Eat, Drink and Be Larry: Favorite Beers with Favorite Foods

Everyone talks about wine pairings with food. Listen, I enjoy a suitable glass of wine with whatever meal I'm having (OK, whatever dinner I'm having. Maybe a little inappropriate for breakfast and lunch). Some of us enjoy beer, too. I've found that may dishes work almost as well with a good beer as they do with a glass of wine. So, as a not-so-little cheat sheet, here is a catalog of some of my favorite beers with some of my favorite meals.

Steak

Style: Imperial Stout
Top Choice: Serpent's Stout by the Lost Abbey

For several years I've been convinced that the best restaurant for a steak is right in my backyard on my charcoal-fired Weber grill. Montreal seasoning does the trick...it's that simple and available at your regular grocery store. After propping the thick (~2-3") strip or ribeye upright to let the fat side burn to a crisp for about 90 seconds, I hit the other edge for about a minute and sear on each flat side for about 3:30. The result is a nicely-charred piece of meat that's still nicely rare and juicy on the inside.

Of course, everyone knows that a nice Cabernet with loads of tannin is the perfect complement to a steak...no argument here. BUT...there are quite a few solid stouts that are up to the job. Serpent's Stout is by far the best of the lot. The char of the dark malts (with an absence of astringency typical of black patent malt) tie in nicely with the char of the steak, while a rich sweetness on the finish meshes perfectly with the juiciness of the meat. Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey has provided us with the best...steak beer...ever. No need to polish off the entire bottle by yourself...it comes in 750s and clocks in at 11% ABV. Have a glass each with your dining partner and alternate between stout and the glass of Cab that's sitting right next to it...in the privacy of your own home, of course. Try it...you won't be disappointed.

If you can't find Serpent's Stout, there are a number of others that work well:

Imperial Russian Stout, Stone Brewing Company
12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, also from Stone Brewing Company (not may of these left in circulation, though)
Imperial Stout Trooper, New England Brewing Company
Ten FIDY, Oskar Blues
Cadillac Mountain Stout, Bar Harbor/Atlantic Brewing Company
Expedition Stout, Bell's Beer
Black Ops, Brooklyn Brewery
Black Chocolate Stout, Brooklyn Brewery

For the record, my favorite Cab with steak has been a 2001 bottle of Larkmead. For every day consumption, Concha y Toro Marques de Casa Concha from Chile runs $15-18 at Costco and works just fine.


Burgers

Style: Belgian Dark Strong Ale or American Dark Strong Ale
Top Choice: Maudite, Unibroue

There are a lot of ways you can go with a beer and a burger; lots of stuff works. However, Maudite works far and away better than others. It may be kind of surprising that a beer from Quebec does wonders with one of America's staples, but it's true. The moderately dark Belgian malt of a Maudite, coupled with the traditional spice profile, make perfect complements to a hamburger fresh off the grill.

Others deserving of mention:

Cold Front, Ithaca Brewing Company

Sixth Glass, Boulevard Brewing Company

Lasagna

Style: Brown Ale, Amber Ale, American Dark Strong Ale (but not a hoppy version)
10 Commandments, Lost Abbey

Lasagna and traditional red sauce Italian are problematic for beer pairings to many. Many people cringe at the thought of beer with Italian food. Italian = red wine. It has to be this way, right? As with steak, such fare is best paired with solid red wines of the region...but if you are insistent on a beer pairing, you really can't go wrong with 10 Commandments. It's a deep dark ale with a hint of rosemary. Be careful, though...at ~10.3% ABV it packs a bit of a punch. Still, it works very well. I'm not sure why Lost Abbey manages to get this honor twice, but it does. Coincidence? I don't think so; Lost Abbey beers seem to work very well with food...perhaps its the hint of various spices found in many of their offerings.

Absent 10 Commandments, I'd prefer a somewhat inert amber to brown ale that has enough heft to withstand the heartiness and spice found in such cuisine and to serve as a sponge for the flavors of the dish. Some possibilities:

Great Pumpkin Ale, Cambridge Brewing Company
Attic and Eaves, Slumbrew Brewing Company

Chili

Style: American Dark Strong Ale or Stout
Top Choice: Dark Truth, Boulevard Brewing Company

An awesome fall to winter comfort food, chili brings about all kinds of warmth as winter approaches. Big chili flavors deserve a big beer with a hint of smoke. Dark Truth by Kansas City's Boulevard Brewing Company fits the bill. It has a hint of sweetness to balance the heat and just enough smoked malt to add as a complement to all of the onions, hot peppers and beans (not to mention beef) in a traditional pot of chili. Go ahead and add a few ounces to your pot as well to bring about a more smoky taste should you prefer.

backburner, Southern Tier Brewing Company
Bigfoot Barley Wine, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

Pork

Style: Belgian Strong Pale Ale or Tripel
Top Choice: Don de Dieu, Unibroue

Some brewers happen to churn out beers that go really well with food. Lost Abbey is one, and so is Unibroue. This light-colored yet strong Belgian-style ale is perfect with the delicate underlying flavors of a roast loin of pork, while the mild sweetness complements the more bold savory elements of black pepper, rosemary and whatever else you throw in there. DdD also works well with BBQ pork ribs fresh out of the smoker...although for that you may want something a little bolder (such as the Sixth Glass by Boulevard mentioned above). Other possibilities:

Long Strange Tripel, Boulevard Brewing Company
Duvel

Lobster

Style: American Wild Ale (a pale, very dry version with more sour than funk) or Saison
Top Choice: Brute, Ithaca Brewing Company

Well, not a lot cuts the 2 lbs. of butter involved in ingesting "the cockroach of the sea" as Mainers (Mainahs?) so deftly put it as Champagne or other dry, sparkling wines. However, the dry sourness of Ithaca Brute (not coincidentally, finished with Champagne yeast) brings about a nice substitute. Keep an open mind because the Brett-tinged "sours" may not be for everybody, but Brute is a little shorter on funk and longer on tart. If you don't have access to or aren't into sours, use a really dry Saison...and I mean dry. Possibilities:

d'Erpe-Mere, De Glazen Toren
Carnevale, Lost Abbey
Saison de Lente, The Bruery (this gives you a sour hint of Brett found in the Brute with a traditional Saison feel)

Thai dishes

Style: Tripel
Top Choice: Trade Winds Tripel, The Bruery

This may be a little cop-out since Trade Winds is brewed with Thai basil, but screw it. It works, as do most Tripels with Thai food. As with the dryness of a Saison with the heft and creaminess of lobster, the mild sweetness of a Tripel cuts through the thick curries and coats, soothes and relieves the sometimes extreme heat of spicy Thai dishes. Of course, the Thai basil of Trade Winds sews a common thread across the table. Other winners include:

Tripel Karmeliet
Long Strange Tripel, Boulevard Brewing Company (just like the old lady in the Frank's Red Hot Sauce commercial, "I put that $#!+ on everything!")
Allagash Tripel, Allagash Brewing Company
Tripel Threat, Cambridge Brewing Company

Indian Food

Style: Tripel, Saison, Hefeweizen or Pilsener
Top Choice: Hennepin, Ommegang

Many Indian dishes are heartily spiced and carry a fair amount of heft. Accordingly, a somewhat spritely Saison with a hint of spciness works nicely to lighten the load on your stomach. Hennepin is a reasonably-priced and readily available straight ahead Saison that's dry enough to give your palate a breather but not so dry that it becomes astringent. It works great with chicken tikka masala as an example. Other solid complements of note:

Saison Vos, Sly Fox Brewing Company
Mamma's Little Yella Pils, Oskar Blues Brewing Company
Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen, Weihenstephan (sic?)

Thanksgiving Dinner

Style: American Brown Ale, American Dark Strong Ale, Saison, Dubbel

Top Choice: Autumn Maple, The Bruery

C'mon now. The thing's brewed with yams. What's not to like? Patrick Rue and the peeps at The Bruery pretty much made this for Thanksgiving. Deep, dark malt meshes with a hint of yammy sweetness and slides in perfectly between the blunt savory goodness of turkey, stuffing and gravy and the sour and sweet of cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes. A Saison (by now you realize that Saisons go well with a lot of different foods) takes a different tack by bringing along some bright airiness to the meal. Don't go for an ultra-dry Saison here; something with a little more meat on the bone will do the trick.

Allagash Fluxus 2009, Allagash Brewing Company (brewed once so if it's in your cellar, good for you)
Sgt. Pepper, Cambridge Brewing Company
Westmalle Dubbel

Mexican Food

Style: Imperial/Double IPA

Top Choice: Stone IPA

Stone IPA is to beer what Tim Wakefield used to be to the Red Sox pitching staff. He could start, be a long man or even close if he had to. You could slot that guy in anywhere. Add his continuous and generous contributions to the Boston community and the guy was just a solid dude. Stone IPA is the same way. It'll work at the beach, for dinner, with pizza...anywhere. I like it with tacos and other Mexican fare. The hoppiness works nicely and it's about as easy-drinking of an IPA you'll ever come across. Heftier double/Imperial IPAs work nicely here too. Stone IPA is available just about everywhere but other solid choices include:

Double Wide IPA, Boulevard Brewing Company
Ruination, Stone Brewing Company (Stone IPA's big bad-@$$ brother)

I'll probably add to this list so please feel free to take a look every once in a while. A lot of food categories (examples: pizza, seafood) are so vast that it really depends on the specifics of what's on the plate. In any event, don't be shy to try some new stuff out with your meals. Maybe enjoy a glass each of beer AND wine with your meal (all the while drinking responsibly, of course) to see how each play off your meal. Cheers!

Chowhounds: A simple way to mix it up a little bit

If you’re like me (and on several levels, I strongly advise you to pause at least a moment to thank your personal God that you’re not), you enjoy food a great deal. That’s easy enough. For some, cooking is intuitive and easy. Me, not so much. I was blessed by having two excellent cooks for parents, but I don’t think the genes carried over too well. I am a spastic mess in the kitchen. Klutziness, sloppiness and general ill temper mark my periodic kitchen disasters. Well, at the ripe old age of “a lot more than I feel like I am,” I’m fixin’ to fix all of that. For those of you that share the same gastronome and kitchenphobe profile, here’s what we can do:

New Cookbook Sunday

OK, I know damn well that I’m not the first one to think of something like this; New [blank] Sunday concepts are just about everywhere. But screw it…give it a shot. Enjoying food in the age of information overload means that we have an infinite number of recipes at our disposal via the Internet, cookbooks assembled by an ever-increasing cast of celebrity chefs and more traditional sources indigenous to the 20th century. Maybe you have a slew of cookbooks that you’ve looked at but never really got much out of. We may have 30 or 40 such tomes on our dining room bookshelf, yet only a select few have the true mark of honor – pages that are waterlogged or crusty from ingredients and other friendly fire from use of a few select recipes repeatedly. Let’s tap a different one of these once a week to strengthen our chops and rid us of the kitchen anxiety, no? Every week, reach for a cookbook or similar source that you think has been relatively untapped. Pick out a recipe you’re at least a little comfortable with, discuss with your Beautiful Bride or other significant other, shop for the ingredients and let it rip. Start off slow – I picked out a wicked easy shrimp dish myself – but who cares…we all learned the basics on how to ski on the bunny hill, didn’t we? Next week I’ll go for something a little more challenging. While you’re at it, try working out pairings of wine and/or beer with each of your dishes to complete the experience. You can always spend an extra 15-30 minutes in the gym on Monday to work off your newfound culinary success. Good luck and enjoy!

It's bottling day for Flying Taco BrewVentures!

While I contemplate the waning of my latest momentum trade in the 3rd month of the quarter (it's still actually doing well; just not as well as it was a couple of weeks ago), I'm finally getting around to bottling a Saison that I have anticipated since the Beautiful Bride bought me the homebrew setup for the holidays. The latest Flying Taco BrewVentures creation has a working title of "Rye Not? 'Tis the Saison" or a recent title of "Saison du Beavis," in honor of our 15-year old cat Beavis who was found cozying up next to the brew barrel during the final days of dry-hopping. It's definitely not been the same for Beavis since we had to say goodbye to his closest companion Butt-Head right before the new year; hell, they've basically been partners in crime since birth. But Beavis soldiers on...and I digress...

I was supposed to brew this deal in June. But Saison yeast requires higher fermentation temperatures, and anyone familiar with Boston weather patterns this summer remembers that we basically got shafted out of the first 6 weeks of summer. Additionally, we had a kitchen project and a few other things pushing the schedule back, so I finally had a chance to brew on July 16. In addition to using the lightest extract I could find (hey, after all it's only my 4th batch), I steeped some Belgian Pale and Pils and about a pound of Rye malt. Toss in some candied ginger, a bunch of candi sugar and a little coriander with Styrian Goldings and Saaz hops and away we go. In addition to needing higher temperatures, Saison yeast also has a habit of setting the world on fire early and petering out for a while before it finishes the job. This was the case with my batch; with an original gravity of 1.062 it worked down to 1.020 but needed a fair amount of time in August to get down to 1.006; of course, cooler temperatures in the back end of July didn't help. It wasn't cold enough to safely put a BrewBelt on the fermenter but wasn't warm enough for the yeast to clear out the remaining fermentables. So I let it take its sweet time and when we hit below 1.010 I dry-hopped with a little Saaz and Styrian Goldings. And now is the fateful day, a day to rejoice, taste the final sample before bottling, and be exceptionally stoked about the project. Right?

Not exactly.

Bottling day is all of that. But from a tactical perspective, bottling day sucks. Royally. For a homebrewer, bottling day is chock full of cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, sanitizing, sanitizing, sanitizing and a whole bunch of stuff that can easily go wrong (not enough bottles, caps or cleansing equipment; broken cappers, broken bottles, earthquake, a terrible flood, locusts, "it wasn't my fault I SWEAR TO GOD!!!"). Two quotes come to mind that are extremely relevant to a homebrewer when thinking about bottling:

• On football when the forward pass was a new, exciting and somewhat scary wrinkle to the "three yards and a cloud of dust" game of yore: "three things can happen when you put the ball in the air, and two of them are bad."

• On golf from the neighbor of the real Beavis & Butt-head, the immortal Tom Anderson, after our two favorite unruly teenagers spent the afternoon following him around the course and bogarting all his golf balls: "Boy, I tell ya what, Dusty...I felt like a one-legged cat tryin' to bury turds on a frozen pond out there today."

It's all that and a bag of chips. Bottling day is like being a flaky art student who just got cut off from the 'rents cash flow and has to balance the checkbook after a 2-week jaunt to Europe. Kicking the tires on a job requiring project management skills? Developing and implementing a homebrew calendar for a year requires both project management and organizational skills...not to mention significant attention to detail. If you do it right, it goes something like this:

1. Soak bottles in water and cleansing (I use PBW = Professional Brewers' Wash) solution
2. Soak bottling bucket and equipment (hydrometer, beer thief, auto siphon, racking cane, tubing) in water and PBW solution
3. Rinse bottles
4. Wash bottling tree
5. Wash bottling spigot
6. Rinse bottling bucket, equipment and spigot
7. Sanitize bottling bucket and equipment
8. Sanitize and rinse bottling tree
9. Sanitize and rinse bottles
10. Sanitize and rinse pan for priming solution (the priming solution of water and sugar gives the remaining yeast just enough to feed on in the bottle to generate natural carbonation)
11. Sanitize caps
12. Prepare priming solution
13. Cool priming solution
14. Sanitize bottling spigot
15. Rinse bottling bucket, equipment and spigot
16. Prepare bottling bucket and auto siphon
17. Pour priming solution into bottling bucket
18. Take final gravity measurement of beer and sample for taste
19. Siphon beer from fermenter/carboy into bottling bucket
20. Bottle and cap
21. Optional per Bluto: "My advice to you is to start drinking heavily."

OK, it's a little more than a 12-step plan but a little less than Kerry Healey's mystical 50-point plan she noted during her unsuccessful bid to become Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (leaving us with Deval Patrick, who has less soul and personality than Tiger Woods. We won't even discuss the comparison of efficacy in each of their chosen crafts/professions).

Invariably, something goes wrong. I have brewed and bottled a whopping four...count 'em...four...batches on my own this year and can name something from each batch in which I screwed the proverbial pooch. No need to bore you with the details, but prepare yourself. Have at least 24 bombers on hand (22 oz. or 650 ml bottles) and at least a 6-pack of typical 12 oz. bottles. Make sure the labels are off before Bottling Day, because not a lot is more annoying than scouring glue-y labels off bottles when you're supposed to be filling them with your luscious creation. Cleanliness and sanitation are critical to keeping unruly microscopic critters from tainting your finely-crafted beverage. Another useless metaphor: If homebrewing is a football field, then bottling is a First-and-Goal situation from the 9-yard line...those last nine yards are the most important, so they can be the toughest to get. Accordingly, they require a great deal of strength, brute force and a tremendously plodding work ethic. This, my friends...is Bottling Day. Don't fret, though...in two to three weeks you'll pop the cap on your latest (and now carbonated) elixir and enjoy it with family and friends...just like you thought when you started this crazy hobby of yours. As always, enjoy!

Wicked good beer in cans for the summertime. No, really!

Well, believe it or not, summertime has finally made its grand entrance here in Boston. So now we're all fixin' to hit beach, or go camping, or to have a nice cookout with friends and family. If you're like me, you may want to enjoy some good beer in moderation with these fun activities but don't want to be hassled with the breakability and heft of glass bottles in your coolers, travels and/or exploits. Hey, glass may even be prohibited at a lot of beaches, campsites and parks. You may say to yourself, "OK, I'll try to stick to canned beer..." but the first thing a lot of people think of when considering beer in cans is mass-market, industrial strength adjunct-laden fare that we all (OK, some of us) drank at Quarter Draft nights in college. I'm not the first one by any means to say this, but bucker up, little camper! There's hope!

There is a great deal of excellent beer in cans being produced by small craft brewers throughout the country these days. Some of my personal faves (with links to write-ups I've done in the past on BeerAdvocate):

Oskar Blues
Oskar Blues in Lyons, Colorado makes Dale's Pale Ale, Old Chub Scottish Style Ale and recently started canning their Mamma's Little Yella Pils. All are great fare for the outdoors...Dale's is a great, refreshing, hoppy all-purpose pale ale that can provide a good spot start in just about any situation. Old Chub's smokiness makes it a prime candidate to pair up with stuff off the grill or a campfire. Mamma's is an easy-drinking Pilsener that's extremely smooth, and just a hair over 5% ABV. If you want a nightcap, there's always Gordon, their excellent imperial IPA...or the treat that is the great Ten FIDY. FIDY pours like spent motor oil to the uninitiated but coats the palate with deep, dark roasted malts and huge hoppiness and viscosity. OB is probably one of the first outfits a lot of the craft beer crowd thinks of when considering great beer of the canned variety. It definitely makes it to Boston and quite a few other pockets of the country.

Butternuts Beer & Ale
The blokes at Butternuts Beer & Ale brew their stuff out of a barn deep in rural Central New York in a town called Garratsville in the 607. It's also about 30 miles from where I went to high school (Sherburne-Earlville, class of 1986). In addition to having hysterical labels that even include the calorie count (most in the 150 range - not too bad at all!), they brew some solid beer.
Heinnieweisse is an easy-drinking, great, straightforward Hefeweizen that is nicely carbonated and gives off a fair amount of those banana esters that we know and love from the Hefeweizen yeast strains. Porkslap Pale Ale is more of a traditional "old school" pale ale that provides a solid malt backbone with enough hoppiness to keep it interesting. Then there's Snapperhead IPA, which to me is more of an English IPA than American IPA - again, more maltiness than today's ultra-hoppy IPAs, but still very solid. For something in the deeper and darker category, check out Moo Thunder Stout for a dry and sessionable stout. Not sure of their availability outside of the Northeast but they're definitely worthy of a spot in your cooler.

Surly
If I lived in Minnesota, I'd have stuff from Surly Brewing in my fridge and cooler all year-round. Furious is one of my favorite IPAs. The citrus hop bite oozes grapefruit (especially when fresh), yet it's still extremely well-balanced and an utmost pleasure to drink. The first time I tried one of these I poured it into a Reidel Vinum Cabernet Sauvignon glass to get as much of the aroma as possible, and it didn't disappoint. CynicAle adds a little bit of Belgian, Saison-style spunk to the mix, which goes perfectly with warm weather. Again, I'm pretty sure their canned offerings are only available in Minnesota, but if you have access, they're a sure thing.

There are quite a few more canned craft brew offerings out there (even Brooklyn Lager is available in cans now, with pretty wide distribution). A lot of them have regional distribution, such as Southern Star's Pine Belt Pale Ale in Texas and New England Brewing stuff from Connecticut, but there's a very good chance that at least some of them are available where you are. Almost forgot Coconut Porter from Maui Brewing Company, who also has a nice note on the positives of cans. So there's no need to trade down just to pour it from the can! Snag one or more of these fine offerings and (in moderation) enjoy!

Welcome to The Blog of the Flying Taco

Well, there's the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, so why not the Blog of the Flying Taco?

Welcome and thanks for taking the time to read this, even though most of us experience serious information overload quite frequently. I live just outside of Boston and have extensive interest in the investment management and financial services industry. I may about the markets and investing/trading (disclaimer: I'm not a registered investment adviser, nor do I play one on TV, so no recommendations here; more like observations and insight). But it doesn't end there, by any means!

Brewing & beer
I am a nascent homebrewer (Flying Taco is the working name of my brewing exploits...Flying Taco Brewventures, to be exact). Some, including my Beautiful Bride, may call me a beer obsessive, as I enjoy trying beer from all over the world and of many different styles - so I'll definitely write about beer quite a bit.

More "consumables"
Food, wine...that too! Really anything in the "gastronomic arts" is on the table. I enjoy cooking even though I'm an absolute manic and stressed slob in the kitchen. Really the only thing I haven't managed to splatter all across our kitchen is homemade ice cream. Thankfully our CuisinArt ice cream maker has a very deep bowl to save us all from that indignity.

Sports
I enjoy the hell out of sports. As far as spectator sports go, baseball, hockey (my favorite live sport to watch)...football and basketball, too...and NASCAR. Hey, I even catch rugby on Setanta every once in a while, though not often enough. I don't just sit on the couch and watch 'em on TV, though, I participate too. I bike frequently and enjoyed playing soccer until I left my ACL on the field last June, but hopefully I'll start that up again in limited duty soon. Racquetball is something I must get back into very soon. Baseball, softball, too. I'm a fan of just about all of the Boston pro teams (first and foremost the Red Sox and Bruins). As a former Buffalo resident I continue to suffer alongside the Bills and Sabres, too, and still have solid Chicago ties to the Cubs, da Bearsz and the Hawks. Especially the Cubs, despite what a mess they are.

Music
One of the most useful gifts I ever received was my first iPod from my Beautiful Bride. Wouldn't have bought one on my own, but now I'm lost without it. Once I loaded it up I realized that I had collected a whole lot of music that was all over the place. From my Buffalo days I had a lot of Canadian indie stuff from listening to CFNY 102.1/The Edge in Toronto. Nine Inch Nails, Grateful Dead, southern fried, jazz, classical (Mom's influence as a professional flutist (flautist?) with a couple of Russian ballet companies in the 1960s when she lived in the City), new wave, techno, even some country in there. I've lately been on a big Canadian indie kick; we've caught quite a few Ron Hawkins (formerly with The Lowest of the Low) gigs lately with more coming soon. Also, our son is 5 and he's turning into a Deadhead. His favorite Dead tune is "Sugaree." It's amazing what XM 57 (Sirius 32) in the car has done for child development, apparently.

Many thanks to y'all for stopping by, and enjoy!

Thanks again,

Larry