Love Good Beer

GIB / Fullers Beer Exchange

Sunday, January 24th, 2010 | Events | No Comments

Granville Island Brewing let us know last week that they will be taking part in an international beer exchange with London’s Fullers.  From January 25th to February 5th, Fullers London Pride will be available at the GIB Taproom and Lions Winter Ale will be available at the Iron Duke in London.  GIB will also be hosting a Taproom for the UK event, which is open to all comers, this Wednesday, January 27th at 6PM at the Taproom.  While I think this exchange is a cool idea, I have a feeling it has more to do with marketing than beer.  Consider the timing of the event and the participation by breweries in the next two Olympic cities. Notwithstanding that neither London Pride nor Lions Winter Ale can truly be considered world class beers, so we can’t say either brewery is really putting their best foot forward.  And while Fullers is a major international brewer and their beers are readily available in BC, I wonder if anyone in the UK has ever heard of GIB?  That isn’t a slight to GIB who are widely considered BC’s favorite brewery among non beer enthusiasts.

 

My biggest concern with the event is the quality of the beer itself.  While both Fullers London Pride and GIB Lions Winter Ale are both good beers at the best of times, the international travel these beers will undertake won’t favor the quality of the beer.  Consider that beer is best served fresh and, save for high alcohol beers stored under the right conditions, will only deteriorate over time.  Now consider that these beers were brewed 4708 miles away from each other.  The beers must each travel across a continent by truck or train), across an ocean by boat, and then be stored at a liquor distribution center until the appropriate paper work has been filed.  I’d guess the age of these beers to be at least three months since packaging, which means that they are probably starting to go stale.  I’ve experienced stale Fullers London Pride often, but, considering that I bought this beer at a BC Liquor Store, it could have been up to a year old.

I hope beyond hope that both beers were shipped expediently after they were brewed, stored in optimal conditions, and are both tasting great. What would be even better is if the beers were casked and conditioned (under optimal conditions) on the way, but that might be too hopeful.  Best of luck to both GIB and Fullers in this endeavor.  However, I’d suggest keeping future international exchanges local in the interest of freshness.  Washington and Oregon aren’t too far away.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: fresh beer, fuller's, Granville Island Brewing, international exchange, iron duke, Lions Winter Ale, london, london pride, olympics, stale, taproom, vancouver

Granville Island Lions Winter Ale Cooking Competition

Saturday, November 7th, 2009 | Beer, Food and Recipes | 5 Comments

This past week Granville Island Brewing in partnership with the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts held a cooking competition to celebrate the seasonal release of their much loved, but not so much by me, Lions Winter Ale.  The challenge of this event was to come up with the best dish that included Lions Winter Ale as an ingredient.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the event myself, but the good people at GIB were kind enough to send me a list of the winners, including the winning recipes.

The top entrée was won by Felix Maristany for his winter ale Gumbo, for your cooking pleasure, the recipe is below:

Granville Island Winter Ale Gumbo

Created by Felix Maristany, Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts

Crustacean stock

• 2 – 3 lbs lobster heads and bodies and spot prawn heads or any prawn shells would suffice.
• Mire poix of onion celery and carrot (rough chop)
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 cloves finely chopped garlic
• 1 stalk of lemon grass (cracked with the spine of a chef’s knife)
• 2L fish stock
• 1.5 bottle of GIB Lions Winter Ale
• 50ml olive oil
• 1/2 can of tomato paste

Method:

In a large sauce pan sweat the shells at medium-low temperature until they turn red.
Add mire poix and sweat until onions translucent and vegetables are slightly tender.
Add tomato paste and continue sweat 3-4 minutes.
Deglaze with beer and reduce slightly.
Simmer 45 minutes and strain pressing on the shells.

Gumbo:

• 1 red onion (small dice)
• 1 green bell pepper (medium dice)
• 1 red bell pepper (medium dice)
• 3 whole garlic cloves with peel (cracked using the back of a knife)
• 1 stalk of lemon grass (Cracked with the spine of a chef’s knife)
• 2- 3 tbsp filé powder
• Cayenne pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Hot sauce to taste
• 1 fennel bulb (cored and cut into wedges)
• Andouille sausage (bias cut)
• 6 slices thick cut pork belly
• Spot prawns (With head on or off)
• Dungeness crab meat
• Mediterranean  mussels
• 3 bottles GIB Lions Winter Ale
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Roux (40g Butter 40g Flour)
• 60ml meyer lemon juice

Method:

In a large sauce pan warm vegetable oil over medium-low heat, sweat onions, peppers, fennel, andouille sausage, and lemon grass. Add paprika and cayenne and sweat 1-2 minutes.  De-glaze with 1 bottle of beer and reduce slightly. Add hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce.  For the roux, melt butter over medium heat in a small sauce pan, add flour and cook 4 minutes. Add a little stock to the roux gradually and mix with a whisk to prevent lumps. When all the stock is incorporated to the roux add mixture is to sauce pan containing vegetables, sausage etc. and continue to simmer.

In a separate medium saucepan add some finely chopped onions, garlic and 1/2 bottle of beer. Add cleaned mussels, prawns and crab meat. when mussels are open, add all the contents to the gumbo and simmer 10 minutes.

Serve over a bed of saffron scented rice and garnish with a meyer lemon wedge.

Winning Dessert went to Jazmin Villarreal who put together a Dessert Risotto Crumble:

Lions Winter Ale Beer & Dessert Risotto Crumble

Created by Jazmin Villarreal, Pacific Institute Of Culinary Arts

Rice Crumble

• 120 g arborio rice
• 20 g butter
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 100 ml milk
• 200 ml Lions Winter Ale Beer
• 50 g shredded almonds
• 2 medium Granny Smith apples (diced 5mm x 5mm)
• ½ vanilla bean
• 60 g granulated sugar
• Prepared muscavado crumble topping
• Prepared Lions Winter Ale Crème Anglaise

Method:

In a medium sauce pan place evaporated milk, milk and 100 ml of beer, warm on burner set at med heat.  In a separate saucepan, melt butter and stirfry the rice for 1.25 minutes.  Deglaze with 50 ml of beer.  When the liquid evapourates start adding warm milk mixture.  Add little by little and stir constantly.  Cook until rice is ‘al dente’.

In an additional saucepan, place sugar with 20ml of water and ½ vanilla bean and cook until the sugar starts to caramelized (approximately 5 minutes).  Add apples and stir until they are golden brown (about 4 minutes).  Set aside.

To serve:  Warm crème anglaise and add the risotto, almonds, apple and stir until combined and soft.  Top with crumble and serve.

Muscavado Crumble Topping:

• 80 g Muscavado Sugar (or very fine brown sugar)
• 80 g Butter
• 160 g All Purpose Flour

Method:

In a mixer, cream sugar with butter.  Add flour and mix until combined.  Crumble mixture into small pieces and cook for 2 hours at 180 degrees celcius.  Set aside until ready to serve dessert.

Winter Ale Crème Anglaise:

• 300 ml Whipping Cream
• 100 ml Milk
• 100 ml Winter Ale
• 6 Egg Yolks
• 125 g Sugar
• 1 Vanilla Bean

Method:

In a saucepan, combine cream, vanilla bean, milk and beer.  Bring to a boil.  Whisk yolks and sugar together.  Temper the milk mix with the egg mixtures and return to stove.  Reheat to 80 degree celcius and strain.  To reserve, hold in a water bath.

I haven’t had a chance to try either of the recipes, but I hope to give them try in the next few weeks.  Pictures should be posted of the event shortly.

Cheers,

Erik

Tags: Beer and Food, Dessert Rissotto, Granville Island Brewinng, Gumbo, Lions Winter Ale, Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts