Eating about Beer is “An SF based band of homebrewing cooks who think that good food makes good beer taste better and vice versa”. They recently staged an eight-course dinner with beer pairings for each course. Here are some photos from the event.
January’s 2012 Homebrew Dinner hosted by Eating About Beer was another great evening of good food, good brews and good company.
I arrived early to take photos of the set-up. Erin’s place in San Francisco had beautiful natural light and nice floral arrangements.
And a big dictionary.
Dishwashing, viewed through the window into the laundry room.
This sauce was for the Yakitori
There is an equal amount of beer in bottles and in kegs these days
homemade pickled mangoes
and carrots
They have a lever that opens the front door. What are these called? The internet isn’t helping me.
Yakitori and dipping sauce. Chicken hearts and “regular” chicken too.
Cast iron coming out of the oven
Guests await more food and beer
Seitan
“Inside-out stuffed duck” – Ground duck wrapped in dressing with a cherry molasses reduction.
9Sev Brew – Born in Maine Brewed in Cali. This pumpkin spice ale was paired with the inside-out stuffed duck above.
Ginger cake with a poached pear and whipped cream.
The chefs and brewers came out at the end for a toast.
This summer’s Eating about Beer Summer Homebrew Potluck (2011) was hosted at the Humanist Hall this past September. It was a festive event, but I was struck by how simple, peaceful, and colorful scenes were in the venue.
Berry pies
Proceeds went to the Alameda Point Collaborative.
Behind the curtain
Homebrew by Eric
hops in jars
and homebrew in a bucket
there’s a little kitchen at the Humanist hall, which maintained the same bright, solid colors of the rest of the venue.
donation money jar
peephole
The 2011 Winter Eating About Beer dinner was held at the Commonwealth Cafe and Public House in Oakland this past Sunday. Here are the photos that I took of the event.
Terrariums in the window. It was a rainy sunday but the lighting in commonwealth was great.
Preparing endives for the first course
Kitchen knives
On the wall
Frying pheasant skin
Those glasses need an anti-reflective coating
Potatoes being cut prior to frying
Crispy pheasant.
Commonwealth’s coffee condiment counter
Discussing pre-dinner activities
The Eating About Beer crew in the kitchen
Awesome flower arrangements.
game face.
Chives
Frying the “belgin-inspired crispy potatoes”
Scallions to later go with cheese and sausage
Commonwealth’s storefront, telegraph side.
The menu
The first guests start checking in
Plating the endives
seated, awaiting the first course
handling the marinated daikon
the plating continues
First course: Endive with roasted pheasant and hazelnuts – paired with a scottish heavy 70 shilling ale
The chefs discuss the first course
toast
Pouring homemade sake
plating of the onigiri
second course: a deconstructed sake bomb with umeboshi onigiri and marinated daikon
Guatemalan longaniza sausages, cooking
describing the second course
more photos to come. If you need more of a fix, check out the last eating about beer dinner.
Saturday’s bike ride was super soggy, cold, gritty and toe-numbing, but felt strangely rewarding. Here are some photos from the ride.
bikes lined up, pre-ride. lots of blue and white/silver going on. and gold handlebar tape.
the grand cru rolling through santa rosa, en route to sebastopol
joe rodota trail for the win! a pretty sweet, flat, fast trail between santa rosa and sebastopol.
on Sparkes rd, headed away from sebastopol.. things are getting a bit wet! most of the weather forecasts had called for just a cloudy day.. but this day was mostly mist. (toes partially numb at this point.)
our crew split up a bit further. here’s a foggy shot from a climb up burnside rd. (toes mostly numb at this point.)
almost all fog. but pretty. but also chilly.
this photo sums things up pretty well. (toes all numb.)
we took barnett valley down to bodega highway to freestone valley ford rd. then we took the valley ford cutoff to bodega. here’s the church from “the birds”
then we began our ascent of joy rd. I didn’t think it’d be quite so intense. Though, in retrospect, I do remember seeing a lot of wrinkles on the relief of the terrain map. I didn’t remember the altitude profile looking so crazy though. a quick glance at the topo lines shows only 800 feet of climbing?
we took bittner rd down to another small down – occidental – and then descended a chilly and wet graton rd.
I was pretty worn out from the climb and kind of put my head down the rest of the way. luckily, it was mostly flat. rain was spotty but there were patches of blue in the sky.
here’s the reward: taps and tastings at russian river.
photos were taken with the gf1 which survived its soggy stint in my back jersey pocket.
photos from the sprodown at local 123
Coava’s “Kone“, an reusable stainless steel pourover filter
coffee beers
pepple’s donuts
another shot of the beers
this is tim, homeroasting sweet maria’s beans on the west bend poppery 2
clearing chaff
latte art competition emcee
bikes in the back patio
latte art tournament entries
rosetta
Every trip I take somehow ends up becoming a bike and coffee (and sometimes beer) tour. We did some preliminary research on chowhound and coffeegeek for the coffee and beer and found a place for bike rentals. Also handy was this interview of Stumptown owner Duane Sorensen by Oliver Strand of the New York Times It’s been a couple of months since our trip so my memory is a bit hazy but I’ll try to piece things back together with the help of these photos and the internets.
Die Koffie Salon Storefront
Coffee was my first priority. We walked from our hotel to de koffie salon (Utrechtsestraat 130) based on recommendations from one of the above threads. Patisserie Kuyt is across the street and these two were probably taking pictures of the storefront. I did the same later, of course.
Impressive looking lever machine at Die Koffie Salon.
not as impressive-looking espresso from Die Koffie Salon
The espresso from Die Koffie Salon was pretty disappointing. Light-bodied and not so good. Drinkable though. I don’t remember much else about it. We moved on to across the street.
Patisserie Kuyt storefront
Patisserie Kuyt was a treat. We ended up getting a variety of sweets, including the famed Appeltaart.
Bike rentals were from Dam Bike (New 26). Cheap bike rentals, pretty crappy bikes. But most bikes in Amsterdam were crappy. We had some brake and wheel-truing problems, but hey, we didn’t expect much. Another factor in choosing this bike rental place: we didn’t have to ride the super touristy orange bikes. We were still touristy of course.
Nespresso storefront
I stopped in here to see if there were any Nestle-fueled single serve espresso innovations. I didn’t see any, but I did see some (apparently top secret) designer Nespresso machines. There were patterns screen printed on some of the plastic panels. They kicked me out of the store for taking photos. First time for a coffee shop – in the past it’s usually been for taking pictures in churches.
Lots of orange going on – we were nearing the quarterfinals of the the world cup.
women walking along albert cuypmarkt
After hanging out for a bit in Vondelpark, our next stop was Stumptown Amsterdam. The market was super crowded and the actual store front was obscured by tents. Lots of semi-crappy stuff but it was all interesting nonetheless.
an overexposed view of stumptown amsterdam
stumptown amsterdam: cupping station
Stumptown Amsterdam had a similar feel to other Stumptown locations but also had a more boutique-y feel to it. The barista was a bay area guy (if I remember correctly) and it sounded like a pretty sweet gig to be working at that pop-up coffee spot with an apartment paid for by the Stumptown folks.
stumptown espresso
The espresso was predictably good, of course.
Bazar
Dinner was at Bazar (Albert Cuypstraat 182). We got some sort of kebab platter and though I was stuffed afterwards, I was intrigued by their mint syrup + ice cream + fruit dessert combination.
dessert at Bazar.
Canteloupe, honeydew, apple, grape, ice cream, whipped cream, mint syrup, pineapple, and strawberry. The mint syrup was too sweet for my tastes but it was an interesting combination made a bit refreshing by the mint.
Albert Cuypstraat, post market
The market had shut down and the cleaning crews were tidying the street as we walked out of Bazar.
Albert Cuypstraat, post market
biercafe gollem
A recommended beer place, Cafe Gollem (Raamsteeg 4), was nearby, so we sat down and had a beer. Good selection with a very low-key vibe. The only thing that sucked was a woman sat down next to us and started smoking. The breeze was blowing all of her smoke right at my face. She must have had about 3 cigarettes while we had about 2 beers.
biercafe gollem – at the bar
We left Cafe Gollem to return our bikes to Dam Bike and then walked home.
dam square at night
kind of a sweet bike design.
It doesn’t look very practical but it’s kind of cool how the rack is integrated and how there’s tons of standover clearance. The decal says “Nationale Postcode Loterij” Not sure why they’ve branded a bike with their decals or who the manufacturer is though.
the intercontinental amstel amsterdam hotel
The last shot of the night was of the fancy-looking InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam Hotel (Amstel Hotel). FIVE STARS PLUS!
Gueuze and Kreik sitting on a barrel at Cantillon (or Brasserie Cantillon Brouwerij if you want to be specific) in Brussels:
I didn’t have time to take a tour this time, but it was a nice little stopover.
