Apricot Sweet Chili Sauce : Dry Dock Brewing Collaboration

My lovely friends over at Dry Dock Brewing are preparing for the Super Bowl and they wanted to cook with beer. Luckily for me, they make so many amazing brews so it was easy to find one to incorporate into food: I went with the gold medal winning Apricot Blonde. To come up with a recipe, I figured out what a Dry Dock brewer craves for football munchies and this is what Doug Hyndman had to say:

“I certainly am a football watching fool. Wings and pizza are always a good fit with football. I’m also a big fan of bacon-wrapped jalapeños, and fried cheese curds would be sweet. Bison chile with habaneros…”

Doug, I’m sorry I won’t be cooking everything you want, but you will see some Doug-inspired recipes in the future. For now, I hope this recipe for Apricot Sweet Chili Sauce will suffice.

As for the Super Bowl, I don’t care who wins as long as its not the Patriots.

GABF Media Luncheon | Bringing Beer Back to the Dinner Table

The Great American Beer Festival is over and I’ve now had enough time to recover so I can finally start writing about it. On Friday October 3rd, the Brewers Association invited the media to a working luncheon at which we ate 4 courses paired with various medal-winning brews. During the luncheon, we heard from several panels of brewers/brewery staff about their experiences in the craft beer world, how they got started, and what they hope to create in the future. We also heard about some exciting news from the Brewers Association. The thing I’m most excited about is the new Food and Beer course created by the Brewers Association (which you can read more about here). Their goal is to bring beer back to the dinner table and I think that is absolutely fabulous. Why shouldn’t beer be as highly regarded as wine? There’s no reason! Especially when it goes so wonderfully with so many dishes. As soon as I get some free time, I plan on working my way through the material so I can get even better at food and beer pairing. You should too – go check it out!

 

And now for the food pics…

 

Smoked Trout Fuille de Brick, Grapefruit and Chervil Persillade

Paired with:

Serenity, Wicked Weed Brewing

Opal, Firestone Walker Brewing

Granny Smith Apple with Ginger and Grapefruit (my favorite part of the luncheon!)

Paired with: 

Berliner Weisse, Napoleon Complex – Brewers Association Team Homebrew

Grilled Ribeye Filet, Roasted Shallow Demi, Salsify, Yukon Gold Potato and Horseradish Galette, French Green Beans, Horseradish Chip

Paired with: 

Black Eagle Baltic Porter, Black Tooth Brewing

Old Tom Porter, Piney River Brewing

Old Tom Porter, Piney River Brewing Company (just had to represent my home state)

 

Dusty Miller Semifreddo, Warm Toffee Sauce

Paired with: 

Balt Altibier, Union Craft Brewing

Tsunami Stout, Pelican Pub and Brewery

Hop the Vote Results

Hop the Vote results: In the end, 894 votes were cast with the majority going to the House of Representatives and Denver Beer Co. – I’m pleased to see that the saison won in the end! I voted for it at Great American Beer Festival because it was so delish. Congratulations House of Representatives!

For those of you who don’t know, Hop the Vote is a spirited but friendly brewing competition held between the Colorado State House of Representatives and the Colorado State Senate.

“We are thrilled that Representative Saison won,” said Patrick Crawford, co-founder of Denver Beer Co. ”We like the Senate, however clearly the House knows a bit more about brewing a beer for the people.”

2014 GABF Fantasy Brewery Draft

I recently drafted my (the best) Fantasy Brewery Draft team for Great American Beer Festival. We win points on medals awarded. We all know who’s going to win (me) so keep up with the action on PorchDrinking.com to see what we all know is going to happen.

 

http://www.porchdrinking.com/2014-gabf-fantasy-brewery-draft-results/

2014 GABF Breweries in Attendance and Missing

PorchDrinking.com Article:

Tristan brings you the 2014 GABF Breweries in Attendance and Missing and breaks down the field.

http://www.porchdrinking.com/2014-gabf-breweries-attendance-missing/