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Monday, September 3, 2012

Fruity Beer & Fruity Pies: A Summer Sensation

As well all know, the late, great, Michael Jackson really knew his stuff. Jackson's word in beer has been my own training of sorts. So when he tells me he loves a beer - in fact thinks its one of the best 10 beers in America, I'm listening. Oh - and did you say it's brewed by New Glarus, one of my favorite breweries? I'm definitely on board now...

New Glarus Brewery's Belgian Red is "the marriage of wine and beer." If its not 100% beer and its not 100% wine, how do you pair it with something? The answer to me is simple: pair it with something that is both sweet and savory. How about pie! YAY PIE!

Its berry season in Oregon, and the Farmers Markets are filled with the ripe local delicacies. Since moving to Oregon, I've been hooked on marionberries, a hybrid blackberry with a balanced amount of sweetness and tart. My lovely wife, a baking phenom, takes homemade pie dough (seriously, she makes the stuff for fun - I'm sure a pre-made pastry shell from the cold case in a grocery store would work fine, too), lines it in an oven safe ramekin, and adds the berries. The berries I'm told simply have a little bit of water, lemon juice, sugar, and corn starch, but that's it. Baked in a 400 degree over until perfection and now it's time to eat.

Pairing beer with food can be tricky, but when successful, it can be a joy. Michael Jackson is right by naming New Glarus Belgian Red as a top beer in America - a perfect crisp taste, just sweet enough to awaken the palette and tart enough to make drinkable (and, by drinkable, I mean sharing a 750 ml bottle without getting tired of it). The marionberry pie enhances the beer's wheat-like flavor, and doesn't over power the pound of Door County cherries put into every bottle.

Overall - a perfect desert to any outdoor meal, picnic, or barbecue (oh, who am I kidding, a perfect desert ANY TIME!). Next time you have a fruit beer or a lambic try pairing it with in season fruit pies.

Have any good beer & pie pairings? Let us know in the comments below.

{ prost! }





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