As I have said before, I like to drink beer. I like to drink it a lot. The problem is.... Craft brewers have gone crazy. It is hard to find any new and interesting beer that is not an imperial this or a double that. Don't get me wrong one of my favorite beer styles is Russian Imperial Stout; but it has its place.... In the winter.....by a fire.....bear skin rug optional. Session beers also have a place.... at a sporting event, a BBQ, or a weekly poker game.
I think that the next big thing is craft beer should be small beers. What makes a beer a session beer? I think a good limit should be 5%abv. There are some great session beers on the market (21st Amendment Bitter American and Full Sail Session Lager). The problem with these beers is that they cost as much as a normal strength beer.
I have no problem paying more for high alcohol beer. The brewers justify the price by saying that the bigger beers use more raw materials. This same logic should apply to session beers. They use less raw materials, they should cost less. In a market where total beer sales declined by 1.3% in 2011 and craft beer sales have increased by 13.2%. I believe that if craft brewers find a way to create great low alcohol beers, and sell them at reasonable prices craft brewers will be able to take more market share from the Macro brewers.
While it’s not JUST for breakfast; some beers make an excellent pair with breakfast food (whether or not its consumed in the morning.) One of my favorite food and beer pairings is a big roasty sweet stout and bacon. This week I've been craving some pancakes and bacon.
The Ultimate Beer Breakfast.
Ricotta pancakes served with a sweet Oktoberfest syrup paired with Imperial Stout and a side of bacon. This paring works on several levels, the most obvious is the roast and bitter notes in the stout are coffee like, but it is much more subtle and complex. The pancakes are tender and fluffy; this complements the luscious mouth-feel of the stout. The Oktoberfest syrup is malty sweet; this accentuates the residual sweetness of the beer. The salty flavor in the bacon can cut through the stout's bold flavors that tend to linger on your pallet. All and all it is a wonderful meal and a great way to fight off a hangover.
Recipe
Ricotta Pancakes
2 Cup Ricotta
4 Eggs, separated
1 Cup buttermilk
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of Salt
Combine ricotta, egg yolks, and buttermilk in a large bowl. Mix the dry ingredients together and then into ricotta buttermilk mixture until fully combined. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites into stiff peaks, then fold into the batter.
Oktoberfest Syrup
1 22 OZ bottle Oktoberfest
Sugar
Pour beer into a small sauce pan and whisk until it stops foaming. Slowly bring to a boil, the beer will want to boil over so keep a close eye on it. Reduce until it reaches the same consistency to thin maple syrup (roughly by two thirds its original volume). Once its reaches the correct consistency, taste it and add sugar to taste.
Serve pancakes and bacon with butter and drizzle the syrup on top. Pour the stout in an Irish coffee cup and enjoy.
As for the type of stout Founders Breakfast Stout jumps to mind but any roasty sweet stout will work. Other options include North Coast Old Rasputin, Great Divide Yeti or Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.
Is your beer as cold as the arctic
circle? Does the bottle numb your hand so much that you have to
resort to using a beer koozie? Does it have next to no taste due to
that fact that it freezes your taste buds?!? Well then you are
drinking some really bad beer or some good beer way to cold.
I know that it will sound crazy but your beer should not be ice
cold. The macro beer companies out there tout bottles that show
when beer is at the proper temperature, somewhere between around
32-34 degrees, and show images of their bottles and cans being
pulled directly from banks of ice to promote the refreshing
quality of their beverage (I find it hard to call it beer). This
is just a ploy to cover up the fact that their beer tastes awful.
If you don't believe me then go ahead and leave your preferred
major beer brand out to get warm and tell me if you still think
that it tastes good. They are served close to freezing cold to
cover up the bitter taste and lack of real flavor.
Now this is not to say that there are
not some beer types out there that shouldn't be served at a low
temperature. A German Pilsner is typically served in a smaller glass
to insure that the beer at the bottom of your glass is still nice and
cold. However, there are many beers out there where you will miss
out on much of the flavor if you serve it at the wrong temperature.
Until just as recently I was just as much at fault as doing this as
everybody. I would just throw the beer in the fridge and then pull
one out to drink whenever, but a little research and lots of taste
testing was enough to change my mind. Just the other night I was
enjoying a Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. I did, out of habit, keep
it in the fridge. This will be reconciled as soon as I build my own
beer cellar. I took the stout out about 30 minutes before I was
going to drink it to let it warm up. I poured it in a glass and took
a sip. I was rewarded with an amazing amount of chocolate and
toasted malt flavor. As I continued to hold the glass in my hands
that chocolate became even heavier and a hint of coffee entered the
picture. If I had drunk this at fridge temperature I would probably
have liked it, but allowing it to warm up made me love it.
Let's face it, those of you who drink beer from the major
companies do so because it is cheap, cold and gets you drunk.
That's not what I'm out there to do. I want my beer to be
exciting and full of flavor. For those interested there are a few
ways to go about having beer at the right temp. Those with some
money to spend can buy a wine cooler. These allow for you to set
a very specific temperature for your bottles. For those like me
you can just pull it out of the fridge a little early. Pouring it
into a glass will allow it to warm up faster. I know it might
seem like a lot of work for a beer but trust me when I say it is
worth it. Below I will list a basic guideline for different types
of beer. I hope this helps to make your beer journeys long and
full of flavor.
-Thomas-
Lager beers should be kept in the refrigerator before
serving at 9°C/48°F.
The light American and Australian lagers should be
server at a lower temperature of 6°C/42°F.
Ales should never be over-chilled, or it will develop a
haze and loose their fruity-flavors. 12-13°C/54-56°F
Very strong ales should be served at room temperature.
You can always look online for specific beers or check
out the bottle, some companies will list it there.
Yup you read that correctly. A beer cellar. No, not wine....Beer. You may wonder; Didn't those old Budweiser commercials teach me that old beer is bad beer?
Well for the american light lagers that Budweiser produces, that may be true. For some craft beer its just not the case. You may also ask why would you age a beer? To be honest, not more that a year ago, I would have been asking the same question.
My fascination with aging beer started with my third batch of home-brew. I decided to make an imperial stout. I also decided that I could craft my own recipe. Now this may not seem like such a bad thing. It was.... Trust me, it was as if I had just learned how to cook and I decided I could make a five course meal. When the stout had finished fermenting it tasted like bitter, over-roasted jet-fuel. So not wanting to dump it out, and because it was 9% abv, I decided to let it age. After about 9 months I put it in bottles. After 11 months it was a wonderfully smooth stout, with just the right amount of alcohol warmth. I still have several bottles and they are still getting better.
That was when I thought:
If age improves a bad beer, how would it affect a great beer?
Age can take a good beer and make it great. Just a few months can take the rough edges of a young beer and smooth them out to make a much more rounded experience.
Beer cellars have been around for a very long time. It is tradition in the Belgium Trappist Abbeys. Some of these breweries have been aging their beers for years before releasing them for sale. They realized that the beer tasted better after a year or more of maturation.
It is really easy to cellar beer at home.
The most important aspect of aging beer at home is choosing the correct beers to put in the cellar. Some styles are not meant to age. In fact some styles of beer begin to deteriorate as soon as they leave the brewery. This is where the phrase "brewery fresh" comes from. Examples of styles that should not be aged are IPA's (or any Hop Forward Beers), American Light Lagers (or most light low alcohol, low flavor beers. The beers that will benefit from age are generally higher alcohol, and bolder malt flavored styles. Such as Barleywine, Old Ale, Imperial Stouts and most sour beers.
The next thing to consider when starting a home beer cellar is where. The most important things to consider is temperature and light. You do not want to cellar your beers in direct sunlight. Ultraviolet lights will create a chemical reaction that make beer skunky. You also do not want to store your beer in your attic. The optimal temperature to keep beer is at around 54 degrees F and with as little temperature swings as possible. If you don't have a room at 54F thats not a problem. If you have a basement or a closet that is surrounded by interior walls it should work fine. Lastly always store your bottles vertically, do not lay them on their side. Beer will age better if stored upright, it keeps the amount of surface area of beer in contact to air to a minimum. It will also allow for any yeast sediment to settle to the bottom of the bottle.
The last, and for me the most interesting, point to consider is Vertical Tasting. A vertical tasting is when you take several vintages of the same beer and taste them back to back. This will really give you an idea of how a certain beer is holding up. When designing your beer cellar for vertical tasting the most important thing to do is buy at least two, preferably three, bottles of each beer that you want to age. This would give you the ability to drink one bottle now (who doesn't like some instant gratification?) one bottle to drink in a year, and one to drink once your will power fails. The true trick to vertical tasting is to get three bottles of the same beer year after year.
Cheers
~ Ben
P.S In the event of a Zombie Apocalypse screw all of the above and drink the best beer you have first!
I have no problem paying more for high alcohol beer. The brewers justify the price by saying that the bigger beers use more raw materials. This same logic should apply to session beers. They use less raw materials, they should cost less. In a market where total beer sales declined by 1.3% in 2011 and craft beer sales have increased by 13.2%. I believe that if craft brewers find a way to create great low alcohol beers, and sell them at reasonable prices craft brewers will be able to take more market share from the Macro brewers. 
