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!
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!
Due to travel, I’ll miss the premiere of BEER WARS, a documentary about the American beer industry that will launch this week on April 16. Film maker Anat Baron isn’t a beer drinker but is an alum of the Cornell Hotel program, and a seasoned industry insider - she spent a few years in the trenches of the malternatives, with Mike’s Hard Lemonade – and saw a great story in the rise of craft beer. 
Closer to home, Slow Food Wisconsin is sponsoring the Milwaukee premiere of Mad City Chickens, a documentary about people who keep urban coops – yes, the chickens are coming to roost on April 22, 7:30 PM at Lakefront Brewery. And as a bonus, entry to this premiere is free, so you can splurge on pints of fresh beer!
I promised the attendees of the third “Tasting Synergies and Dispelling Myths” class hosted by Sprecher Brewery and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board that I would post the pairings we sampled online. Many thanks to Tammy Hays, Anne Sprecher and Sara Hill of the WMMB for all their work in setting up the tasting! Here are the class favorites:
A slice of very young, fresh Limburger, made by the Chalet Cheese Co-op, served on a slice of light rye bread smeared with coarse seed mustard, alongside the Black Bavarian, made a classic Wisco tavern pairing…
With the Abbey Triple, we sampled an oozy wedge of Crave Bros. Petit Frère, modeled after a traditional French brie with a gorgeous, apricot-hued rind. The beer smoothed away the funk of the b.linens rind wash. Then we had a real treat: raw milk Edelweiss Emmenthaler made by Bruce Workman, melted on baguette with sliced ham, and a smidgen of the sweet Sprecher root beer mustard.
Alongside the roasty flavors of the dry Irish-style stout, the mixed milks in Carr Valley’s Gran Canaria sparkled on the palate…
The new gold medal winning “best of show” at the U.S. Champion Cheese Contest is the SarVecchio Parmesan, presented with the pale-hued yet robust Mai Bock, a sturdy seasonal favorite….
The NASFT best new cheese, Rasperry Bellavitano, rind-washed with New Glarus Brewing Co.’s Raspberry Tart ale, was paired with the limited release Sprecher Generation Porter, a rich, chocolatey ale tinctured with fresh raspberry puree. The match brought up all the rich malt flavors in the beer without overwhelming the raspberry-rind flavors of the cow’s milk cheese…
Concluding on a strong note, we sampled the Czar Stout, Randy’s version of an Imperial, with the buttery Affine Bleu cheese from Roth Kase – quite an incredible sequence of cheeses and brews.
I got a question from a reader, asking if I was employed by Sprecher because I do so many events there – in fact, my time is donated and with each class, Randy and Anne Sprecher make a donation to a charity of my choice. This time, it’s going to a benefit at the Newberry Library on April 14, from 5:30-7:30 PM – a fundraiser for a friend diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer and without any medical insurance….a predicament too many people are finding themselves facing alone…you can read about Michael here.
The estimable 21st Amendment, based in San Francisco, is building community one tweet at a time, with the release of the first “Twitter-brewed” beer. It’s a nod to their SoMa neighbors, Twitter, the privately held company which is celebrating its third anniversary this month, as well as an experiment in social marketing of craft beer. Brewer Shaun O’Sullivan was profiled by the SFGate writer Jon Bonne, and expect a launch party for Spring Tweet on April 6, 2009.
I’m going to miss Spring Tweet, but did get to enjoy a glass of Watermelon Wheat (shown with the fresh wedge of fruit) last fall…
Good news: fans of legendary beer writer Michael Jackson will gather in Chicago to toast the anniversary of his birth, on March 27, and celebrate the launch of a new book of essays entitled BEER HUNTER, WHISKY CHASER. The party begins at Delilah’s, 2771 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, at 4 PM, and the toast to Michael Jackson will be at 7 PM CST. The event is *free* and includes pairings of artisan cheeses from Wisconsin, based on the chapter devoted to beer and cheese pairings in The Best of American Beer and Food – as well as a few brew surprises TBA. Julie Johnson, editor of ALL ABOUT BEER, is also one of the contributors and will be there. We’ll sign the books, sold by Jennifer Faulk of the Beerables Co. Proceeds from the sale of the book go to Parkinson’s disease research – a worthy cause. Hope to see you there – and you can read the full press release from Louis Glunz here and from Ian Buxton of Classic Expressions, and Neil Wilson of NWP, the UK publishers of BEER HUNTER, WHISKY CHASER here.
Late on February 8, Bill Brand, the Oakland Tribunes’ beer writer for decades, a celebrant of craft beer and cuisine, and all-around good guy, was hit by a MUNI train on his way home, and on Feb. 20, died of the injuries sustained in the crash. It is such a loss, for people who loved craft beer could find a friendly, humorous yet authoritative resource in Bill Brand, and his many columns, blogs, and tasting notes. He’d just begun work on a book about his cherished California breweries, with time freed by a partial retirement from newspaper journalism. Bill was such a kind person, a kindness that came out of truly loving life and understanding the human condition, especially after losses such as the early death of his daughter, Audrey.
From a personal perspective, Bill was a wonderful friend and mentor. He and wife Daryl taste-tested samples of my beer cuisine, shared sources and introduced me to friends such as Sheana Davis, and he was a savvy guide to California’s best beer and food destinations. Did I mention that he was kind? Here’s an example: when I was late in delivering the manuscript for this book, written during the last months of my father’s life as he waned away from cancer, Bill helped me work through the writer’s block of grief. He gave several interviews for the chapter about Pacific breweries, called often to offer a joke or word of encouragement – and when the book was published, we celebrated at GABF. Thank you, Bill!
Shaun O’Sullivan gave a great tribute to Bill which will be posted to the 21st Amendment blog. Bill Brand was generous with time and friends, devoted to his family, and a champion of better beer – especially the Belgian styles he so enjoyed. You can read more about his life online at legacy.com and also enjoy his past blogs and columns at What’s On Tap.
