Beer and bánh mì

Rodney might be Hoosier Beer Geek's beer and food pairing maven, but the rest of us occasionally try our hand at coupling good beer and food. Last Saturday, I decided to test what might be considered an unconventional pairing: Cantillon Gueuze and bánh mì.

Until Twenty Tap opened last year, I'd never had bánh mì, which is a type of French bread sandwich brought here by Vietnamese immigrants. Twenty Tap has a vegan version of the bánh mì on its menu, which I had at the pub during my second visit. Traditional bánh mì toppings include mayonnaise, pickled carrots and daikon radishes, cucumbers, fresh jalapeño peppers, and sprigs of fresh cilantro. In addition to these toppings, my Twenty Tap bánh mì had smoked tofu on it. But the classic bánh mì contains meat--usually pork, such as grilled pork belly or pork liver pâté.

Twenty Tap's bánh mì is excellent, but I'd been wanting to try a sandwich from one of the Vietnamese restaurants in the Lafayette Square area. This area fell on hard times during the last decade; many of the area's strip malls emptied out. But in recent years, this part of the city has seen a proliferation of ethnic restaurants, which have filled many of the strip mall vacancies. These establishments serve inexpensive and delicious food, ranging from Latin American dishes to Asian cuisines of different sorts. Earlier this year, the New York Times even ran a piece on the area. For bánh mì, I knew of two options in Lafayette Square: Saigon and K&T Deli. I opted for K&T Deli because they do carry-out service.

The restaurant itself is compact; my guess is that it seats 20 people at most. I ordered at the counter, but you can also opt for table service as some other diners were doing when I arrived. The menu is small as well, offering several varieties of bánh mì, pho, and rice dishes. The most popular bánh mì at K&T is the #1, which is the pork bánh mì. I opted for the #7, the bánh mì chay, which is the vegetarian sandwich. It was filled with fried tofu strips and the traditional toppings I mentioned above. Though the service was slow (it took me about 20 minutes to get my sandwich because one server was helping all 10 patrons in the restaurant), the server was very friendly, and the sandwich was only $3.50.

Upon arriving back home, I knew that I wanted to pair my sandwich with a beer, but I didn't initially know which beer I was going to pair it with. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm pretty much flying in the dark when it comes to pairing beer with food. I had a Cantillon Gueuze in the fridge and I figured, "Hey, strong flavors go with strong flavors, right?" So that's the beer I chose, though I had doubts as to whether the pairing would work.

But first, I wanted to try the bánh mì by itself. As I anticipated, the sandwich was hugely flavorful, a nice melding of the sweetness of the cilantro and pickled carrots, the spiciness of the radishes and jalapeños, and the saltiness of the tofu and mayonnaise. Any bánh mì fan will tell you how important the bread is to the sandwich; it should be slightly crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. K&T Deli's bread was just that.

Then it was time for the beer and the sandwich together. Cantillon is regarded as an exemplary gueuze, and it certainly has the characteristics you would expect out of a good gueuze: moderate to heavy tartness, oak notes, and maybe a bit of citrus, apple, and funk in the flavor. When I followed a bite of the bánh mì with a sip of beer, the tartness of the beer provided a nice interplay with the spice and salt of the sandwich. The cilantro and the carrots in the bánh mì became pronounced, as did the oak and citrus characters of the beer. I loved the combination, though I wondered whether others would too. Perhaps those of you who are cicerones can tell me whether I was crazy for trying this pairing.

The "What's on Your Thanksgiving Table" Open Thread | 2011 Edition

Every year since 2007, I've asked the same question of our readers on Thanksgiving:

What beer are you drinking today?

What's your answer this year? Leave us a comment below and let us know.

Pairing gobblers and growlers

As all good Hoosiers know from their grade school days, the Pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower to flee religious oppression. But rarely did the teachers tell their pupils why the Pilgrims, instead of continuing their voyage to Hudson's River, settled at Plymouth Rock… they were running out of beer.

Well, not just beer. But as William Bradford noted in his manuscript "Of Plymouth Plantation" in 1630, "…we could not take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer…" In short, they were low on supplies. Especially beer.

William Bradford is commonly credited as the founder of the annual American tradition known as Thanksgiving. While there is no conclusive evidence that beer was served at the first Thanksgiving, the chances of it being served are greater than that of wine. This is one of the reasons why beer should be a guest of honor at your Thanksgiving feast.

"As far as pairings are concerned," says Ted Miller, brewer at Brugge Brasserie, "turkey is a relatively neutral protein." A wide variety of beers work with turkey, from a clean and crisp pilsner to a dark and malty dopplebock to a sweet and complex Belgian strong ale.

Saison: A saison is a highly carbonated Belgian ale with fruity and spicy characteristics. "A saison and a turkey sound lovely. Probably is good with Brussels sprouts too," adds Miller. It also contrasts well with yams cooked with brown sugar. When available, Bier Brewery (5133 East 65th St.; www.bierbrewery.com) serves a saison named Farmgirl that is slightly tart, slightly peppery, and slightly sour. When unavailable, many craft beer stores carry bottles of Hennepin, with hints of coriander and giner, from Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY.

Porter: Named for the English laborers that carried luggage and freight at the docks, the porter is an English ale that carries roasty, malty flavors. Often described as having caramel, chocolate, nutty, and biscuity, porters are a versatile style that pair with numerous foods. It pairs with ham and dishes that contain bacon or ham, such as green beans. Porters also work with desserts like pumpkin pie. Pogue's Run Porter is a house beer at Flat 12 Bierwerks (414 N. Dorman St.; www.flat12.me). It has flavors of cocoa, brown sugar, raisins, and dates.

Wheat: Beers brewed with wheat in addition to or instead of malted barley vary widely. In Germany, the Weissbiers have flavors of bread, banana, and clove. In Belgium, the Witbiers finish with crisp notes of citrus and spice (like coriander). And American Wheats have a clean finish and flavor, often making them perfect beer for fruit infusions. At Oaken Barrel (50 N. Airport Parkway, Greenwood; www.oakenbarrel.com), Alabaster (a Belgian Witbier) and Razz-Wheat (a raspberry-infused American Wheat) are available in six packs and growlers. Both beers would work well with salads with dried fruits, fruit salad, and fruit desserts.

Brown: Another beer style from England, Brown ales traditionally have a dry finish and nutty flavors. They pair well with the woody flavors of mushrooms and dishes with mushrooms, such as dressing and gravy. Brown ales are also a good fit for desserts like pecan pie. Earthy and nutty notes can be found in Four Barrel Brown, a year round beer found at Triton Brewing Company (5764 Wheeler Road, Fort Benjamin Harrison; www.tritonbrewing.com).

India Pale Ales: American-versions of India Pale Ales (or IPA's) are infused with hops that impart citrus, floral, or piney aromas and flavors. The flavors and bitterness of this popular beer style can often overpower subtle flavors in foods. But it can work with turkeys that have been smoked, blackened, or flavored with a spice rub or injection. It can also be paired with a meat and cheese appetizer platter. IPA's can be found at many breweries including Three Pints Brewpub (5020 Cambridge Way, Plainfield; www.threepintsbrewpub.com) where they serve Izzy's IPA.

Hoosier Beer Geek wrote this article for the Nov. 17, 2011 Indianapolis Star

Skyline and Schlafly

Let’s be honest: Jason isn't the fanciest of fellows. He certainly enjoys his beer dinners that feature the greatest of fine cuisine, but why limit beer pairings to fancy food? Why not consider pairing a can of craft beer with a can of processed meat product?

I recently had a craving for chili dogs. I picked up a pack of buns, some Eckrich franks, some shredded cheddar cheese, and a can of Skyline chili. For those of you who don’t know, Skyline chili (also known as Cincinnati chili) is one of the most fantastic chili concoctions on the face of the planet. It’s not your standard chili from Texas. Or even from most places in Indiana.

It is a sweet chili sauce with a Greek heritage. In Cincinnati, it is often served over spaghetti and topped with freshly shredded cheese. This is known as a 3-way. Add beans or onions and it is a 4-way. Add both and it is a five way. Add two women, and you are having a 5-way after a 3-way. Yes, I went there.

If you have not had a Skyline 3-way and a Skyliner (chili cheese dog), you are missing out. There are several Skyline chili parlors around Indy. If you have and you don’t like it, your taste buds are obviously unrefined. Skyline chili is the American answer to Canada’s poutine. That’s right, I said it. Ted Miller would agree with me.

So I have my ingredients and I’ve assembled my chili dogs. Now I want to wash it down with something. What beer goes with Skyline chili? Well, Skyline chili has cinnamon. And I just happened to have a bottle of 2010 Schlafly Pumpkin Ale.

I selected the pumpkin ale because it tastes like pumpkin pie, complete with cinnamon and nutmeg. I figured that the spices in the beer might compliment the spices in the chili. And I wasn’t wrong. What was challenging was the eight percent alcohol. I found that it conflicted with the sweetness of the chili and the fattiness in the hot dog. I think a pumpkin ale with less alcohol would have worked well. I’ll try it again and let you know if I'm right.

I didn't have a Schlafly pint glass, so I put it in a different St. Louis pint glass.

On Pairing Beer and Food

A little over a week ago, I gave a talk on beer pairings at Dig-IN.  What surprised me is that my talk filled the speakers tent.  Given the level of interest I observed, I thought it might be a good idea to carry the conversation over to the blog.

It all starts out with the ingredients.  There are a number of ingredients and steps to making beer and as any homebrewer can tell you, it's a lot like making a soup.  The increased number of ingredients are only one of the reasons that pairing beer with food is not only easier than pairing wine, it's also more diverse. Pairings can either be complimentary or contrasting.  While contrasting pairings are certainly more interesting, they're also more difficult and can be very off-putting if not executed correctly.  For this reason, I recommend everyone start off with complimentary pairings.  It's not only easier to pair similar flavors, but you won't ruin the meal if the pairing doesn't work.

Water.
Beer is mostly water and it's difficult to pair water with anything.  With enough effort, you probably could pair the effects of the mineral and chemical content of the water with food, although you might come across looking like a fool if you simply stated that you paired this beer with a grilled steak because it was dry and chalky.  Instead, let's simply treat water as the canvas for the beer, and look to the other 3 main ingredients. 

Malt.
Malted barley provides the sweet character you associate with beer.  It can be malted in ways that bring out a number of flavors, including bread, chocolate, caramel, coffee, smoke and biscuits.  An increased presence of malt will bring out more of these flavors, increase the alcohol and create a heavier body.  Decreasing the presence of the malt, or using lighter or more neutral malts, will make a more clean tasting beer with little aftertaste and will lend itself better to effervescence.  When pairing with food, the type of sweetness, or lack thereof, in the beer plays a very strong role.  The alcohol content and body of the beer are also important and should be appropriately matched with how strong the flavors are in the dish.  You don't want to overwhelm the food with the flavors of the beer, or vice versa. While matching sweet flavors with each other may not sound daunting, be aware that food with high acidity will have the opposite effect and actually increase the acidity.

Hops.
If beer is treated as food, then hops are the spice.  This is an important analogy when it comes to pairing beer and food.  Spices compliment the main ingredient(s) and are also complimentary toward each other.  In terms of beer, hops aren't necessarily the only spice involved.  Brewers also add other spices to their recipes, which can add even more complexity to both the beer and the pairing.  Hops not only provide bitterness to the beer but they also provide a number of other flavors, such as citrus fruits and various herbs.  Pairings can be created off both the bitter experience and flavor of the hops.  The bitterness of hops have an interesting effect on the palate.  The bitter sensation actually cleanses the mouth of fatty and creamy flavors.  As you've likely experienced before, a fatty piece of meat or a creamy soup can coat the mouth and the resulting sensation traps the flavors.  A high bitterness in beer will quickly cleanse that sensation and leave your tongue ready for more.  But as with any spice, the more you add, the more the spices become the main player in the dish.  While hops work well with spicy food, they will actually amplify the spice instead of subdue it - so watch out when pairing an IPA with habaneros!.

Yeast.
If there is a wildcard in beer, it's yeast.  All of the ingredients have a specific flavor, but once yeast gets involved it does so much more than create alcohol.  The type of yeast, temperature of fermentation and length of fermentation all drastically change the flavor of the beer.  Something as simple as yeast can make a wheat beer taste of bananas and cloves, or become slightly tart and lemony.  With yeast, the best rule of thumb is to taste the beer before you pair it.  One cannot assume that just because the beer is a Belgian Tripel, that all Tripels will taste the same.  Different yeasts can drastically change the flavors in the beer.  When drastically changing yeast types and moving in to sour beers, pairing moves in to an entirely different realm.  Sourness not only combats salty foods, but it has a similar cleansing effect with fats and creams as hops do.  If you're familiar with pairing wine and food, the acidity of a sour beer, as a result of the yeast, can work the same way as the acidity of wine.

Although pairing beer with food opens up a whole new world of experiences and enjoyment, that doesn't necessarily mean that every beer is ideal for pairing.  Many beers with strong, intense flavors are best enjoyed on their own.  Extremely sour beers and hoppy beers well in excess of 100 IBUs are two examples of beers that would simply dominate anything they are paired with.  The idea of pairing beer with food is to achieve a balance.  The beer and food should compliment each other, adding their own flavors and creating new flavors without detracting from each other.

In the coming weeks I will focus more on individual style pairings in an effort to provide more examples of how the nuances of specific beers can meld with the flavors of food to create interesting and enjoyable experiences.

The "What's On Your Thanksgiving Table" Open Thread | 2010 Edition

Here we are once again with our annual tradition.

So what are you drinking today? Leave us a comment below to let us know.

Notes from the Beer and Cheese Benefit

A huge thank you to everyone who came out on Monday to support Gabe Jordan and Kelly Funk. We raised a significant amount of money for the two charities, which is very exciting. Through the donations of our beer and cheese vendors and the employees of Goose the Market, we were able to donate 100% of the money we collected to charity! In case you missed this beer and cheese pairing, we'll definitely be having more events with Goose the Market in the future. Keep checking back for these events, and many more coming soon!

If you'd like to play along at home, here are the beer and cheese pairings we had. All of the beers and cheeses are available at Goose the Market.

Schneider Wiesen Edel-Weisse (organic Hefeweizen) with Vermont Shepherd's Cheese from Vermont Shepherd (raw sheep milk, aged 4-8 months) - The yeast in this beer, while typically subdued by fruit flavors, becomes very creamy with this cheese.

Sun King Osiris Pale Ale with Mayberry from Swiss Connection (pasteurized cheddar from Indiana) - This sharp cheddar stands up to the crisp hop bitterness; two Indiana producers!

Hop Ruiter (Belgian pale) with La Mancha Moo from Evergreen Lane Farm (Camembert-style cow's milk from Michigan) - The earthiness of the cheese creates a pleasing match for the sweet and spicy Belgian yeast.

Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous (black IPA) with Fog Lights from Cypress Grove (multi-layered/textured goat cheese from California) - Despite the hoppy nature of this beer, the pairing left behind nothing but pure milk chocolate. My favorite of the night!

Kulmbacher Brauerei EKU 28 (Doppelbock) with Bûche from Juniper Grove (raw goat's milk cheese from Oregon with a piece of straw in the middle of each log) - the tanginess of the goat cheese was interesting with the strong sweetness of this beer. I'll admit I almost ate the straw...

Sinebrychoff Porter (Baltic porter) with Velours Bleu from Life in France (mold ripened with thin lines of blue, cow's milk) - I wasn't a huge fan of this beer on its own, but when paired I picked up strong notes of cola. Very interesting.

Thanks again to everyone who participated and helped donate to Gabe and Kelly. If you aren't already experimenting with pairing cheese and beer, you should be! The interactions are an adventure on their own.

DigIN: A Taste of Indiana Recap

DigIN to tasty eats, great beer and wine? Don't mind if I do! This past Sunday, Rodney and I woke up bleary eyed after a night of reveling at the Hoosier Beer Geek 4th Anniversary party and slathered ourselves with sunscreen in anticipation of a brand new slow food event here in Indianapolis, DigIN: A Taste of Indiana. DigIN was spawned by an Alice Waters (the slow food guru herself) event in 2008 that showcased local and sustainable food efforts in Indiana.

After the event a local chef (our good friend Neal Brown formerly of L'Explorateur and now of Pizzology fame) and the Indiana Department of Agriculture decided to start working together to redefine what "A Taste of Indiana" could be with regard to the developing local food movement. They brought together food producers, chefs, breweries and wineries for one celebration event, Dig-IN: A Taste of Indiana. This was a great event that showcased what Indiana is truly capable of with regard to great food and drink!

We tried many dishes from Indiana Artisians including chicken and noodles (Indiana handmade noodles); bloody marys made with Indiana Vodka and Indiana bloody mary mix; and amazing chocolate truffles!

We had nibbles of burgers produced from local cattle, topped with farm fresh eggs and local cheese.  One of my favorite dishes was from a chef at my alma mater, Butler University - their fresh gazpacho with lots of jalapenos and onions!  It was SO tasty and really well spiced.

We had perfect weather for the event; I just wish it could have been about 10 degrees cooler or the breezes had continued through the balmy afternoon.

We also were really impressed with the unique and innovative selections that each chef strived to enhance the event with, from many different takes on pork to lots of fresh caprese salads.

I really liked that the chefs also had lots of signs so you knew what you were getting into with your decadent eats at each location.  I was really impressed with the local goat cheeses and the quality of the pork that each of the chefs used!

I did appreciate also that the producers were on hand to discuss the dishes and the conditions in which they are growing their produce or how they raised their animals.  We actually talked to one of the producers from Gunthorp Farms in Northern Indiana about their animals and about the ingredients of our salad. 

Rod and I stuck to just one pint of Brugge Brasserie's Pooka (which was $4 a pint) but for just $1 more you got an awesome Drink Indiana/DigIN pint glass that was really nicely done (and it was filled with beer).  All in all this was a great event and I really hope that the people who put on DigIN decide to make this an annual event!

Beer Diary #20 - Mike - Goose the Market's Enoteca

We've been fans and friends of the folks at Goose the Market for a while now - even being lucky enough to have them walk us through six courses of beer and cheese a while back. It was with great interest that we followed the developments that lead to their latest addition - the Enoteca.


What's the Entoeca? From their blog:

In Italy, the neighborhood enoteca is where wine is stored, bought, and consumed. In Indy, the Goose's new Enoteca is a casual place to drink wine.

Order a glass or quartino from the rotating menu of about a dozen wines or choose your own bottle from the cellar shelves. The cooler is stocked with a changing selection of six craft beers, and some small plates--perfect for sampling and sharing--will calm those hunger pangs between sips.

A casual place to drink wine, eh? Well we couldn't help but notice those beer options. So we stopped in.


After our host, Gabriele, walked us through our food options, we chose the Charcuterie plate ($12), which featured green krauts, mustard, culatello (ham), duck and pistachio terrine, and elk and blueberry salami.

Gabriele explained that with that much variety of food, our beer options were limited only by the six selections in the cooler. I chose Augustiner Bräu Maximator ($4) - a German Dopplebock I had never had before. Initial nips at the glass revealed a sweetness in nose, cinammon-like flavors without the spicy bite or heat, notes of toffee, maltiness, sweetness in finish, and a chewy mouthfeel.


Experiments with pairing follow.

Culatello (a lean and chewy sort of ham) + beer - This was the always promising combination of sweet + salty, very easy to like. The combination of krauts wrapped in the Culatello brought out an almost strawberry-like sweetness, which worked well with the raisiny sweetness of the dopplebock.

Elk and Blueberry Salami + beer - The light gaminess and spiciness in the elk was balanced out by the small bits of blueberry sweetness. These flavors worked well and carried over into the sweet maltiness in the beer. The elk featured the rich flavors you might find in deer sausage, but lighter, less gamy, and with a little more complexity of flavor.


Duck and Pistachio Terrine + beer - There's a flavorful, almost warming burst of spiciness lives right in the middle of the terrine, but the beer also brings out a peppery bite in the finish. The sweetness from the duck fat was met and then followed through with the beer.

The meal was an experience in richness of flavor, but also an experiment in texture and balance when experienced with beer. Augustiner Bräu Maximator is a richly flavored beer that stood up to the cornucopia of flavor spread across the board - not an easy task.


We look forward to the sort of food and beer events that are sure to follow in this new space at the Goose - keep your ears open as we hope to put an event together in the space in the near future.

Goose the Market's Enoteca is located in the basement of the current Goose the Market space, 2503 N. Delaware, Indianapolis.

The "What's on Your Thanksgiving Table" Open Thread | 2009 Edition

I guess this is an annual tradition now.

So what are you drinking today?

One...two...three...go.

The "What's on Your Thanksgiving Table" Open Thread

This year, the recommended beer for our Thanksgiving roundtable was Biere de Garde. Last year, my father-in-law served an American interpretation of an ESB, which worked well with Thanksgiving dinner. On Thursday, I'm heading to the in-laws' house with Brugge White to go with the turkey and Brugge Black to go with dessert.

Open thread time, readers. What will you be drinking on Thursday?

Beer and Food Pairing: Rabbit and Turtle

In the past I've done some goofy things with beer - a shandy of Lakefront Cherry Lager, Blatz, and diet soda comes to mind - usually in the vein of not taking any of this too seriously. So when offered up a chance to visit home to sample some interesting rural cuisine, I thought it might be fun (and also kind of stupid) to go ahead and pair those culinary treats with better beer.


That's a lot of rabbit
The event - known to family and friends as "Freezerfest" - features foods collected over the course of year from the the lakes, ponds, streams and woods of the area near my hometown of Trenton, Illinois. On the menu: rabbit, turtle, squirrel, frog legs, and fish.


Fried squirrel looks a lot like fried anything else.
As an avid student of Garrett Oliver's The Brewmaster's Table, I though that the book - which features guides to hundreds of beers and the foods that pair well with them - could serve as a guide into my dining adventure. Surprisingly enough, that wasn't completely the case. While Brewmaster's Table does feature pairings for rabbit, I was on my own as far as turtle goes.


A tiny sample of the selection
Rabbit and beer

In the back (pages 355-361) of my copy of Brewmaster's Table I found a handy reference chart entitled "Beer with Food: A Reference Chart". On page 360, the pairing for rabbit reads "Biere de garde, tripel, Belgian Pale Ale, strong British Bitter (ESB)". I headed to my local "by the bottle" liquor store (Parti-Pak Liquors) and picked up bottles of Two Brothers Domaine DuPage, Brugge Tripel de Ripple, Orval, and Goose Island Honkers Ale to fill this requirement.

Pairing for turtle was not so simple.


A plateful of exotic heart attack
Turtle and beer

Because Brewmaster's Table has no turtle pairing recommendations, I first googled "Turtle Beer Pairings" - if you follow the link you'll quickly realize that there are no examples. My next guess was to find out what exactly turtle tastes like, and go from there.


Pete - the man behind the food with the preferred mode of preperation
My search brought me to an article by Newt Harlan entitled "Tastes like Chicken". In the article he lists quite a few exotic animals and what they taste like - rattlesnake, rabbit, squirrel, armadillo, alligator, coon, and turtle:

A turtle supposedly has something like seven distinctively different kinds of meat. I've eaten it in turtle soup and sauce piquant and my taste buds identified several of them . . . fish, pork, shrimp, kind of like frog legs and yes, even chicken.

In the interest of having as much information as possible, I continued on and found an article from the website of The New Yorker - listed under their New Orleans Journal section, I thought that this was surely a reputable source.

“You got seven kinds of meat on a turtle. Depending on what part you’re eating, it will taste like turkey, or fish, or pork, or veal.”

Veal? I knew that the sort of people I was dealing with weren't the veal type. The list sounded a little too Yankee for my liking.

I continued my search and stumbled across the site of the Missouri Folklore Society and an article entitled "The Turtle in Missouri Folklore" that contained the following information:

Any hillman will tell you that an ordinary mud turtle contains seven kinds of meat -- pork, beef, mutton, chicken, duck, and fish.

You may have noticed that only six kinds of meat are given. Must be hillman math. And a site using that sort of math was exactly the kind of source I was looking for. With my seven (six) meats in mind, I returned to Brewmaster's Table and began pairing. Because I wasn't sure how my turtle would be prepared, I went with the roasted examples for each type of meat.

Pork: Dunkel, dubble, doppelbock, altbier, Oktoberfest Marzen, Biere de Garde
Beef: Brittish bitter and pale ale, German altbier
Mutton: Dubble, Scotch Ales, strong dark trappist and abbey ales, old ales, biere de garde
Chicken: Biere de garde, dunkel, bock, british bitter and pale ale, british brown, Oktoberfest marzen, dubbel, american amber ale, belgian pale
Duck: Dubbel, strong dark trappist or abbey ales, doppelbock, weissbock, biere de garde
Fish (which fish?): ???

So in the spirit of those hillmen that came before me, I put everything into an Excel Spreadsheet and came up with the following list (which I'll admit is a bit messy here):

Dish | Flavor | Beer Style | Beer
Turtle | Beef | British Pale | Bass Pale Ale
Turtle | Beef | Altbier | Bluegrass Brewing Co. Alt
Turtle | Beef | British Bitter | Goose Island Honkers Ale
Turtle | Chicken | Bock | Berghoff Bock
Turtle | Chicken | British Pale | Bass Pale Ale
Turtle | Chicken | Dunkle | Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel
Turtle | Chicken | British Bitter | Goose Island Honkers Ale
Turtle | Chicken | Belgian Pale | Orval
Turtle | Chicken | American Amber | Bell's Amber
Turtle | Chicken | British Brown | Sam Adams Brown
Turtle | Chicken | Oktoberfest Marzen | Sam Adams Octoberfest
Turtle | Chicken | Dubble | Trader Joe's 2007 Vintage Ale by Unibroue
Turtle | Chicken | Biere de Garde | Two Brothers Domaine DuPage
Turtle | Duck | Weizenbock/Weissbock | Aventinus Weizenbock
Turtle | Duck | Strong Dark Trappist or Abbey Ale | North Coast Brewing Brother Thelonious Belgian style abbey ale
Turtle | Duck | Dopplebock | Spaten Optimator
Turtle | Duck | Dubble | Trader Joe's 2007 Vintage Ale by Unibroue
Turtle | Duck | Biere de Garde | Two Brothers Domaine DuPage
Turtle | Mutton | Scotch Ale | Founder's Dirty Bastard
Turtle | Mutton | Strong Dark Trappist or Abbey Ale | North Coast Brewing Brother Thelonious Belgian style abbey ale
Turtle | Mutton | Old Ales | "Bell's Third Coast | "
Turtle | Mutton | Dubble | Trader Joe's 2007 Vintage Ale by Unibroue
Turtle | Mutton | Biere de Garde | Two Brothers Domaine DuPage
Turtle | Pork | Altbier | Bluegrass Brewing Co. Alt
Turtle | Pork | Dunkle | Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel
Turtle | Pork | Oktoberfest Marzen | Sam Adams Octoberfest
Turtle | Pork | Dopplebock | Spaten Optimator
Turtle | Pork | Dubble | Trader Joe's 2007 Vintage Ale by Unibroue
Turtle | Pork | Biere de Garde | Two Brothers Domaine DuPage
Rabbit | Rabbit | Tripel | Brugge Tripel de Ripple
Rabbit | Rabbit | British Bitter | Goose Island Honkers Ale
Rabbit | Rabbit | Belgian Pale | Orval
Rabbit | Rabbit | Biere de Garde | Two Brothers Domaine DuPage

All beer acquired and iced, I headed back to my hometown to join a couple friends and complete the pairing. And that's where it all went wrong.


The selection expands
We started by getting a plate full of the required meats - rabbit and turtle, along with the surprise inclusions of squirrel, frog legs, and catfish. All fried. We laid the plate out, decided to start with the rabbit, and then pulled a couple of the pairing beers (Goose Island Honkers Ale, Two Brothers Domaine DuPage) out to start. But suddenly the idea of eating rabbit started making me a little queasy. I did start to pick out flavors and notes from the pairings, but immediately aborted that plan.


Probably not what Ted had in mind
On to the turtle. The turtle we ate had been prepared by a thorough steaming, then later the meat was breaded and fried. It's really amazingly tasty, though saying that it tasted like seven other kinds of meat would be a stretch. Frying seems to "dumb down" any subtle flavors we might have picked out. I did try to sample as many beers as possible with the small amount of turtle meat I ate, but eventually the whole idea of eating turtle began to overwhelm the enjoyment of the tasty turtle, and we ended up with a table full of beer.


Believe it or not, there was a hearty crowd in attendence
Not such a bad thing. Between the four of us we managed to sample all the fine fried foods provided, and as the night progressed we also made our way through all the beer. Just not paired together.

A lesson learned. My suggestion to you, should you decide that beer pairing is something you're interested in, is to keep it simple. In our case, the flavors and variety in beer immediately revealed that we'd undertaken too large a project. And while we could have simplified, when presented with that much beer, why ruin the fun?


Signature event can coolies were a surprise treat.
In addition, it would have helped had I been able to minimize my queasiness. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed in myself. None of these meats (short of squirrel) were new to me. Perhaps too much city living has made me a weaker-stomached man. I'm definitely not a hillman.

That's ok though. At least I can still count.