Rauchbier and Ribs

This weekend on a visit to our future home in Athens, GA we stopped in at the Copper Creek brewpub for lunch. I ordered a Rauchbier and some ribs, and the combination was fantastic.

Rauchbier is a German lager style that uses smoked barley, giving it a prominent and unique smoky flavor. The one from Copper Creek was bold, smoky, and had a slight bite to it from the carbonation. I had never had Rauchbier before, but I was feeling adventurous in trying such a bold beer. I instantly loved this beer, and I highly recommend trying it; it's a unique and exciting experience.


While sipping on this smoky beer, I couldn't resist ordering some ribs. The pairing was completely complementary and natural. The ribs had a sweet sauce and no smoke flavor, so the beer actually added another layer of flavor that the ribs were missing. This was a great pairing and I can't wait to try out more pairings with this unique style of beer.

Dogfish Head's Midas Touch and Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

Dogfish Head, an excellent craft brewery based out of Delaware, has produced several of what it calls "Ancient Ales". Essentially brewer Sam Calagione is working with an archeologist to recreate ancient beverages. Midas Touch is based off the contents found in an ancient tomb in Turkey believed to belong to King Midas. The recipe includes barley, white muscat grapes, honey, and Saffron. I picked this beer up a while back, intrigued by the story behind it.

Dogfish Head Midas Touch
Ancient Ale / Spiced Ale, 9% ABV, muscat grapes, honey, saffron

First off, is this beer? Yes, I believe so. The "traditional" recipe for beer is barley, water, yeast, and hops (though this Midas Touch recipe is technically older), and all of these are present here. Many, many other beers deviate from these four ingredients (white ale, kriek, and pumpkin ale to name a few), so I think it is fair to say that this may be exotic, but it is still beer in some sense.

This pours a very light amber/ dark straw color, with a few bubbles but not what I would call a head. The smell is of muscat grapes. This ale has an initial bite of saffron, malt, and muscat that is well balanced, and fades into a slightly sweet dryness that I strongly suspect is due to the use of honey and finally into what I believe are either subtle hops or saffron. The flavor is complex and unusual. Some say this tastes more like a wine, but I think the flavor lies somewhere between beer and wine, but with a good deal more herbiness than one comes to expect from either. I liked this beer, though it was somewhat outside of my comfort zone. It is a bit strong at 9% and has a very interesting flavor; I'm glad I drank it slow to appreciate everything going on. I am glad they didn't go any stronger on the honey; I find that too much dryness and alcohol flavor is somewhat unpleasant.

Pairing this with creamy chicken noodle soup was a complete shot in the dark, as I had no idea what to expect from this ale. I modified the recipe by first sauteing onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and mushroom in a pan before adding the chicken, broth, and some white wine. Also, I used egg noodles instead of rice and as I had no sauce packet, I made the roux with sage, black pepper, and herbes du provence instead. This soup turned out really well. It is rich and hearty, creamy and delicious.

Despite being a shot in the dark, this pairing actually turned out pretty well; it seems to be getting better as I work my through the beer. This ancient ale provide an interesting, herby contrast to the creamy soup. The soup brings out the dryness and saffron in the ale. This one is quite interesting and if you have the patience to make soup from scratch, I'd recommend trying it.

St. Patrick's Day

After two weeks of distractions and impediments to drinking (professional conference, spring break, stomach virus, head cold), I've returned to the blog!

So I sadly realized that I missed posting on St. Patrick's day, the biggest drinking holiday of all. To make amends for this, I'd like to say a few words about it.

Firstly, I hope everyone had a Guinness on St. Patty's. I'm an open-minded guy, but I believe there is value in traditions. I've been to Ireland (I'm dying to go back), and Guinness is definitely Ireland's beer.

Guinness was also one of the first beers I managed to get my hands on, and despite what some told me would happen, I loved my first pint. It was smooth and velvety with a creamy head and a light flavor that had just a hint of coffee-like bitterness, and not to mention the seemingly unique blackness. I was just getting my first glimpses into a new world; beer was good and Guinness was good. It wasn't too bitter or too heavy or like eating a loaf of bread as I had been told, and I still believe that those are simply myths. A good pint of Guinness (go for on-tap) has a wonderfully smooth mouth feel and a light but interesting flavor.

Of course, Guinness goes well with your St. Patty's staple dishes, Corn beef and cabbage or shepherd's pie. Stout and oysters is a classic British pairing; I'm fully planning to try this pairing as soon as the opportunity arises.

If you, God forbid, drank that abomination "green beer" this St. Patrick's day, next year don't make this mistake. Instead, reach for Guinness, the true Irish beer (or at least get a Harp).

"A bottle of whiskey at his feet
and a barrel of porter at his head

Whack fol the dah now dance to yer partner
round the flure yer trotters shake
Bend an ear to the truth they tell ye,
we had lots of fun at Finnegan's Wake

Mickey Maloney ducked his head
when a bucket of whiskey flew at him
It missed, and falling on the bed,
the liquor scattered over Tim
Now the spirits new life gave the corpse, my joy!
Tim jumped like a Trojan from the bed
Cryin will ye walup each girl and boy,
t'underin' Jaysus, do ye think I'm dead?"

- Finnegan's Wake (Irish song)

Another Belgian Classic: Saison Dupont

Earlier this week, upon finding out that I got in to one of my graduate schools, I popped open a bottle of Saison Dupont to celebrate a little bit.


Saison Dupont
6.5% ABV, unfiltered, bottle conditioned, bottled in 2009

Saison is a classic Belgian style, also known as the farmhouse ale (or biere de garde in France). Tradiationally these beers would be brewed on farms in the winter and stored until the summer, when the farm workers would drink them as a thirst quencher after a long, hot day of work.

Therefore, it's not surprising that these are thought of as like a Belgian "lawnmower" beer. However, my research on saisons has also set me up to expect a delicious complex beer. My idea of lawnmower beer is beer that comes about as close to water as possible, the American Adjunct Lagers (Bud, Miller, Coors). So I'm not really sure what to expect.

Firstly, this was a green 750 ml bottle with a cork and caging to prevent the cork from flying off; necessary because this is bottle conditioned. The cork gave a nice satisfying pop as it came off (much like opening a bottle of Champagne).

Upon opening and pouring, I started to get a sour, slightly funky aroma with fruit ester notes and some sharpness not unlike that in a lager. The beer was a very light amber color and had experienced chill haze, which made it almost look like a wheat beer.

The initial mouthfeel was of good carbonation, and I get some sharp yeast and some musty flavors. There is a slight bitterness at the back that I suspect is from dry hopping, though none of the vibrant hops flavors (pine, grapefruit, grass) are present. The sharpness as well as the excellent balance and integrated flavor makes this one actually have some things in common with a German lager, but with much more complexity in its yeast and earthy flavor notes.

This beer was indeed refreshing and could perhaps be used as a thirst quencher, but it has nothing in common with "lawnmower beer" beyond that. It is well executed, complex and subtle, and very delicious. However, I would eagerly accept a bottle after a bit of lawn work.

As I drank this I was eating a bowl of spicy, homemade chili. This beer's earthy flavors make it pair very nice with the savory meat and beans of the chili, and it's sharpness and light bitterness accentuates the acidity of the tomatoes and the spiciness. I think this complex beer is made for food, and would pair very well with many dishes.