Welcome!



If you find this blog interesting I'd like to take a moment and invite you to visit

http://beerbasics.squarespace.com/

where you will find much more...



Cheers!
Peter LaFrance



Friday, September 25, 2009

Beer Goes With… Redux


Greetings,

Two Saturdays ago the folks in Waterbury, CT held the fourth annual Brass City Brewfest in Library Park. The event featured beers from all over the North Easter New England area. There were also a few of the major breweries represented and considering that there are actually only three of them they were well represented. The import companies, especially those affiliated with Belgian brewers were very popular with the tasters.

The special feature of this event was a speakers tent where there were featured four beer related topics presented by a number of speakers.

Those interested in tasting beers, rather than setting personal consumption records, were introduced by Gregg Glaser, the editor of the Yankee Brew News, to the special six styles that every beer drinker should be aware of.

A maple sap beer was poured and sampled while sergeant and publican Albin Weber of the Fifth Connecticut Regiment, a speaker in the military uniform of that unit as worn during the American Revolution in the 1700’s explained the importance of beer and taverns at that time in history.

An owner of a local homebrew shop showed the basic equipment to make home brewed beer and answered essential questions for those there to question her after her presentation.

And then there was a quick explanation by a local brewer of why canned beer is good beer if the beer in the can is good beer before it went into the can. If it was not good beer before it went into the can the can is not to blame for that. But I digress…


It is food and beer that are the usual topic at hand for this blog so I will post the question… What is the ideal beer-fest food? What kind of food makes for a happy beer-fest food-wise?

I can tell you that at the above mentioned event there were three or four food venders. All under the watchful eye of a government food inspector with her clipboard and instant read thermometer.

My pulled pork on a bun was safe as far as the inspector was concerned.

I will admit that I was drawn by the tattoos of the woman serving the food rather than the actual food itself.

The beer at hand was a two ounce taste of locally brewed brown ale mixed with a two ounce sample of a beer made with honey. It was a good pairing of beer and beer and food.

The competition was formidable… especially the hotdog. The rest is noted on their very professional looking menu (posted at the top of this blog) leading me to suspect that this menu is not tailored specifically for beer events.

All of that noted… I repeat…

What is the ideal beer-fest food?

What kind of food makes for a happy beer-fest food-wise?