Exciting times for craft beer and food – the SAVOR festival is sold out and I’ll be there in DC, signing books and sampling some truly amazing pairings – and next Sunday, June 7, we women will have our summer fun at Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln in beautiful downtown Bay View…for a women-only tasting of the spritziest summer pilsners, $15.  Call Sugar Maple at 414.481.2393 to reserve!

Here’s a transcript of a reader chat moderated by Joe Yonan, food editor of the Washington Post and contributing beer columnist, Greg Kitsock:

Dupont Circle, D.C.: Boy would I love those SAVOR tickets! I adore beer and if there is one thing I wish I knew more about, it was how to pair foods with beer. I tend to think of darks as reds and anything ale/lager/pilsner like whites but sometimes the flavor profiles can be startlingly different. For example, what’s a good beer for Spaghetti Bolognese? What’s the best thing to pair with Asian flavors? What about Indian? I’m surprised no one has started a blog on this yet.

Greg Kitsock: Color isn’t always an accurate guide to how hoppy or full-bodied or alcoholic a beer is, and what foods it would pair with. Two excellent books on beer and food are Garrett Oliver’s The Brewmaster’s Table and The Best of American Beer and Food by Lucy Saunders.

For Indian or spicy Asian cuisine, I like something a little aggressive, like a hoppy pale ale or IPA. A Belgian style witbier also has a way of cutting through heat. A nice German Hefeweizen, with its clovey and fruity flavors, can pair well with the spices in Chinese or Thai cooking, as can a Belgian-style saison. For the spaghetti, a nice pale ale should work, or if you want something a little more adventurous, maybe a Belgian strong ale or triple.

To read more of the reader Q&A, check out the Free Range on Food archives.

As for recommendations on beer-food pairings, I tend to stay away from specifics. That’s because I believe that everyone’s palate is different, personal tastes vary according to mood and season, and even the flavors of a specific brand of beer can change as it travels to the consumer. So my standard advice is: sample widely. Get to know your palate and your preferences. Find a good beer store with knowledgable clerks and try brews that are new to you. Host a mixed-case party and swap bottles of beer with friends. Enjoy in moderation with food – as Mitch Turner, director of education and training for Major Brands, says, “drink when you eat, eat when you drink.”  Have fun with the exploration…

To that end, I’m teaching more cooking classes, bringing together the experience of beer flavors with recipes that are easy to make. Next up, grilling classes at Fromagination in Madison on June 16 and at Larry’s Market in Milwaukee, on June 18th. cheers!

Sure, a cookbook might be a fun gift for Father’s Day, and you can get a personally signed copy at SAVOR in Washington DC this weekend.  But for the dad who prefers to drink beer instead of cooking with it, consider a set of tickets to the American Craft Beer Festival produced by BeerAdvocate and held at Boston’s beautiful Seaport World Trade Center. As the inspiration for many of the chef interviews and beer combinations featured in the cookbook, I recommend the festival – and the thriving and diverse Boston and Cambridge MA brewpub and tavern scene.  Visit bostonusa.com and cambridge-usa.org for hotels easily accessible by the T.  During the summer, it’s fun to stay near the waterfront – the Boston Logan Hilton is an all new property, very clean and modern, with access to the Seaport via T, and the Charles Hotel on the banks of the River Charles is just a short stroll from the T – and close to some of the best beer-food destinations such as Cambridge Common, Cambridge Brewing Co. and Craigie on Main.

From the Restaurant Intelligence blog:

Local chefs will unite at Goose Island Clybourn for a special dinner on May 20 to benefit Swan Creek Farm’s George Rasmussen, who lost his truck, trailer, generator and a substantial amount of food in a fire on April 24 while making deliveries to Chicago restaurants.

The family-style dinner will be held at Goose Island Clybourn’s Siebel Hall at 7:00 p.m. and will be a nose-to-tail, farm-to-table meal with Goose Island beer pairings. The meal will feature dishes from John Manion of Goose Island Clybourn; Chris Pandel from The Bristol; Rob and Allie Levitt from Mado; and Mindy Segal and Mark Steuer from HotChocolate.

The evening will include a silent auction for a barbecue extravaganza in which Chefs Paul Kahan, Koren Grieveson, Mike Sheerin, Tim Dahl and Brian Duncan are all donating their cooking skills to make a dinner for 15 people. Bidding for the barbecue package will only be available at the beer dinner.

In addition, that night organizers will launch an online auction where guests can bid on opportunities to have individual chefs come to their homes and cook them a beer dinner. Participating chefs include Food & Wine’s 2007 Best New Chef Paul Virant of Vie; Dirk Flanigan of The Gage; Troy Graves of Eve; Suzy Crofton of Crofton on Wells; Cary Taylor of Chaise Lounge; Ryan Poli of Perennial; Randy Zweiban of Province; Food & Wine’s 2008 Best New Chef Koren Grieveson of avec; Food & Wine’s 2008 Best New Chef Giuseppe Tentori of BOKA; Tony Priolo of Piccolo Sogno; Rick Gresh of David Burke’s Primehouse; Carol Wallack of Sola; Gil Langlois of Chalkboard; Brian Huston of The Publican; Chris Pandel of The Bristol; Rob and Allie Levitt from Mado; Bill Kim of Urban Belly; Mike Sheerin and Tim Dahl of Blackbird; Amalea Tshilds and Jason Hammel of Lula Cafe; Mark Mendez of Carnivale; and “Top Chef” winner Stephanie Izard, who will be the chef of the forthcoming Drunken Goat. Rodney Alex will donate a private wine tasting at Juicy Wine Co. that will include 20 wines and a big hunk of roasted meat. The online auction kicks off at the May 20 event and will continue until May 28; the online auction link will be available shortly.

On May 28 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., Goose Island will host an event to close the online auction. The silent auction winners also will be announced. Entry fee is $35 and will include complimentary beer and snacks.

Tickets for the May 20 beer dinner cost $100, inclusive, and proceeds will benefit Rasmussen. To purchase a ticket, call (312) 915-0071.

Kristi Switzer, publisher of Brewers Publications, plans to be in Washington, DC for SAVOR – and is bringing books for several author signings – and I plan to be there with cookbooks! It will be an exciting new venue and set up for the SAVOR craft beer and food festival. Hope to see you in DC, cheers!

StLHops, the St. Louis beer blog, posts the blurb about the Thursday night  BBQ at Vlasis Park – a “pre-Pork Steak Championship” event with the St. Louis Barbecue Society grillers and assorted comestibles supplied by Schlafly – I’ll be there with samples and cookbooks! Then, onto a weekend of judging pork steaks…appetizers….and BBQ creativity -cheers!