Happy Thanksgiving

Don't forget about beer this Thanksgiving. Instead of spending exorbitant amounts of money on champagne or fine wine that won't survive an assault from the cornucopia of typical sides, try some of the fine brews listed below.

The key to picking a Thanksgiving beverage is to choose something that is subtle enough to let the food remain center stage but nuanced and flavorful enough to move the meal along and stand up to the variety of dishes. Bier de Garde, Saison and Belgian Ales fit the bill. With that in mind and keeping it American for Thanksgiving, and in big bottles to make it festive, here are my picks:

Ommegang's Rare Vos - one of my personal favorites, this amber, Belgian style ale can stand up to a wide variety of foods but is subtle and accessible enough to be enjoyed in quantity.

Ommegang's Hennepin - a little tarter and stronger, this farmhouse style ale is great to start a meal with or for pairing with brighter, more acidic food like salads, cranberries and the like.

Southampton's Bier de Garde - probably the best style for Thanksgiving - this deep copper ale is malty enough to stand up to gravies, sweet potatoes and hearty fare but balanced and nuanced enough to keep the meal moving along.

Brooklyn Local 1 - Nice replacement for champagne, this effervescent Belgian style out of Brooklyn is yeasty with hints of orange marmalade and biscuits. Very balanced and perfect for the holidays.

Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere - Saison style beer, also perfect replacement for champagne. A little funkier than the Local 1 or the Hennepin with sour notes and barnyard aromas coming through.

Rogue's Oregon Golden Ale - an easy to drink strong golden ale. Crisp with subtle citrus and malt flavors. Not a bad beer to start the meal with if not everyone at the table is big on beer.

Don't forget the lambics, barleywines, trappist ales, imperial porters and chocolate stouts for dessert and after dinner.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Chocolate and Beer

Ever wonder why many brown ales, porters and stouts are often described as tasting and smelling like dark chocolate, espresso, cocoa powder or coffee? Some even have descriptors in the name like chocolate stout or mocha porter. These beers aren't brewed with coffee or chocolate (at least most aren't, more on that later). Roasting the malted barley to a range of brown, to almost black, provides the beer it is used in with color and most of the flavors and aromas. Coffee and chocolate are made in much the same way, coffee beans and cocoa beans are roasted until the desired color is reached and this, along with the beans' individual qualities and treatment, affects the final flavor. So, roasting is really the driver of flavor and it should come as no surprise that dark beer styles share a lot, in terms of flavor, aroma and color with chocolate and coffee.

Even though a brewer can achieve a range of roasted flavors with just malted barley, sometimes that is not enough to satisfy a brewer's desire to become chef and add more ingredients during the brewing process. And, that's a good thing, because it leads to delicious beers like Dogfish Head's Chicory stout that has a dose of coffee and roasted chicory added during brewing and Six Point's Gorilla Warfare Porter that has a nice shot of heady Gorilla coffee thrown into the mix. Having conquered coffee as an adjunct, these guys are moving on to chocolate, which is revolutionary, well, sort of.

Turns out chocolate beers have been around since 1200 B.C. Patrick McGovern, an archaeologist, was able to analyze fragments of ancient Mayan and Aztec pottery and discovered remnants of a fermented cocoa beverage. With the help of Dogfish Head's brewing team, they were able to recreate a version with cocoa nibs, honey, cocoa powder, chilies and annatto seeds, which they christened Theobrama (food of the gods).

Beguiling in flavor but easy to drink for being 10% ABV, this is a fantastic beer with a just enough bitterness from the chocolate and warmth from the chilies to temper the honey sweetness. I first sampled it at the Blind Tiger's Very Special Keg Night last year out of a cask, finally it is available in champagne bottles and definitely worth seeking out. It may only be a limited release.

Taking a different approach, Six Point is pairing up with Brooklyn chocolate maker, Mast Brothers Chocolate, to create a beer with their cocoa nibs. It's not available yet but I'm a big fan of both companies. In the meantime you can satisfy your chocolate beer cravings the old fashioned way: get a bar of Dark Milk Chocolate with Salt & Pepper from Mast Brothers and a Six Point Porter.

On the Oregon Trail

Constant raves of Portland's amazing and evolving food and drink scene inspired me to finally make the trip out there; it was certainly worth it. After running the Portland marathon with my girlfriend, on our second day there, I was ready to eat and drink way more than anyone ever should, and she was too tired to argue.

From a beer perspective, Portland has always had the reputation for being on the forefront of the craft beer scene. I expected a lot of extreme and wacky brews, and I found a few; but, to my pleasant surprise, I mostly encountered very well made traditional styles, with just a slight local twist.

Deschutes from Bend, Oregon, with an outpost in Portland, epitomized Oregon's philosophy of using local, fresh ingredients. Their Hop Trip pale ale is made with fresh hops harvested from a farm in Salem, Oregon - they are added to the boil within hours of being picked. With 5.7lbs of hops per barrel of beer, mostly fresh, some dried whole hop flowers, I braced for an astringent brew. But, the beer was perfectly balanced; the fresh hops lent a nice, refreshing, grassy/citrus aroma and the body was herbaceous and refreshing. Check out the cool hop trip video on Deschutes' website.

Kicking the local and sustainable ethos up a notch was Bridgeport Brewery, Portland's oldest microbrewery, started back in the 80's. The beer at Bridgeport was good, if not a little pedestrian, the exciting part is that they operate a fairly large brewery, brew pub and bakery with very little waste. Spent brewing grains are given to ranchers, who feed it to cattle, who sell the manure to fertilize grain fields which provide grain for the brewery. Spent grains not sent to farmers are used in the bakery to make pizza doughs, breads and pastries. Their building is an old, beautiful, salvaged rope factory that they financed renovations on to bring it up to code, when most buildings in this historic area were being torn down and replaced by luxury condos and retailers.

Rounding out the beer highlights was old standby Rogue Ales and their spirited brew pub; which, in addition to their many delicious beers, had some interesting house distilled rums and a gin. Also, Amnesia brewing, a small neighborhood brewpub on the outskirts of Portland which had few interesting IPA's and beer-to-go in mason jars.



With great beer comes great food and Portland certainly has its fair share of innovative restaurants and local delicacies. To fuel up for the marathon we went to the farmer's market for local stone fruits, cheeses and pears to keep at the hotel. While there we enjoyed: grilled lamb with wheat berries, biscuits with blackberry jam and pizzas loaded with mushrooms and greens.

Deciding to carbo-load Asian style we went to Biwa for ramen and grilled chicken hearts.


Post marathon, a trip to Voodoo Doughnuts was in order where we gorged on maple bacon bars, jam filled voodoo dolls and triple chocolate penetration doughnuts.


Craving more pig, we were well served at Le Pigeon with their bacon cornbread and maple ice cream dessert. Naomi Pomeroy's six course meal at Beast upped the ante with a very animal centric menu, check out the charcruterie plate.


Visiting other Portland favorites, like Pok Pok for their fish sauce chicken wings and Apizza Scholls for their legendary pie, we did pretty well on the food front.

When you throw in Portland's natural beauty, bike friendly town and kooky spirit of innovation tempered by sustainability, Portland kind of seems like the perfect city.



To see all my pictures, click here.