollowed out and stuffed with a crab meat mixture and garnished with greens and a marinara, a grilled pork belly served with watermelon dipped in a chocolate and balsamic vinegar sauce topped with feta, and an excellent appetizer which was grilled bread cheese (which does not actually contain any bread) on a skewer with a venison brat and served with a date chutney. All four of my favs are pictured below.

Grilled bread cheese topped with a venison brat served with a date chutney

The grilled squash and crab meat dish

Grilled Pork Belly with watermelon dipped in chocolate and balsamic topped with feta

The lamb chop smothered in a yougurt and curry mixture atop Isrealie Couscous

The lamb chop smothered in a yogurt and curry mixture atop Israeli Couscous

In the end, although a bit expensive, if you are a beer lover and a foodie, you will find the Kohler Festival of Beer an event worth the price. I just wish I did not have prior commitments so I could have attended the beer and food pairings and the Blues, Brews, and BBQ event. But from the ones I did attend, I was very very pleased. The beers offered were great and in many cases above the normal beer festival standards, the food was great. And best of all, everything was included in the ticket price. So even if you spent every dime on tickets, you still got to eat.

Interview with Kirby Nelson from Capital Brewery

Posted on May 24, 2010

Capital Brewery

Last week Friday I had the pleasure of interviewing Kirby Nelson, the Brewmaster for Capital Brewery in Middleton, Wisconsin. Kirby has been brewing since the late 70′s and continues to this day making some very fine beers. Lagers mostly, but some ales as well. In today’s age of souped up imperial styles, Kirby likes to approach beer from the standpoint where he wants you to be able to down a six pack of his beers. So he shoots for a easy drinking beer for most of his offerings. Don’t confuse an easily quaffable beer with a boring beer, some of Kirby’s beers are my go to summer favorites. Wild Rice, Rustic Ale, and the now retired 1900 are some of my favorite summer slammers. Their new beer Supper Club, I have not had the chance to try yet, but I will be soon. Kirby says that beer is flying off the shelves and I am anxious to try it. Their Autumnal Fire is one hell of a Marzen and Dopplebock Hybrid as well. With that, I will let the interview speak for itself. Since I have since become lazy with transcribing the audio, it is much easier to just download and listen, it is roughly only a half hour long. Again, I am not a podcaster and know I have some lacking audio interview skills. But Kirby is an energetic and to the point kind of guy. I’m sure you will enjoy the audio better than reading it anyway. So Enjoy!

Interview with Kirby Nelson, Brewmaster for Capital Brewery MP3 Download (Click the link and a download page will appear)

As a Correction Note, a few weeks ago I posted a segment on finding Capital beers in a can. I found out in the interview that they have had their beer in cans since about 1997. I don’t know why I have not seen it here where I live, because I am not far from Madison. Maybe the 12 packs escaped my radar or no liquor stores I went to carried the cans. But either way, this was not a new development for Capital, but rather a new discovery for me. The information in that post still is valid though, regarding the benefit of craft beer in cans.

Below are some pics I took on my phone during a tour we got during the NHC Regionals which were hosted at Capital Brewery. Picture quality is not the best.

The brewing area at Capital

Some of the tanks, if you look on the other end of where that Dinosaur mascot is, there are many more conicals stored there. But I didn't take a picture of those.

Here we are getting a special tanks sampling of the Weizen Dopplebock. I am not sure if this sampling was Kirby approved, but I enjoyed it. I didn't want to mention this in the interview.

I posted this picture so you can see during the interview why I asked if he plays Frank Zappa in the brewery. Each of the tanks is named after a Frank Zappa song. Peaches en Regalia is an instrumental piece off Zappa's Hot Rats album.

Barleypopmaker's Beer Blog

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Category Archives: Beer Culture

A Rant On Public Beer Review sites.

Sprecher Brewery Tour

Another Great Lakes Brewfest is in the Books

Great Lakes Brewfest Fast Approaching!

Sprecher’s Grilling with Beer Contest 2011

Sprecher Grilling With Beer Contest

Milwaukee Firkin Craft Beer Festival Approaching

How to build a Chest Freezer Kegerator, on the cheap

Cleaning your Faucets

Making Beersmith Portable

The Ultimate Hophead treat……Hop Extract from Vodka (Lupulin Extraction)

Beer and Food Pairing by Beer Style

A Great Beer Sauce you can Make for Christmas gifts!

Do you want some BEER (not wine), with that Cheese?

Food Recipe: Lamb Stew with Pere Jacques (Belgian Dubbel)

Lamb Stew with Belgian Dubbel

The How’s and Why’s of beer with food

Barleypopmaker’s Triple “S” Rub

Cooking With Beer

Cooking Brats tip

Pub Skirt Steak Fajitas with Beer Braised Onions and Peppers

Creating Your Own Beer Style

Kohler Festival of Beer, well worth the price….

Interview with Kirby Nelson from Capital Brewery

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