Bottoms Up

WASHINGTON – The Brewers Association Savor beer and food fest this weekend in the nation’s capital features a number of sessions they call “salons.” My plane got in too late to catch the first one last night on pairing cheese and beer, something that appears to be somewhat new here on the East Coast, but it’s becoming pretty common at home (on our dear old Left Coast.).

It featured Garrett Oliver, the Brooklyn Brewing master brewer and author. His presentation will be online as a podcast on CraftBeerRadio.com sometime soon. In the meantime, check out my report on a similar presentation by Garrett here.

The second session Friday night was Pairing America’s Favorite Dips featuring Dave Lieberman, a young chef who hosts the Good Deal show on the Food Network. He’s hooked up with Here’s To Beer, a non-profit funded primarily by Anheuser-Busch dedicated to sprucing up beer’s Joe Sixpack image. (That’s the same image long sullied by the big brewers with their insipid light lagers and endless TV commercials).

The 100-seat conference room was jammed and it was worth the wait. A plate like the one shown at left was on the table in front of each person in the room. Waiters _ in those same black and white formal uniforms came around and poured samples of each beer.

Beer always has its incongruities. We beer people just can’t help it. Jay Cunningham of Here’s to Beer introduced the session with an eloquent statement: “We’re here this weekend to showcase the complexity that beer has to offer. We’re here to show beer is just as complex, if not more complex and more sophisticated than wine.:”

Subject of the day: “Dips, chips and beer.” Ahhh gee, we so damn sophisticated, are we not.

Dave Lieberman proceeded to completely squelch any thought of sophistication: “Here is an array of things that we’re all comfortable with,” he said, pointed to the plate of dips and chips. “What I want to do is open people’s minds up to the possibilities that beer offers.”

In honesty, Lieberman’s dips were fairly complex and interesting and the pairings worked very well. It just the idea of beer and dips. We all eat dips, they’re easy to make and delicious and pairing the right beer’s an intriguing idea. But sophistication, uhh, er–never mind. On with the show.

The first pairing worked incredibly well: Harpoon UFO Hefeweizen, paired with salmon dip. “Smoked salmon requires a more mellow beer,” he said. “Hefeweizen’s a great pairing beer, with its fruity characteristics…Harpoon hefe is not as floral and fruity as some. It’s more clean, clear and crisp. Salmon is a srong flavor, but you don’t want to overpower it with the beer. You want that light to medim body. The beer brings a nice counterpoint to the tip,” he said.

He’s promised the recipes and I’ll post them when they arrive. He said the salmon dip was made with sour cream, yogurt, black pepper, smoked salmon and a touch of clam juice, all blended. I’m going to try this one at home.

The next pairing was Sierra Nevada Summerfest Lager with two dips, a bland, garlicky salsa and a guacamole. They worked perfectly, the crisp, hoppy lager soothing the heat of the salsa. Lieberman said he made the salsa with chopped tomatoes, onions – sometimes yellow, sometimes red onions, a lot of garlic, a touch of wine, cilantro and sometimes a bit of olive oil for mouthfeel.

He didn’t talk about the guacamole, but it was traditional and kind of East Coast bland, no heat.

The final pairing was also a real stunner. The beer was Gonzo Imperial Porter from Flying Dog (which has moved from Denver to Frederick, MD.). The founder and master brewer Eric Warner explained that this very excellent beer, which just won a gold medal at the World Beer Cup, was conceived as a tribute to Hunter S Thompson, the Gonzo journalist who committed suicide in 2005.

Flying Dog began outside Aspen, in a bar where artist Ralph Steadman and Thompson hung out and both were long-associated with Flying Dog. Warner said the beer’s 8.5 percent ABV. It’s a beer with a lot of residual sweetness, bringing out the chocolate and coffee notes from the speciality malts used to make it, he said. “It’s balanced with a ton of hops, and it’s dry hopped with Cascades (hops placed in the fermenter, an ancient English process.)” Warner said. It’s 70 IBU (By comparison, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is 37 IBU. Guinness Stout is 60 IBU.)

Lieberman had two dips for pairing: A bean dip and a blue cheese dip. ‘The porter’s a beautiful beer, silky malt, full mouthfeel, bit of smoke in the follow,” he said. “The beer adds another dimension to the cheese dip. The bitterness of the hops cuts through the fat in the cheese and the malt in the beer pairs beautifully with the blue cheese.

The dip, he said, has a base of sour cream, with chives, blue cheese and Philadelphia cream cheese so the dip will be a bit stiff. There’s also a touch of mayonaise to bulk up the fat and a little bit of vinegar for acidity. OK, this is one sophisticated dip.

He never got to the bean dip. It was OK. But the cheese and the porter. Wild.

Bitterness, sweetness, spice, carbonation. Beer has it all, Lieberman said. Amen brother.

Photos: Top: Participants at dip, chip and beer pairing. (Credit: William Brand)

Middle: The dip array included smoked salmon dip, salsa, guacamole, blue cheese and bean dips. (Credit: William Brand)

Bottom, right: Food Network host Dave Lieberman (Credit:  Brewers Association, 2008 ©)