First Look: Brasserie 1895

Clear Lake city and the surrounding area, including Friendswood, and League City have grown immensely when it has come to beer bars, breweries and as I've written recently, cocktail bars. One area that has a lot of room to grow is destination restaurants, a place that people will travel to, from inside the loop or Galveston just to eat at.  Maybe, just maybe that is starting to change with the recent opening of Brasserie 1895 in Friendswood.  The chef and owner is Kris Jacobs.  Chef Jacobs has a distinguished history, taking grand prize at last years Woodlands Food and Wine festival (beating out 50 other chefs), as well as having a place on the Houston Chronicle's Food Critique's top 100 restaurants the last 3 years for the work that he did at Kris Bistro.  When news first came out, last year that he was opening a restaurant, I was curious to see what he was doing.  After I found out that the focus would be on European cuisine as well as focus on craft beers, I knew this was a place I would be visiting as soon as it opened.  That time is now.  Brasserie 1895 opened its doors a couple of weeks ago to start a month long soft opening period, and last Friday I

was finally able to stop by to check it out.  One thing I'll make very clear, is that this was a soft opening so I didn't expect things to be perfect, instead I wanted to get a sense for where things will be going in the future. With that in mind, let's talk about my impressions.  1895 is in an old shopping center right across the street from the old Perry's meat market.  Its an assuming outside, so the inside can shock you a bit.  There is a lot of purple.  I mean a lot.  There is a really quaint bar area on the left when you walk through, white marble top, white shelves, lots of glass ware, and old antique objects scattered about.  The rest of the space is taken over by a scattered array of tables, booths, and along the opposite wall from the bar a large banquet
booth set up with tables and chairs facing the wall, and an open kitchen in the back. My date and I were early for our reservations so stopped at the bar for a beverage and to peruse the drink menu.  There is a small wine list that seems at first glance to be well priced with a smattering of offers by the glass. The beer menu has a list of 13 taps, almost all very reasonably priced (The Duvel seemed a bit expensive).  I settled for the Victory Golden Monkey, a Belgian style Tripel as we waited for our tables and I was able to take a look around.  We were sat promptly at our 7pm reservation time and quickly scanned the menu to find a few dishes we wanted to check out.  For an appetizer we shared a dish of fried oysters on top of baked strips of yuca, topped with green chile sauce and fish roe.  For the main course my date had one of the many wood fired pizza offerings, this one topped with pesto, speck, arugula and a fried egg.   I had the fried chicken with

foie gras gravy (yes you read that correctly) mashed potatoes, pickled carrots and green beans.  Dessert was an apple tarte tatin with home made ice cream.
Our waiter was very good, walking us through the menus as we ordered the food and our appetizer quickly came.  This dish of oysters and yuca was simply amazing.  Textually crunchy, with spicy, sweet, and salty flavors all playing with and against each other quite nicely.   Once we finished the dish, a waiter brought us another serving of the appetizer. We told them we had already received it, however after checking in the back they realized they had made a mistake, so we were able to score a second helping of this dish.  The entrees then came and they were both incredible.  Beautiful to look at as well as eat.  The texture of the dough on the wood fired pizza was crispy and simultaneously chewy.  The chicken fried steak reminded me more of schnitzel playing off of Chef Jacobs experience cooking European style foods, but again was well flavored.  The foie gras gravy I want to bottle up and

take with me wherever I go.  I truly loved how the flavors of that dish with the pickled carrots all played so harmoniously with each other.
Even after all this we saved room for dessert, especially after I heard that the apple tarte tatin was on the menu.  I haven't had one since a trip to Europe a few years back so was eager to try it. Simply put it was exquisite.  Piled high with apples and a dollop of rich vanilla ice cream it was part purely American apple pie, and something else.  It reminded me of my grandmother's cooking, as well as my European travels.  There was a little bump in the service here as it took quite some time to get our dessert due to some miscommunication between the front of the house and the kitchen, but it was definitely worth the wait.
Overall my date and I had a wonderful experience at Brasserie 1895, the food was outstanding, and yes, there were a few bumps in service, but some of that is excused during the soft opening period.  At least for me it is.  The grand opening is this Friday, so I plan to go back in a few weeks to see if all the kinks have been worked out, and do a full review.

First Beer Dinner

Readers of the blog know that I'm a staunch advocate of beer and food. In fact I've gone on record saying that there is no other beverage (yes including wine) that pairs as well with food as beer does. For a long time now I've been throwing around having my own beer dinner, friends have asked for it, but for one reason or another I've put it off. Well putting off has stopped and last Saturday I hosted my first ever beer dinner. It was a small dinner with myself, my wife, and three of our friends. 4 courses, each paired with a specific beer.
Course 1 - Gougeres with salad paired with Boulevard Brewing Two Jokers: My wife and I call Gougeres cheesey puffs which in their simplest form I guess that's what they are. These made with grueyere and plated with a salad of arugula, roasted tomatoes and a mustard vinaigrette. The beer? Well I just had this one and thought it would pair well with the strong cheese, and hold up to the vinaigrette. I wasn't disjointed as I thought this was an incredibly strong pairing.
Course 2 - Beer Battered Fried Quail, Biscuits with Homemade Jalepeno Jelly paired with Saint Arnold's Brown Ale: Not only did I pair the food with SA's Brown Ale, but I used it for the beer batter as well. This was probably my favorite pairing of the night. Maybe it was using the beer in the batter as well as the glass, but the rich maltiness of the Brown ale paired incredibly well with the richness of the Quail while at the same time offering a nice contrast to the slight heat of the jalapeno jelly.
Course 3 - Catfish Cakes on a bed of Summer Squash paired with Real Ale's Full Moon Rye Pale Ale: My take on crab cakes, uses much cheaper catfish, is baked and stays really moist. Its one of my favorite recipes that I've picked up recently. There was some heat in the Catfish Cakes that the Pale Ale stood up very well too. The breadiness of the rye complimented the cake as well. While not the strongest paring of the night, the two complimented each other that it was still a hit.
Course 4 - Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Raspberry Coolie paired with Lindeman's Framboise: Finished the evening with somewhat of a classic pairing, a fruit pairing with a Lambic. While not my favorite beer, Lambics are great desert beers and offer a wonderful tartness to the palate. It was that tartness that played off the buttermilk panna cotta beautifully well. This was a great pairing and an awesome way to finish the evening.

The Future: Well all in all this was a fun event, and I am already planning my next dinner (sometime in the fall). Next time? Make sure I always have a Texas beer in the mix, try some unusual pairings, and pictures. I promise next time I'll have pic's of each course.

Beer Dinner: Otter Creek Dubbel

Time does indeed fly. Without even meaning too I've realized how long it has been since I've posted on the blog. Not due to lack of things to write about (I have plenty) but just lack of time. Hopefully this will be a great week to get caught up. This post is about a beer/food pairing I cooked up about a week ago. I paired the food with an Otter Creek Dubbel, so first a little on the beer.
The Beer: Poured the beer into my Maredsous glass which I think was appropriate. It poured a chestnut brown with a thin head. The nose is caramel, malty, fruity, yeasty. It has a medium mouthfeel a little on the week side. Not a lot of effervescence, it slides and slithers along the tongue. Rich and malty with yeasty and rye bread notes. Some dark figs and raisins, but not much. Its a simple beer with a little but not a lot of character. This one gets a B- from me.
The Food: I cooked up some lamb with a jalapeno jelly marinade, sat it on top of some sauteed spinach (the lamb was again topped with a dab of the jalapeno jelly) and served with what was supposed to be corn pudding pie, but ended up just corn pudding. The pie crust didn't turn out how I wanted it (lessons learned). I thought it was a nice pairing with the beer. The rich malty bready, and slight sweetness of the beer complimented the slight heat of the jalapeno jelly and the richness of the lamb. I think if the Dubbel had just a bit more of the figs and raisins it would have been an even better pairing, but this was pretty solid as the beer complimented but didn't overpower the food.

Beer and Food Quick Hit

I wanted to post a quick thought on a recent article written by Eric Asimov of the New York Times. The idea is one that many have been preaching about for a while, craft beer deserves more than beer nuts, and frozen and fried mozzarella sticks. Its not that we need to add a level of pretension to beer, I don't think anyone wants that, its that if you are sitting down to drink a craft beer with dinner, don't you want something a little more? Something well made, with good fresh ingredients? Go see Belgian. In most every restaurant good beer is served with good food. I'm not talking about upscale expensive food, but honest, well made, rustic food.
Many bars take great care in serving good beer, and shouldn't they take the same care in serving good food, and if not isn't that a disservice to the beer. This is just as true in Houston as it is in New York. I'm not talking about places like Gingerman that are places to sit, relax in the beer garden and have a good beer. They don't serve crappy food, they don't serve food at all, and frankly thats ok. This is directed at those places, that take care to serve good beer, but do so with mediocre to frankly crappy food. Why?

I also want to point out the somewhat dissenting opinion (be sure to checkout the comments).

My Spain Trip

As most know I returned a few days ago from a very nice two week vacation to Spain. As amazing as this trip was, and the awesome sites I got to see this is not a travel blog so I won't bore anyone with minute details of my trip and all the things you should see when you go. However, I do want to mention my thoughts on the food and beer of Spain, two things very near and dear to my heart and this blog. First the beer. In short, not so good. Whether in Barcelona where Estrella Damm and Mortiz reign supreme, Vallencia and Sevilla where Cruzcampo is everywhere, or Grenada where Alahambra is supreme, its pretty much the same beer, pale lager's. While none are bad, none are that great. The best of them is probably Alahambra beer which I found to be a bit fuller bodied. The food though was amazing, and I tried as much as I could. In Barcelona I loved the tortilla (the ubiquitous Spanish dish of eggs and potatoes), and the butter sauteed little green peppers that were so tasty and a popular tapas dish. In Valencia, we had paella, where surprisingly rabbit was a big player, blood sausage (different from Barcelona where the blood sausage contained rice). Also different was the paella where there were huge white beans mixed in adding an amazing depth and almost meatiness to the rice. Also another of my favorite dishes was partridge pate with macadamia nuts.
From there we traveled to Grenada where you start to see an arabic influence in the foods. Middle easter flavors, but also a lot of offal. Two of the more interesting dishes was the Sosas which was brains fired in puff pastry (first time eater but not to bad) and tortilla Sacromonte, a tortilla made with potatoes and offal. Grenada was a great city not only for the amazing Alahambra but of what I have always considered tapas to be. Streets of bars where bars supply tapas for the first beverage you buy. This allowed you to hop from bar to bar trying a beverage (whether it be a glass of beer or wine or vermouth which was supplied from a cask). Grenada was also more beer centric then Barcelona, where you could go to bars and get some German and Belgian beers along with the basic Spanish offerings. Finally we headed to Sevilla where Seafood reigned supreme. Squid and Salted Cod being the biggest players, but shrimp and other fishes were in most dishes as well. As much as I enjoyed the seafood dishes my favorite had to be the cured Iberian Pork. The cured meat was from pigs that had fed on acorns which created an incredibly rich meat. I just mentioned a few dishes from each of the city I visited but I don't want anyone to think that's all I had or all that there is to offer, it was those things that made the biggest impression on me.
I'll close my relatively brief summary with a few quick observations. A great way to try meals at more expensive restaurant was to get their Menu del Dia or Menu of the day. It included bread, drink (water, beer, wine, or cola), 2 courses, and a desert. This was all for anywhere between 7 and 15 euro's. Not bad, although what I did find humerous was all the second courses were basically a well prepared protein with fries on the side (note: Spain is not known for its fries). One thing I always think about when traveling is how much I love experiencing each regions food and drink. Throughout my traveling around Spain I enjoyed seing the diversity of food from each region and even what the predoment drink was. It made me think do travelers to the states see and enjoy the same thing? Do they travel to the south for a taste of true soul food, or to the New England area for seafood dishes, or Kansas City and Texas for BBQ, etc?

Gingerman's Belgian Beer Tasting

If you follow me on twitter you know that last Saturday I was at the Gingerman's Belgian Beer tasting. I have to say I went to this tasting extremely excited, but at the same time unsure of what to expect. On one hand I knew that Gingerman would have a great selection of Belgian beer's available for tasting. On the other hand, this was a Belgian beer and FOOD tasting, and for anyone that's been to Gingerman, you know they don't have much food available beyond cheese, some chips, and a meat plate. So what kind of food was it going to be? And how is this Michael O'Connor the chef that was going to cook the food? And how was he going to cook it?
Well you'll be happy to know the event was amazing. The food was for the most part excellent, the chef O'Connor is the chef at the Houston Country club (you can also follow him on twitter), and also surprisingly elegantly plated. There were a total of 8 courses, each paired with a small sample of beer and a small plate of food.
Course 1: Chimay White paired with Chimay Cheese and beer soup w/ sausage: This may be been my favorite dish over all. Chimay White is a Triple that weighs in at 8.0% and has flavors of oranges, floral perfumey hops, spicy cloves, honey, along with some bready and yeasty notes. The soup was served in a tall shot glass, the sausage was Italian from Central Market. The soup was creamy with just a bit of spice from the sausage, and small bits of onions and carrots that added a nice texture. The Chimay really paired well with it, marrying the flavors in the beer and soup, also cutting through the fat in the soup since the beer is so effervescent it wiped the fat off the tongue. The fruitiness of the beer also was a great match for the slight spiciness of the sausage.
Course 2: Stella Artois paired with Sezchuan Peppercorn Shrimp:
From one of my favorite dishes to my least favorite. The plate came out and looked very nice, with two shrimp covered in a light sauce with some peppers. Stella of course is the ubiquitous Belgian Lager. Initially I thought this would be good pairing the crispness of the Stella against the spiciness of the shrimp. Unfortunately the shrimp were cold by the time they were served and there was very little if any spice to the dish. It was a nice pairing from a shell fish standpoint, but I was really hoping for more.
Course 3: Houblon Chouffe paired with Black Eyed Pea Cake w/ smoked trout and IPA mousse:
Does the title alone get you excited? Houblon Chouffe is an IPA Tripel with flavors of pineapple oranges, spice, fruity esters, and bananas. The dish came out with the Blacked eye cake (looking for all the world like a little crab cake) topped with the salmon IPA mousse. Again this was a really solid pairing, my only issue was that I didn't get much of the IPA in the mousse. The smokiness of the black eye peas worked well against the fruitiness and spiciness of the beer, and at the same time, the IPA didn't overshadow the salmon. It was really a nice almost perfect pairing.
Course 4: Hoegaarden paired with beer steamed thai mussels: Ah yes the classic Belgian pairing, mussels steamed in beer paired with a Hoegaarden. Of course the there is a Thai twist here. Hoegaarden is THE wit and weighs in at a light 4.9%. The mussels were served two to a square shaped bowl with a slice of bread sitting in a rich brown Thai sauce. This was another really great pairing. Of course the mussels and beer paired well together but the surprise here was how the wit stood up to the spiciness of the Thai broth (a broth by the way that was sopped up by the bread and any leftovers were drank. I wish I could bottle it!).
Course 5: Maredsous 8 paired with a honey mustard marinated pork loin w/ Maredsous 8 sauce:
Again doesn't just the name of the dish get you excited? Maredsous is a dubbel that weighs in at 8%. It has flavors of caramel, raisins, toffee, and chocolate. The dish came out on a small plate with 4 slices of the loin with the sauce drizzled over them. Again the sauce here was amazing and I think you could actually taste the richness of the Maredsous. The pork was a little dry, but having it with the beer really brought out the flavors with the sauce marrying everything together, really enriching the dish flavor wise.
Course 6: St. Bernardus ABT. 12 with beef short ribs carbonade:
This beer is a Quadrupel that weighs in at 10.5%. This is your big cab to go with beef. There are flavors of raisins, figs, licorice, brown sugar, and a slight alcohol burn. The short rib was served simple with a side of potatoes. Again the slight effervescence of this beer cut through the fat of the short ribs, opening up the flavors of the beef bringing the dish together. Really nice pairing.

Now on to our two desert courses.
Course 7: Kasteel Rouge with Chocolate Truffles: Kasteel Rouge is new to the Texas market. Its a top fermented cherry beer and weighs in at 8%. There are flavors of honey, cherry, Cinnamon, with very low carbonation. The chocolates are served two to a place, one lime chocolate the other just chocolate. The Kasteel paired amazing well with the regular truffle. The slight sourness of the beer feeding off the rich dark chocolate. I thought the lime Chocolate was a little off putting.
Course 8: Lindemans Framboise paired with raspberry topped pound cake with Framboise Foam:
I think every knows of this beer, even if like me they had never had it. The beer pours a bright rose color and weighs in at a light 4%. Sour raspberries is the flavor here. The cake came out on a small plate topped with the raspberries and then the nicely pink tinted Framboise foam. This was a pairing made in heaven. Everything really worked and fed off of each other. I'm not a huge lambic fan but this was a really nice pairing.

Overall I thought Gingerman's hit a home run on this tasting. It was there first time to do something like this and there plans are to do one once a quarter with the next one being in July. There were about 14 or 15 people participating and everyone that reserved showed up even with the horrible weather. It was a really fun time, the people all talked to eachother about the dishes, and someone even brought along some extra beer to share with everyone which was quite a treat (the beers were a 2004 Chimay Reserve and a 2003 Cantillion).
Joe from Gingerman gave a little back ground on each beer a little history, and was a very gracious host. A knowledgeable way to spend a wonderful afternoon. If you get the chance to go to the one in July I would highly encourage it. The topic will be Beer Vs. Wine.

Upcoming Houston Beer Events

April is shaping up to be a pretty good month for craft beer lovers as there are several events worth checking out.
- This week is Cask Appreciation week and in celebration Saint Arnold's is hosting a special Twitter crawl this Thursday. The crawl will be held downtown and at the end a special cask ale will be tapped. The event starts at the Brewery Tap (717 Franklin St). There will be 3 stops total the subsequent ones being sent out via Twitter. However, I think Flying Saucer has let the cat out of the bag so to speak as they are tapping a cask of Saint Arnold's Bourbon Barrel Stout that same night, so unless there are two cask tappings I think that will be the final stopping point. Unfortunately me working the night shift this week at my real job will keep me from participating, but if you have the chance you should definetely check it out.
- As mentioned many times, next Thursday the 16th of April, THE craft beer move Beer Wars will be released one night, and one night only. Please go and support this movie, there are quite a few places that its showing in our fair city.
- On the 17th of April Blanco, Tx's own Real Ale will be hosting a very special event at the Alamo Drafthouse to tap an exclusive cask of their new Drafthouse ESB.
- The very next Saturday April 18th, Gingerman is hosting a Belgian Beer tasting, with food provided by Chef Michael O' Connor. Cost is $35.00, reservations are highly recommended.
- Lastly, and as previously mentioned Saint Arnold's and Brenner's will be hosting what looks to be an amazing Beer Dinner on April 23rd. Its not cheap, but it should be a wonderful evening of great food and beer.

These were just the special events, but there are numerous weekly things always going on in Houston. In addition to the special cask being tapped this Thursday, the Flying Saucer is tapping a special keg every Thursday. A when its gone its gone special. Past kegs have been DFH 120 minute IPA and DFH FORT. Wednesday nights at both the Saucer and Gingerman is Pint glass night, buy the pint keep the glass.

Like I said April looks to be a great month to support craft beer in Houston.
You also may notice I've added a list of the upcoming events. If anyone finds out something that should be added let me know.

A quick Beer and Food Post

Well fresh off my rant from earlier today about the lack of a quality beer and food scene in the fine city of Houston, I receive some wonderful news. On April 23rd Saint Arnold's will be hosting a 7 course Beer dinner at Brenner's Steakhouse. This is not just any food and beer pairing, this will be some really good food, paired with great Saint Arnold's beers. No word if it will be only the regular line up or if Saint Arnold's will have something special for the occasion. Stay tuned because as I find out more I'll post on it.

Houston Wine Scene vs. Houston Beer Scene

As most of you know by know I have started to twitter, one of the more interesting aspects of doing that is the folks I have had the pleasure of following and finding out what they are doing/thinking/reading. A lot of the folks I follow are in the local Scene, whether they be Houston bar owners, chefs, or food writers. It's this last category that has me writing today. Yesterday a local food blogger wrote this article about the state of Houston's food and wine scene. Its an article that I pretty strongly disagree with. The basis is that we are trying to be New York, or other food centric cities and are failing. I say thank God we are failing. I don't want us to be like other cities, and I think the author overstates that Houston tries. I think a lot of the food people in this town celebrate the things that are great in this city, good seafood, oysters, taco trucks, beef (this is Texas, we love our meat). Could you say that some restaurants try to emulate other more famous ones in other cities? Yes? Can you say that Houston has no zoning laws and has miles and miles, and miles of eye sore strip malls? Yes, but that's Houston. Love it or don't that's part of the soul of Houston. Go pick up Houston Its Worth It. But the point of this post is not to belabor the twittering back and forth the above article created on the Houston Wine scene, but to discuss how it relates to the Houston Beer scene. I think Houston's wine scene is pretty good. You have some good retailers in Spec's, Richards, and Houston Wine Merchant, some great places to sit, relax and have some wine, Tasting Room, Wine Bucket, Cork, Sonoma, Corkscrew, 13 Celsius, and many more. Finally you have some restaurants with great wine lists, and finally restaurants like Feast, and Reef that fight for good wines and lower costs. So while its not perfect its far from horrible even for a city this size.
Now let's compare that with beer shall we. Not counting grocery stores (which have decent wine selections) you have one retailer with a good beer selection and that's Spec's. Yes you do have some great places to have a pint: Gingerman (by the way something New York got from Houston), Flying Saucer, Stag's Head, Little Woodrows, Petrol Station, and a few more. Then you have those restaurants that serve good food and good beer...wait what restaurants. Now we get to the crux of the matter. For there are none. Places like Woodrows and Gingerman its all about the beer (and hey that's OK), for others like Stag's Head and Mucky Duck its the British food theme, and lastly places like Saucer its bar food, sandwiches and pizza that's nothing to write home about. Where is the great food places and beer? Even though Texas Micro Brew scene is small many restaurants could have a diverse beer menu with just Texas brews available. Complex and tasty beers like Saint Arnold's Elissa IPA to go with spicy foods, Live Oak's Hefeweizen for lighter fare like salads, or cold served fish, Southern Star's new Buried Hatchet Stout with desert or oysters (mmm stout and oysters), Real Ale Rye Pale Ale, Rahr and Sons Ugly Pug, Real Ales Coffee Porter (made with Katz's coffee), the list goes on and on of beers that should be in fine restaurants and would compliment their foods, but for whatever reason chef's and restaurateurs won't step up. If Houston was just a 'trendy' city wouldn't they have already done this? From coast to coast, and places in between (including Dallas) restaurants are creating beer lists, they are having beer dinners, creating perfect matches between their food and craft beer. When will Houston Restaurants do the same? Reef, one of the best restaurants in Houston one that has fought for lower wine prices, their beer list is atrocious, with only Shiner being locally made and semi-craft. Feast? Another great restaurant with a good food friendly wine list? Fuller's is about as good as it gets. Why won't a Houston restaurant/Chef step up and serve great beer next to their great food?

Beer Dinner's

A good food and beer article in the Dallas Morning News today, documenting the trend of having beer dinners. While this has been going on for quite some time on the East and West coast it has taken its sweet time making its way to the central part of the country. From the article it looks like Dallas is getting in on the trend and some restaurants are setting up some really fine beer and food pairings. One question: What about Houston? I know Saint Arnold's does some really good beer and cheese pairings with Houston's own The Dairy Maids, but I only know of one recent beer and food dinner and that was Beaver's and Real Ale, and that was months ago and not on a regular basis. Most of the Texas Breweries are in South Texas (Austin, Blanco, Houston, Conroe) not to far from Houston, why can't a Houston Restaurant step up and do a series of dinners based on beer (whether from Texas or not), but not just one, how about a monthly one, just as many restaurants do a big monthly or even weekly wine pairing menu? There's more to food and beer than just pub grub, why not show case that?
Ok enough with the rant, but go checkout the article.

Quick Hits: Beer and Food Edition

Time for some quickfire quick hits, mainly focused on two of my favorite things. Beer and Food:

- I missed it, how did I miss it! Last weekend was the 2nd annual Saint Arnold's One Pot Cookoff. The Houston Press has a great write up so I'll give them all the credit for it. Also they've posted some fun pictures. After reading all this am I the only one that wants to see a Saint Arnold's Cookbook?

- For North Texas folks, it looks like a regular Beer and food feast.
First the Oceanairre seafood room is hosting a food and beer paring with Anchor Brewery. The cost is 55.00. Checkout this link for the menu. Sounds amazing.
Not much food but Idle Rich in Dallas continues to host Monday tastings focusing on different regions of the world or different types of beer. The next one is called Hop Heaven.

My final tidbit is local, and really has nothing to do with food, but I wanted to share it anyways. As most know Saint Arnold's hosts the largest single style home brew contest in the states called Big Beer Brew Bash. The last few years the winning recipe has been made into a Divine Reserve. Well Saint Arnold's has released the style for this years BBBB and its a Strong Scotch Ale. So will this soon be a Divine Reserve? I'd put money on it, although it won't be DR 8, more like DR9. Of course that beg's the question what will DR8 be?

2 Very Quick, Very late hits

I know I'm late in posting on both of these things, but I figure better late than never and maybe just maybe some of this may be news to you.
- First news from the Houston Press regarding a new Rice University Biology Study. Rice Biologists are working on a BioBeer to create a "A brew which has modified yeast that creates resveratrol – the cancer-preventing ingredient in red wine that has also been linked to lowering risks of heart disease in lab animals."

- Secondly its Battle Beer time!!! On a recent episode of Food Networks Iron Chef the secret ingredient was Beer. The chef's had 60 minutes to create at least 5 dishes using the secret ingredient. I think its awesome that Beer and food is getting this main stream, however there were good things and very bad things about this episode. First the good: One of the judges was the great Garret Oliver. There was a really nice beer selection: Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate Stout, Bire De Miel (a mead), Ivanhoe IPA, Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, and last but not least Shiner Hefeweizen. Lastly the food made from the beer ranged a pretty broad gamut from traditional Brats, to more complex deserts and cakes. The bad of course was the knowledge of beer by the hosts and the other two judges. Kevin Brauch who has hosted booze related shows in the past said that the Shiner was brewed in Austin! Also the host Alton Brown seemed to know nothing about beer. In other shows he seems extremely well researched and while that may be production and an artifact of the show, why not show the same respect towards Beer that they have shown towards other ingredients? Lastly the other judges seemed to distain the taste of beer, and not really understanding nor appreciating its complex flavors. Having said all that, even with the negatives it was extremely nice to see a show like this focusing on beer and food.

Houston Cellar Classic and Saint Arnold's

Fresh off of the Great American Beer Festival, we enter the week of the Houston Cellar Classic, put on by The Tasting Room. This is a unique week in Houston filled with wine tasting, wine and food pairings, dinners, etc. It also includes a special day for beer, specifically Houston's own Saint Arnold's. That day was yesterday. When it was announced that the HCC would be having a special Saint Arnold's Beer tasting, I can't tell you how excited I was. Remember this was the same group of folks that put together the awesome Saint Arnold's and Texas Cheese pairing afternoon last year. So what was I expecting? This being held at the TTR Midtown location, known locally for its "Grilling and Chilling" Wednesdays, I was expecting small bites grilled of course, and paired with individual Saint Arnold's beers. What did I get? Some small grilled bites (great Buffalo Slides, ribs, and frites from Max's Wine Dive), and Saint Arnold's beer (the regular line up along with their Octoberfest), but no pairing. It was just a grab your food and grab a beer, any beer will do set up. No pairing, no showing how well each specific beer can go well with different types of food.
Would HCC do this and call it a Wine Tasting? No, they would have specific foods matched with each wine, so why not the same respect shown for good beer? You have such a wide range of beers here, from the light crispness of Lawnmower to go perfectly with grilled seafood, to the richness of the Octoberfest, perfect for some grilled brats, or even the grilled ribs they served. To call my extremely disappointed in yesterday's evenings festivities is an understatement as I really think HCC, TTR, and yes even Saint Arnold's missed the boat on this one.

A divine dinner

If you're in the mood for a good beer and food post, head over to my wife's blog Green Grazing. Last Sunday, we made chicken burgers, but these weren't just any chicken burgers, they were divinely inspired by Saint Arnold's. My wife made beer bread using the latest Divine Reserve, and the chicken burgers themselves were topped off with some Redneck Cheddar made with Divine Reserve 5. It was an amazing dinner.

The Session 20: Beer and Memories

Its Friday October 3rd, the first Friday of October and what does that mean? Its time for The Session, the virtual beer tasting where beer bloggers the world over unite under a common theme. The host this month is the Bathtub brewery and as the title says the theme this month is Beer and memories.
I personally looked forward to the Session this month as I really liked the theme. If nothing else I think beer brings people together and helps create memories. Whether its a finely crafted beer that when tasted with close friends offers a one of a kind memory, or whether it's a cold brew enjoyed with friends at a baseball game, the theme is good times, good friends and hopefully good beer. This specific post is about my memories of beer as I grew up. Unlike a lot of people my mom didn't have a huge issue with me having a beer (yes even if I was under 21) as long as I was at home and didn't go anywhere afterwards. This allowed me to understand what a beer would do to my senses without being at a bar slamming drinks back as fast as I could. Anyways I don't want to get on an Under 21 tangent, that's not the purpose of this post. The point is that I remember often me coming home from college and my mom having a 6-pack of Shiner waiting in the fridge. Not Bud, not Coors, not Miller, but Texas's own Shiner Bock. This beer was my introduction into things not named BMC. It let me know that beer wasn't just yellow, it had different colors!!! Who knew? Now my mom is not a beer drinker, but she knew that this is what I liked so she always made sure there was a sixer in the fridge waiting for me when I arrived. I really enjoyed that, coming back home from being away months at a time and visiting my mom, popping open a Shiner, having a BBQ, or if it was 4th of July weekend, climbing on top of my roof to see the local fireworks Drinking Shiner just reminds me of simpler times, fun times with my family and friends. Shiner became my gateway beer to the greater world of Craft Beer and all it has to offer. To be honest I haven't cracked a Shiner open in quite a few years, so what better time than today when I'm in a reminiscing mood than to try one out.
The Beer: Ahh its been a long long time. Pouring it into a pint glass (is there any other serving vessel you could use?) it pours a nice copper amber with a thick off white head that quickly dissipates. You can really see the carbonation in the liquid. The nose is malty, sweet roasted malts and caramel. The mouth has some tin-y notes, like from an aluminum can. There's a lot of carbonation (maybe a bit too much), notes of caramel and sweet malts. Its not a complex beer, but its an easy drinking, smooth, decent tasting beer. Maybe its not everything I remember it to be, but it's still a nice beer. It gets a C+ from me.

The folks at Bathtub Brewery will be posting the roundup in the next few days so check back and see all the other memories.

Restaurant Review: Beavers

For the second time in a month my wife and I went to the new BBQ/Ice House/New 'It Spot' Beaver's in the Heights in Houston. Owned by Monica Pope (check out her other scrumptious and amazing restaurant T'afia's), Beaver's is primarily pit BBQ joint. It serves only hormone free beef, quail, fish, etc. The first time we went there was when it had first opened and to say it had some kinks to work out was an understatement. The food came out in a disorganized manner. You would get your sides, then maybe an appetizer, then you entree. Or some of the folks at our table would get their Entree before their sides or any appetizers came out. Now the waiter let us know before hand this would be the case but it was still a little chaotic. Thankfully the food was amazing. Smoky, flavorful, and for the most part tender.
We were expecting much better things when we went back this weekend, and we weren't disappointed. We got there around 7 pm and were told it would be a 45 minute wait. Which was fine because I wanted to check the bar out anyways. They are supposed to have some really good mixed drinks there, and I wanted to get one for my wife. The mixologist is a fellow blogger so if your interested in cocktails go checkout his Explore the pour. The drinks were really good, and really well made, my wife had a Mayahaul Fizz. Myself? I partook in one of the 60 bottled beers they offer. They have an incredible selection of microbrews here and their beer list is organized really well dark to light by style. Very well done. Only a few on tap but many bottles from the local Texas Microbrews Saint Arnold's and Real Ale. I started the evening off with a BANG and had a bottle of Real Ale Sisyphus. When we got to the table we ordered appetizers of Campechana Seafood and Sweet Potato French Fries. Both were absolutely incredible. With the food I decided to order a Saint Arnold's Winter Stout (served on Draft). Thinking that the nice sweetness of the beer would go well with the sweet smokiness of the BBQ. For dinner I ordered a Rack of ribs and my wife got the brisket. The brisket was amazing, tender juicy and just fabulous. The rub on the brisket and the sauce were outstanding. The ribs were fairly good. they were dry rubbed and very tasty, however they were not fall off the bone tender which is what I'm used to. They were a little tough at times nearly impossible to pull away from the bone with my teeth. I was disappointed in that because they were extremely flavorful. However the food came out quickly and the service was excellent. We finished the night with a dessert cocktail that Robert made us. It again like all the cocktails we had was fabulous. All in all Beavers is a great new addition to the Houston dining scene, with its own twist on Texas BBQ and Texas Icehouses.
Service: A
Food: B
Beer Selection: A
Cocktails: A

Quick Hits: Beer and Food

Just a quick post on some interesting happenings in the beer and food department.
The first comes from Houston's own Saint Arnold's and involves a new event that they are hosting.
On January 27th, Saint Arnold's will host the first annual One Pot Showdown. The basis of the competition is that everyone is invited to cook a dish, cooked in one pot (think stew, gumbo, soup, etc), and using a Saint Arnold's beer. The top three will receive a prize:

1st place: $500 and a super neat trophy
2nd place: $200 and a neat, but not as super trophy
3rd place: $50 and some other wacky prize

Now how cool is that?
The second cool thing is that the Brewers Association is hosting Savor: an American Craft Beer and Food Experience on May 16-17 in Washington D.C. The goal of this event is to show how well great beer goes with good food. Stan over at Appellation Beer posted about this, and posted the following on how the event will work:

Tickets for each of the three sessions (May 16-17) are limited to the first 700 ticket purchasers. The $85 ticket includes a commemorative tasting glass, souvenir program and Craft Beer Taster’s Commemorative Journal, fabulous food and craft beer pairings, seminars, and 2- ounce samples of specially selected craft beer.”

48 breweries from eight regions will participate.

I know I've said it once already, but how cool is that! It's a great thing that events are being held promoting how well craft beer goes with food. Not only on the local scale but the national scale as well.

A quick post on Beer and food

In my ever expanding search for articles on beer and food I was excited to see this article from Barry Schlacter in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Not only a good article praising two Texas Octoberfest beers, one the great Saint Arnold's version, the other from Rahr and Son's that I have yet to taste. But it goes on to discuss food pairings and how well Marzen style brews hold up to good food, showcased by a great recipe from Sam Adams.

The Session #8 Announcement

YES! Time for the monthly announcement of The Session, a monthly virtual beer tasting. The host this month is Beer Haiku Daily the theme this is month is Beer and Food. This is a great theme and one that is quite appropriate with the recent beer and food postings. More details from BHD:

I am looking for posts about pairing beer with food or using beer as an ingredient in food. I hope to see recipes, pictures, tasting notes, stories, menus, reviews or anything else that fits the bill of fare. Whether you write about which beer goes best with chili dogs or give your family’s secret recipe for vegan stout stew or post pictures of those ale braised lamb shanks you had last week, I want to know every mouth watering detail.

Sounds appetizing! I think this could lead to some great posts and more importantly a greater amount of educating, showing people how well beer and good food go together. Due date? 5 October. This means that I will probably be posting a little earlier as I am going to be pretty busy around that time......

Food and Beer

One of my passions is food and drink. I love cooking and consider myself a pretty good home cook, and I feel there is nothing better than a well made dinner paired with a wine or a craft beer. I am always interested in events or articles on good food pairings. One of my all time favorite beer books is Garrett Oliver's Brewmaster Table, the gold standard I think for food and beer pairings. This is a prime reason for my excitement over the recent Saint Arnold's Beer and Cheese tasting, plus it showed there are certain things that pair better with beer than wine. In addition to my post there's been a couple of articles and postings about food and beer that I thought I'd pass along.
First, Stan over at Appellation beer writes about three brewery's setting up Beer and Food dinners. This is a really great way for the brewery's to do a little self promotion and eat some really great foods. I'd love it if a local brewery could set something like this up. (hint hint for anyone out there reading this).
Secondly Fort Worth Star Telegram's Barry Schlacter has a great article on beer and food. Covey Restaurant and Brewing holds a four course beer dinner each course pairing with one of their fine beers handcrafted right there. What a great idea and a place I will definitely have to check out next time I am up in Ft. Worth.