The stylish yet reserved woman sat in the corner of the tasting at Sugar Maple, and I noticed her large notebook..and thought, “Maybe she’ll write about this.” So, I was still pleasantly surprised to see this review by Julie Lawrence posted to onmilwaukee.com. Very kind!

Julie says that the Tyranena Brewing Co. Devil Made Me Do It Imperial Coffee Porter paired with dark chocolate fairy food from Franklin’s Chocolates “is the best thing in the world.”

But what, you might ask, is Fairy Food? It’s an old-fashioned confection made with caramelized molasses-sugar foam that is crunchy. Cut into cubes, the foam looks like shards of sugar honeycomb.  Franklin’s Chocolates’ version is dipped in dark chocolate, so there is a surprise element of the textures not matching. With the big coffee-spiked boozy porter from Tyranena Brewing, it turned out to be a sweet surprise.

Those plush packages of organic vanilla marshmallows sell for $5.99 (or more) for just a handful. Why not make a big batch of Barley Wine Marshmallows for your friends and family? It’s a perfect snow day activity.

Here’s a link to a press release by Brewers Publications new publisher, Kristi Switzer, with info about a broadcast at WUWM.com that covers winter warmers and seasonal ales. Adrienne Pierluissi, of Bayview’s Sugar Maple, joins me with Bonnie North, the Lake Effect arts producer, as we taste and sample seasonals such as Point Brewery’s St. Benedict’s Ale, paired with the following recipe for Barley Wine Marshmallows. I made the batch we sampled at the studio with Sprecher Barley Wine, a tasty example of the style, but you can use a homebrewed strong ale, too.

Barley Wine Marshmallows

Pg. 189, The Best of American Beer & Food

These ale-fluffed confections were originally made by Executive Sous Chef Piet Vanden Hogen at Pelican Pub in Pacific City, Oregon. Using Pelican Pub’s Wee heavy or a local Barley Wine will add a bit of beer flavor to mugs of hot cocoa, or use them as the filling for adult S’mores, made with graham crackers and bittersweet chocolate. Use organic powdered sugar for the best taste and texture. Adjust the amount of water to soften gelatin according to humidity and elevation. The texture of the bloomed gelatin should be thick and smooth, not grainy.

3 envelopes plain powdered gelatin (3 tablespoons)
4 to 5 ounces cold water
Unsalted butter for pan
¼ cup sifted organic powdered sugar for pan
4 ounces decanted (settled, with no foam) Scottish ale or Barley Wine
2 cups pure cane sugar
¼ teaspoon finely ground sea salt
6 ounces corn syrup
½ teaspoon Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract
2 cups organic powdered sugar sifted with 2 tablespoons cornstarch

1. Bloom or soften gelatin in 4 to 5 ounces water in the bowl of a stand mixer. While the gelatin softens, prepare a 9-by-13-inch glass baking pan by greasing it with butter inside and sprinkling it with powdered sugar to cover base and sides. Rotate pan so sugar is evenly applied. Set aside.
2. Combine ale or barley wine, sugar, salt, and corn syrup in a large, deep saucepan over medium-high heat, and bring to soft-ball stage, 238° F on a candy thermometer. Mixture will foam and turn caramel colored.
3. Place bowl with bloomed gelatin into a stand electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Turn mixer to MEDIUM-LOW and slowly pour in hot sugar mixture, whisking into bloomed gelatin until it starts to fluff. Do not whip too fast or the hot syrup will splatter. Stop mixer and scrape sides. Restart mixer on MEDIUM-HIGH and whip until mixture becomes white and fluffy, about 10 minutes, adding vanilla extract during final minute of mixing.
4. Scrape mixture into powdered sugar-lined pan and spread evenly to desired thickness (about 1 inch). Sprinkle top with powdered sugar-starch mixture and set aside. When cooled and set (from 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on humidity), turn slab out onto a cookie sheet covered with half of the sifted powdered sugar mixture. Slice into cubes with sharp knife or scissors dipped in warm water between each slice. Roll cubes in remaining powdered sugar mixture so all sides are coated. Let air-dry until not sticky (time varies according to humidity), and place in an air-tight covered container. Will keep up to 10 days.

Makes about 50 marshmallows.  

Join me at a tasting of Halloween beer and shockingly good cheese, at Sugar Maple,(441 E. Lincoln Ave, in Bayview, Milwaukee, 414-481-2393) on Friday, October 31, from 6-8 PM. The tasting includes Great Lakes Nosferatu, New Holland’s Ichabod, Rogue Dead Guy, and other surprises, paired with award-winning Wisconsin artisan cheeses. The tasting is $15 per person, limited to 15 attendees.

Head’s up = the class was originally scheduled to be held at Fromagination, and you can read an interview with Jeffrey Glazer of the Madison Beer Review here.

Join me at Sprecher Brewery on Thursday, July 17, for a demonstration of tailgating specialties and tastings paired with Pub Ale and Special Amber – read all about the series in the blog,  EatWisconsin or sign up for the classes at Sprecher’s website. It’s for a good cause, too – 10 percent of the class proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross for flood relief efforts in Wisconsin and the Midwest.

Thanks to Jason Peltier and Chef Jeffrey Rose of the Big Rock Chophouse and Brewery, we’ll be on Fox Channel 2 news tomorrow AM, sampling grilled goodies from the cookbooks and fresh beer from brewer Dan Rogers. I sampled the Big Rock Imperial Hefeweizen and found it a terrific match for the chef’s special appetizer of seared diver scallops with a creamy celery root slaw.  Here’s info about the book signing at the Big Rock, with tastings of cheese and chocolate on July 14, 4-7 PM.  We’ll be featuring a selection of Wisconsin specialty cheeses from Carr Valley, Crave Brothers, Hook’s, and Widmer’s, kindly donated by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, as well as chocolates made by the White Lake, MI confectionery Trifles, (the chocolates are courtesy of Jason’s friends at Blumz!)

From a short article in the New York Times, comes the assertion that scientists who drink more beer publish less often.  ”After years of argument over the roles of factors like genius, sex and dumb luck, a new study shows that something entirely unexpected and considerably sudsier may be at play in determining the success or failure of scientists — beer.  According to the study, published in February in Oikos, a highly respected scientific journal, the more beer a scientist drinks, the less likely the scientist is to publish a paper or to have a paper cited by another researcher, a measure of a paper’s quality and importance.”  Could a pint a day – or less – really be a  recipe for success? 

I’m heading to St. Louis today to celebrate a birthday – and mourn a loss. Mark Pollman, the only Missouri-based inductee into the “Bartender Hall of Fame” and a legend at the Fox & Hounds, died last week. Here’s a remembrance from the River Front Times blog that pays tribute to Mark Pollman and his incredible knowledge of all things drinkable, including beer. He was so kind, and shared his recipes in many interviews with me and hundreds of other food and drink writers, over the decades. Cheers and last call.

Julia Herz at the Brewers Association sent me a nice invite to the SAVORcraftbeer.org festival – but I’ve already bought tickets. In fact, I bought several pairs of tickets! I’m going to be giving away tickets to be my guest at this fabulous new food and beer festival, to be held in May 16-17, 2008 in Washington D.C. at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium. Just sign up for my recipe enewsletter before April 30 to be eligible for the SAVOR ticket giveaway.If you prefer not to wait,  tickets are on sale now, at $85 per person for each session.  The festival will sell out soon, and here’s a list from Julia detailing why this event is such a draw: “1) The U.S. had 1,449 total breweries in operation during 2007, including 1,406 small, independent, and traditional craft brewers. So the majority of breweries in the U.S. are craft brewers and craft beer is showing the most significant growth in the beer category.

2) This is a national festival with a local tie to each region in the U.S. Of the 48 craft breweries at SAVOR representatives from all 8 regions will be there.

3). Never before have craft brewers personally presented their beer and food pairings (and as a plug, note that many of the cookbook’s recipes will be featured and served!)   http://beertown.org/events/SAVOR/beers.html. This is your opportunity to personally meet many of the rock stars of the craft beer scene and taste firsthand why pairing craft beer and food is such a hot topic.

4) Brewers and owners in attendance include The Boston Beer Company, The Brooklyn Brewery, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, F.X. Matt Brewing Company, Flying Dog Brewery, Harpoon Brewery, New Belgium Brewing Company, Rogue Ales, Reyes Beverage Group, and others. New Holland Brewing Co. beervangelist Fred Bueltmann is on the organizing committee, and he says, “It’s both a food festival and a craft beer festival, designed to bring in connoisseurs who enjoy and are serious about culinary appreciation of craft beer.”

5) SAVOR is happening during and because of ‘American Craft Beer Week’ (May 12-18) which is why Washington D.C. is such an appropriate location.

6) In addition to the main attraction of tasting in the great hall, there are educational salons. Dave Lieberman, of Here’s To Beer and the Food Network, is speaking. Beer vs. Wine is a topic presented by Sam Calagione and Marnie Olds; Craft Beer and Seafood pairings presented by Hugh Sisson, Cross Drinking without social stigma will be a talk; Beer and Cheese and Beer and Food are all topics at SAVOR.  http://beertown.org/events/SAVOR/schedule.html

7) The Brewers Association, presenters of SAVOR, also organizes the Great American Beer Festival, the World Beer Cup (the Olympics of beer) and establishes the beer style guidelines many refer to as the main guidelines to follow.”

And I’ll add a point to consider – if traveling to DC from out of town, remember that hotels are in demand in May due to graduations from the many colleges and universities in the area. I’ll have more information about affordable hotels within easy distance of craft beer destinations posted next month. 

A short review in the San Francisco Bay Guardian gave “the best new restaurant name” to the Monk’s Kettle, yet to this writer, it seems odd to nominate that name with nary a mention of the Monk’s Cafe in Philadelphia. Really, a nod should have been given to the iconic ale emporium that really started the craze for Belgian ales stateside, through the partnership of Fergus Carey and Tom Peters. Monk’s Cafe is one of the founding members of Philly Beer Week, and hosts events throughout the 10-day celebration. Wish I could be there tonight for the haute beer dinner with Stephen Beaumont, but it sold out last month!

Thanks to Chef Jerry of Chef’s Expressions in Baltimore, MD, the private party hosted by Hugh Sisson at Clipper City was a wonderful wrap to celebrate last week’s cookbook tour through MD and VA. The 6-course menu featured recipes from the book, with pairings from Clipper City’s cellars. It was fun to meet so many fans of Baltimore beer, including the WBAL’s own “Beltway Gourmet.” I wanted to try the new Oxford Brewing Co. Organic Raspberry Wheat Beer, in time for the session #12, but it was still awaiting bottling. I’ll add more details about the entire trip, beer dinners and photos when I get back to my desk next week…