This last Saturday a couple of good friends of mine had a "Beer and Games Day" at their house. It was a brilliant idea. And simple. A bunch of friends get together to drink beer, play games and talk. I had to leave early, but while I was there it was more conversation and beer than anything else. The beer "mandate" was to bring good beer that people might want to try, and our hosts had stocked up on some nice beers in 750 ml bottles which neither of them had not tried before so that we could do some beer tasting.
I had brought a mix of Oktoberfests that I had been collecting to do a personal taste testing (which I have yet to do). I haven't been drinking much recently, so I figured they would be a tasty addition to the community pool of beers. I grabbed a New Glarus Moon Man, which I'd never had before. It was good. It was also the beer that Scott had used to make his beer dip. I had also made a beer dip, but they were two different styles.
Beer Dip
Scott's came from a recipe in Cooking with Beer by Sheryn R. Jones that is made with a can of "mexicorn. It was firm like mine typically is. I doubled the beer in mine and used "fancy" finely shredded sharp cheddar to make mine nice and creamy. As I understand it the two recipes are extremely similar, otherwise. The following is my recipe:
2 packages of cream cheese
2 cups (8 ounces) of shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup of beer (I used 2/3 to make the texture creamier)
1 ounce (one package) of ranch seasoning.
More specifically, I use MGD for the beer - it's my standard cooking beer. 2/3 cup doesn't change the flavor much from the normal 1/3.
Comparing the two side-by-side, I liked the creamy texture of mine better, but I liked the flavor of Scott's better.
Then while assembling game pieces and conversing with Scott and Jen I had a bottle of Scott's home-brew porter. It was really good, and it was a reminder that I would really like to pick up home brewing sometime soon.
Then, after several more people had arrived, I cracked into one of the beers Jo had brought - Samuel Smith's Old Brewery (an English brewery) I had their "Tadcaster: The Famous Taddy Porter". Also a very good beer.
Books
While we were talking and drinking, Scott brought out some of his beer books and I looked them over. One was the book he had gotten the beer dip recipe from. He also made a real nice chili from a recipe in the book as well. Being a book about cooking with beer, the chili obviously had beer in it. I believe he said he had used some of his home brewed porter. After eating what he had to offer, I'm beginning to think that I may want to branch out from using just MGD or whatever is handy when cooking. I'm beginning to think (and I should probably already know just from the basics of cooking) that different beers will impart different flavors on the same foods. I want to experiment with it.
The other books that Scott brought out were:
Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher - I have this book myself and had started reading it some time ago. I had set it down and haven't had a chance to come back to it.
How To Brew by John J. Palmer - The gentleman at the Northern Brewer store had recommended this book. They sell it. I think he also mentioned that an early edition of the book is available for free online. He had suggested reading through the online version before starting to brew and then buying the book to have on hand while actually doing it. There are differences between the editions, but I'm not sure which since I haven't seen the online version and I had only paged through the copy Scott had.
The Naked Pint by Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune - This looked like a very interesting book so I may either pick it up sometime or see if I can borrow it. I suppose it depends on if I want to keep it or not.
The Mystery of Stemware Revealed
I believe I had mentioned previously that I didn't understand stemware for beer. I get pint glasses, mugs, pilsner glasses and the like. But I just didn't understand stemware. Well Scott explained it to me short and simple. It makes sense now, but I don't know if I can do it justice. The shape holds in the aroma, so you can smell it. The Stem allows you to have less contact between your warm hand and the glass that is holding your nice cold beer. Viola - little things that improve the experience a bit. The same reason stemware is used for wine. He didn't have beer-specific stem ware so we used wine glasses. They worked perfectly.
Tasting
Scott poured us samples of each of the beers he had bought.
New Glarus Belgian Red (it was a cherry kriek-style beer) - It was light and flavorful - very sweet. It tasted like cherry pie filling. It was almost like a spritzer.
Ommegang Abbey Ale - It had a rich fruity-floral maltiness with a bit of caramel malt flavor and a nice strong finish
Chimay Ale - Not my kind of beer. It was good, but I'd rather it be a good beer in someone else' hand. It reminded me of a Carlsburg but lighter. It had that "old man beer" flavor that makes me think of my childhood. Chris described that sour-nearly turned flavor the best when he described it as "horse blanket". It's the best description I've heard for that flavor so far, so I'm going to use it until/unless I find something better.
Hennepin Saisson - It was too light. I can see drinking it after mowing the lawn on a hot summer day, but not really at any other time. I'd choose it over a macro brew, but there are a good many beers out there I would drink first. Scott said he thought it would be good with a salad, but it's not something to drink by itself. Chris and Jo didn't care for it at all.
New Glarus Abt (one of their "unplugged" beers) It had a wonderful maltiness - not too dense but still thick and wonderful.
Stone Ruination IPA - bitter and sweet like eating an orange rind. Strong fruity/floral flavors.
What I Learned
- I learned the place of stem ware in enjoying beer.
- I confirmed that I tend to prefer dark hoppy beers.
- Jo likes dark beers - nice and dense.
- Chris likes malty beers.
- Most of my friends have a good appreciation for the Fat Tire.
- Kyle can get his hands on some beers that you just can't find easily, but he is a solid (but lighthearted) defender of malt beverages such as Old English. (I'd run across this once before while making fun of the non-discriminating price-driven tastes of teenage college students. I had used Old English as an example.)
- Home Brewing still sounds like a lot of fun.
- I want to do more things like this - eat, talk and try new beers with friends.
