SSBC Newsletter

Past Newsletters

June 2009

Business:

This meeting was the beer/food pairing meeting. Not a lot of business was covered. Both the food and beer were good.

Bristol pub crawl is scheduled for Sunday, June 14, starting at 1p at Redlefsen's.

There will be no meeting in July due to the two BBQs.

August meeting is Saison meeting and club competition. Jason was nominated to give the presentation. The meeting will be held at Frank White's.

There was some discussion about the planning meeting in September, but nothing is set in stone yet.

Finally, there is lots of Flanders Red left. Looking for volunteers to take it. It could make a fine BBQ suace.

Presentation:

Beer can be a great accompaniment to many, if not most, food courses. In fact, beer can often be more appropriate to wine for many dishes. Beer can have many diverse flavors, such as malty, bitter, sour (acidic), smoky, spicy, caramel, sherry, raisin, plum, fruit, and so on, in addition to having other aspects, such as carbonation, that can play a large role in successfully finding the beverage of choice to pair with a particular food.

There are guidelines which were considered when selecting beers to pair with the menu that follows. For example, the salad with orange slices was paired with the Belgian Wit to 1) maintain “balance” in the dish with both being delicate and 2) to complement the subtle orange flavors in the beer with orange in the salad. For the Portuguese Kale Soup, an English Special Bitter was used so the spiciness of the soup can be matched by the more assertive bitterness of the beer. A rauchbier was used with the Texas barbecued brisket to complement the smoky flavors of the meat. For the stuffed chicken, a Saison was used such that the peppery and spicy notes of the beer would complement the herbal character of the stuffing and the fruit-based sauce. The lasagna was paired with a Munich dunkel for which can match some of the acidity of the tomatoes with the acidity attributed to the darker malts. The chocolate blackout cake was paired with an English Barleywine to provide a sweeter and assertive accompaniment to the chocolate cake.

Menu

• Salad - Orange walnut salad paired with Belgian Wit (Blanche D’Chamblis)
• Soup - Portuguese kale soup paired with Extra Special Bitter (Fullers ESB)
• Entrée 1 - Stuffed chicken with cranberry port sauce paired with Saison (Saison Dupont)
• Entrée 2 - Texas-style barbecued beef paired with Rauchbier (Aecht Schlenkerla Marzen)
• Entrée 3 - Lasagna paired with Munich Dunkel (Spaten)
• Dessert - Chocolate blackout cake with raspberry sauce paired with English Barleywine (Mad River John Barleycorn)

If there are any updates or corrections, please contact Rick Rodriguez