{"id":10891,"date":"2010-04-02T12:09:21","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T16:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/?p=10891"},"modified":"2010-04-02T12:25:07","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T16:25:07","slug":"beer-familys-first-potluck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2010\/04\/beer-familys-first-potluck\/","title":{"rendered":"Beer Family’s First Potluck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> There is a small group of Columbus-ites who are discussing, drinking, and sharing well made craft beer.<\/p>\n

The Beer Family.<\/p>\n

Right now our numbers are small but there are constantly new additions announced and much rejoicing occurs.<\/p>\n

I initially “met” James<\/a>, The Beer Family Godfather (you totally are James!), via Twitter and we’ve been chatting for months about whatevers and also beer.\u00a0 Sadly I’ve missed some of the Tweet-ups but I was able to finally meet him and other family members on Sunday when we attended Beercamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even before meeting on Sunday, we had recently been talking about a Beer and Food pairing and how fun that would be!\u00a0 It was decided that it would happen and take place the Monday after Beercamp.\u00a0 The Family was currently celebrating Beer Weekend and decided to conclude it on Monday with the potluck.<\/p>\n

We were unable to attend one of the Beer Weekend events but I was assured that it was a rockin’ good time.<\/p>\n

This was Scott and I’s first official Beer Family function and it didn’t disappoint.<\/p>\n

The goal was to make a dish and pair it with a beer that would compliment or enhance the dish, or the beer, or both!\u00a0 I was very nervous because all these Beer Heads knew what they were doing and had experience with different obscure beers.<\/p>\n

I do not.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But I do know food!\u00a0 I decided to make Chipotle Cheddar Puffs and paired that with Rogue’s Chipotle Ale<\/a>.\u00a0 My little puffs can be seen on the bottom right of the picture.\u00a0 I did not get pictures of all the food sadly because I was too busy talking and eating and being a bad food blogger.<\/p>\n

There will be an official review of the Chipotle Ale to come but I’ll give a brief description to set you up.\u00a0 Chipotles are spicy. Well, at least to me they are super spicy! I was curious how this would go in a beer.\u00a0 Yes the beer is spicy but not hot like you might imagine.\u00a0 Instead, the beer is warm and leaves you with a deep warm taste as it finishes.\u00a0 By warm, I mean that there are some spices that are hot (chilies) and some that are just warm (cinnamon).\u00a0 This is a warm beer.<\/p>\n

The puffs went really well with the Chipotle Ale and actually made the ale a bit spicier on the finish.\u00a0 The puffs also got a bit spicier! \u00a0 I was happy with my combo!\u00a0 I hope everyone else thought the same!\"\"<\/a>Next up was this German smoked ale brought out by Ryan<\/a>.\u00a0 He said it smelled like bacon and he wasn’t kidding.\u00a0 This ale was paired with a BBQ chicken pizza that he made and included the beer in the sauce.<\/p>\n

This ale was intense and if you don’t care for smoked things in general you might have to pass this one up.\u00a0 I loved it and immediately thought it would be great to brine with and then grill whatever got brined.\u00a0 I would not be able to handle a full glass of this beer though.\u00a0 Just a small amount takes me a long way.<\/p>\n

Nice choice!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next we have James’s<\/a> pairing.\u00a0 He picked a Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA<\/a> and paired that with a spicy chili.\u00a0 I am not an IPA girl, I will tell you that right up front.\u00a0 IPAs are just way too hoppy for me and remind me of drinking a grapefruit.\u00a0 I do not like grapefruit (this is also why I stay away from Savignon Blancs, too grapefruity tasting).<\/p>\n

But the whole point of this get-together is to try beers and try the pairings.\u00a0 Keep an open mind and taste!<\/p>\n

Drinking the beer straight up, I didn’t like it.\u00a0 Wow but the hops were really overpowering.\u00a0 Tasting after a bite of chili and things changed dramatically.\u00a0 This beer cut through the spiciness quickly and the heat from the chili toned down the hoppy beer a great deal.\u00a0 I could drink this beer if I had it with spicy foods.\u00a0 I think it would be great paired with some buffalo wings!<\/p>\n

Now desserts!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Katie made some cream cheese chocolate chip cupcakes and paired that with Lancaster’s (PA not OH) Milk Stout<\/a>.\u00a0 If you know anything about me, you know that me and stouts are a match made in heaven! I was very excited to try out this pairing!\u00a0 This was my first time having a milk stout so I asked what made it a “milk” stout.<\/p>\n

There is no milk in this stout (although making a chocolate shake with this would probably be a fabbo idea.\u00a0 You’re welcome.)<\/p>\n

Milk Stout via Wikipedia:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Milk stout (also called sweet stout or cream stout) is a stout containing lactose<\/a>, a sugar<\/a> derived from milk<\/a>. Because lactose is unfermentable by beer yeast<\/a>, it adds sweetness, body, and calories to the finished beer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Interesting!\u00a0 This stout is creamy and delish!\u00a0 It’s very smooth, and while I realize that most stouts are very smooth, this is like silk.\u00a0 It went great with the cupcakes!<\/p>\n

Next to the stout is Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot<\/a> (WTF for those who are wondering).\u00a0 This was brought along for the ride for an extra tasting.\u00a0 It was alright but my milk stout memories override it!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The last pairing of the evening was PJ’s<\/a> Kahula cake and Southern Tier Jahva Stout<\/a>.\u00a0 He also brought along an extra Choklat stout just for shits and giggles and I’m glad that he did!<\/p>\n

I did not try the Jah-va stout but from everyone’s mutterings it was a good one!\u00a0 No, this lady went straight for the Choklat stout!<\/p>\n

Whoa baby did this pack a punch!\u00a0 Easily the thickest and chocolatiest stout I’ve had to date.\u00a0 It was glorious!\u00a0 It was also really heavy so I would suggest not drinking it on a super full tum or you’ll find yourself stuffed and quick!\u00a0 It was a nice pairing with the Kahlua cake that I had a wee bite of.\u00a0 I definitely will look for this stout in the future!<\/p>\n

Other random beers:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>21st Amendement’s Monk’s Blood<\/a> and it sort of reminded me of a deeper kind of Irish or Scottish ale.\u00a0 It was really good!\u00a0 And I also got a lesson from James in why canned beer isn’t always a bad thing.<\/p>\n

Good to learn!<\/p>\n

I also learned from Ryan that the Beer Family consumed over 3 gallons of beer that night! Crazy!\u00a0 I had just a sample of each, so in total probably had about a glass of beer. Maybe slightly more.\u00a0 I wanted to try everything so I stuck to small portions.<\/p>\n

Soon we hit the Mad Scientist Portion of the evening where folks started mixing beers.\u00a0 One of the popular pairings was mixing the smoked ale with the Chipotle ale.\u00a0 Everyone seemed to enjoy that!<\/p>\n

We chatted the rest of evening and before long it was time for us to head home and crawl into bed.\u00a0 The night turned out fantastic and there’s talks of another one to come along soon!<\/p>\n

Bonus of the evening?\u00a0 Ryan home brews and I got to leave with a bottle of his stout!\u00a0 SCORE!<\/p>\n

The Beer Family in attendance for the evening were:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yours truly and Scott<\/p>\n

James and PJ<\/a><\/p>\n

Ryan<\/a> and his wife, Chrissy<\/a><\/p>\n

Katie<\/a><\/p>\n

The Beer Family is always interested in meeting new people who enjoy a good beer and we will welcome you with open arms!\u00a0 All of us are on twitter so just give a follow.\u00a0 Or if you are on Facebook search for Columbus Beer Guys, which has all the official tweet-ups and meet-ups!\u00a0 The only rule is that you can’t show up with a Bud or whatever-cheap-beer but I’m sure you knew that already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a small group of Columbus-ites who are discussing, drinking, and sharing well made craft beer. The Beer Family. Right now our numbers are small but there are constantly new additions announced and much rejoicing occurs. I initially “met” James, The Beer Family Godfather (you totally are James!), via Twitter and we’ve been chatting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[60,32,62],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4KYWa-2PF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}