Needless to say, I’m a big advocate of beer rather than wine ’round the Thanksgiving dinner table. And I’ve written about it at Thanksgiving time every year the blog’s been around (last year’s post here). And the fact remains, if you want to wax traditional this holiday, than wine has no place at the Thanksgiving feast. The Pilgrims, after all, drank tankards of ale with their meal. It’s even been suggested that the reason the colony ended up where it did was because the Pilgrims had run out of beer and needed to set up shop somewhere quickly so they could begin brewing more. William Bradford, the father of American Thanksgiving, is oft quoted as writing,

“We could not now take much time for further search [for an ideal destination,] our victuals being much spent, especially our beer.”

To that end, the folks at SeriousEats.com have come up with a list of what they believe to be the perfect beers for your Thanksgiving meal this year. While it’s definitely an article worth your time, I’ve personally only had a few of the brews on their list but it sounds like they did pretty extensive research (poor them) to whittle down the list and have very good reasons and explanations for choosing the beers they did. Their recommended Thanksgiving beers:

• Bière de Garde (Southhampton Brewery)
• French Style Country Ale (Two Brothers)
• Ashland Amber (Caldera Brewing)
• Singel Ale (Witkap Pater)
• Kerberos Tripel (Flying Dog)
• 2° Below (New Belgium)
• Frambozen (New Belgium)
• Levitation Ale (Stone Brewing)

Personally, I’ll be choosing a bottle of Allagash Fluxus ‘09 to accompany my Thanksgiving feast. The beer having been brewed with black pepper, sweet potatoes, I think it will compliment my meal nicely, provide a little bit of a palate-cleansing bite (from the black pepper) and enough backbone (from the malts and the yams, which add significant body) to stand up to the hearty Thanksgiving dishes. What beers will you be drinking this holiday?

It’s always great to see beer & cheese pairing discussed in the mainstream news, as it’s certainly still an up-and-coming notion in much of the mainstream world. So I was psyched to find an article on the topic a few days ago in the Wall Street Journal, of all places.

The article, entitled “Trouble Brews for Wine; Cheese Chooses Beer” (how great is that?!), highlights the inroads made by beer at a recent event in Piedmont — a northern Italian region which shares a border with another country known for both its cheese and its wine, France — hosted by nonprofit Slow Food entitled Cheese 2009. According to the WSJ,

Alberto Farinasso, events coordinator for the fair, says Slow Food is eager to give more attention to artisanal brews, and has elevated beer’s role from bit player to supporting actor. In previous editions of the fair, beer was present, but wine was recognized as the default partner for cheese tasting.

This time, the fair’s program and the crowds around the beer stands made it clear that beer no longer plays second fiddle to wine. Of 37 “taste workshops,” six were dedicated to pairing beer with cheeses. On Monday, the last day of the fair, one section dedicated to artisanal beers had to shut down because it had run out of beer to sell.

Of course the end of the article highlights some of the wine snobbery still present in very cheese-centric parts of the world,

“Have you ever seen anyone drink beer in Bordeaux?” asks Emeric Sauty de Chalon, president of 1855, France’s largest online wine shop. Mr. Sauty de Chalon agrees that the most flavorful cheeses have a flavor that is too strong for some red wines, but doesn’t think beer and cheese is necessarily the right alternative.

“With some lower quality cheese, why not?” he says. “But with the most high-quality cheeses from Italy or from France I really would not recommend it. Try something else.”

But overall, especially for the common folk who actually eat the cheese and drink the beer, it seems like from the point of view of the Wall Street Journal, that a lot of progress is being made in convincing people that the two — beer and cheese, that is — pair much better together than beer and wine.

“A year ago, it was a new experience for everybody we presented it to,” [Justin Philips, owner of New York's Beer Table] says. “Now just one in 10 are surprised.”

Anyway, it’s a great article from a great source and its great for beer. Certainly worth your time to read. Check it out here. Cheers.

The folks at Redhook and Widmer Bros. (who run their East Coast operations out of their brewery in nearby Portsmouth, NH) have announced an upcoming Portland (Maine) event, which sounds like a definite do-not-miss!

On Tuesday September 15th, join the Redhook folks at Portland’s new The Salt Exchange (245 Commercial St. Portland, ME) for a “Beer & Cheese Social” featuring the handcrafted ales of Redhook and Widmer Bros. professionally paired with complimenting artisan cheeses. Eat, drink, socialize and learn about beer & cheese pairings from the pros.

Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the door. But there is a VERY limited ticket availabilty, so I recommend picking up your tickets in advance (not just to save a couple bucks). Plus, it looks like one lucky ticket holder will go home with an all-expenses-paid VIP night for two in Portsmouth, NH. The prize includes one night’s accomodations at The Sheraton Harborside (Portsmouth, NH), lunch or dinner at the Redhook Brewery and a VIP tour of the brewery itself (but you gotta be present at the social at the time of the drawing to win).

For more information or to reserve tickets, call The Salt Exchange at (207)347-5687. And I will see you there (come say hi, I’ll be wearing my “BlogAboutBeer.com is blogging this” t-shirt)!

I don’t know if I’ve ever made it abundantly clear here before or not, but I am a vegetarian (and have been for almost exactly 13 years). So, needless to say, the majority of beer & food pairings or recipes involving beer that come across my inbox go right into the virtual trashcan because they so often revolve around meat.

So I was pretty excited to read in the May/June newsletter from Samuel Adams — which appeared this afternoon — a recipe for Grilled Summer Vegetables with Samuel Adams Summer Ale Vinaigrette (Recipe by Chef David Burke) and thought I would reprint it in case any readers out there face the same dilemmas I do about their beer recipes. And even if you’re a carnivore, the dish sounds delicious and I’m sure it would make for a great side dish, so don’t discount it. Anyway, enjoy:

For the Vegetables:
* 1 bunch asparagus
* 8-10 pc. Peeled baby carrots
* 1 red pepper
* 1 yellow pepper
* 1 medium zucchini cut in 1/3 inch slices
* 1 medium yellow squash cut in 1/3 inch slices
* 1 red onion cut in ½ inch slices
* 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
* sea salt & fresh ground pepper

For the Marinade:
* 1 tsp fresh thyme
* 1 tsp fresh oregano
* 1 tsp chopped fresh chive
* 1 tsp minced shallot
* 1 tsp Dijon mustard
* 1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
* 1 cup canola oil

For the Summer Ale Vinaigrette:
* 2 cups extra virgin olive oil
* 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
* ½ cup white balsamic vinegar
* 2 tbsp Samuel Adams Summer Ale
* 2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (chive, tarragon, parsley)
* Salt, pepper to taste

Instructions:
Separately blanch asparagus & carrots in boiling, salted water. Cut carrots in half lengthwise. Whisk together all ingredients for marinade and coat zucchini, yellow squash, and red onion. Lightly coat peppers in olive oil with salt & pepper and grill, turning frequently until pepper is charred all around. Wrap each pepper in paper towel and set aside. Season vegetables with salt & pepper and grill on both sides until warmed through. When peppers cool slightly, carefully remove stem & seeds. Using back of a paring knife, carefully remove skin. Whisk together all garnish ingredients and lightly dress vegetables.

[From SamuelAdams.com]

Last night I happened across one of my new found favorite beer & food pairings and I wanted to share it with everyone. While it’s probably a pairing which would be pretty self-explanatory to anyone whose been pairing food & beer for awhile, I think it’s a great combination and a great introduction to the hobby for any pairing newbies out there.

The food I had was a very spicy Thai dish called “Evil Prince Tofu” (slightly fried bean curd sautéed in chili sauce with onion, carrots, red and green peppers, and scallions) and I had it with 2 stars for a little extra kick (if you’re here in Portland and want to exactly replicate my pairing, the food came from Pom’s Thai on Congress St).

The beer I chose to pair with the Evil Prince was a bottle of Holy Sheet Uber Abbey Ale from the Clipper City Brewing Heavy Seas collection, poured into my new Allagash Brewing tulip glass. Holy Sheet is a Belgian-style strong, dark ale (with a 9% ABV) with a hugely sweet malt presence. And it was that malty sweetness that made this pairing work. The abundantly sweet, dried fruit flavors of the heavy malt (which didn’t have any sort of hop presence to combat) cut right through the extreme spice of the Thai dish, making for the perfect compliment to the food. I’d like to see wine do that!

Give this pairing a try yourself. If you have access to takeout Thai food, great. If not, any sort of spicy dish will do. And similarly, if you can get Holy Sheet then great, give it a try (it’s a fine beer with or without the Thai food, too). But any sort of heavy-on-the-maltiness Belgian-style beer should do the trick.  The point is to pick a sweet malty beer to cut through the Thai spice, so stay away from the hops for this one. And once you’ve done it, let me know what you think; I’d love to hear some responses (or maybe variations)! Good luck and enjoy.