Celebrity sighting for beer nerds

Erin and I had a nice surprise a few weeks ago. We were at Whole Foods beer school, which has kind of become a regular thing for us, when happened to notice that Garrett Oliver was going to be in town for the Craft Brewers Conference and he was hosting a dinner in the Whole Foods kitchen. In case you don't know, Mr. Oliver is the brewmaster at the Brooklyn Brewery and the author of a pretty amazing book entitled The Brewmaster's Table. Obviously once we were done peeing our collective pants due to the excitement we immediately signed up.

This dinner absolutely blew away any and all expectations. First of all, there were only about thirty people there, so it was a really small, intimate crowd. Also, not only did Garrett drop some knowledge on us about beer/food pairings, but he actually did the cooking himself. We were treated to a three course meal consisting of crab cakes, deliciously juicy hamburgers (to which he added an absurd amount of butter), and lamb chops. Each course was paired with a unique Brooklyn Brew.

The first beer was Local 1, a Belgian style ale. We both agreed this was our favorite brew of the night. Then we had their IPA, which was balanced with great spice flavor. Their Lager was our third offering, and it is the beer they are best known for. Finally, their Brown Ale tasted good... from what I can remember!

This picture is pretty significant. Erin decided in 8th grade that she was done eating red meat, and hadn't ever looked back. Yet when we gave up meat for Lent this year, she started feeling the urge to try beef again. This dinner was about a week after Easter, and was the perfect opportunity to get back on the bandwagon. She ate the entire (well done) burger, and was surprisingly delighted!

After the dinner, Brooklyn Brewery treated us to more of their offerings at the bar downstairs. It was a fun chance to chat with other beer geeks, and we even got to spend a few minutes talking to Garrett!

Quick and Dirty Guide to Lagers

One of my all time favorite food blogs is The Kitchn, the foodie spin off from Apartment Therapy. Today they had a post all about lager beers, which I had to repost on here. I'm partially putting this on here for my own reference, but I thought other beer drinkers might find it interesting as well.

The original post can be found here. They are going to do a few posts about different common types of beer, so if I find any more I'll post them again on here.

Quick and Dirty Guide to Lagers
from The Kitchn

Lagers are on one branch of the beer family tree, with ales on the other. Lager beers are made with a particular kind of yeast that ferments at cooler temperatures than ale yeast. This yeast also ferments much at a much slower pace, so the beer is stored (or "lagered") for much longer than ales before being ready to drink.

The long fermentation time leads to cleaner, smoother flavors in the finished beer. Malt and hops flavors tend to predominate with extremely little or no fruitiness from the yeast.

• Pilsners - Typically gold in color, with sweet caramel malts and herby or spicy hops. Pilsners should finish very clean and crisp, and the beer should feel refreshing on the palate. Try Pilsner Urquell, Lagunitas Pils, and Harpoon Pilsner.

• Helles - A bit more malty than pilsners, but with a similar clean and refreshing flavor. They are also pale gold with a crisp finish. Try Victory Lager and Paulaner Original Müncher.

• Oktoberfest - Also called märzen beers, this style is normally heavy on the caramel malts with little or no hops presence. They're deep amber in color and medium bodied. Try Sam Adams Octoberfest, Paulaner Oktoberfest Märzen, and Widmer Oktoberfest (generally only available in the fall).

• Dunkels - Rich and hearty, this beer is also very heavy on the malts, but has more roasted flavors than the Oktoberfest. It's typically dark brown or ruby in color with medium body. Try Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel and Harpoon Munich Type Dark Beer.

• Maibocks - Also called heller bocks and golden bocks, these amber-gold beers have a good amount of hops to balance their creamy maltiness. They finish a bit bitter and have a full-bodied feeling to them. Try Smuttynose Maibock and Sierra Nevada Glissade.

• Bocks - These beers have a lot of roasted malt character to them with just a bit of hops for balance. They're dark brown and generally very full-bodied. Try Anchor Bock and Leinenkugel 1888 Bock.

• Doppelbocks - Also called double bocks, these are an amped up version of bock beers. The malts are generally more complex and heavy with very little hops presence. Try Tommyknocker Butthead Doppelbock and Ayinger Celebrator.

Which lager styles do you love? Any particular beers to recommend?

Whole Foods Beer School

Last semester I taught a cooking class for low-income children through the non-profit organization Common Threads. It was a lot of work, but turned out to be a great experience. The kids were so excited about cooking and nutrition, and they soaked up the information they learned in class. The class was held at the Whole Foods in the South Loop, and I spent a lot of time in that store researching ingredients and shopping before each class.

I stumbled across the Chicago Whole Foods newsletter early on in the semester, and I couldn't help but notice a beer class being offered once a month at the Lakeview store. We had already taken note of the solid beer selection at the South Loop store, so we were intrigued by this opportunity. Conveniently, the Lakeview location is a lot closer to where we live, so Joe and I decided to check in out. We've now attended beer school for 4 of the last 5 months, so I guess you could say we liked it! The classes are $10 each, and they're run by a couple Whole Foods employees who are really passionate about good beer. The people who attend the classes are really nice, and they try to keep it more like a club than a class, where everyone is welcome to contribute. I've gotten a chance to taste a lot of beers that I would never choose to order on my own, and I've been pleasantly surprised by many of them.

This month I finally remembered to take an info sheet home with me, and I figured if I write about the beers right here then I'll have a resource to look back at. The January class was a chance for the new beer buyer to share some brews that he'd recently brought in, so it was a bit of a random mix. Here's what we tasted this time around:


First up was Mc Chouffe Brown Ale, from Brasserie d'Achouffe in Belgium. This was a pretty mild beer, without too much of a "brown" caramelized taste. It was sweet, with only a hint of hoppy flavor. It was mild and balanced. Not as good as La Chouffe, which is one of my all time favorites, but pretty decent. Joe and I rated it 7.5/10
(picture from http://www.duvel.be/pages/Main.aspx?culture=en&pageid=merken/achouffe/merken)







Next we tried the Double Dog Double IPA from Flying Dog Brewery in Denver/Maryland. I've had a few other brews from Flying Dog, but this one was new to me. It was STRONG! 11%, which is pretty crazy. It reminded us of Sierra Nevada Torpedo, which is intensely hoppy. This is a slow sipping beer, both from the alcohol content and the strong hoppy flavor. Our vote was 8/10
(Image from http://www.philliesnation.com/archives/2009/09/gameday-mets-63-80-at-phillies-81-60/)


After that we tried two brews from Hoppin' Frog brewery in Akron, Ohio. The first, Bodacious Black and Tan, was our least favorite of the night. It tasted like a pretty mild stout, with a nice roasted coffee flavor. When we compared it to the second brew, the BORIS Barrel-Aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout, it seemed crazy to wreck the stout by making it into a black and tan. The stout was aged in whiskey barrels, but didn't taste too strongly of whiskey. It was full bodied and smooth, and I was really surprised at how much I liked it! I have always said I'm not a big fan of stouts and other dark beers, but this drink made me reconsider my stance. We gave the Black & Tan 6.5 out of 10, and the Imperial Oatmeal Stout was 9/10.


This edition of beer school concluded with a local stout from Half Acre, which is only about a mile away from our condo. The Big Hugs Imperial Stout was surprising and bursting with coffee flavor. It almost tasted more like coffee than beer! The coffee is roasted by a local guy here in Chicago, which is a nice touch. Tasting Table wrote all about it a few weeks ago. We still haven't been by their brewery, but it will happen SOON!




Anything we're missing out on? We always love recommendations!