New Desert Beer

So I found an excellent pairing. I was assisting my restaurants chef in pairing some beers with an Xmas dinner. Originally I had decided to go with a belgian double ( heavy, sweet, dark beer). However since we were just doing a test dinner, and the beer in question is fairly expensive, I randomly grabbed Fullers London Porter out of the fridge. Its imported by one of my parent companies so I figured its use would please everyone.
We tried a number of food pairings for this dinner coming to these conclusions: First, Paulaner works fine with salmon with basil dressing, but not so good with salmon + spicy salsa. On the other hand hoppy beers, like a pale ale, or an amber with good bitterness work quite well. Second, Fullers ESB is a hefty beer. We tried it with turkey with stuffing and all that and it was just too much. When we substituted in London Pride, the result was much better.
Finally, London Porter is great with chocolate cakes/tarts/ chocolate. Puts wine to shame. Not even a contest. We tried the porter with a chocolate tart with a raspberry sauce ( real raspberries, watched chef blend them) Flavor ride. First you get luscious semi sweet chocolate, and all the little flavors that come with it. The raspberries follow it up with that tart, woody flavor that they have. Then you drink the beer. All of a sudden the chocolate flavors from the tart and the chocolate flavors in the beer come bursting back out. Weeee! But wait, whats this? Its a peety, burt, bitter finish which contrasts so well it real feels, filthy is the best way I can describe it. Afterwords I tried the beer with some other chocolate deserts with similar results. Its quite versatile and surprisingly robust. Try it for yourself and tell me Im wrong.

Nabe Pairing Testing

There are some good resources for Beer Pairing out there. But none I have found really cover with much depth pairing Japanese food and beer, aside from say sushi. Of course you can take a pairing for a more general food and apply it to something similar in the Japanese cuisine, but thats tricky does not always work.
So Its been a bit of a quest of mine to find beers that pair well with Japanese food. Last night I tried to find some beers to match with Nabe. Nabe really is one of the great things about Japan. Its basically a pot, usually cooked at the table, with veggies, shrooms, meat, tofu, and whatever you want boiled in a light broth of some kind. If you are unaware of this dish, or have not made it I encourage your to go find a recipe and make it. It is, like all good recipes, tasty, easy, and healthy. Wonderful in cold weather as well. Try it with a kotatsu for bonus points.
I made it with a soy sauce based broth, then hakusai ( cabbage), shitake, negi ( big ass green onions), and pork. Also made some yuzu ( sweetish lemon thing) dipping sauce, and sesame dipping sauce.

As shown above I tried a pilsner ( the original), Anchors Liberty Ale, Nests Pale Ale, De Rankes XX Bitter, and Fullers London Porter. Just some beers I happen to be able to grab. I was expecting big things from the Liberty Ale, I guess just because Anchors Steam Ale did well before with Temaki, another Japanese dish. It was good, but as it turned out a bit too big, the beer overwhelmed the dish, just a bit, in terms of malt, hops, and even carbonation. The looser of the night was the pilsner. I think this specific pilsner has a very delicate and slightly sour taste, which while probably amazing with other dishes clashed with this one. The london porter and XXX bitter we also satisfying in their own rights, but they both quite overwhelmed the dish, no meshing of flavor.
The winner of the night was Nests Pale Ale. I am not a fan of this beer, I have drunk it before and found it to be satisfying but not special. This time it worked though. Not 100% sure exactly how, but I think the light body and slight sweetness matched the impact of the dish well. Then I would say that the flavor of the hops worked well with the dish, but that is really to vague to be all that useful. I do remember distinctly that combined with the nabe, the beer tasted much sweeter, providing a nice balance to the foods general saltiness. So next time I think I will try a few more Pale Ales and see if I cant reach a clearer conclusion.



-Eric

Spicy Chicken Sandwich and (not)homebrew blonde ale

Had a bit of a brewing day last Saturday in which I brought some friends over and we bottled one batch, made another batch , and probably drank 1/4 of a previous batch of homebrew beer.

To get ready for this I threw together some light sandwiches. i used pan seared chicken with a dash of hot sauce, greens, a light italian cheese and a bit of mustard on the top. For bread we tried both baguette and English muffins, with the winner being the former. The sandwiches were great. I was especially happy with the balance between the ingredients, rather than being overwhelming each ingredient melded with the rest. Also I was happy with the versatility of the dish, I could easily substitute any one of the ingredients, for instance a different cheese, out for something else and have a new, tasty, easy dish.

The pairing was also nice. I was drinking a homebrewed session ale, light, hoppy, with a nice cistrus cascade hop flavor to it. The light bitterness worked well against the mild spice in the sandwich and the greens. We also tried a Brooklyn Lager against the sandwich. The sandwich highlighted the complexities in the malt, which was quite nice, and the foods spice provided a linkage to the spicy hops in the beer. On the whole, I would say the Brooklyn lager was the more skillful pairing, bringing out more of the flavors in the food and the beer, but also adding some heft to the meal. On the other hand the homebrew was solid, and kept the feel of the meal quite light, which might be preferable. Overall an excellent culinary experience.

-Eric

Celis White vs Hoegaarden

Todays post Celis White versus Hoegaarden. Both belgian wit beers, both made by the same man, both available in Tokyo. Paired with a green salad and the lemon dressing on the right ( olive oil, white vinegar, lime, spices). The verdict Hoegaarden is a very light white beer, which would be a great bridge beer, unoffensive but with slightly more character than your average macro beer. I think i got a whif of macro lager in it as well, perhaps thats the influence of ABInbev on the recipe. Celis White deeper color, aroma, and flavor. The flavor is subtle, but is like a lime, in a dusty room filled with wheat. Both went well with the salad, not overpowering the light veggies, forming a weak link with the citrus flavor, and clearing off the flavor of the dressing. I really enjoy comparing beers, very illuminating.

Apple Hop & Bulgogi

Part I
There is a relatively unknown brewery here in Japan called Minamishinsyu Beer. They are actually not half bad, but nothing special. However, a few months ago they made a beer called Apple Hop that won some awards and a number of us in Tokyo are digging. Its fermented with apples and basically tastes like apple cider, only less sweet, dryer, and with a bit of a pale ale taste to it. Also they change the Apples used every month or so and I had a couple in my fridge, so I got to thinking, what kind of dinner could I do with this. Immediately I thought of a recipe for Korean BBQ or Bulgogi which uses apples in the marinade, and decided to give it a try. I used the following recipe for the marinate and its going as I type. So I will see how the pairing works out in a bit:

meat

apple (grated)
apple Hop Beer
ginger (grated)
garlic (grated)
green onion (grated)
korean pepper
sesame oil
mirin

Part II

My little grill did not let me down, and the meat was grilled successfully. I was expecting a flavor link between the Apple Hop/ shredded apple/ apple hop marinade. Unfortunately, and probably because I was only able to marinade it for a hour and a half the connection was rather weak and mostly lost in the other flavors of the dish. However, the meat did get quite 『まるやか』、as they say, or roughly translated rounded in taste, so juicy a little sweet, that type of flavor. It was more subtle than I was expecting but satisfying in a delicious way. So much so that it gathered a crowd in from the unusually strong rain, and someone bought more meat to grill on my little fire hazard bombe. Then out of the blue a friend from the area shows up, having a just few hours before learned he is to be a father. Much celebration and good beer, including a great bottle of Bons Voeus from Dupont ensued. For a review check my BA profile and click on the beer. All and all a surprising but rewarding night. Congratulations to the soon to be father! Cheers!

-Eric