Well, beer isn't (usually) all that's for dinner, but it's a frequent accompaniment to dinner for some of us, and in many ways can be seen as a food item.
I'm a beer lover and home brewer, and my main contribution to the dkos community is the Friday Night Beer Blog. Come check us out, every Friday 6:45 PM Pacific time. So WFD's own beer goddess ninkasi23 asked me to write on beer and brewing.
This might get kind of long; maybe you should refill your glass before starting :) I'll be recycling most of 2 previous diaries plus smaller parts of 5 more (all linked below).
Ingredients:
from FNBB
Beer starts with four basic ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast. A variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices can be added but you always start with these four.
First Principles: Yeast are microscopic animals that consume sugar water and excrete ethanol and carbon dioxide. This is called "fermentation". If the sugar you start with is honey the product is called mead, if you start with fruit juice the product is called wine or cider, and if you start with grain the product is called beer or ale.
Grape or apple juice is ready to ferment as soon as it's pressed; turning barley into sugar water requires a lot more processing.
Water: In the old, pre-sanitation days, people drank lots of beer partly because the water couldn't be trusted. The brewing process involves boiling, killing any nasty stuff in the water, then the alcohol content of the product helped it stay drinkable for a while without spoiling. They didn't understand why this worked, but observed that it did. The mineral content can influence beer flavor, but in general any water you can drink you can brew with.
Malt:
Malting is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate and then quickly dried before the plant develops. Malted barley dried at a sufficiently low temperature contains enzymes such as amylase which convert starch into sugar. Therefore, sugars can be extracted from the barley's own starches simply by soaking the grain in water at a controlled temperature; this is mashing.
Trivia: the patriot Samuel Adams was probably never a brewer, at least not commercially, he was a
maltster; making barley into malt and selling it to brewers.
The "barley dried at a sufficiently low temperature" must always be the majority of the recipe because it still contains those enzymes; it's also the palest in color. In the jargon, this is "base malt". Lagers or very pale ales might use only the base malt, but most ale recipes would have at least one "specialty" malt, made by treating the malt at higher temperatures. Varying the temperature, time and water content at this stage produces the whole spectrum of colors and flavors that we love, allowing the brewer to create light roasted Oktoberfest, medium roasted dunkel, caramelly English ESB, very roasted Irish stouts. The homebrew store should have 20 or more different malts available.
The very complicated chemistry behind the color and flavor changes that occur when proteins and carbohydrates are heated is referred to as "Maillard" reactions, and was well diaried in a previous WFD by dKos scientist Translator (RIP). I'll be referring to this again, because it's key to the harmonious combination of beer with pretty much any other type of cooked food.
Barley is the primary grain used for brewing. Wheat and rye can also be malted; oats, corn and rice are all sometimes used but always added to a barley base.
Brewers of industrial lager are fond of adding corn or rice because they're cheaper than malt. They are also more fermentable, increasing the alcohol without making the beer heavier. Extra-strong beers like Imperial IPA and Imperial Stout and Belgian "Tripel" are made with a big portion of plain sugar to make them stronger without getting syrupy.
Hops: The earliest beers certainly were only fermented grain, but malt with no other flavoring is going to give a syrupy, one-dimensional beverage that badly wants some bitterness for balance. Pretty much every edible and semi-edible herb on the planet has been tried for flavoring beers, also with the goal of making it keep longer (in pre-sanitation and pre-refrigeration days) and about 500 years ago hops took over as the most popular beer herb in western Europe.
The brewing hop is the flower of Humulus lupulus, a perennial herb whose closest botanical relative is Cannabis sativa (aka hemp or marijuana). Its long, long thin vines clearly show the rope ancestry (commercial growers trellis to 18-20 feet), but like cannabis the interesting parts are the aromatic green buds :) There are 30 or more commercial varieties with different flavors. Germany and Czech Republic grow some of the finest, known to brewers as "noble hops"; New Zealand hops have recently become popular. Most U.S. hops are grown in Washington and Oregon, and the ag school at Oregon State U. is a leader in hop breeding.
Yeast: Any kind of yeast, including bread yeast, will ferment any kind of beverage, but the little beasts have been bred to have preferences and also to have flavors. Brewing yeast comes in two species: top fermenting or ale yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and bottom fermenting or lager yeast (S. uvarum), and each of these in numerous variants with slightly different flavors. The companies that supply U.S. homebrewers have 50 or more types to choose from.
All of these ingredients combine to create a beer equivalent of "terroir"; if I want to brew an English-style ale I'm going to buy British grain and hops and yeast, same applies to German and Belgian styles.
Brewers "joke" that you can understand wine pretty well just by drinking it, but can't really understand beer until you've brewed. It's not obvious how to combine the many varieties of base and specialty malts, and hops, and yeasts, to craft the flavor you want.
There are a LOT of possible combinations: Homebrew competitions in the US recognize 81 separate categories as of 2008.
Brewing:
This is a greatly condensed version of 5 FNBB diaries:
Mashing,
Boiling the Wort,
Fermenting,
Bottling,
Kegging.
So you have some combination of malts, as described above. For each gallon of beer you'll start with 1.2 lb or more (for very strong beers, maybe 3x this much). The malt is milled to crack the grain, but not to be flour. The milled grain is then mixed with hot water (around 1 qt/lb) to make a sort of gruel.
This is a place where brewing is a science not an art. Repeating that quote above:
at a controlled temperature
The enzymes that convert starches to fermentable sugars work between about 145F and 160F, and within this range a difference of a couple degrees will be noticeable in the finished beer. THE key step in making a beer that tastes like the recipe intends is getting the starting mash temperature correct within +/- 1 degree. At the low end of this temperature range you maximize production of extremely fermentable mono- and disaccharides, leading to a light-bodied beer; increasing the mash temperature gives you a larger proportion of less fermentable polysaccharides and a more full-bodied beer.
This conversion takes an hour or so. Then the liquid (now called "wort") is drained off, and the remaining grain is rinsed with more hot water to get the rest of the sugars.
The residue is called "spent grain". Homebrewers put it in the compost pile or the garbage disposal after it cools; commercial brewers try to sell it or even give it away for animal feed.
Then you bring the wort to a boil and add the hops.
Boiling the wort for a while has multiple purposes:
-- kills any bacteria that might have been in the water or the grain
-- concentrates the sugars; a higher percentage of sugar will become a higher percentage of alcohol
-- extracts the desired flavor from the hops
-- solidifies proteins so they settle out later, resulting in clearer beer
-- drives off chemicals that might later cause bad flavors
A typical homebrew schedule is to boil 75 minutes, with the first hops added after 15 minutes. Hop additions can vary widely depending on the recipe. If you only want a reasonable bitterness and not much hop flavor, such as in a wheat beer or maybe an English brown ale, the 60-minute bittering hops might be all there are, as little as 1 oz in 5 gallons. For hop-centric American Pale Ales and IPAs, more more more and lots more. I've seen IPA recipes with 11 oz of hops in 5 gallons (that's a Pliny The Elder clone; the proprietor of the homebrew store keeps the recipe on his counter and LOVES selling $20 of hops!). The famous Dogfish Head IPAs are made using a machine that continuously feeds hops into the kettle during boiling. The longer they boil the more bitterness you get; the less they boil the more flavor. For flavor and aroma you may also add hops at "flameout" that will steep while the wort cools; and more again as "dry hops" added to the almost-finished beer. For extra-strong beers you might boil longer to concentrate the sugar even more.
After the desired boiling time the beer is cooled to room temperature. The very last step before adding the yeast is to measure the "original gravity". Sugar water is denser than pure water, and we measure that with a device called a "hydrometer". Original gravity will be a number like 1.050, 5% heavier than water, up to 1.070 or even more for a very strong beer (1.100 or more for barleywines). Some craft beers (Lagunitas for one) print their O.G. on the label. The reason to measure this is, it's easy to measure the sugar content, and the easiest way to figure out the alcohol content is to measure the change in how much sugar there is.
After the yeast is in, fermentation takes a few days to weeks. During this time, temperature control is important; this is a very serious problem for many homebrewers since in most of North America, for much of the year, ambient temperatures are too hot for brewing. Above their favorite temperatures the yeast produce various chemicals other than ethanol and CO2, and nearly all of these cause noticeable off flavors. Ale yeast is typically happiest right around 60F, warmer for a few styles where you want the yeast to produce esters, lager yeast more like 50F.
When nearly all the sugar has been fermented, most brewers "rack" the beer into another container, leaving behind the yeast and sludge that have settled out. Then the beer is allowed to stand a few days longer to clarify and racked again before packaging, or maybe it's filtered. Homebrewers typically allow 2 to 3 weeks for ales for the whole fermentation and clarification process; commercial brewers 10 days or less. For lagers everything is slower; for homebrewers the initial fermentation might be 3 weeks before racking, then storage for another 6-8 weeks somewhere below 40F; as above roughly half this time for commercial brewers.
The beer is now almost done; you need to put it in a container that will hold pressure, and either add more sugar and possibly more yeast to create carbon dioxide naturally, or put it under pressure and wait for the CO2 to dissolve into the beer. Homebrewers who bottle typically rack the beer into a bucket, add sugar syrup, fill and cap the bottles, and allow 3 weeks for natural carbonation. The natural carbonation process is referred to as "conditioning", and there are some commercial beers that are also "bottle conditioned". Force carbonation is quicker; some commercial brewers keep the beer under pressure for the clarification stage so that it's already got the desired CO2 level when ready to bottle.
Beer and Food:
This reproduces most of the content, but only one recipe, from my previous
WFD about pairing beer with food.
Many of us were raised with the understanding that wine is part of the fine dining experience. That's partly because "fine dining" in the US is generally based in French cuisine, and French cuisine naturally is based in flavors that match with their excellent wines. [And partly because of wine marketing.] Beer was the working man's drink, suited for simpler foods and more casual settings. Everyone heard the basic mantra "red wine with meat, white wine with fish"; writers and enthusiasts can go on endlessly about more specific pairings.
But wine drinkers quickly learn that some foods don't match as well with wine as French and Italian cuisines. The red peppers of Mexican and Caribbean food, and ginger and the other spices of Asia, just aren't very wine-friendly. And the growing variety of quality craft beers has motivated chefs to match that wide range of flavors with gourmet food at high-end restaurants. In San Francisco for example, Chef Bruce Paton of the Cathedral Hill Hotel offers beer recommendations for the dishes, holds special beer dinners several times a year, and even markets himself as a "beer chef". America's guru of fine beer and food is probably brewer Garret Oliver of Brooklyn Brewing, and most of the ideas I'll share below are from his columns in Celebrator Beer News.
So what are the rules? Well, it's exactly like picking a wine. There is one and only one iron-clad rule: Drink what you like. Whether it's me or a snooty tuxedo-clad French sommelier, we give advice based on what we like and what experience has taught us that other people generally like. But only you know what you like. I'm offering guidelines not rules, and trying not to get all beer snobby at you.
As with wine, start with the general idea of matching lighter flavors such as fish with pale beers, and heavier or darker beers with meats and stronger flavors. There are interesting exceptions of course - oysters with stout are a classic pairing, though I've never tried it myself.
But here's the key difference between beer and wine. Wine has pleasant flavors that can complement foods, but beer has the same kinds of flavors that the foods do. Any beer darker than a pilsner has at least a little of some kind of roasted malt in the recipe. This roasting creates the colors and complex flavors of darker beers -- flavors that are very much the same as those of roasted meats and vegetables. [Refer back to the Malt section above.] Then the grain is mashed with hot water, and the resulting sugary liquid is boiled - giving yet another set of "cooked" flavors. This similarity of flavors means that beer has a special affinity for any kind of grilled or roasted food.
Starting simple, pale lager is just about the most food-friendly beverage there is. You really can't go wrong with a pilsner or helles. The best call with anything spicy, whether Mexican, Jamaican, Indian or Thai. Great with the fatty sausages and roasted meats of their Germanic roots. Good with most of the seafood dishes you might otherwise drink white wine with (although personally I'll still usually pick wine with seafood, depending on the spices). American commercial lager fits in here of course, although if that's your favorite you might try something more flavorful of the same style such as Pilsner Urquell or Spaten Helles. Hefeweizen also fits this category, or Belgian-style wit or saison.
As I said above, roasted malts really fit well with grilled food. Whatever kind of beast is on your bbq, a pale ale or amber ale is going to hit the spot. Or a marzen - the amber lager quaffed by the gallon at Oktoberfest, washing down thousands of roast chickens. And not just meat; grilled squash, mushrooms or veggie-burgers share the same Maillard-reaction flavors. Depending on the flavorings try brown ale or dark lager. If it's very spicy stick to pale lager, to my tastes red pepper and roasted malt don't work. For something like a steak that you'd pair with the fullest-bodied varieties of red wine, go to big flavorful beers, like porter, stout or IPA, or maybe an aged Belgian Flanders Red, tart and complex.
There are also unusual beers that can match perfectly with certain foods. For smoked meat, try smoked beer (the malt is wood-smoked before making it into beer).
Smoked beer can be even harder to find than good 'cue though. Alaskan Smoked Porter is probably the best known in America; the canonical version is Echt Schlenkerla Rauchbier from Germany.
This may surprise you if you aren't a beer snob, but -- dessert is beer time too! The darkest roasted malts acquire flavors remarkably similar to other dark roasted vegetable products - such as cacao beans. Porter or stout is a wonderful match with chocolate. Some brewers emphasize this by adding chocolate to the beer, for example Rogue Chocolate stout, Lagunitas Cappuccino Porter, Young's Double Chocolate stout. But just about any brew of this style will give you chocolate and coffee flavors naturally.
Belgian fruit lambics can also be a great dessert drink. These exotic and expensive brews are aged for a couple of years and usually described as more like wine than beer. The good ones (I like Boon Kriek) are rather sour with a complex flavor from the fruit and their local wild yeasts. I don't like the less expensive Lindeman's brand, which is pleasant enough but lacking in both sourness and complexity.
Now let's cook with beer. In a lot of ways this is just like cooking with wine; the acidic liquid helps tenderize meat as well as adding flavor. Just about any ale will enhance braised meat dishes. Cooking with the beer you intend to drink with the meal is always a good plan. One warning - avoid extremely hoppy IPAs because cooking will intensify the bitterness.
The chef should of course test the beer before cooking to make sure it's good. :)
Beef and dark ale are one of those perfect matches, with infinite variations. In Belgium it's Carbonnade, in Ireland Beef with Guinness, at my local brewpub pot roast with their Porter. Here's the Irish version. My homebrewing club is planning a beer pairing dinner in November; this will be our main course, made and served with club-brewed dry stout.
Beef Stew with Guinness
from: The Complete Book of Irish Country Cooking by Darina Allen, online at about.com
The Guinness stout beer not only helps tenderize the beef, it also gives a rich malty flavor to this chunky stew. It is also flavored with onions, carrots, garlic, and thyme. The stew may be made on the stove-top or oven.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients:
* 2 pounds lean stewing beef
* 3 Tablespoons oil
* 2 Tablespoons flour
* Salt and freshly ground pepper and a pinch of cayenne
* 2 large onions, coarsely chopped
* 1 large clove garlic, crushed (optional)
* 2 Tablespoons tomato puree, dissolved in 4 tablespoons water
* 1-1/4 cups Guinness stout beer
* 2 cups carrots, cut into chunks
* Sprig of thyme
Preparation:
Trim the beef of any fat or gristle, cut into cubes of 2 inches (5cm) and toss them in a bowl with 1 tablespoon oil. Season the flour with salt, freshly ground pepper and a pinch or two of cayenne. Toss the meat in the mixture.
Heat the remaining oil in a wide frying pan over a high heat. Brown the meat on all sides. Add the onions, crushed garlic, and tomato puree to the pan, cover and cook gently for about 5 minutes.
Transfer the contents of the pan to a casserole, and pour some of the Guinness beer into the frying pan. Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve the caramelized meat juices on the pan.
Pour onto the meat with the remaining Guinness; add the carrots and the thyme. Stir, taste, and add a little more salt if necessary.
Cover with the lid of the casserole and simmer very gently until the meat is tender -- 2 to 3 hours. The stew may be cooked on top of the stove or in a low oven at 300 degrees F. Taste and correct the seasoning. Scatter with lots of chopped parsley.
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This was long, thanks for reading. What's for dinner where you are?