Thursday’s ad is another Schlitz ad from most likely the 1950s. I find it a little creepy, actually, though I’m sure that was not the intention. That fairy tale bear in his nightshirt and slippers just looks a bit eye. And while the house obviously has electricity to power the refrigerator, he’s still carrying an old-fashioned candle. Why? Wouldn’t the light in the ‘frig be enough?
Last night, the Bistro held its 2nd annual cheese-off, one of my favorite SF Beer Week events. Similar to last year, Bistro co-owner Vic Krajl picked four cheeses and then asked four breweries — Eel River, Mad River, Moylan’s and Sierra Nevada — to pick the beer they made that they felt was the best pairing with each cheese.
Here’s flight 2, for example, one cheese with four beers.
After choosing our favorite from each round, we handed in our scorecards and they tallied up the results to determine which pairings were the most popular. A prize was awarded to whoever correctly predicted the most popular choices. Only one person, for the second year running, chose all four most popular. While I’d argue that most popular doesn’t necessarily mean best, especially since people’s tastes and palettes vary widely, it was still a fun way to wrap up the evening and determine at least what a majority of people thought about the choices. Below is a list of each of the cheeses along with the beer pairings chosen by each brewery and then what was determined to be the most popular. The beer in bold was chosen as most popular and italics indicates my personal choice, in case you’re interested.
Cheese No. 1: Wavreumont (cow)
Cheese No. 2: Petit Agour — Tomette d’Helette (sheep)
Cheese No. 3: Sunlight (goat)
Cheese No. 4: Bleu de Laqueuille (cow)
What’s interesting to me is that I chose all four of the beers from Mad River Brewing, and similarly last year I picked four of the five beers from a single brewery: Bear Republic. What that suggests is that while palettes do differ, we tend to be in sync with them, that is my palate was similar to whomever chose the pairings last year at Bear Republic and this year at Mad River.
Bistro co-owner Cynthia at one of the cheese-off tables.
Hat’s off once more to Vic and Cynthia for coming up with such a simple yet effective new way to approach cheese and beer pairings. It’s such a great way to educate yourself about cheese and beer and at the same time have an enormously fun time. I really hope to see more of this type of event in the future.
Below is a slideshow of the Bistro Cheese-Off. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.
If you’re a regular viewer of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report, then you’re probably already aware of his mock feud with Canada over ice time for the U.S. speed skating team, which the show sponsored after the team lost its long-time previous supporter due to the economy. The Colbert Nation stepped up and donated thousands of dollars so the show could become the new sponsor. Colbert has featured the team on the show repeatedly. He also featured a story that the Canadian team was in some way keeping the U.S. team off the practice ice, though I can’t recall the exact details of the dispute. At any rate, in response, Colbert launched the Don’t Be An Ice-Hole campaign and even set up a Facebook page.
Now a Vancouver microbrewery, R&B Brewing, has released a new one-off beer, just in time for the Winter Olympics and playing up the feud. The new beer is Iceholes Celebration Lager.
According to Vancouver’s Scout:
For limited release only, Vancouver’s Local Microbrewery, R&B Brewing Co. introduces Iceholes Celebration Lager in response to the recent “Don’t be an Ice-Hole” campaign against Canada started by Stephen Colbert, of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. Barry Benson, co-owner of R&B Brewing Co. says “ We are proud syrup-sucking Canadian iceholes. In celebration of our icehole-ish behaviour we have decided to get even rather than get mad. Canadians can wreak their revenge against Stephen Colbert in a truly Canadian way and have a beer.”
R&B Brewing Co. Iceholes Celebration Lager is a medium bodied beer, gold in colour with a spicy aroma. Brewed in the tradition of a European Pilsner, Iceholes Lager has a snappy hop flavour and a clean dry finish creating a truly refreshing beer. Iceholes Celebration Lager will be available in 650ml bottles for a limited time only starting February 2, 2010. Consumers can purchase the specialty beer at independent beer stores and local Vancouver restaurants during the month of February.
To which I can only add, as Stephen Colbert would, U-Ice-A! U-Ice-A! Now that’s great marketing.
Wednesday’s ad is a 1960s one for Schmidt’s, a Philadelphia brewery. I love the tagline, “Give Your Thirst a Taste of Life ….” It looks more like they’re taking their beer for a ride on their bikes. How about those kicky Sixties fashions, especially the headband and purple sneakers.
Earlier this week, both the UK Guardian and Reuters had stories about a study which confirmed that beer is a very rich source of silicon. It was done by Charlie Bamforth, among others, at the Department of Food Science & Technology at U.C. Davis, and the study, Silicon in Beer and Brewing, “found beer is a rich source of silicon and may help prevent osteoporosis, as dietary silicon is a key ingredient for increasing bone mineral density.”
From the Reuters article:
“We have examined a wide range of beer styles for their silicon content and have also studied the impact of raw materials and the brewing process on the quantities of silicon that enter wort and beer,” researcher Charles Bamforth said in a statement.
The study, [to be] published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, found the beers’ silicon content ranged from 6.4 milligrams per liter to 56.5 mg per liter. The average person’s silicon intake each day is between 20 and 50 mgs.
They found pale ales showed the highest silicon content while non-alcoholic beers, light lagers and wheat beers had the least silicon.
“Beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon,” said Bamforth.
Add silicon to the long list of ways in which the moderate consumption of beer is good for you.
Tuesday’s ad is for Coors because it’s the anniversary of their merger with Molson five years ago. This ad is from 1977, the year I graduated from high school, and Coors was still considered a “cool” brand because we couldn’t get it on the east coast. It looks so amateurish now, and I love the tagline suggestion “refrigerate to retain brewery fresh flavor.” Was keeping beer in the refrigerator still uncommon enough that suggesting it was a prominent part of their advertising. It’s interesting that Coors’ obsession with cold is at least three decades old.
With four days under my belt for SF Beer Week, I’m now behind in everything except having a great time. I thought before I get even more behind that I’d share some of photos from the first few days, which in order to get up quicker are just below in their individual slideshows from Flickr. Below are individual slideshows from several events during SF Beer Week. They’re best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.
Russian River’s Release of Pliny the Younger
The Opening Gala
The Bistro Double IPA Festival
Matevaza’s Beerunch at Kelly’s Mission Rock
Beer Ice Cream from Humphry Slocombe
Meet the Brewer: The Lost Abbey at The Toronado
After the Super Bowl, I went into San Francisco to the Toronado where Tomme Arthur was pouring his Lost Abbey beers. Tomme and I ruled the Washoe boards for the better part of the night.
Triple Rock Sour Monday Sour Fest
Meet the Brewer: Moonlight Brewing at Bobby G’s Pizzeria
Brian Hunt of Moonlight Brewing at an event with some of his rarer beers at Bobby G’s in Berkeley.
Meet the Brewer: Valley Brewing at Barclay’s
Stave Altimari from Valley Brewing at Barclay’s for a Meet the Brewer event.
Meet the Brewer: Rob Tod of Allagash at The Toronado
Rob Tod from Allagash trying to stay awake at the Toronado, where he was pouring his beers Monday night.
Our next Session will be hosed by The Ferm and his theme is The Display Shelf: When to Drink the Good Stuff, a dilemma many of us face. We’ve all accumulated “numerous bottles of beers that [were] subsequently cellared and designated as ‘to be opened on a special occasion.’ [The] dilemma, however, is matching an occasion with opening a particular bottle in [the] collection.”
The Ferm continues to elucidate their topic:
Finding a drinking occasion that lives up to the reputation of the bottle and the story of its acquisition is not a dreadful struggle to have, but it is a struggle nonetheless. When my good friends are over and we have had a few other beverages, will we still be able to enjoy my cave aged Hennepin that I bought after my tour of the brewery and have cellared for ten years? Will I miss it like I miss that four year old Golden Monkey?
The topic is open ended and the rules of The Session are close to nil. You can use your post to be persuasive or therapeutic. You may choose to tell a story of a great bottle you once opened or boast of your own beer collection.
Whatever approach you take, post it by March 5, 2010. And if you open one of your prized bottles, be sure to invite me over.
This Monday we’re still celebrating beer in the Bay Area during SF Beer Week. That’s nothing new of course, as evidenced by this last century beer poster entitled Hurra! Bier!. That translates as “hooray beer,” and that’s our sentiment for this week, as well.
This Thursday, the Homebrew Chef, Sean Paxton, will host another of his legendary beer dinners at Mercedes in San Francisco. It’s an eight-course dinner. The cost is $98, and that includes all food, beer and gratuity. There’s limited seating, so snap up your tickets now. This should be a good one. It will feature the collaboration beers of Belgium’s De Proef Brouwerij and our own Firestone Walker Brewing. Tickets can be purchased online. See you there.
Thursday, February 11th, 6:30 pm
Aspall Cuvee Chevallier Double Fermented Cyder
First Course
Local Fromage
cowgirl creamery Mt. Tam, Humboldt fog goat cheese, dried apricots, cinnamon smoked almonds,
malt crackers, Saison Imperiale beer jelly, white pepper infused 30 year old aged honey
De Proef Brewmaster’s Collaboration Signature Ale with Tomme Arthur
Second Course
Union Barrel Smoked Day Boat Scallops
atop Reinaert Flemish Wild Ale braised Belgian red endive, Les Deux Brasseurs Ale biere blanc and micro herb salsa
De Proef Brewmaster’s Collaboration Les Deux Brasseurs Ale with Jason Perkins
Third Course
IPA Ceviche Margarita
fresh halibut cured in citrus juices, Union Jack IPA, mangos, red onions, peppers and chilies, topped with an IPA foam
Firestone Walker Union Jack
Fourth Course
House-Made Sausage
Sonoma pork, infused with Sauserful of Secrets, thyme, dried fruit and caramelized shallots
on a bed of lentils, drizzled with a chorizo amarillo hop oil
Firestone Walker Bourbon Barrel Aged Saucerful of Secrets 2007
Fifth Course
Local Pork Belly
braised in Zoetzuur Flemish Ale on a bed of parsnip purée, Flemish ale reduction, raddish pickle
De Proef Brewmaster’s Collaboration Van Twee Ale with John Mallet
Sixth Course
Belgian Tamale
bison short ribs cooked “canronade style” in Van Twee, onions, shallots and thyme
stuffed into a sweet potato masa pillow, Black Xantus TCHO mole, beet foam
Firestone Walker Velvet Merkin
Seventh Course
French Flan
DBA beer caramel topped with dark chocolate Lozen Boer Abt pot de crème
pork fat shortbread cookies, malted mascarpone chantilly cream
Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale, 100% Oak Aged on Cask
Eighth Course
My Sweet Valentine
(chocolate truffles made with Pete Slosberg)
Van Twee Ale Caramel in a Dark TCHO Chocolate Shell
Black Xantus Caramel with TCHO Cocoa Nibs in a Dark TCHO Chocolate Shell
La Grande Blanche Brittle Infused with Blood Orange and Milk Chocolate in a Dark TCHO Chocolate Shell
Firestone Walker XIII Anniversary Ale