Over the past 2 weekends, I have been to the Joe Canal’s Discount Liquor store on Rt. 38 twice; my first time alone, and this past Saturday with Ray. Between the 2 visits, we have purchased roughly $130 of beer.

Are you thinking we’re nuts? That we’re boozehounds? Au contraire! We have come across a veritable gold mine — a Mecca of craft beer — 15 minutes from our condo.

Sure, the craft beer section may only be 2 aisles and a couple stackouts of Victory and Flying Fish, but those 2 aisles nearly made me pee myself when I first stepped in. My first visit was regulated to only one aisle because I had nearly filled a cart. I had to put stuff back.

Between these 2 visits, we purchased 2 six packs — River Horse’s Brewer’s Reserve Double White (2W) and Buffalo Bills Orange Cream Ale; a four-pack of Heavy Seas’ Hang Ten; and the following bottles:

From the left: Weyerbacher’s XIII Belgian-inspired imperial stout anniversary beer; Southern Tier’s Imperial Cherry Saison; Stone’s 12th anniversary bitter chocolate oatmeal stout; Weyerbacher’s Twelve anniversary rye barleywine; Great Divide’s Yeti imperial stout; Brewery Ommegang’s Chocolate Indulegence 10th anniversary Belgian-inspired chocolate stout; Westmalle Tripel; Rogue’s Shakespare Stout; Ommegang’s Abbey Ale; Southern Tier’s Imperial Pumpking; Young’s Oatmeal Stout; Smuttynose’s Imperial Stout; and finally Rogue’s Morimoto Soba Ale.

Envious yet?

Of those bottles, we actually purchased 3 of the Stone anniversary beer, and we have at least half of the stash carefully put away to cellar. Even days later, we’re still amazed at what we found, and what we plan to buy in the coming months.

Ray totally let me get away with buying all these stouts; the third bottle of Stone is not pictured (we drank it) and the Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence is also not pictured because, um, I missed the word “stout” on the bottle. Stop laughing at me!

These are the Belgians; though the Chocolate Indulgence is more stoutish.

This is our collection of anniversary beers — minus the one Stone bottle that we drank. Ray will be talking more about these beauties on Friday.

Miscellany Add Comment »

Two Sunday nights ago (July 20) I decided I should do a dress rehearsal of sorts for the dessert I planned on bringing to Ray’s parents’ BBQ this past Saturday. I did not want to wait until the day before to try a completely new recipe and result in an epic fail, so a practice run was called for.

I found a recipe for Plum Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar & Cardamom Streusel in the latest issue of Fine Cooking magazine, and aside from the mouth-watering photography, the overall recipe looked good. Plus, I had spent the majority of my childhood hating plums, so it was time to make amends.

Who’da Thunk It?
I learned from the article that there are close to 200 varieties of plums out there. There aren’t a ton of differences in their tastes — but there is a difference in their shelf life. So, if you buy a plum on Monday, there’s a good chance that if you go to buy another plum on Saturday, it will be a different variety. I thought this was kind of interesting.

Before I even decided to make the cake, I wanted to try some fresh plums first, and I purchased one red plum and one black plum. The red plum had a medium-to-deep red skin, and the fruit was a golden yellow, whereas the black plum’s skin was a purplish-black with maroon hints, and its fruit was a red-violet color. They were both about a day away from being optimally ripe, but I tried them anyway and found I preferred the black plum.

When I picked up plums from the store a week later to make the cake, I purchased the only ones I could find, which had a sign that said “tree ripe plums.” They had a darker skin, so I was guessing they were black plums; they weren’t, but that’s okay. Instead the fruit inside was the same golden color as the previously mentioned red plums. Que sera, sera.

I set myself up in the kitchen and made the streusel first, using heavy cream in lieu of whole milk (I couldn’t find a container of whole milk at the store that wasn’t smaller than a half gallon, and there is no way in hell I was going to consume it otherwise.). The streusel had a nice, clumpy consistency to it. Once I had that done, I stashed it in the fridge to chill while I made the cake batter.

The batter was fairly simple, though I didn’t have a pastry blender, nor did I know what one was, nor did I bother to google it. Instead I took an immersion blender to the dry ingredients with the pats of butter, and got roughly the same effect that the recipe was calling for. I folded the wet into the dry, mixed it up, and gave it a taste. Wow! Right on! You could taste and smell the cardamom. I poured the batter into my square pan, crumbled half of the streusel into it, added the quartered and pitted plums, and then topped with the remaining streusel.

Doesn’t this look freaking delicious?

Ray agreed to be my guinea pig on this one, and we each had a piece of the cake paired with River Horse’s Brewer’s Reserve Belgian Double White (2W). The cake was balanced — not too moist or dry, not too sweet or dull. The fruit texture complemented the texture of the cake and the streusel. Overall, we felt it made a delicious cake.

I have made the cake twice now. The second time did include some black plums (unfortunately, not all the ones I picked out of the “black plum” bin were truly black); Ray bought a pastry blender for me; and when we had it after dinner, I had Ray’s mom warm it up in the oven for a little bit.

The results were astounding! We polished the cake off, with Steph taking a tiny extra piece, and Ray and his dad splitting the rest of the leftover piece. Everyone liked it, and even Tim really liked it, and he typically hates cake! Whoo! Mission accomplished.

Craft Beer, Miscellany, Pairings Add Comment »

Brew Dudes Mike and John are hosting this month’s Fermentation Friday, a last-Friday-of-the-month blogging event specially made for homebrew bloggers. This month’s topic: What one tip would you give a beginner homebrewer before they brew their first batch and why?

Homebrewing is easy. No, really! If you can boil water and put things in boiling water and read a clock and pour things without slopping on the floor and measure dry ingredients and sanitize equipment and read a hydrometer and— Okay, so maybe I spoke too soon. These things are all easy to do, but remembering to do them all at the right time and in the right order can be incredibly difficult. I myself am notorious among my peers for my inability to keep my memory organized. I think I am, at least. I forget. Har har.

In my experience, trusting your memory is a great way to set yourself up for disaster. It’s why I’m such an avid GTDer. Just this past week, for example, Mel and I nearly forgot to prime our Coffee Nut Brown Ale for bottling. It wasn’t until we were nearly done siphoning the beer into the bottling bucket that Mel noticed. If she hadn’t been on her game, we’d be eagerly waiting for our beer to carbonate, except it never would. It’s like when your dog runs away, and you wait on your porch all week, thinking he’ll come home. He won’t. He’s in the circus now, and much happier for it. Wow, I really derailed there.

Paper, however, never forgets. When you write something down, it stays there until the cat eats it, and that might not happen for weeks! On the other hand, try to remember your girlfriend’s birthday without a notice going off in iCal to remind you — doesn’t work, does it? I’m sorry!

It is for these reasons that you, the novitiate homebrewer, will need a long, comprehensive checklist ruthlessly guiding you through the sharp rocks of failure to the golden palace of great beer. Here are the checklists that Mel and I use, adapted from a checklist given to us by Steph (PDF — sorry, just easier this way):

Brewing Checklist
Bottling Checklist

When Ray let me know about Fermentation Friday and this month’s theme, I instantly thought about anal retentive organization. Having your equipment out, sanitized, ready; having your ingredients lined up and categorized … okay, so maybe I’m a little obsessive compulsive, but if anything, it’s easier to start out that way, then chill out and become a little lax. But I guarantee you, the first time we have a beer go south — possibly due to contamination — we will certainly get back onto our overly organized high horses and shape up. But until then, in the immortal words of Charlie Papazian, “Remember, the best beer in the world is the one you brewed.”

Ha! Thought I was going to use his most famous phrase about chilling the hell out and having a homebrew, eh?

Fermentation Friday, Homebrewing 1 Comment »

Bottling is the bane of most homebrewers’ existences. Apparently. Mel and I don’t very much mind it, ourselves; we can bottle a 5-gallon batch of beer in under 45 minutes, and I almost think the process itself makes us love each other more. There something very sensual about watching a woman fill empty bottles with beer, and few things make me feel manlier than smashing down on those caps with our bottle capper.

I have no clue what Ray thinks is so “sensual.” I sit on a stool from his office when I fill the bottles, so I kind of look like I’m milking a cow. I haven’t been brave enough to try the bottle capper yet, simply because I have visions of a full bottle of beer flying across the kitchen floor as my hand slips and loses the grip. Maybe someday though.

So long, that is, as we have a clean set of bottles to work with. If the bottle supply is low, though, we need to dip into our supply of labeled bottles, which means an extra hour of hot water and scrubbing before we can even begin.

The best way to clean the labels off of bottles is to run them through the dishwasher, stopping it just before it hits the heated dry cycle. In theory, this should leave the labels soggy and the glue soft, allowing you to remove them with a scrubby sponge and bit of elbow grease, but in practice, some breweries’ labels will come off easily, while others will all but break my strength in an epic contest of will and adhesion. Here are some of the best and worst labels to have to remove:

Best:

• Dogfish Head — Like removing a wet band-aid
• Heavy Seas — The paper turns to something resembling oatmeal by the time it comes out of the dishwasher
• Ithaca — I am convinced that Ithaca Beer Company doesn’t use glue and that their labels are held on by nothing more than hope

Worst:

• Weyerbacher — Lamination and rubbery glue combine to clog your garbage disposal and ruin your plastic scrubby pad forever
• Smuttynose — Thick, glossy paper that repels water; glue that acts more like the stains in your microwave; pretty pictures that you kind of feel bad destroying
• River Horse — You’ve got to be kidding me… A front label, a back label, and a neck label?

Homebrewing, Technical 3 Comments »

July 19, 2008. A day of infamy … and pork … and the specially-commissioned J&D Pale Ale.

Our good friends Jen and Derek have a yearly bash to celebrate all that is good in this world: BBQ, beer, amazing food, music, and friends. This year was the biggest yet, with nearly 50 people in attendance (I think … I didn’t really spend much time counting).

Steph and Tim were commissioned to brew a beer for the event, and they came up with a crowd-pleasing pale ale that was smooth, light, and flavorful for that style of beer. Sure they could have brought one of their ass-kicking beers (and I mean ass kicking, as in the beer whups your behind), but they went the smart route and concocted a brew that anyone could enjoy, from a typical macro-drinker to a beer snob.

The beer in all its kegged and labeled glory.

Oh yeah, and their keg kicked in 3 hours, even before the Victory Festbier. Go Steph and Tim!

Steph shows us how it’s done.

Derek’s pulled pork was flavorful with smoke, had a great texture, and just the right amount of moistness — no shoe leather here. Ray and Tim clamored over the ribs, as did almost everyone else, and I think I actually saw Tim eat an entire one — meat, bones and all!

For my contribution, I baked my orange chocolate chip cookies, with help from Ray. They were a huge hit, and Steph even went so far to say they were my best yet. I upped the ante on the orange extract after a suggestion from Ray, was heavy-handed with the chocolate chips, used parchment paper, and kept a steady eye on them so none burned. I was exceedingly happy with my sweet treats.

Jen also provided one of the desserts, a pan of chocolate peanut butter brownies made with 70 percent bittersweet chocolate. They were rich, moist and would have gone most excellently with a roasty stout.

There was pimento cheese and sangria, also from our host and hostess, and cornbread to die for. Who am I kidding? It could take another hour to describe all of the amazing food we had, so let’s just leave you with some pictures.

That was food.

Steph checked out the “7 Minutes in Heaven” booth. I wonder if anyone really used it?

Friends of Jen and Derek, the band The Helper Monkeys rocked out the night with tunes you could tap your feet to.

Such fun!

Craft Beer, Homebrewing, Miscellany Add Comment »

I’m going to venture a wild guess here: At least 50% of Americans do not like beer, and of those who do drink beer, I’d feel overly optimistic if I tried to say that even 25% drink good beer. Everyone else is most likely buying Schmuck Lite by the 30-pack and chilling it to 14 Kelvin.

And so we must now beg the question: Why don’t more people in America like good beer?

I have a theory.

The problem begins with the soft drink industry. As soon as they’ve moved from crib to bed, children are jumping into the jittery world of juice, where fruit is combined with tankers full of high-fructose corn syrup until such a dilution is reached that we can no longer call it juice and must begin to call it a juice drink. From there, it is but a small step to sodas. If they have any teeth left at the end of this, they chow down on a big chocolate cake, and wash it down with a bag of Skittles.

When they hit the bars as adults, the trend continues. Look at the most popular alcoholic drinks: Cosmopolitans; Mojitos; Baileys; Long Island Iced Tee; Sex on the Beach. How often do you see someone order a well-aged Scotch anymore? Gods forbid you actually have to taste the liquor!

People in America do not like good beer because they were raised drinking soda. They’ve been trained to think that “tastes good” is equivalent to “sweet,” but good beer isn’t sweet — good beer is bitter*. And so, bar patrons saddle up to the heavily chilled light lagers, which don’t taste as much like beer as beer does, allowing them to reap the social benefits of drinking beer without having to taste it.

So, how can we raise good beer drinkers?

You shouldn’t be giving your kids soda, for one thing, even if you aren’t aiming to rear a respectable beer snob. Even juice should be a treat at best. Give them water, or milk if they can handle it. Steer them away from overly sweet snacks. Try giving them a couple pieces of 75% cacao dark chocolate. You don’t have to load their sippy cups with black Kona dark roast, but the sooner you can quash your child’s “bitter is bad” mentality, the sooner you can put them on the road to good beer. When they’re grown up, I mean. Wink wink.

*Ahem, usually.

Sadly, I was that little girl in the picture growing up. I got to drink all the soda I wanted — amazingly, I didn’t get my first cavity until I was 14 — and I didn’t learn to appreciate coffee until I was 22. Even then, it had to be flavored, loaded with flavored creamer, and topped off with sugar. Luckily I’ve gotten a lot better. I rarely drink soda, and when I do, I’m usually 3 sips in when I realize “Hey, this hurts my soul!” I tend to drink more robust coffee, but now with plain half-and-half and some splenda. There is hope for me.

But the type of alcohol-consuming person Ray described was also me in my early 20s. My college years saw me living off Mudslides, Malibu and Coke, and C&S Saloon’s famed “Grapeful Dead” (essentially a Long Island Ice Tea, but with grape schnapps and a splash of Sprite). I drank Molson if it was on special, or Labatts, mainly because we were that close to Canada. God did I have so much to learn.

But it’s been 6 years, and it’s been almost a year and a half of good beer drinking for me. I’ve learned to open myself up to trying anything, whether it be sweet, spicy, bitter, or just plain freaky.

So put down the high-fructose corn syrup, and eat something fresh from the local market and drink a homebrew, or at least a craftbeer!

Isn’t it funny how testimonials like that sound like they’re coming from a support group? “My name is Barry Lopeburgh, and I am a crappy beer drinker. It has been five years since my last crappy beer. I had a 750ml bottle of Weyerbacher Merry Monks right before I drove down here today, and it was wonderful.”

Craft Beer, Opinion Add Comment »

As I was cruising the Web today, I decided to check in with out friends at Brookston Beer Bulletin and I came across this gem of International Brewers Day.

Unfortunately, I don’t personally know any brewers, beyond Steph and Tim, who are innovative homebrewers, as well as Ray and myself. But technically, I don’t think that counts. Nevertheless, I wanted to make others aware of this, and as a little teaser, here’s why July 18 was chosen:

“I chose July 18 because it’s the feast day for one of the most well-known patron saints of brewers, St. Arnulf of Metz, better known as St. Arnold. There are actually over a dozen saints that are patrons of some facet of brewing and there are even at least three St. Arnolds, or at least a variation of that name. But Arnulf’s feast day is also in the middle of summer—arguably beer’s high season—so it seemed appropriate enough to start a holiday dedicated to brewers.”

-Brookston Beer Bulletin

Miscellany Add Comment »

A few nights ago, Ray and I finally cracked the bottle of Young’s Double Chocolate Stout that I had purchased in late May/early June. Originally, I was going to be a greedy brat and keep it to myself, but I came to my senses and decided Ray and I should share, as well as pair my chocolate chip cookies with it.

When Ray finds me baking in the kitchen, you can see his eyes glaze over and he begins to salivate. True, I am definitely a good baker, schooled by my Gramma Ward, and encouraged by the rest of my family, but sometimes I think his objectivity flies out the window when it comes to my sweet treats fresh from the oven.

Nevertheless, we shared a couple cookies and the bottle of Youngs, and it was excellent. I feel that the bottled brew was just as good as the draft I had at Stouts NYC; the head was nice and creamy, the mouthfeel had a luscious thickness to it — without leaving an unpleasant coating — and the overall taste was full of chocolate and roastyness. This beer paired perfectly with my cookies, which are not too sweet — I only use semi-sweet chocolate chips — and are also not super chewy/soft. They’re also not drier than stale toast; instead they sit on the middle ground, and because of that, the moisture from the stout compliments them well.

Excellent beer, excellent cookies, excellent pairing.

And while we’re on the topic of cookies and beer, Ray and I tried our ESB with my orange chocolate chip cookies as well, and found that the citrus in both the beer and the cookie was brought forth by the pairing. A nice surprise indeed!

Craft Beer, Pairings, Tasting 2 Comments »

This past Saturday (the 12th) was the day of 2008’s Royal Stumble at Nodding Head Brewpub (warning: link resizes your window) at 1516 Sansom in Philly. It was what one might call the best damn fest I’ve ever been to as long as you don’t count Savor.

The Royal Stumble is a unique brew fest in that attendees get to stay in one spot and eat and drink while the exhibiting breweries send staff armed with pitchers to fill up everybody’s tasters. Each brewery was allowed to bring two staffers and one keg of beer. First brewery to kick a keg wins! Ah, Nodding Head, always so weird.

We arrived at the brewpub at 11am to get in line. Our friends had warned us to show up early so we’d be able to get a good table — good advice. The line stretched all the way down the block and up 16th Street by the time the doors opened up at 1pm.

As the second group into the pub, we had our pick of the tables. After being accosted at the entrance by Triumph Brewing Company’s Beer Bitches (Don’t look at me like that. It said that on their shirts.) and being served a sample of Triumph’s delicious Saison, we made a quick left turn into the back room behind the bar and staked out a soon-to-be-sticky high-top table at the end of a converted church pew.

It was but moments before the sweet smells of the buffet lured us toward the northern end of the pub. There, we found a nice selection of typical barbeque buffet food: among other things, there was fried chicken, cole slaw, pasta salad, and some of the best pulled pork I have ever tasted in my 27 years, sweet, dripping with juice, and spiced liberally with cinnamon.

Eating that thing was obviously very important to me.
Photo credit to Stephanie Weber.

Also near the buffet, in the northeast corner of the pub by the bay windows, was the band. I have no idea what their name was, but they were great fun to listen to. Jammy and long winded, they reminded me a lot of The Slip before they started doing nothing but indie rock.

He is probably a lot better than I am at bass. I am not very good at bass at all.
Photo credit to Stephanie Weber.

As we finished our first tasters back at our table, further armies of beer pourers zeroed in on our empty glasses. Within the next ten minutes, we got to try Doc Street Brewpub’s Chupar un Limon, a lemon and lime infused Kölsch that reminded me a little too much of rosemary, Sly Fox’s spicy and refreshing Whitehorse Wit, and Flying Fish’s beautifully complex X-Perimental Pale Ale, a new personal favorite of mine that featured no fewer than five different hop varieties.

You can’t seeeee meeeee….
Photo. Stephanie.

By 2:30, Triumph had already managed to kick their keg, which surprised no one, as they had boobs running around pouring beer for them. Cheap. Everyone who was able to make it out to the fest had arrived by then, and even with a full crowd, the pub was never unnavigable. At this point, the four of us began to take turns getting up from the table to explore the rest of the breweries.

Yeah, I dunno. I figure someone must’ve stepped on my foot, maybe?
Not Stephanie Weber, but it was her camera, so yeah.

Stoudt’s had their hefeweizen, which Ale Street News had rightfully named the best hefe in the US. Weyerbacher’s Muse farmhouse ale was one that I was already familiar with, but given that Weyerbacher is probably my favorite brewery, I had to have some. Victory had their Braumeister Pils, one in their series of single hop focused brews, this one featuring Hallertauer mf.

The big standout of the entire fest for me was General Lafayette Inn’s Lafayette’s Escape. Despite being a mere 1.9% ABV, this beer was darker than mulch and roastier than coffee. We were all dumbfounded to consider how this was possible! I spent a good half hour talking about brewing with Lafayette’s Assistant Brewer, Russ Czajka, who explained to me that the combination of low alcohol and big flavor had been achieved by using a fairly small amount of malts, but mashing at a higher temperature than normal, allowing them to extract a wide variety of flavor components from a light grain bill. It made sense to me: The noticeable, but oddly delicious in this case, tannin flavors in the beer should have tipped me off. I think I refilled my glass eight or nine times while standing at that table.

South of Lafayette’s table was the hallway leading to Nodding Head’s brew rooms, which were vacant enough for us to explore for a few minutes. Tim and I came across a gorgeous little barrel that beckoned us to put our hands on it and feel the power. I’d sure like to know what was in there.

Tim was attracted by the cosmic energy.
Photo credit goes to me for once.

The two-person limit that was imposed on the breweries meant that most companies sent their most knowledgeable people. There were more than a few brewmasters present, along with local beer authors Don Russell and Lew Bryson, beer lass and lovely Sly Fox lady Suzanne from In Pursuit of Ale (warning: MySpace link), and Bobby from Ale Street News. Steph and Tim spent almost half of the fest networking, and Mel and I found several opportunities to put Bathtub Brewery’s URL in a few important hands.

The combination of delicious food, excellent beer, and local luminaries with Nodding Head’s bizarre yet somehow old fashioned atmosphere made for one of the most unique and fun brew fest experiences we’ve ever come across. I cannot recommend the Royal Stumble enough. If you want to come out next year, show up early so you can stake out a good table.

If you can’t make it to next year’s Stumble, then at least pay a visit to Nodding Head for dinner some night. They have some of the most creative brews in the Philly area, and some brilliant food to go with it. It’s easy enough to find: Just take the PATCO train to 15th & 16th, and head south on 16th when you get to street level. Turn left at Sansom, and you’ll see Nodding Head’s entrance tucked behind a cigar shop on the right side of the street about an eighth of a mile up.

Our photo gallery

Breweries, Brewfests, Brewpubs, Craft Beer Add Comment »

Editor’s Note: This was posted on my personal site (Hindrances to Progress) a few weeks ago. I decided it should also exist here. Some of what’s being said may be out of date. For example, Savor was not two weekends ago, because that is not when May 17th was. You get the idea. Anyway.

Savor was two weekends ago, and of course I was there. Together with Steph (my sister), Tim (her husband), and Mel (my girlfriend), we pounded the floors of the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington D.C. until they crumbled under the weight of our thundering enthusiasm, which was an unfair thing for us to do. The building literally fell to rubble.

For the uninitiated, Savor, which was held for the very first time this year, is like an upscale craft brew fest, with special emphasis placed on food and beer pairings. There were 48 breweries present, each exhibiting two of their finest beers. Each beer was paired with one of 30-40 appetizers and desserts.

The typical frat boys and their light-lager sipping blonde girlfriends were nowhere to be seen. The crowds, the noise, the heat — no concern of ours. The traditional pace of waiting in a line, getting a pour, and then hightailing it to the next line while you drank it gave way to a relaxed, thoughtful afternoon of meandering. This event was about far more than sampling unfamiliar brews; every fest I’ve been to prior has handled that just fine. Savor was about appreciation.

The exhibitors almost always had their brewmasters and brewmistresses present at their tables. Craft brewing bigwigs like Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head and Garrett Oliver of The Brooklyn Brewery were there to man their company’s taps. There were even more than a few company presidents there (Mel and I actually spent a good ten minutes talking to the president of Stoudt’s without realizing who she was). Because of this, it was generally perfectly reasonable to ask the person serving your beer, “What can you tell me about this?” and get a detailed answer. This contrasted from most fests where the servers are usually just lower-level employees of the breweries — I made sure to ask every server about what he or she was pouring for me, and very close to all of them had something interesting to say.

The event was incredibly social. For someone like me, who doesn’t tend to do well around strangers, to be in the mood to go around shaking hands with random people and saying such things as “hi,” there needs to be some kind of magic in the air. Okay, maybe I was a little loose from all the beer and food, but you could see on every face in that hall that everybody, brewer and attendee alike, was extremely happy and excited to be there.

It made for a fantastic tasting routine. Spot a beer you want to try, and then wait in no more than a one- or two-person line to get it. Have a few words with the exhibitor while you sip, pick up the food pairing, and finally retreat to one of the nearby tables to enjoy and discuss every tiny detail of the experience with your fellows before moving on to the next one:

“The oak is a lot more subtle than I expected. It’s almost velvety. Ooh, yeah, you’re right, the vanilla notes come out a lot more after you take a bite of the brownie. Is that coriander? It really compliments the duck. Oh, look, it’s Charlie Papazian. Eep! It’s Charlie Papazian!”

Did I neglect to mention?

The High Imperial Granddaddy of homebrewing, Charlie Papazian could be seen all afternoon, wandering the floor, sampling this and that, and basically being his unassuming little self when Steph skipped up to him with her hand out, squeaking, “Hi! I’m Stephanie! I’ve read all your books!”

His response: “Mmf… Muh mouf iff fuww…” This basically made Steph’s weekend.

To most other people, he was just another guy with a STAFF badge on. Those who understood the man’s importance, however, were in for a treat. Getting to stand around and shoot the breeze with possibly the most important person in modern brewing is hard to describe. You could tell that Charlie was having a great time, perfectly content to spend his day eating, drinking, and chatting, and we were all too happy to indulge him.

I think it goes without saying that photos were in order.

Charlie with Steph and Tim. He was relaxed. He was not worried.

And now with me and Mel. Interesting side note: I said, “It’s an honor to meet you,” when I shook Charlie’s hand. I’d never said that to anyone before.

What Savor accomplished above all else was to open, or at least further proliferate, the greater discussion of beer’s place in fine cuisine. Right now, the dialog doesn’t extend far beyond the beer snobs like us, and while Savor won’t have done much to spread the word directly, the people who made the trip to D.C. came away armed with new passion and education with which to create new snobs. Craft beer is a bigger world now because of Savor.

Breweries, Brewfests, Craft Beer, Pairings 1 Comment »