Hops to Table Oct/Nov 2013 | Page 15

regional news and information food and beer pairings SACRAMENTO BREWERY HARVESTS HISTORY BISTRO DINING: BEER AND SALAD PAIRINGS Ruhstaller returns to region's local hops roots. This is the second in a five part series that will pair various ingredients with beer. This segment pairs beer with salads. By Ed Murrieta By Mike Moore B efore J-E Paino could brew local beer, he first had to grow local beer. Paino learned this lesson shortly after Christmas 2011. He had just sold 20 cases of his Ruhstaller ale to Corti Brothers, the Sacramento specialty grocer that Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold calls “the Valhalla of supermarkets.” staller -- although neither grow enough to meet all their needs. In terms of overall hops farming in the state, Paino said there are just 50 acres planted. Twenty-five of those acres are in Lake County, west from that farm, plus some from a smaller farmer in Clarksburg south of “We have a legacy that’s rich in beer,” Paino said. “We’re still farmers at heart.” Paino went to the store to thank owner Darrell Corti. Noting the Sacramento Valley’s Mediterranean climate, the terroir of clayrich soil near the Sacramento and American rivers, and the deep, loamy soil toward the Coastal Mountain range, Paino said Sacramento-area brewers and farmers today “have an opportunity to approach beer from the ingredients’ perspective, to say, ‘Let’s see what this ingredient wants to be.’ Just like a chef can take a tomato and say, ‘What does this tomato want me to do with this tomato today?’” Sacramento’s epicure grise put the start-up brewer in his place. Pointing to the names Ruhstaller and Sacramento on a bottle of one of Ruhstaller’s ale, Corti told Paino: “You don’t deserve thos e words until you start growing local hops.” Like a schoolboy explaining himself in the principal’s office, Paino replied, “But I’ve tried.” Corti then delivered his patrician punch. “He said, ‘I’ll help you,’” Paino recalled. Well-connected Corti introduced Paino to Virginia Signorotti, widow of California’s last commercial hops grower, and to the current owner of George Signorotti’s Sloughhouse farm, Dave Utterback, who had saved some of Signorotti’s California Common hops rootstock. Today, nearly two years after planting 2.5 acres of California Common hops and recently building a hops drying kiln for community use 20 miles west of Sacramento, Paino has grown Sacramento’s very own beer: Hop Sac First Leaf 2013. Paino called Hop Sac First Leaf “the first act of our hop yard.” “As farmers we’re still learning how to farm that hop,” he said. “As brewers we’re learning how to brew that hop.” Throwing a curve into the learning curve, Paino wet-hopped Hop Sac First Leaf, using all freshly harvested hops. “There’s something scary and surprising with a wet hop,” Paino said. “It’s always tricky knowing when to harvest. Then we don’t know what kind of beer we’re going to get. It keeps us up at night.” The payoff was an eye-opener: a vibrant, peppery, smoky ale with a touch of honey that got more luscious the longer I nursed it. “Wet-hopping provides the opportunity to have a lot of hoppiness -- but that hoppiness doesn’t equate to bitterness,” Paino said. “It equates to floral, herbal, mineral. You get stuff from the soil, the air. You get influences that are a lot more layered than just the oils in the concentrated dry hops.” “This is what defines us,” Paino said recently, cradling a burlap-covered bottle of the locally hopped ale he served Sept. 25 at an event sponsored by Hops to Table Magazine during Sacramento’s weeklong Farmto-Fork Capital of America festivities. Hop Sac First Leaf 2013 was also served at the $175-per-person Farm-to-Fork gala dinner on Sacramento’s iconic Tower Bridge Sept. 29. “Brewing beer does not define us,” Paino said. “Growing beer defines us. You can’t grow hops in St. Louis. You can’t grow hops in San Francisco, San Diego or Austin, Texas. You can grow hops in Sacramento.” After the Gold Rush and after Prohibition, Sacramento was the brewing capital of the West Coast. The Sacramento Valley grew the most hops in the world. In 1881, beer pioneer Capt. Frank Ruhstaller established Sacramento’s Buffalo Brewery, eventually becoming the largest brewer west of the Mississippi, shipping his beer to Hawaii, Alaska and South America. Five beers were served at Hops to Table’s Farm-toFork Craft Beer Experience on Sept 25th, and they all featured beers that used local fresh hops. “They were all across the board,” Paino said. “Some expressed aromatics. Some the more herbal. Some were more bitter.” In a taste test of Sacramento’s terroir, Ruhstaller has brewed another limited release -- just 200 units, less than a keg’s worth of each of the four beers that comprise Hop Sac Flight, a four-pack containing four 8-ounce bottles, each brewed from the same recipe but using California Common hops grown in four different areas in the Sacramento region: Elkhorn north of Sacramento, Clarksburg south of Sacramento, Sloughhouse east of Sacramento and at Ruhstaller’s Farm & Yard in Dixon, west of Sacramento. Salads can contain so many simultaneous flavors it can be difficult to choose the right beer pairing. They can be spicy, sweet, savory, herbal, tart, fruity and funky, mostly all at once. The bitterness of certain greens for instance and the acidity of vinaigrette can be hard to match together. But it is precisely all these flavors that make beer with all its different style categories the perfect beverage match. Beer can stand up to a wide range of flavors with anything you can slice, dice or simply toss into a salad. Here are a few basic guidelines to keep in mind when you make the selection. Gold Country Pilsner is a pre-prohibition lager from Auburn Alehouse. The beer is smooth and balanced with just a bit of hops to cut the fat, but the malt still grabs most of the flavors. Pure Americana; cobb salad and pre-pro pilsner! Light weight or somewhat simple salads need a light and refreshing beer to match. Reach for an American Wheat, Hefeweizen or a good Pilsner. If you prefer raw vegetables in your salad, then wheat beers match up nicely. If the vegetables are caramelized then go for a richer more complex beer. Carbonation and hops cut fat. Salads with fatty components such as; Tri-tip, steak, cheese, mayonnaise or avocado can have the palate cleansed by hoppy and highly carbonated beers. Beers such as Strong Belgian Golden ales, or highly carbonated Saisons, plus some Pilsners work too. India Pale ales and even some Double IPA’s would work also. Another good guideline with salads to keep in mind is this; acidic or sour beer plus acidic salad or salad dressing = a pleasant neutralizing effect. Hard to believe, but this actually works give it a try. So apple cider vinaigrette with pickled anything (cucumber, herring, fish) goes great with a Flanders red or a Lambic. Lots of lemons in the salad or dressing then try a Berliner Weisse. I once had a salad in Belgium consisting of: bitter greens, radishes, white asparagus, French stinky runny cheese (Pont l’Eveque) and some fresh raspberries and matched it with a Gueuze from Cantillon (Rose de Gambrinus), the effect was sensational!! Some salads have so much going on it is easy to get lost. Pick the strongest flavor in the salad and enhance or neutralize that flavor. It might be rich blue cheese or tart vinaigrette, focus on that item for the overall best taste experience. I am going to choose five different salads and match the best beer style to maximize the best overall experience. Caesar Salad: The hallmark of a good Caesar is the piquant-garlic dressing matched with the crunch of fresh romaine lettuce and good croutons. The anchovies also make the salad somewhat salty and add to the overall experience. Three great beers come to mind here: Orval from the Trappist abbey in Belgium; this beer has hops and a bit of sourness to cut the dressing. Festina Peche a Berliner weisse from Dogfish Head which make the flavors soar in addition to adding just a bit of fruit sweetness. Cuvee Rene a Belgian Gueuze-Lambic from Lindeman’s will clean your palate of the garlic and anchovies. Mixed Greens with Grilled Salmon, Raspberries, Slivered Almonds and a Ginger/Wasabi Dressing: Concentrate on the fruit tartness and the spiciness of the dressing. The salmon will pick up most any flavor it comes in contact with. A tart fruit wheat beer works in this case. Raspberry Tart a Sour fruit beer from New Glarus adds richness to the salmon and mimics the raspberry/ almond notes plus the tartness cuts the wasabi dressing. Is Paino trying to brew up an appellation? Framboise de Amorosa an American Wild Fruit Beer from Lost Abbey just sings and ties the whole salad together. es the result of the beer.” “Normally, brewers approach beer as if ingredients don’t matter,” Paino said. “What matters is the recipe and the brewer. There’s nothing wrong with that because in most regions of the world you can’t grow the hops, you can’t grow the barley.” “I don’t know if beer is like wine and if hops are like grapes,” he said, “but let’s find out.” Hops to Table Magazine items: ham, diced chicken, bacon, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, hard boiled eggs, blue cheese and avocado. The salad dressings are usually buttermilk or Dijon Mustard vinaigrette based of which I prefer the latter. Wow what and how to match things here! Pick the richest or most predominate flavor in the salad and match that, or try to cut everything with hops. The beauty is just about everything works with this type of salad. Here are my three favorites. “We’ve done numerous test batches where we’ve taken the same recipe using hops grown in different locations and the results were dramatically different,” Paino said. “We have learned that climate and soil greatly influenc- Setting the example that a small craft brewer like J-E Paino follows 132 years later, Capt. Frank Ruhstaller worked directly with local hops and barley farmers to produce the highest-quality ingredients for his ale and lager. Paino said there are only two commercial breweries in California that grow hops on farms they own or individually control -- Sierra Nevada and Ruh- N ormally one does not even consider matching beer with salads. The standard is always sandwiches or the main course. But in today’s healthier lifestyles, salads can act as the main course. These salads are not just simple greens and Thousand Island dressing, no they are complex and full of ingredients plus many have a protein mixed in such as chicken, fish or steak. Sacramento journalist Ed Murrieta writes about food for the Sacramento Convention and Visitors’ Bureau. Page 26 Supplication a Sour/Wild beer from Russian River made with sour cherries and aged in Pinot Noir Oak barrels. The combo of cherry, almond and ginger flavors seamlessly meld together so one does not know where the salad ends and the beer begins. Quite fantastic!! Keep some beer left to match cherry pie with maple Ice cream… Cobb Salad: This salad has everything but the kitchen sink as an ingredient. All Cobb salads are a bit different depending on the restaurant but most have these Page 27 Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier is a smoked beer from Bamberg, Germany. This beer works on so many levels; it matches all the heavy items in the salad, ham, bacon, chicken, eggs and blue cheese. The smoke flavor makes these ingredients much richer plus who does not like smoked ham, bacon and chicken? After a few bites and swallows, you will become a big fan of this combo. Double Tap IPA is a Double IPA from Berryessa Brewing. While this beer will do nicely, it lets us cut all the rich flavors and clean the palate inviting another taste. This is a big beer with a fresh citrus hop aroma and plenty of malt to back up the bitterness. This beer/salad combo will keep the mouth and stomach very happy and refreshed! Asian Chicken Salad: A complex salad with two different kinds of cabbage plus chicken, scallions, carrots, garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil has many contrasting but great tasting flavors. Allagash White is a Belgian Wheat from Allagash. This spicy wheat beer matches very nicely with the garlic and scallions, but also the acid of the cabbage goes very well with the acidic nature of wheat beer. Duvel is a Strong Belgian Golden ale from Moortgat brewery in Belgium. A classic beer from Belgium it is full bodied and re-fermented three times so it is very carbonated. This carbonation helps it clean the palate of salt and oils in the salad, then the malt can concentrate on the rest of the dish. A very versatile beer and goes with many styles of food. Saison from St.Feuillen in Belgium is a farmhouse style of ale with a complex flavor profile of earthy spice and a bit of yeast and orange to follow in addition it is also very carbonated. As with Duvel this beer cleanses the palate of oils, but it also very much matches the earthy carrot, scallion and cabbage mixture. One of the best Saisons in Belgium and very well crafted. Spinach Salad with Bacon and Mushrooms: This is a very popular style of salad which can be served cold or with warm bacon vinaigrette. The vinaigrette usually is apple cider based or can be balsamic vinegar either way some great beers pair up with this salad. Jacked Again a Whiskey Barrel Aged Porter made by Loomis Basin is part of their Barrel aged program, a fine Baltic Porter aged in Jack Daniels Whiskey Barrels. The beer imparts a nice cocoa/vanilla taste with the honeyed oak spirit of Jack Daniels in the finish. No one would think that this beer could match a salad, but you would be pleasantly surprised it does so wonderfully! The rich, sweet caramelized bacon dressing picks up on the Jack Daniels flavor in this beer and the cocoa notes add a nutty earthy complexity to the mushrooms. It would no t hurt to add a little beer to the salad dressing also. Outstanding!! Celebrator is a Doppelbock from Aying, Germany. This beer is the world famous double bock beer from Bavaria, a beer of great complexity and flavor. Again the two matches here are the bacon dressing and the mushrooms. The beer has a molasses earthy graham cracker taste then follows with dried fruit and nuts, finishing warm and toasty. Try with pumpernickel bread on the side. German yes, delicious you bet!! Pursuit of Hoppiness is Imperial Red ale from Grand Teton Brewery. Another grand beer that is big on hops and using German specialty malts to round out the taste. I like this beer because not only is it very hoppy, but the malt always shows its presence. Earthy floral even piney, then candied fruit, brown sugar and salted caramel that is just the beer! A great match with the dressing which almost has the same exact flavors, but also bitter enough to match the spinach. _____________________________ Mike Moore is a National Beer Judge with over 20 years of judging experience. He has planned and hosted beer pairing dinners for the last 15 years and has made appearances on local television to explain how and why food and beer work so well together. Mike has also traveled extensively to Europe to study the beer and food scene. Hops to Table Magazine