If you’re interested in beer dinners, then I think there’s a good probability that you’re interested in cooking. I’m always looking for better ways to make food at home, and I found a good blog entry about 10 ways to cook better. (via Kottke)
Do you guys have any tips for other beerdinners.com readers about increasing the quality of what you’re making at home?
I had the good fortune to go to the Tommyknocker and Breckenridge beer dinner at Duo in the trendy Highlands area of Denver (not to be confused with Highlands Ranch, suburban land of the cul-de-sac). Joining me in the dining experience, was David, a beer blogger who was in town from Fredericksburg, VA. We had a great time, it was nice to have another beer fan to talk about the various pairings with. Read David’s blog entry here.
Basically what David wrote is everything we chatted about. I felt the Tommyknocker Jackwhacker and the Seafood Curry was by far the best pairing, with the sweetness of the wheat beer cutting the spiciness of the curry, while at the same time adding a sweet note to the flavor (wheat beers and Thai food are a total match!).
Chicago’s CBS affiliate aired a nice video segment during their morning news a few days back about pairing beer with barbecue. Jennifer Faulk of the Glunz Beer Culinary Council recommended two different beers for each food pairing, which ranged from grilled chicken and fish to burgers and barbecue ribs. They also posted a blog entry about the segment that has descriptions of all the beer. Flying Dog’s Old Scratch was featured as a beer that pairs well with a burger.
Do you have any summer barbecue food and beer pairings? Take a photo and email them to promote [at] beerdinners [dot] com. We’ll post your submissions here, and the world can be jealous of your barbecue and beer pairing skills!
You heard me, beer and turkey sandwiches. A match made in Heaven. I took one of my favorite sandwiches in the world, a Thanksgiving Day beer called the PJ’s Gobbler, and paired it with our new (and bottle conditioned) Kerberos Tripel:
In the Flying Dog Brewery marketing department, we sort of have a thing for turkey sandwiches. Our Prime Minister of Marketing Neal has a blog about Turkey Sandwiches, even. And I’m not talking about some douchebag’s version of a turkey sandwich blog – Neal writes and major sandwich companies listen. He even met with the Cheba Hut brass in Fort Collins to talk about developing new sandwiches for their company. I’m that sort of guy who can eat a turkey sandwich for lunch most days and be excited about every one. This is just to show you how serious we are about our turkey sandwiches. Why all this talk about turkey sandwiches in a beer column? Because beer pairs amazingly with turkey sandwiches, that’s why!
Being a first-year festival, nobody was exactly sure what to expect from Savor last month. For those who could not attend but wanted to get an idea of what it was all about, we put together a short movie using footage captured at Savor.
I starting writing a twice-a-month blog entry for a local Denver blog called The Denver Egotist. This week I went out to the Great Northern, a wonderful craft beer restaurant in the Denver Tech Center and had Avery’s Karma and their cumin-dusted Halibut special (link takes you to the whole article).
Do you have any Colorado craft beers you want me to try and pair with some food? Leave a comment and I’ll try my best.
What about you, oh loyal readers of beerdinners.com? Big plans for grilling and drinking some beer this weekend? Take a photo and email me at joshm [at] flyingdogales [dot] com and I’ll post your photo and recipe here after the weekend.
As for me, I’m planning on grilling some chicken for my gourmet grilled chicken sandwich and enjoying a Snake Dog India Pale Ale along with it.
I’m still clearing out the cobwebs from Savor, and am in the process of taking my raw video footage and editing it. But here’s a quick rundown. Andy Crouch has a great writeup of this first-ever event, I’d recommend you read it.
The 75 year-old Mellon Auditorium was impressive, definitely the coolest location I’ve seen for a beer festival. The event was sold out (700 tickets for each session), and I enjoyed the relatively small size. The small number of attendees allowed us to talk a little bit with each consumer and I met some wonderful DC-area folks.
Flying Dog had our Kerberos Tripel paired with these Peking Duck purses and our Gonzo Imperial Porter paired with wonderful artisan chocolates with raspberry filling. The number of dishes that breweries were allowed to use was on the small side, which allowed for various beers to be paired with the same food. I thought it was nice that this was the case, because the fact is that many different styles of beer can be paired with similar foods.
Another cool thing about the festival is that the Brewer’s Association gave out these great tasting journals as part of your entry fee. Among the 100 or so pages for you to enter your tasting notes were some recipes and suggested pairings, along with a few pages showing pairing options for a wide variety of beer styles.
I’ll have some videos of the even coming up in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
What about you guys who also attended Savor? Any remarks?
I’m just about to leave the brewery in Frederick, and am on my way down to Savor. I’ll be in attendance all 3 sessions and will be moblogging from the floor. I’ll also be shooting High-Definition video, and will be posting some awesome shit from this first-ever event! Check these various areas for your fill of live updates for the next 36 hours:
Flying Dog Brewery’s Twitter page - I’ll have short updates as they happen, with some assorted low resolution photos. If you’re a twitterer, use the @flyingdog tag and I should be able to get your updates.
Flying Dog Brewery’s Flickr Page - I’ll periodically be sending photos of various events on the fly as well. I’ll be checking the comments all the time, so if you have any suggestions, post a comment!
Not a twitter or flickr user? Email me your thoughts to joshm [at] flyingdogales [dot] com and I’ll religiously be checking my mail as we go.
