I have previously posted about the crossover between the independent music scene and craft brewing from the angle of collaboration beers.
As a continuation on the subject, I wanted to talk about BRAINOIL and THE PAIN RELIEVAZ.
Vinny from Russian River w/ Nate Smith
BRAINOIL is an excellent heavy metal band from Oakland, CA. How is this relevant to beer? The guitarist, Nathan Smith, is a homebrewing celebrity who is known for making award winning DIPAs and other styles. I first heard of the band after watching the BrewingTV episode featuring Nate and his homebrew setup.
Considered one of the top brewers in the Bay Area, Nate continues to keep his beer on a homebrew level and an equal amount of focus into his music.
THE PAIN RELIEVAZ is a two piece hip-hop group featuring Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head. Sam has said he uses the group as a creative outlet that is not directly related to DFH, but with songs such as "I got busy with an A-B Sales Girl"... it is safe to say that the subject matter is not a big leap in content from his day job.
Considered by many as the definitive book on sensory evaluation and guide for food and beer pairing, Randy Mosher has written a brilliant work. With information on style guidelines, history, proper glassware, etc., it is a must buy.
For those studying to take the Certified Cicerone Exam... Tasting Beer is on the list of suggested reading.
Mosher is a member of the American Homebrewers Association, Chicago Beer Society, author of several books (including Radical Brewing), award winning brewer, and lecturer.
For some people the idea of pairing fine cuisine and cheese with wine makes perfect sense while pairing with beer seems unappealing or pretentious. The fact is that wine enthusiast have acknowledged for years that their are certain flavors that wine can neither resonate or contrast due to the relatively small range of wine varieties. Beer, on the other hand, has such a wide range of styles and flavor compounds that it is actually much more effective for food pairing.
When you consider the flavors that malted grain, yeast, hops, and occasional adjuncts can lend to beer (fruity, grainy, toasty, cocoa, herbal spice, etc) and follow a few basic rules it is easy to do a multi-course beer dinner.
The Rules:
1) Match intensity of food and beer: In beer, "intensity" can reflect the alcohol content, the esters and phenol content (ie the unique spice character you get from rye beers), the bitterness of the beer, the maltiness, and the overall flavor content.
If you were to serve a rich carrot cake with very sweet cream cheese frosting... it would totally overshadow a Pilsner. A Barley Wine or Russian Imperial Stout would be a better choice.
2) Increase intensity as you go: If you are serving a 3 course meal and blow out your palate with a Double IPA during the appetizer you may not pick up on more subtle flavors later in the meal.
3) Pairing should have elements of both contrasting flavors and complimentary flavors: Perhaps the crisp dry finish of a German Hefeweizen will help cut the butter and fat content of a particular dish on the palate (Contrast), you would also want to consider using citrus flavors in the dish to compliment the beer.
That should get you started. Click here for a chart showing a variety of beers, their flavor parameters, recommended pairings, serving temps, and glass courtesy of the Brewers Association. Also, Sean Paxton, host of The Home Brewed Chef on The Brewing Network, has an episode here on planning a beer dinner.
If you want to see a tasting in action check out this video at the well known Chicago restaurant The Publican.
