Back in action! My apologies for those of you following along—the past month has been quite busy. I do have some cool news though…
For the past year and a half, I’ve been brewing beer with two lovely gentlemen. Both have been brewing beer with friends and family for quite sometime but when we all found ourselves in the same city (and same apartment, as it turned out) we decided to combine forces and begin a mini brew operation in our kitchen. Since September of 2011, Green Groove Brewers has made over 20 different batches of beer and just last weekend competed in (and won!) our very first home brew competition. The Brew n’ Chew consisted of two teams and was held at The Diamond in Greenpoint. All ticket proceeds were donated to the Greenpoint Reformed Church Food Pantry—over $500 was raised! If you haven’t been to The Diamond, go check it out! It’s a great little bar on Franklin that boasts good beer, a killer backyard and table top shuffle board.
So, what was the winning beer and snack pairing? The snack was a slow cooked, dry-rubbed pulled pork with a persimmon, apple and red cabbage slaw all piled up on a roasted potato chip. Our beer, Spring Tides, was a steam finished off with Adirondack Wildflower Summer Honey from Mohawk Valley Trading Company.
A steam beer, now known as a California Common, is the first truly American beer style—it originated in the 19th century in San Francisco. Ever hear of Anchor Steam? Well, the Anchor Brewing Company trademarked the term ‘steam beer’ because they were the first to brew it. Basically, a steam beer uses a lager yeast (typically fermented at a low temperature) and is given a warmer fermentation. We brewed a pretty traditional steam but towards the end of our boil, we added a pound of the wildflower honey. The result was a clear, crisp, golden-tinted beer that tasted sweet and floral like a honeysuckle.
We thought the honey in the beer would play well with the persimmon and apple slaw. From there, we built onto the dish adding a smoky pulled pork and the roasted, salty potato as a base.
A special thank you to all of our friends who came out! We had an awesome time and couldn’t have done it without you all.
meauxcrow 