Pic(k) of the Week: Mysterious Traveller

First thing first. The artwork is an illustraion Helmut Wimmer created for the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.

Helmut Karl Wimmer (1925-2006) was the Art Supervisor of the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium. His works appeared in many planetariums, museums, and scores of publications. Wimmer was born in Munich, Germany, in 1925, and was apprenticed at the age of fourteen to train as a sculptor and architectural model maker. At eighteen he was in the army and served with the Alpine troops. At the end of World War II, Wimmer was captured by Czech partisans and turned over to the Russians as a prisoner of war. In 1949, Wimmer was released and returned to Munich where he found work as a sculptor. In 1954, he decided to emigrate to the United States. Once in New York, a chance recommendation led him to an opening in the Art Department of the Hayden Planetarium.

In 1974, the jazz-fusion group, Weather Report, used the artwork (with permission) as the cover for its fourth album, Mysterious Traveller.

All About Jazz wrote of the group and album:

In 1974, three years after the band's inception, Weather Report became one of the world's most popular jazz groups due to their uncompromising originality and musicianship. This was the year that founding member Miroslav Vitous was replaced by Alphonso Johnson, who became a critical asset as both a fluid, creative bassist and a composer. Drummer Ishmael Wilburn and Brazilian percussionist Dom Um Romao, with a shifting cast of supporting players, laid the foundation for the band's most exciting incarnation yet. The overdue reissue of Mysterious Traveller is a welcome acknowledgement of this mid-period lineup's importance in the evolution of fusion. [...]

Zawinul's motto for the group was "We always solo, we never solo." The special combination of freedom and composition that Weather Report consistently achieved on record amply testifies to that philosophy, and Mysterious Traveller is a quintessential piece of evidence.

To me, 1974's Mysterious Traveller marked Weather Report's transition from the improvisational sound of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, in its first albums, to the more composed-through funk/rock vamping of its later efforts. It's also my personal favorite of Weather Report's pre-Jaco Pastorius oeuvre, and, in particular, these cuts: Blackthorn Rose, a beautiful soprano sax/piano duet between Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul, respectively; the miniature electronica of American Tango; the ethereal (and mysterious) title track, Mysterious Traveller; and the funky workout on Cucumber Slumber.

The disc was a wonderful find in an Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA, thrift shop —in good condition— on 13 August 2020. The bad news was that it was there because a local used-record shop —just across the street— had shut down due to the pandemic, disposing of its unsold stock.

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Beef & Beer (and Wild Irish Rose) ... and Jazz.

In January 2008, I was in a wine & beer bar in Greenville, South Carolina, flogging the beers of my employer. A vintage record shop shared an entrance with the restaurant.

These days, I avoid such places; they do great damage to my wallet. But that day, finished with the sales call, I walked in. Fortunately for my wallet, my working schedule was nearly filled for the day, so my browsing was limited. I purchased only one CD.

That compact disc was The Main Ingredient, a jazz album that Washington, D.C.'s own Shirley Horn —the late great jazz vocalist and pianist. The session was recorded in 1996 in Ms. Horn's D.C. home...but the quality doesn't betray that. It's an exquisite session of intimate jazz chamber-music

Steve Williams and Charles Ables, on drums and bass, respectively, back up Ms. Horn on piano. They comprise her regular trio. But, then, there's the who's-who remainder of the lineup: a young Roy Hargrove on trumpet; bassist Steve Novosel and tenor saxman Buck Hill, Washington D.C. stalwarts; and drummers Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, stars of the first order in the jazz firmament.

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But wait! There's more.

Printed on the back page of the liner notes is an astounding recipe for...Beef & Beer (and Wild Irish Rose).

Look at the ingredient list. Scroll down to the final two ingredients: a bottle of beer — Heineken — and a lot of wine — Wild Irish Rose.

In case you've forgotten your days of reaching for a quick, cheap buzz, the latter is a sweet fortified 'wine' of a mere 18% alcohol. The recipe calls for a full half pint of it! It suggests you "open a beer or drink & chill"; and, maybe to regain a healthy veneer, the recipe concludes with an underscored admonition: "Remember no salt."

Although the recipe looks like winter comfort food, I've never cooked it (and probably won't ^*). But, since that day in Greenville, I have replayed the disc many times.

Ms. Horn died in 2005. I am fortunate to have heard and seen her perform live on several occasions. Her music —quiet and sensitive yet insinuatingly powerful— is the main ingredient. It lives on.

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Stephen Beaumont defines 'craft' beer.

Stephen Beaumont and Tim Webb have just released the 2015 edition of their Pocket Beer Guide: The World's Best Craft and Traditional Beers. Beaumont is one of our great beer writers. (Tim Webb, too.) This new guidebook is worthy of a full review. I'll read the whole thing, and get back to you.

In the meantime, an introductory chapter is worth mentioning because, in it, the authors attempt to define 'craft' beer.

Although believed in some quarters to be a product of American small brewery marketers, the phrase "craft brewing' and its corollaries "craft-brewed beer" and "craft beer" in fact date to at least the mid-1970s, during which time they were used tolrefer to small, artisanal, and usually family-owned European breweries and their brands. Or more simply, whatever was not a large and usually multinational brewery or beer.

Yes, America, your small breweries do indeed 'market' their beers; and, yes, America, 'craft' began not here, but in Europe. But more so:

• Brewing corporations care more for image than flavor. But, the authors add, size does not explicitly forestall 'craft.'
• Craft breweries are smaller than brewing corporations. The authors do not pinpoint that exact dividing line, choosing an "I'll know it when I see it" decision, other than an arbitrary number.
• Large breweries dilute high-gravity beers; craft breweries do not. (I would claim some exceptions to this stipulation.)
• Large breweries diminish their beers with adjuncts; 'craft' breweries use adjuncts for flavor-enhancing purposes.
• "In a true craft brewing company, the ideas flow from the brewers to the marketing divisions, while in large-scale convenience brewing operations, the reverse is true." That's an interesting turn of phrase: "large-scale convenience brewing." Some 'craft' breweries, true to other parameters, may fail here.
• And, finally: risk-taking, innovation, and "changing the status quo, rather than being content to follow the herd."

A worthy attempt, but I find one glaring omission. Above all else, a 'craft' brewery is one that brews good beer.

Good? De gustibus non disputandum, a search for a Platonic ideal, but the ability and the knowledge —yes, scientific and technological— to brew well, and to do so over a period of time, is as critical to 'good' as an artistic frame-of-mind.

And, what of respecting and knowing what came before? Brewing traditional beers takes as much 'craft' courage and skill as tossing a candy bar into a cask. Actually more, a lot more. Those boorish tropes, "the end to bad beer" and "we are revolutionaries," are solipsistic boasts, meaningless without 'craft' skill and taught/learned knowledge.

A 'craft' brewery is usually a small brewery, but not always so. A 'craft' brewery can be local —that's nice for community enhancement and beer flavor stability— but that's not essential to a definition. Would beers from a 'craft' brewery located far afield become non-'craft' because of their voyage to the drinker?

So, what do I believe a 'craft' beer to be?

I once read a wonderful description of the difference between wine and beer. Wine, it was said, was like a movie. It's made and that's that. Beer, on the hand, was like a Broadway show. It must be recreated night after night, playing to different audiences. A 'craft' beer is a beer brewed with artistic intent and scientific rigor; it's a beer that the brewer herself would want to drink. One that 'plays on Broadway' to acclaim ... day after day.

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How to write a beer review ... by writing a wine review.

In his approving review of Eric Asimov's book, How to Love Wine: A Memoir and Manifesto, Alan McLeod of A Good Beer Blog cites the following passage.

I've become a firm adherent of the notice that wine is for drinking, not tasting. Only by drinking, swallowing, savoring, and returning to a wine, and repeating the process over time, can one really get a full and complete idea of what's in a bottle and what the wine is all about. A taste is fine if you believe that understanding a bottle consists of writing down impressions of aromas and flavors. It's like buying music over the Internet - if a fifteen-second snippet offered everything you needed to know, why pay for the whole song.

Remarking on that, McLeod pivots to beer:

When was the last time you read beer writing like that? Focus on the complete idea of what's in the bottle? No reference to being a pal of the wine maker or how it fits into a structure of styles? A fluid first approach to appreciation.

Not often, I would agree.

Mr. McLeod's blog itself being one exception, read Mr. McLeod's review in its entirety. Then, read Mr. Asimov's book.

Perhaps I should have entitled this post: "how to write a book review."

Drinking, again. Jupiter's Legacy and the search for Virginia scrumpy.

I should entitle this post: Now that I've been to the Dorset scrumpy cask, how am I going to get back? Or ... oh , how I want to like American, made-from-locally-grown apples, cider.

WHEREAS, cider was a colonial beverage enjoyed by not only our forefathers such as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and George Washington but the common farmer, lawyer, butcher, and soldier; 

and WHEREAS, orchards were planted by early settlers and colonials to provide apples to ferment for the production of cider; 

and WHEREAS, Virginia is currently the 6th largest apple producing state by acreage in the United States and cider is a value-added product of apples, supporting an existing industry in the state; 

and WHEREAS, agriculture in the Commonwealth is the state’s largest industry, with an economic impact of $55 billion annually; 

and WHEREAS, agritourism is a growing component of Virginia’s tourism industry; 

and WHEREAS, the cider industry in Virginia has experienced significant growth, with six cideries started since 2006 and three prospective cideries currently being planned; 

and WHEREAS, the sales of cider nationwide have increased over 20% in the last year; 

and WHEREAS, the Virginia House of Delegates and State Senate passed House Joint Resolution 105 in 2012 to designate the full week before Thanksgiving as Virginia Cider Week in Virginia; 

and NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert F. McDonnell, do hereby [declare] November 11-17,2012 as VIRGINIA CIDER WEEK in our COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

Events for Virginia Cider Week were organized by Diane Flynt, proprietor of Foggy Ridge Cider. Her cidery is in southwest Virginia, but the celebration (extended to include nine days: 10-18 November) was state-wide: special tastings at shops and restaurants, as well as at cideries, of which there are eight in Virginia, or at least eight which participated in the event.

• Albemarle Ciderworks (North Garden)
• Blue Bee Cider (Richmond)
• Bold Rock Cider (Nellysford)
• Castle Hill Cider (Keswick) 
• Foggy Ridge Cider (Dugspur)
• Old Hill Cider (Timberville)
• Potter’s Craft Cider (Union)
• Winchester Ciderworks (Middletown)

To join in the fun, I went to a northern Virginia pub and ordered a pint of draft Bold Rock Cider (from Nelson County, Virginia, itself, home to several breweries). It was okay. Interesting. Sweet-tart. But I just didn't get complexity. As I drank it, I was looking with increasing envy at the draft Bells Best Brown that the gentleman next to me was drinking. That could have been just me. He was eyeing the Bold Rock, and, in fact, ordered that next.

On rare occasions in the past, I've been fortunate enough to drink U.K. cask scrumpy here in the States: cloudy, un-carbonated, yeasty cider imported from the West Country area. Strong in alcohol (often in excess of 6.5%), dark orange or russet in color, and rich, chewy, tart, phenolic, and full-bodied. You don't know what cider can be (at least, I didn't) until you try this. Since it's present-use and perishable, it's usually not bottled. That's why we rarely get it here. Calling such a complex beverage scrumpy? Leave it to the British!

This week, there wasn't any scrumpy to be found. This was Virginia Cider Week, after all. So, to finish off the week, I opened a bottle of Jupiter's Legacy, from Albemarle CiderWorks. The back story, on the back label:

Two boys were born at Shadwell in 1743. Thomas Jefferson and Jupiter Evans, a slave and Jefferson's most trusted servant for years. When Jupiter died in 1800, Jefferson wrote "... he leaves a void in my domestic arrangements which cannot be filled." Among Jupiter's duties was the exacting task of bottling Monticello's cider. "Malt liquors and cyder are my table drink," Jefferson noted.

According to an article in Serious Eats:

The unifying thread of Virginia cider lies in [these] two native apples. The Virginia Winesap apple is crucial for adding body, complexity, and tannins to Virginia ciders while the Albemarle Pippin is the key to the structure, tartness, and distinct green apple skin flavor found in most Virginia ciders. Both apples also make for good eats on their own and, combined, a damn fine apple pie.

The author of the piece, Chris Lehaut, goes on to describe Jupiter's Legacy as pressed principally from Winesap and Albemarle Pippin apples but mixed with

a variety of over 30 heirloom apple varietals. The end product is layered with flavors of citrus peel, apple skin, and a bit of barnyard. It is a distinctly American cider and, perhaps, the quintessential Virginia cider.

Well, that seemed like a challenge that I had to accept.

Jupiter's Legacy is no scrumpy, but, boy, oh boy, is it a tasty cider. My notes. Strong: alcohol-by-volume of 9.3%. Light to medium bodied. Pale straw in color with nice carbonation, but scant champagne-like mousse, even when poured aggressively into a flute. Aromas of green apples, wet clay, and background suggestions of oranges and ripe bananas. The tastes follow through identical to the aromas, but with a hint of circus peanut candies: banana-flavored marshmallows.

Be forewarned: this is a very dry cider. I doubt that there is any residual sugar left in it after fermentation. Even tannic Cabernet Sauvingon red wines have some R.S., as un-fermented sugars are referred to in the wine-making trade. What's not in the finish of Jupiter's Legacy is a puckering, chewing-on-an-aspirin tannic bite. In fact, for such a dry cider, it's surprisingly smooth at and after the last sip.

This would be a wonderful food wine. That's right, wine, which is, after all, fermented fruit juice. Jupiter's Legacy at the Thanksgiving table anyone?

Is Virginia cider available in cask-conditioned form? Is there Virginia scrumpy? Will I become an acolyte of American apple cider? I don't know yet. I'll keep tasting.

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Just to be clear, the ciders I'm talking about here has very little to do with many imported English ciders (not all) and many American ciders (not all). Those are flavored alcoholic beverages. Check the ingredients list on the label.

Drinking , Again is a series of occasional reviews of beer (and wine and spirits ... and cider). No scores; only descriptions.

Graphic created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.

Cool Yule #5(b)! Beer Books for 2011: Brewing in Baltimore

Cool Yule! 12 Beer Books for 2011
Not a list of the dozen best-of-the-best books about beer of 2011, but, rather, my list of 12, some personal delights, others of unique or deserved merit. Some of the books have been published this year, while others are worthy chestnuts. I was planning to reveal my selections between 20 November and the Winter Solstice New Year's Eve. Now, I'll be posting my final choices in the new year. Delayed, but still valid.

So ... cue Five Go-old Rings.

Cool Yule Beer Book for 2011
#5(b)

Brewing in Baltimore
(Images of America)
Maureen O'Prey
Paperback: 128 pages
Arcadia Publishing, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0738588131

For Cool Yule beer book suggestion #5 (a), I reached out for fellow Virginia beer blogger Eric Delia, who reviewed the book, Richmond Beers. Staying regional, Brewing in Baltimore is a bookend to that.

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I recently read a review of George F. Kennan: An American Life, a biography of the creator of the U.S. Cold War containment of the Soviet Union strategy, by Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis. That does not have much to do with the book Brewing in Baltimore, except for this quote from the book concerning Kennan:

He saw what others saw but in different colors. . . . He had a historian’s consciousness of the past, which gave him a visionary’s perspective on the future.” That is as good as any description of an historian.

Author of Brewing in Baltimore, Maureen O'Prey is indeed an historian. She holds a Masters in Historical Studies from the University of Maryland, and is a professor of history at Baltimore City Community College, Maryland. And, she loves a good beer.


Ms. O'Prey began her research with Brewing in Maryland, a self-published book in the mid-1960s by William J. Kelley, a local beer aficionado and amateur historian. Then, serendipitously, Catherine Scott, the archivist of the Baltimore Museum of Industry alerted her to a treasure trove: original documents dating from the late 19th century of Baltimore Gas & Electric, then known as Consolidated Gas & Electric. Why would this be crucial? Because the breweries were among the first industries to switch from producing their own electricity with coal-fired generators to purchasing power. And Consolidated kept detailed records. Addresses, names, brewers, officers, equipment, production, energy requirements, photographs, etc.

From there, she found leather-bound ledgers for early 20th century breweries and one mini-conglomerate in Maryland. The latter failed, in part, because of local consumer antipathy. After repeal in the early 1930s, there were 75 breweries in Maryland; by the late 1980s only one, and that one just outside of Baltimore City. Support for local breweries had become severely diminished.

O'Prey lists the names and tells the stories in the roll of the departed Baltimore breweries: such as Maryland Brewing Company, Gottlieb, Free State, Bauerenschmidt, Globe, Arrow, American, and, of course, National (Natty Boh, hon!). She tells us that the company which almost single-handedly invented bottle enclosures as we know them today —Crown, Cork, and Seal— was a Baltimore company.

Ms. O'Prey has discovered another truly fascinating resource. As Prohibition would loom in the 1910s, the United States Brewers Association published several Anti-Prohibition Manuals. These snapshots into society at the time compared, for example, the relative lesser crime rate in a 'wet' state such as Maryland versus a dry state such as Kansas. Prohibition-backers, such as the Anti-Saloon League, would constantly tout the nirvana that would be achieved if alcohol were banned. These published statistics showed otherwise. Not enough folk listened: a cautionary tale in the face of today's neo-Prohibitionism?

There are no brewery recipes in the book. Ms. O'Prey laments that these may be permanently missing, or may require greater sleuthing to be unearthed. In the UK, brewing historians such as Ron Pattinson and Martyn Cornell have done yeoman work in doing just that. Like a zymurgic Jurassic Park, the recipes they are uncovering literally can be used to bring the efforts of those long-lost breweries back to life.

The publisher of Brewing in Baltimore is Arcadia, South Carolina-based. Its series Images of America consists of pictorial books of American history. The books re all exactly 128 pages, the areas they cover must only be cities or small regions or jurisdictions, and oddly enough, no footnotes or endnotes are permitted. Thus, Ms. O'Prey was limited to only Baltimore, and to a pre-determined format.

Despite the marvelous photographs on almost every page of Brewing in Baltimore, the life of the breweries is sometimes subsumed by the litany of names. Arcadia limits documentation to a bibliography. The format also denies room for more analysis into the reasons for success and ultimate failure. That WWII soldiers —who had been supplied weaker beers made possible by improving technologies such as canning— may have desired those less flavorful beers when they returned from the war-font is insufficient to hang a theory of the demise of smaller breweries making more flavorful beer.

Brewing in Baltimore concludes with a brief look at the brewing renaissance in Baltimore, the almost 25-year old microbrewery scene. (One of the pioneers of that movement, Hugh Sisson —the owner of Heavy Seas Brewing of Baltimore— wrote the forward to the book.)

Brewing in Baltimore is an entertaining and visually fascinating introduction to the rise, and crash, and re-birth of brewing in the city. It's a valuable lesson on what happened there (and elsewhere) and what could happen again, whether via neo-Prohibition or through neglect of local community support in the battle against larger, outside concerns.

The colorful history of brewing in Baltimore serves as both a reminder of the city's strong heritage and a testament to the craft brewing industry's ability to persevere with local support [emphasis mine], despite the odds.

Ms. O'Prey has plans to write a much more exhaustive history of brewing, not just of Baltimore, but of the entire state of Maryland: the full story of Maryland's breweries and brewers, their beers and recipes, and their economic and societal impact and legacy. With a historian's pride, she grins: "There'll be extensive footnotes!"

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Cool Yule for 2011, so far:

• #5(a):Richmond Beers
• #6: Under The Influence
• #7: Designing Great Beers
• #8: The Best of American Beer & Food
• #9: Beer & Philosophy
• #10: Evaluating Beer
• #11: Windows on The World
• #12: The Story of Brewing in Burton on Trent

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• Maureen O'Prey will be signing copies of Brewing in Baltimore at Heavy Seas Brewing Company on Saturday, 17 January, between 11am and 5pm. Hugh Sisson will also be present for signing. Registration is required: here.
• Follow more about the book on Twitter: @BrewBalt.
• For on-line purchasing, I link to the Brewers Association book store, or to the marvelous resource, BeerBooks.com. When not available there, or if published as an ebook, I link to Amazon.com.
  
• The 12 Books for Christmas 2009: here.

Cool Yule #8! Beer Books for 2011: The Best of American Beer & Food

Cool Yule! 12 Beer Books for 2011
Not a list of the dozen best-of-the-best books about beer of 2011, but, rather, my list of 12, some personal delights, others of unique or deserved merit. Some of the books have been published this year, while others are worthy chestnuts.

Between 20 November and the Winter Solstice, I'll reveal my selections. Then, on Christmas Day: put your feet up, pour yourself a good beer, and read a good book. Or, better yet: give a friend the gift of a beer and a book. December 22nd may be too late to arrange shipping by Christmas (unless available as an e-book), but it's time sufficient to pay a visit to your local brick and mortar —and book— store.

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So ... cue eight maids a-milking

Cool Yule Beer Book for 2011: #8

The Best of American Beer & Food
Pairing and Cooking with Craft Beer
Lucy Saunders
paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Brewers Publications (US, 2007)
ISBN: 0937381918


Lucy Saunders —the BeerCook— released The Best of American Beer & Food in 2007. It's just as fresh today.

The book is divided into roughly two sections. The first reminds me of Real Beer And Good Eats by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly. Ms. Saunders interviews chefs, restaurant owners, and other beer celebrities. As well, Ms. Saunders writes several extended essays on beer styles, matching beer with food, on beer and cheese, and beer and chocolate).

Please don't dismiss Pilseners as being unworthy of being served at the table with lighter or simpler fare, as many craft-brewers are restoring the brightness and luster to a style that suffered commercial debasement in the last century. A bready yet crisp Pilsener tastes outstanding with a freshly grilled burger - it's simple and very good.

That said, some of the recipes included in this book are far from simple and could only be termed ambitious. These time-consuming recipes show that craft beer can pair with complex foods just as well as with burgers, sausages, and pizza.

Lucy Saunders indeed knows food ... and beer.

The second section features recipes from those chefs and celebrities, reminding me of a similar format in Cooking & Eating with Beer by Peter LaFrance. Some of the recipes include beer as an ingredient; others suggest appropriate pairings. Considering that many of these recipes come from brewpubs, those pairings make great sense: they have worked well and repeatedly. A partial listing of the folk featured includes Carol Stoudt, Diane Alexander, Lisa Morrison, Tom Peters, Garrett Oliver, Chuck Skypeck, Brewchef Tim Schafer, Larry Bell, Rob Tod, Natalie and Vinnie Cirluzo, Dan Gordon and Dean Biersch, Charles and Rose Ann Finkel, Jim Koch, Tomme Arthur, and Barton Seaver.

Lucy gives props to some Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland, area restaurants (home to this blog): The Brewers Art, Brasserie Beck, Restaurant Nora, Birreria Paradiso, Rustico, R.F.D./Brickskeller, Tuscarora Mill, and Royal Mile Pub.

There are two recipes from Diane Alexander of R.F.D., including Chicken and Artichoke Hearts in Anchor Steam Beer. Chef Patrick Dinh of Tuscarora Mill contributed his Asiago Soup with Smoked Ham. Royal Mile Pub's past owner/chef Ian Morrison provided his recipe for Lemon Thai Basil Sorbet.

Saunders offers a recipe from Chef Barton Seaver, well known for his work for sustainable seafood. It's not seafood, but Grilled Lamb Top Round Steaks with Caramelized Tomato Risotto, which he prepared for a Clipper City Beer Dinner several years ago when he was chef at Washington, D.C.'s Cafe Saint-Ex.

When the book was first released, some reviewers complained about the complexity of the recipes. These aren't as simple as bratwurst boiled in beer, one seemed to grouse. Yes, that's true. The Best of American Food & Beer is not a cookbook about technique. It's about, what else, beer with food, and about beer in food. But too complicated? If one is even a fair at-home-kitchen cook, most of the recipes are well within that skill set. Take this one, for example, which Ms. Saunders prepared for a Washington, D.C. morning news broadcast.

Creamy Cavatappi with Fresh Corn, Fennel and Wild Mushrooms p.106
Chef Bruce Paton of the Cathedral Hill Hotel, San Francisco, CA, pairs this warm creamy pasta salad with the Twist of Fate Bitter from Moonlight Brewing of Santa Rosa, CA. You could pair it with your favorite ESB.

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 bulbs fennel, trimmed and sliced very thin
• 2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 6 ears)
• 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, trimmed and diced
• 1 cup cremini or chanterelle mushrooms, trimmed and diced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground fennel
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cups light cream
• 1 pound cavatappi pasta, cooked al dente
• 1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and minced

• 1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add crushed pepper and garlic and cook, stirring often, two minutes. Add corn and diced fennel, stir well and cook 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, ground fennel, salt and pepper and cook until tender, about 5 minutes
• 2. Add cream and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Drain pasta and toss with vegetables and cream. Garnish with red bell pepper and freshly ground black pepper
• Makes 4 to 6 servings.

The Best of American Beer & Food is a special and usable cookbook, very usable: I've prepared several of the recipes. But therein lies its only demerit. The binding for this 'hard' paperback is not good: it falls apart after only a few uses. I hope that Brewers Publications releases a second edition in better condition.

Ms. Saunders maintains a website at beercook.com (with links to her other cookbooks: Cooking With Beer and Grilling with Beer. Follow her on Twitter @LucyBeerCook. And, cook with this book!

Cool Yule for 2011, so far:

• #9: Beer & Philosophy
• #10: Evaluating Beer
• #11: Windows on The World
• #12: The Story of Brewing in Burton on Trent

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• This review has been plagiarized. I admit it. I've cribbed it from ... MY earlier review, written in 2007, when the book was first released.
• For on-line purchasing, I link to the Brewers Association book store, or to the marvelous resource, BeerBooks.com. When not available there, or if published as an ebook, I link to Amazon.com.
  
• The 12 Books for Christmas 2009: here.

The nonsense of 'true to [beer] style'

Martyn Cornell writes a beer blog out of the UK called Zythophile. Think of it as the thinking person's beer blog, Mr. Cornell being the thinker. Here, he's thought about the importance (or not) of beer styles:

I’m sure we all agree that the style label stuck on any given beer doesn’t matter a rat’s arse as far as the drinker’s enjoyment of that beer goes: the liquid in the glass is all that ultimately matters. I’m equally sure we’ve all drunk and enjoyed beers that fit no known or defined style.

I think style labels are important for the overwhelming majority of consumers, however, who need some sort of guide as to what they’re going to be getting. I know little enough about wine, for example, to be glad of the New World habit of putting the grape variety on the label, which the French in particular are only slowly catching up on, since I hate Chardonnay. If I hated hoppy beers but liked dark malty ones, I’d be glad to see “IPA” and “porter” on labels/beer taps, since I could then make an informed choice.

Would it help me make my choice to know that the IPA I had just rejected was nothing like the beer Hodgson’s brewery sent east, or the porter I was drinking was just like the one Barclay Perkins made in 1850? No. Not me, and not, I suspect, the majority of “craft beer” drinkers. I don’t think even beer enthusiasts, generally, care much beyond whether what is in their glass is any good – and why should they?

I like writing about beer styles and their histories, you may have noticed, but I certainly don’t think styles should be fetishised: it’s interesting, for a tiny number of us, to know where today’s beer styles have come from. It’s more important, though, for consumer confidence, to be able to tell drinkers what they can expect by reference to a particular style in its modern incarnation. The relevance of past beer styles to the present is, as Ron and I have shown, limited. As is the nonsense of “true to style” [emphasis mine].

Mr. Cornell wrote this as a response to a post by fellow beer blogger (in the US) Stan Hieronymous. In quite the circular blog reference, Mr. Hieronymous had mentioned Mr. Cornell's blog post about the difference (or not) between the 'Old Ale' beer style and the 'Barleywine' beer style as another demonstrable reason why readers should purchase Mr. Cornell's book Amber, Gold, & Black.

I would (and did) concur.

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The 'Ron' in this case is Ron Pattinson, also a UK beer historian. He writes the beer blog Shut Up About Barclay Perkins.

Mad Fox Monday!

At 11 am today, Mad Fox Brewing Company opened its doors to the public for the first time, and Falls Church, Virginia, a city of 11,000 or so, situated 8 miles east of Washington, D.C., became home to its first ever brewpub.


Mad Fox is a collaborative project of Brewmaster/CEO Bill Madden, a long time doyen of the Washington, D.C. brewing establishment and principal investor Rick Garvin, himself a national homebrew judge and self-professed 'foodie.' Joining them is coterie of area investors, who believed enough in Madden and the project to invest despite an economic downturn.

I was fortunate enough to get a preview.


Staff training is one thing, but operating a restaurant when customers are present is another. Thus, Friday evening past, investors, wine salesmen, friends, and members of the press were invited to enjoy the food and beers (and some wine and cocktails) and offer critiques. Beer blogging occasionally offers benefits.

Joining me were Nick Anderson of The Beermonger and Andrew Nations of dcbeer.com, and their significant others. The two had not met each other personally but immediately recognized each other's Twitter handles: @The-Beermonger and @drinkrealbeer, respectively. It's a brave new Web 2.0 world we live in.

The entrance is not on the Broad Street side, but along the interior courtyard. There are many glass doors, none marked "open here." Look for the one in the center, marked "Suite I." At some point soon, the restaurant will have outdoor seating as well. Parking is not an issue: there is an underground garage in the complex.


Open the door, then open the doors of the inside foyer, and then ... there they are! Serving as function and aesthetic, six stainless steel serving tanks sit immediately behind the host stand, reminding the customer that this is a brewery as well as a restaurant. Each holds 13,720 pints of beer. The tin ceiling overhead is actually cleverly disguised acoustic tiles. The high ceilings and lots of wood of the 9,000 + square foot interior are well-lit by sunlight through the plate-glass windows ringing the establishemnt and by diffused light from attractive overhead fixtures.



The dining room is to the left and the bar area is to the right. The very back wall of the dining area is now empty, but it will eventually be a floor-to-ceiling shelf holding wooden barrels of aging beers.



Diners can see the brewery behind tall windows in the dining room.

In addition to a 15-barrel brewhouse, there are several 30-barrel fermenters, double jacketed so that both 15-barrel and 30-barrel batches can be brewed. If a tank is needed to ferment or serve a beer, the remaining finished beer will be racked into kegs. He'll need to do that, because he plans to have at least 12 to 15 beers on tap at any given time.



The long bar seats some 30+ customers, and the bar area can accommodate many more, with several bar tables, as well as booths and bar stools along the windows. A service area sits at the end of the bar, not for staff, but at which customers, not sitting at the bar, can order.


Wrapped past the bar, and parallel with Broad Street, is a narrow room with long tables, and a fireplace at the rear wall. In Germany, a communal table like this is referred to as Stammtisch. This room can also be used for private parties and special events. Beer dinners, Madden promises!



THE BEERS

There are 30 taps, split between two towers. For the mock opening, Bill was pouring four: his 'signature' Kölsch (a 'lagered' ale, previous iterations of which have garnered Madden medals) a 6.5% alcohol-by-volume (abv) American Pale Ale (malty and toasty, with a hefty citrusy aroma and finish), a 6% abv Porter (dark reddish-brown, with characters of bakers chocolate and dark fruit), and a 6% abv Saison (orange-hued, demi-dry, and earthy).




THE CASK ALE

 Sometimes referred to as real ale, cask-conditioned ale is beer which has been refermented within the cask from which it is served. It is living beer, so to speak, and very fresh. (More here.)

Madden has long been an advocate for cask ale, and his new brewpub will be a showcase for it. Six firkins (10.8-gallon casks) rest in refrigerated coolers under the bar, the temperature set in the low 50s °F, which some refer to as traditional English cellar temperature (but which is definitely not room temperature). A row of hand-operated 'beer engines' sit above, used to handpump the beer up to the bar.

Madden will have four cask ales tapped at any one time. The other two casks will sit undisturbed in the coolers for several days, allowing the beer to 'come into condition': natural carbonation created, and proteins and yeast in the unfiltered beer settled out of solution. He'll serve no beer before its time!



Beer to go —filled into 2-liter glass 'growlers'— will be offered, although not for cask ale. Bill is a stickler for details. Nothing other than beer can be poured into his "beer-clean" glasses, (He has different shaped glassware for different styles.) and no chemical sanitizers can be applied. The glasses are cleaned and sanitized in a high temperature dishwasher, separate from the plates, utensils, and dishes in the kitchen.

That evening, Pale Ale, Porter, and an 80-Shilling Ale were offered in cask. The last —dark red, caramelly, but not sweet- think of as 5.2% abv version of the much bigger Wee Heavy Scotch Ale, that is yet to finish its fermentation, and for which Madden has won several awards.


THE MENU

Mad Fox scored quite a coup in attracting their chef, Russel Cunningham. He has built a reputation among Washington, D.C. area foodies, having previously 'cheffed' at such places as Dupont Grill and Agraria. Cunningham and Madden refer to menu as from a "scratch kitchen". They source many of the ingredients locally, use food in-season, and produce many items in-house.

The menu for the 'mock' service was quite extensive, if not the complete menu that will be offered once Mad Fox opens today.. We ordered several appetizers for the table including house-made onion rings, house-made fried pickles (called Frickles), Prince Edward island (P.E.I.) mussels prepared 'Bloody Mary': vodka-tomato sauce with fresh horseradish, and a Tuna and Avocado Salad over shredded cabbage (the tuna was beautifully rare).



As much as we enjoyed our choices, we could not help overhearing the "oohing" over the Virginia Pork Belly at other tables: "slow roasted for 12 hours, glazed with molasses and local honey," read the menu.

For our main course, we skipped all but one of the entrées: Shrimp & Grits (Cajun-spiced sautéed jumbo shrimp, served with smoked Gouda grits, and braised greens).



This was not because the choices didn't sound promising -NY Strip Au Poivre, Grilled Lamb Chops, Slow-smoked 'St. Louis' Ribs, Pan-Seared Sea Bass, to name but a few- but because the restaurant touts the pizza as the star of the show.

Mad Fox has two pizza ovens in its kitchen: one, a New York-style convection oven (a chewy and thin crust for holding more sauce) and the other, a wood-burning Neapolitan-style oven ("High-moisture fresh mozzarella and low-gluten flour).

We ordered:
the Carbonara Pizza (with a cooked egg on top), the aptly named Garlic Pig Pizza (artisinal pepperoni and bacon), and the Salami & Goat Cheese Pizza (without the salami for me, a vegetarian: a demonstration of the kitchen's versatility to adapt). All were prepared Neapolitan-style: a nice level of char on the underside of the crusts, and toppings cooked just-right.

Choices for vegetarian fare were more limited. There were salads and gazpacho soup. If dairy, there were the pizzas, of course. Specifically vegetarian, there was a house-made Black Bean Burger, The Veg —a sandwich of roasted red peppers, grilled eggplant, etc.— and a Crispy Tofu entrée with sautéed spinach, wild mushrooms, Israeli couscous, and and carrot-apple broth.  (None, except for the pizza, were sampled that evening.) More are promised.



Go for the food, stay for the beer. Go for the beer, and stay for the food. Mad Fox should be a hit as a brewery and a restaurant.

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• Lunch will be served and there will be continuous service throughout the day into the evening for dinner.
  
• The address is 444 W. Broad Street [just off the intersection of Broad & Pennsylvania], Falls Church, Va. 22046. The telephone number is (703) 942-6840.
  
• Metro access is a mile away at the East Falls Church station on the Orange line. The website dcbeer has a useful list of Metro buses that will take you there. Keep in mind that the routes stop earlier than bar hours! You might not have a return bus trip after 10pm.
  
• The website at www.madfoxbrewingcompany.com is still under construction. Better to follow Mr. Madden's blog at maddbrewer.com or the restaurant blog at madfoxbrewing.wordpress.com.
  
• More photos, including construction: here.
  
• Read a pre-opening write-up at dcbeer.com: here.
  
• Read an interview with Bill Madden: here.
  
• Click for more blog posts about Bill Madden and Mad Fox.
  
• CAVEAT LECTOR: As a salesman for northern Virginia beer/wine distibutor Select Wines, Inc., I sell wines to Mad Fox.