Thursday, May. 07, 2009
Beer Culture is Changing?
You might not have noticed, but two brewmaster dinners were held a month apart on the Grand Strand, and that’s got me thinking the beer culture around here is changing.
Actually, there were three brewmaster dinners, but two of them were held on the same evening, just before the inaugural Myrtle Beach Beer Fest on March 28.
On March 27, New South Brewing Co.’s Dave Epstein held a brewmasters dinner at the TBonz Gill & Grill at Seaboard Commons in Myrtle Beach, while brewer Pete Velez of Gordon Biersch held another at his brewpub’s location at The Market Common.
I attended another such event on April 29 at Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery at Broadway. Hosted by Liberty’s brewmeister, Eric Lamb, the brewmaster dinner will likely become the first of an ongoing series of dinners.
For $35, each person began with a pint of his or her choice of any available Liberty brew. That was followed by Lamb’s guided tour of the brewing facility located between the bar area and the restaurant lobby.
After the brewing tour, the dinner began with about a six-ounce serving of the light Miss Liberty Lager and an egg roll cheese wrap, which included jalapenos.
“Balance is the big factor in pairing, in my opinion,” Lamb said. So the lighter beer with the mellow flavor was paired with the spicy, cheesy appetizer.
Light to dark is also the way to go with beer and food pairings, Lamb said, so the beers were progressively darker as the courses continued.
Italian wedding soup and a Greek salad followed with Unfiltered Wheat, a tart and refreshing beer that could stand up to both the soup bowl and the salad plate.
For the entree, Lamb made a late change on the pairings. Participants had the choice of blackened tuna or char-grilled sirloin. Lamb had planned to serve Clydes Pale Ale with the sirloin and Amber Waves with the tuna, but decided that each entree would have both. The floral notes of the amber ale’s cascade hops balances the blackened tuna, while the pale ale’s hoppy bitterness goes well with meat, Lamb said.
Lamb’s favorite beer, the CW Porter, was paired with New York cheese cake topped with raspberry and chocolate syrup.
“I brew this beer for myself,” Lamb said.
Beer with cheesecake? As crazy as it might sound, a porter with cheesecake is even better than the same dessert with fine coffee, and I love coffee. The porter-cheesecake pairing might be the best example of Lamb’s rule of balance: something about the darkness of the beer and the sweetness of the cheesecake, together on the palate, made for a flawless blend. Maybe that’s why the extent of my notes on this pairing was, “AWESOME!!!”
During the brewmaster dinner, I met participants Michael Green, his brother Royce Green IV, and the latter’s wife Melanie Green. The Green brothers are homebrewing enthusiasts who, like me, have been trying to find out what happened to Ed Waldorf and the dearly missed Beach HomeBrew store on Lake Arrowhead Road (no luck so far).
You would probably expect knowledgeable beer drinkers like the Greens to be at a brewmasters dinner, but I think as more people understand how different beers interact with various types of food, the Liberty brewmasters dinner will become a local institution and a regular event. Kacie Zbur, marketing assistant for Liberty owner TBonz Restaurant Group, said the Broadway at the Beach brewpub might host another dinner later this month. I'll let you know.
tapping at tbonz
On Friday, TBonz Gill & Grill locations in Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach will tap a new brew: American Pale Ale.
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The beer is the first recipe by Brock Kurtzman, who works with New South Brewing Co., brewer of the TBonz brand beers.
Lamb is familiar with Kurtzman’s new work. “He really coming into his own as a brewer,” Lamb said of Kurtzman. “It’s a good thing.”
American Pale Ale will be on tap around 4 p.m. Friday at the TBonz locations at Seaboard Commons, 1169 Seaboard St. in Myrtle Beach, and at Barefoot Landing, 4732 U.S 17 S. in North Myrtle Beach.
son of a peach
I talked with the guys from RJ Rockers Brewing Co. of Spartanburg when I was at the aforementioned beer fest. They said their new peach-flavored beer would soon be available on the Grand Strand.
Sure enough, during a recent visit to Longbeard’s Bar and Grill, 5040 Carolina Forest Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, Son of a Peach was available in draft at $4 per pint.
For a fruit-flavored beer, Son of a Peach had no syrupy sweetness. In fact, it didn’t have any sweetness at all. The RJ Rockers fellahs have reached for the tart and sharp end of the peach flavor spectrum, but stopping short of dryness, and that might actually make it refreshing in an aperitif kind of way.
Contact Colin Burch - the Beerman - at beerpour@yahoo.com or visit his beer blog at http://maltyhops.blogspot.com
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