Pairing Beer with Food

What tastes best with a pilsner or a stout? For winies, matching food with wine has become second nature. Have no fear, the article provides some great examples of how to match beer with your meals.

April FABTS Meeting

For April 14th FABTS sessiong we will be sampling Trappist ales. The meeting is changing venues this month. We will be at BANGKOK BOULEVARD. Address: 1300 Central Park Blvd. (Map). Phone: 540/785-7370. We will start at 1:30pm. Please remember to thank Chad for offering us a place to meet.

Beers we have for this month:

• Konigshoffen Dubbel, Tripel and Quadrupel (Lyle Brown)
  
• Rochefort 6, 8 and 10 (Lyle Brown)
  
• Achel Blonde and Achel Bruin (Lyle Brown)
  
• 2005 Orval (James Russ)
  
• Westmalle Tripel (Rob Abbott)
  

Bowie Baysox Beer Dinner

Get ready for Friday, April 13th!! The Baysox are proud to offer "Spring Fling”, our 1st of Five Beer Dinners for the 2007 Season!

Beers for the evening include:

• Blue Moon Draft with an orange slice
  
• HOP-OCALYPSE India Pale Ale
  
• Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat
  
• Red Hook’s spring seasonal Copper Hook
  
• Widmer Hefeweizen
  
• "NEW” ZIMA Tangerine

Menu Selections for the evening include:

• Fresh Spring Mix Salad
  
• Mixture of Assorted Appetizers’
  
• Spring Mussels in Blue Moon
  
• Beer BBQ Pork Ribs
  
• Fish Taco Bar
  
• Spring Sliders
  
• Beer Baked Beans
  
• Assorted Dessert

You must contact Matt McLaughlin, Group Events Manager, Bowie Baysox Baseball Club directly to sign up. The deadline for this event is Tuesday, April 10th at 5:00 PM. Matt's contact information is (301)464-4890 or mmclaughlin(at)baysox.com. All tickets are held at will call the night of the event.

Friday, April 13th at 7:05 pm, the Baysox take on the Akron Aeros, “AA” Affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Gates will open at 6:00 pm and the event runs until 9:00 pm with unlimited beer and food!

Also please save that date of May 10th for the second installment of the famous Baysox Beer Dinners.

The Session #2 - Dubbels

Alan from A Good Beer Blog is hosting the 2nd edition of The Session. The Session is a virtual beer review where a style is chosen and writers will post their review of the beer. The style for April is Dubbels. The date everyone will post their review is April 6th.

Some classic Belgian examples are Westmalle, St. Paul, Affligem, Bornem, Grimbergen and Ename.

32 Things You Can Do with Beer

Now I can finally get rid of that Coors Light that someone brought over about a year ago. I have a few wild eyebrow hairs that need taming.

MADD Uses Bogus Stats to Chip Away Our Rights

MADD is using bogus statistics to push its agenda of prohibition. It first tried to make people register beer kegs like guns. Now it wants all first-time DUI offenders to be required to have ignition interlock devices.



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The Session - Blue Fin Stout

For the first Beer Blogging Friday the style of the month is Irish Stouts. I chose to profile Shipyard Brewing's Blue Fin Stout. Shipyard Brewing has been brewing beers out of Portland Maine since 1992 and according to their website, Blue Fin Stout was first produced in August, 1993 and is a classic Irish stout. As such, my review will compare this beer to the classic example Guinness and be broken down into four parts: appearance, aroma, taste and mouthfeel and memorableness.

Appearance

As the picture shows, the color of the beer is black, with a tan head, not the white head that you get with Guinness. The head diminished fast to a thin line. During the pour I commented that the beer appeared oily as it filled the glass. (2 out of 3 points)

Aroma

Great chocolate malt and coffee aromas. Almost imperceptible hop aroma and no off odors were detected. I was worried about how this beer was handled as it was a selection from my subscription to the Beer of the Month club. As a side note, I have had my subscription for 3 months now and am satisfied with the selections and the quality and care of the beers I received. (3 out of 4 points)

Taste and Mouthfeel

As I took my first taste, based on the oily appearance, I was expecting heavy mouthfeel. I was shocked when I sloshed it around. The mouth feel was thinner than most stouts, Guinness included. I would say that it was too thin. I didn't get the creamy mouthfeel you'd expect. The flavor made up for the mouthfeel. I tasted bitter chocolate and roasted coffee. I also get a little sour notes, which is what you can expect in a stout. The beer finished dry and less bitter than Guinness, which I don't count as a negative. (6 out of 10 points)

Memorableness

The beer was good, not great. The kind of beer you would be happy to get in a brewpub, but not one that would be sought out as a crowning achievement. (2 out of 3 points)

Overall Impression

Stouts are not my favorite, so I'm trying to be objective with my evaluation. Blue Fin has a taste that meets the style with a mouthfeel that doesn't. The beer was very drinkable although probably not a great example of the style. While I liked it, I only evaluated it as good. Total: 13 out of 20 points.

March Meeting Beer List

The style of the month for March is Belgian Beers. Kevin Brown started the beer list for the meeting this month. Here's the list currently of the beers that are being brought to the 17 March FABTS meeting.

Kevin Brown

Hoegaarden (Whitbier)

Leffe Blond (Belgian Blond)

Duvel (Belgian Strong Golden)

Angelique (Belgian Dark Strong Ale)

James Russ

2005 Orval

de Boomgaard Peche Lambic (Peach)

de Boomgaard Tropicale Lambic (Mango / Spice)

Biere Du Boucanier Golden Ale

Joseph Spelt Ale

Let me know what you're bringing to the meeting. Also, what's your opinion of good snacks for the Belgian's? Angela and I were contemplating this over a bottle of Cantillion at Bangcock Blvd. We thought that sweet snacks would complement the sour nature of the Gueze and Lambics. Your thoughts?

March Meeting - Belgian Beers

The style of the month for March is Belgian Beers. If last year's tasting is any indication your pallet will be throughly entertained. There are a wide range of styles within the Belgian beer family. We'll be sampling examples from the following styles:

Lambics

Wheat Beers

Brown Ales

Red Beers

Saisons

Trappist & Abbey Beers

Belgian Ales

Golden Ales

Speciality Ales

To learn more about Belgian beers, here are some resources to check out.

A Beginner's Guide to Belgian Beer
BJCP Belgian and French Ale
BJCP Sour Ale
BJCP Belgian Strong Ale
The Multimedia Guide to Belgian Beer

1st Beer Blogging Friday - Stouts

Food bloggers have their own cooking day once a month. Wine bloggers have Wine Blogging Wednesday. Beer bloggers take a turn March 2, and the theme is "Not your father's Irish stout." The beer blog Appellation Beer is hosting the first mass beer tasting.

According to Appellation Beer, the rules are simple. Simply pour yourself a stout (or stouts) and post on the topic March 2, looking ahead to St. Patrick’s Day or not and writing about any stout that isn’t Guinness, Murphy’s or Beamish (the Irish old guard - good beers but we’re writing about others).

If you want to participate, I can post your review on this site.

- James