We share with you our recipes, reviews, tips and thoughts on building a happy home together through food.
Sunday nights, especially in this time of the year when there is a chill outside and football on the tube, are for settling down with a good bottle of beer. I was never much of a beer fan, especially as an alcohol to be abused when going out on the town (stay classy with a gin and tonic or a vodka drink, people). But lately I’ve been finding that one bottle of beer works perfectly to take the edge off on a Sunday night, when all you want to do is to kick back with some good food, good conversation and the occasional scream at the wide reciever who dropped the ball.
At such times, you do NOT want to reach for just the generic big company flavor-less piss water that is mass marketed in the State (Bud is, I repeat, not good beer). You want to pick up a local micro-brew or an import with some complexity to it. Look a little deeper in your local alcohol store’s beer cooler and you are sure to find a beer that calls out to you – an India Pale Ale, a Pilsner or even a Stout, perhaps. Or hit up your nearest wine shop and ask for recommendations on a good beer - they are sure to carry a few that would merit mention.
You want a beer that stands up to the food you eat it with – not just to mindlessly drink the night away. Don’t get me wrong – when I want to just get wasted, I’d save my money, buy the cheapest coors six pack and call it a night. Some of these beers also have great labels and names, and make for wonderful conversation starters if you have company over. Don’t be shy about taking a unique six pack to the next house party you get invited to either – that cute blonde girl or baseball jock you’ve been crushing on might just be impressed with your new found beer IQ!
This week, I settled on the White Rascal – a Belgian-Style Wheat Ale from the Avery Brewing Company in Colorado. Wheat ale’s are one of my favorite kinds of beer – light and refreshing without being cloyingly sweet or’ hoppingly’ bitter. This ale is brewed, in the tradition of witbiers, with spices like coriander and Curacoa orange peel – and you know given my love for oranges, I had to try this. This is also an unfiltered beer, meaning the yeast used during the brewing process is left in the bottles, settling near the bottom. It gives the beer a yeasty nose and taste – but the spicyness of the coriander and zest of the orange peel more than compensate for any yeasty undernotes you may encounter. In all, the beer was an excellent pairing with the biryani the wifey and I made last night – and for the high-scoring Cardinals- Vikings game too!
THE REVIEW: WHITE RASCAL BELGIAN ALE
BOTTLE: Standard brown glass bottle. Label has a horned white devilish creature, completed with tail and horns, holding a glass and sporting a mischevious look. There is a small picture of an orange with vague leaves under – signifying the spices that the brew contains I suppose. No easy-twist caps here!
SMELL: I definitely got a sniff of the yeast as soon as I opened the cap; I expected to get atleast a hint of the orange peel but could not
HEAD: Not very long-lasting, but definitive and dense. The label recommended pouring out most of the beer into the glass, then swirling the remainder in the bottle to pick up the yeast and top off the glass with it. This added a nice warmth to the head, contrasting the spicy kick the first taste of the beer yeilded.
TASTE: While I could not distinguish the coriander or the orange flavors as distinct components, there was definitely a nice spicy punch to the beer. There was the signature malty undernotes common with wheat ales, and the warmth of the yeast lingered. There was not much bitterness as these beers are not really brewed with hops (but hops may be present in the gruit or spice mix used to flavor the beer.
FOOD PAIRINGS: The beer was excellent paired with a mildly spicy Chicken Biryani; it also held up to some milder fare like garlic mashed potatoes with bacon. This might not be a good beer for very spicy stuff like Chili Chicken; it would also overpower blander, cheesy foods like pizza I would think.
COST: $9 for a 6-pack at Whole Foods.
OVERALL: A very nice belgian-style wheat ale with a nice spicy taste and good flavor. Not too pricey – and an easy entry if you are looking to get in to belgian-style ales. Definitely a top beer in my list. 3.5 oranges – which means I like the beer and will go back to this quite often.