Back to the Grind

I'm back after a nice long break. I survived Christmas and there's really not much beer-related to talk about. I didn't drink a great deal and when I did drink it was rather run-of-the-mill stuff. I haven't been to a proper beer bar since the Allagash tasting at Eli's.

After Christmas we packed our bags and headed to Alabama (again). 4 adults and 2 dogs piled into a rental car at 4am and made the 18 hour trip in one shot (we also came home in one shot, which is a first for me...it's harder coming home because you lose an hour). In AL I continued the trend of drinking just north of moderately, but the most exciting beer was Terrapin Rye (not to slag off Terrapin Rye because I'm a huge fan). Mostly it was Yuengling Lagers.

There was one beer highlight though, another beer dinner. The menu, as best as I can remember:

• Kielbasa & Souerkraut paired with Terrapin Golden
• Salad (loosely based on The Corner Pug's Pug Salad) paired with Hoegaarden Original White Ale
• Kässpätzle paired with my homebrewed hefeweizen
• Shepherd's Pie paired with Abita Amber
• Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake paired with Rogue Mocha Porter

The best pairing, by far, was the Mocha Porter with the cheesecake (which was made by my BIL and was phenomenal). With the exception of my homebrew, I made sure all the beers were available in AL (I had to because I bought them all there).

After this longish break from geeking out about beer I look forward to getting back into the swing of things.

Beer Dinner

We celebrated my sister Carrie's birthday on Saturday by throwing a beer dinner.

This was our second beer dinner and I think people really enjoy them. Mandy creates a food menu with 4-5 courses and I try to pair a beer with each course.


We have a set of 4 oz tasting glasses that look like brandy snifters. After serving each course along with its associated beer, I'll talk briefly about the style or the brewery and give some flavor characteristics to look for. When I'm confident about the pairing, I'll also say something about why I paired the two. The menu on Saturday was:

Adam's Reuben Bites with Weihenstephaner Hefeweissebier Dunkel

Mandy's Fried Butternut Squash Raviolis (also plain cheese) with Berkshire Brewing Company's Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale

Mandy's Pumpkin Soup with Paulaner Oktoberfest-Märzen

Mom's Caesar Salad with Allagash White

Mandy's Lasagna (Meat, Spinach & Broccoli, and Cheese) with Duvel

Kelly's Pumpkin Cheesecake with my homebrewed pumpkin beer I made for Carrie

The Reuben Bites were a big hit...pastrami and sauerkraut rolled in a croissant with thousand island dipping sauce. They were great reheated on the pizza stone during the Pats game on Sunday. To be honest, I thought the Weihenstephaner was just a Dunkel Lager and thought the malty sweetness would go great with the reubens. It's actually a Dunkel Weizen, but it still went fine.

I didn't know what to pair with the raviolis, so I went with Mandy's suggestion of Berkshire's Extra Pale Ale, which went well enough.

The Pumpkin Soup was a recipe we pulled out of a magazine that was submitted by someone at Willimantic Brewery. It's actually made with an Oktoberfest beer, so the pairing seemed natural. The soup was great, as was the beer.

Allagash White was the perfect pairing for a Caesar salad. Everybody loved it.

I'm not sure why, but I've always loved drinking Duvel with Italian food. Something about its spicy, yeasty profile cuts right through the tomato and garlic and meaty flavors. It leaves my mouth feeling refreshed and ready for more food. It seemed to go over well.

My homebrewed pumpkin beer is tasting very good (if I do say so myself!). Went well with the cheesecake. My sister said it tasted the same as last year, which I guess is a good thing.

Overall, these beer dinners are less about geekery and more about having a great time eating good food and drinking good beer. It gets some people who don't ordinarily drink good beer to taste something different and talk about what they're tasting.

The lineup:



My pumpkin beer: