Beer Pairing and Extreme Beer. Post your thoughts.

SAM ADAMS PROMOTES FOOD AND BEER PAIRING AND “EXTREME BEER”

I know the subtitle to this website is “ Wine, Food, Travel” but even wine journalists don’t live by wine alone. I, for one, love beer, too. And I even like to write about it whenever I can. Hence, this month’s posting is all about beer.

Food and Beer Pairing
It’s become arguably the biggest trend in beer (at least craft beer) to promote serious beer and food matching – and I don’t mean wings and burgers. Food and beer matching ideas are cropping up all over the craft beer industry, with the most notable example being the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver this past October. There were pairing demos in the Beer & Food Pavilion and they even had available a beer and food matching chart that list 28 styles of beer along with suggested foods. For more info, check out www.beertown.org.

But the Boston Beer Company, maker of Sam Adams, and specifically Jim Koch, the company’s founder, has been in the forefront of this movement. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as Koch and Sam Adams have been beer innovators since the company’s founding in 1984.now Koch and his company are pushing for beer lovers and would be beer lovers to think about beer (at least some of the time) the way wine drinkers think about wine – as a natural accompaniment to food.

Koch even has promoted this idea in the heart of wine drinker territory – the Food & Wine Magazine Classic at Aspen. In recent years, Koch has hosted lunches at the Classic with food prepared by culinary luminaries, such as chefs Todd English and David Burke.

Sam Adams also has promoted beer and food pairing at the GABF this year. At a dinner at Rioja restaurant in Denver’s Larimer Square drove the point home. How about appetizers including apple beignet, foie gras Napoleon, cinnamon range gastrique and seared duck breast washed down with Sam Adams Winter Lager? Or an entrée of beef filet, seared scallops and caramelized onion with Sam Adams Boston Lager? Dessert, a hazelnut brown butter tart, was accompanied by Sam Adams Cram Stout.

Even for a wine journalist like me, the beer and food pairings seemed every bit as natural as they were revealing.

Extreme Beer?
That’s what Jim Koch calls it. I mentioned above that he and his company are beer innovators. Beginning with Triple Bock in 1994, Koch has really pushed the envelope of complexity and alcohol. The Triple Bock came in at 17.5% alcohol. In 2000, Sam Adams released Millennium Ale at 21%. Then came Utopias MMII in 2002 at 25%. In 2003, and again in 2005 Utopias was released at 25% alcohol. Now the just released 2007 edition of Utopias weighs in at 27% alcohol!

What is amazing about this brew, though, even more that the alcohol itself, is that the alcoholic heat virtually disappears behind the seamlessness of its rich texture and complex flavors of caramel, maple syrup and butter pecan. At $120 a bottle, Utopias certainly is the most expensive beer ever but this brew also can take its place among the finest after dinner drinks, whether Cognac, Sherry or Port.

Meadowood

In the Napa Valley, It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than Meadowood. I have had the pleasure of staying at the Meadowood resort in the Napa Valley twice now, first in March of 2006 and again in July 2007. Nestled in a valley, a crease really, in the eastern foothills of the Napa Valley (roughly as far north as St. Helena), Meadowood is an amazing property. There is a refreshingly rustic feel to being surrounded by forest as you rest in your cottage. But make no mistake; Meadowood is a refined and eminently civilized place. Once inside your cottage, you feel as if you are in an elegant hotel.The civility is reinforced by the availability of golf, tennis and croquet. And a nightly wine reception offers a white and red Napa Valley wine to enjoy and an opportunity for conversation with fellow visitors.A notable offering is an extensive wine education program directed by Master Sommelier Gilles Chambure. Guests can (for an additional charge) avail themselves of a wide array of wine tasting sessions, winery tours and other wine-related services.And now The Restaurant at Meadowood has become a jewel of the resort. I left our meal there in July convinced that this is one of the best restaurants in the Napa Valley. Chef Joseph Humphrey prepares impeccable contemporary cuisine using fresh, local, seasonal ingredients (some even from the Meadowood’s own organic garden).There are three-course ($65), four-course ($80) and five-course ($95) Prix Fixe menus, as well as a Chef’s Tasting Menu ($120). Of course, the wine list is heavy on Napa Valley wines but there is also an impressive selection of wines from around the world.It is no surprise to me that Esquire recently named The Restaurant one of the best new restaurants in America and the Michelin Guide just gave it two stars (three is the most they give).Granted, both the resort and the restaurant are very expensive. But the next time you are looking for a splurge, you can do no better than Meadowood.

For more information, check out: http://www.meadowood.com/winecuisine/the-restaurant/