Recipes featuring Flying Dog ales

Quite a few Flying Dog mutts have culinary backgrounds. And when their love for food and beer come together, the result is (usually) pretty damn tasty. Brewer and cellarman Larry Pomerantz designed these two recipes.

Doggie Style Mac 'n Cheese

Serves 4

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon powdered mustard
12 ounces Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale
8 ounces heavy cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded, divided
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper

Topping:
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup panko breadcrumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.
3. While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard, and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the Classic Pale Ale, cream, milk, onion, bay leaf and paprika. Simmer for 10 minutes, and remove the bay leaf.
4. Temper in the egg by mixing a spoonful of the warm sauce mixture into a bowl with the egg to slowly warm the egg without curdling the egg. Then add the warmed egg mixture back into the sauce. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.
5. Topping: Melt the butter in a saute pan, and toss the breadcrumbs to coat.
6. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving. Enjoy along side a cool pint of Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale.


Bitch 'n Chips with Raging Bitch

Serves 13 (6 oz. portions)

6 cups flour
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
36 ounces (3 bottles) Flying Dog Raging Bitch 20th Anniversary Belgian-Style IPA
5 pounds firm-fleshed whitefish (tilapia, pollock, haddock, or cod), cut into 1-ounce strips
Cornstarch, for dredging
Whole potatoes, as needed (for French fries)

1. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cayenne pepper and Old Bay seasoning.
2. Whisk in the beer until the batter is completely smooth and free of any lumps.
3. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. (Note: The batter can be made up to 1 hour ahead of time.)
4. Heat oil in deep fryer or pan to 350 degrees F.
5. Lightly dredge fish strips in cornstarch.
6. Working in small batches, dip the fish into batter and immerse into hot oil.
7. When the batter is set, turn the pieces of fish over and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes.
8. Drain the fish.
9. Serve with malt vinegar.

Homemade French Fries:
1. Use a mandolin slicer with a wide blade, slice the potatoes with the skin on.
2. Place in a large bowl with cold water.
3. Heat fryer to 320 degrees F.
4. Drain potatoes thoroughly, removing any excess water.
5. When oil reaches 320 degrees F, submerge the potatoes in the oil.
6. Working in small batches, fry for 2 to 3 minutes until they are pale and floppy.
7. Remove from oil, drain, and cool to room temperature.
8. Increase the temperature of the oil to 375 degrees F.
9. Re-immerse fries and cook until crisp and golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes.
10. Remove and drain on roasting rack.
11. Season with kosher salt.
12. According to Larry, all must be served with plenty of Raging Bitch.

Pairing fall beer and artisanal cheese

It was a brisk fall day when I stopped by Binny's Lakeview location last week to discuss my two favorite food groups -- beer and cheese -- with Glunz Beer Culinary Council member and cheese maven Jeff Collins, Binny's gourmet grocery manager. We decided we'd pair some craft-produced, autumn-appropriate beers with artisanal cheeses. After several trials, we found a couple of great matches we'd like to share with you.

Why beer and cheese?
Before we jump into the pairings, we'd like to make a brief case for why restaurants should care about offering beer with cheese, and it starts by dispelling the myth that wine is cheese's only perfect mate.

Jeff writes, "The classic pairing with cheese has always been wine because the wide variety of styles and varietals would give you a large enough canvas available to match any wine and cheese for a pairing.

"There is also a certain snob factor that would play into the fact you would never pair beer and cheese," he continues. "Cheese and wine, classically European in their centuries of lineage, have always had a certain dignified perception -- where beer in America was confined to the bowling alley and the frat house. In the past 10 years, craft beers have emerged and reinvented themselves, providing multiple flavor and style profiles of their own."

That development and growth in the craft beer category now has created consumers who are increasingly interested in upping their beer savvy, Jeff adds, and this trend offers a great opportunity for restaurants to boost check averages by getting creative with beer and cheese pairings.

"As the demand for serious beer by serious customers rose, the perception changed as well. Beer has been legitimized, and that new-found respect is now acknowledged by chefs who also are looking less at European haute tradition and more toward creating the next wave of American craft dining."

And now back to the pairings, with tasting notes from a professional and a novice enthusiast ...

The Beer: Founders Red's Rye P.A.
Jeff: The reason I enjoy Red's so much is the amount of body to it. It reminds me of a double IPA with its golden copper color and the solid malty backbone, without the extreme hop profile, naturally. On the finish, the rye is clean and reminiscent of a classic English bitter.
Lacey: This is a great version of a Rye P.A. -- malty, caramely and a nice spice from the rye to balance out the grapefruit flavors of the Amarillo hops. It's 70 IBUs, but does not punch you in the taste buds.

Try with:
Chabrin
Jeff: A wonderful firm-textured goat's milk cheese from the Pyrenees. Where most goat's milk cheeses are softer and more on the gamey side, the age and harder texture here allows the butterscotchy and milky flavors of the cheese to step forward. The sweetness in the cheese worked together with the malt in the beer to create a nice round flavor. It produces an almost savory, hit-you-under-the-jawline sort of flavor reaction. Our first attempt at this pairing might have been the best one.
Lacey: I was really digging the balance between the Chabrin and the Red's Rye. The beer became a little less spicy and bitter, and the cheese's natural sweetness was enhanced. Creamy, smooth and just a hint of goat's milk flavor at the end without being overpoweringly goaty.


Morbier
Jeff: A traditional rustic cheese from France that takes the pairing flavor in a different direction. The rind of the Morbier is brushed with a brine to increase the tacky nature of it and to help enhance the earthy, barnyard and robust flavors. These pronounced flavors stand up the malt, with the the mid-palate turning peppery, leaving the finish light, clean and buttery. We recommend that you enjoy the cheese with the rind on. (Or not, I'm not the boss of you.)
Lacey: I have to agree with Jeff here on eating the rind. It really brought out some gentle palate-tingling pepper notes of the beer without going overboard. And yet it finished clean and mild, perhaps from the beer's effervescence? I also thought it was neat that this unpasteurized cow's milk cheese has a layer of ash running through the center of it; you can detect just a tiny bit of char flavor when it hits your tongue.


Appenzeller
Jeff: I don't know what it is about fall, but it always makes this cheese taste better than normal. This firm, aged selection from Switzerland is used in raclette and fondue season for its full flavors and melting properties. It is very beefy and meaty in its flavor, which allows it to run alongside the Red's without clashing with it. Together, the tanginess is really accentuated with the help of the beer, leaving me wondering about how well these two work together and where I left the raclette machine last spring ...
Lacey: I love that Jeff calls this cheese "meaty": It works! This Swiss cheese has that full-palate, satisfying umami on its own. The Red's Rye tames the robust flavors just enough to let Appenzeller's milky sweetness shine through.

The Beer: Samuel Smith Yorkshire Stingo
Jeff: The fact that this is aged in oak certainly adds that characteristic to its flavor profile, but as we let the beer breathe, it really opened up. The flavor of figs and dark fruit were there at the start, but as time went on, it started to open up with flavors of molasses starting to bloom as it had a chance to unwind.
Lacey: When I saw that this beer was oak-casked for a year before bottling, I expected it to be very big. But at 8% ABV, the alcohol content helped to balance out the oakiness, and the wood-aging somehow helped quell the alcohol burn. This beer has sweet dried fruit notes and is the color of maple syrup or clear caramel.

Try with:
Marcona almonds
Jeff: To pair nuts and beer is no creative achievement. If that was the case, countless bartenders would be admiring their James Beard awards right now. However, in this case, the nuts we tried had their flavors turned up very loud. The Marcona almond, Spanish in origin and sautéed in sunflower oil, had its flavor not only accentuate by the sweetness of the beer, but then proceeded to finish with their flavor completely stripped down to their natural oils on the finish. Just wonderful. As much as I enjoyed this pairing, with the salt and the richness, I couldn't really enjoy eating them for more than 3 hours. That is all I could really handle. I am only human.
Lacey: Okay, okay, so this pairing isn't a cheese, but what cheese plate is complete without a few complementary nibbles?! As soon as we tasted the Stingo, we both thought nuts. Maybe it's from the year-long wood-aging the beer went through. Somewhere nestled in the flavors of buttery oak and discrete vanilla was a sweet nuttiness. The essence of the Marcona almonds hung around on the palate (in a good way) when paired with the Stingo.


Colston-Bassett Stilton
Jeff: Arguably the King of the Blue cheeses, this British export helped create something special when paired with the Stingo. The beauty of the Stilton -- with its creamy texture, profound veining and rich, earthy flavor -- is that it proved to be a perfect dance partner with the cheese. The beer cuts the creaminess at the start, then the natural richness from each plays off each other to create an almost maple syrup sweetness on the mid-palate before it changes back to earthy on the finish. I have a hunch it will be a while before I enjoy a pairing this much again.
Lacey: This pairing was a classic case of using beer to contrast a flavor profile. The big Stingo matched well with the robust Stilton. The sweet notes of each were discernible, but I still got elements of the oak and dark fruit from the beer and that great funkiness from the cheese.

Comté
Jeff: From the Swiss and French border, the Comté is a personal favorite of mine. Firm, fruity with an almost creamy, yogurt-like flavor. I thought the Stingo would only work with the deeper flavored items with its deep, dark fig start, yet lightly cola-sweet flavor on the back end. The Comté worked in playing to the lighter tones of its character. The fruity quality was flushed to the fore at the start, but the nutty quality in the cheese once again proved to be key to the match.
Lacey: We went back to complementary flavors for this one. The Comté was nutty upfront and in the finish, with some buttery oak flavors coming through in the middle thanks to the beer. Nice and creamy all the way through, and not too sweet.

Talk to your cheese monger (or hop on over to Binny's and see Jeff!), and give these pairings a try. Let us know your thoughts by posting in the comments section. Thanks again to Jeff for the great cheese and beer insights. And check the blog soon for some festive winter beer and cheese pairings.

--Lacey Griebeler


Binny's Beverage Depot
Ivanhoe Castle & Catacombs Tasting Room
3000 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 935-9400

Fall Seasonal Selections from Glunz

Fall has officially begun, and Glunz is ready with our fall seasonal selections of Oktoberfest beers, harvest ales, pumpkin ales and more. Click on the images below to view the descriptions of the beers. Or visit our Web site.

Page 1: Arcadia Ales Jaw-Jacker Ale, Breckenridge Brewery Autumn Ale, St. Ambroise The Great Pumpkin Ale, Flying Dog Brewery Dogtoberfest, Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Shipyard Pumpkin Head

Page 2: New Holland Ichabod, O'Fallon Pumpkin Beer, Southampton Pumpkin Ale, Barley Island Brass Knuckle Stout, Capital Brewery Oktoberfest, Abita Pecan Harvest Ale, Beck's Oktoberfest, Berghoff Oktoberfest Beer

Page 3: Southern Tier Harvest, Southern Tier Pumking, Einbecker Urbock Dunkel, Aecht Schlenkerla Urbock, Hofbrau Oktoberfest, Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen, Coney Island Freaktoberfest

Page 4: Capital Autumnal Fire, Spaten Oktoberfest Beer, Weihenstephaner Festbier, Great Lakes Oktoberfest, Great Lakes Glockenspiel, Great Lakes Nosferatu, Moorhouse's Black Cat Ale, Moorhouse's Pendle Witches Brew

Make an impact with seasonal beer

The time-honored tradition of breweries creating special seasonal beers dates back hundreds of years. The brewing season was dictated by the weather as the modern technology of today was not invented. Therefore, beers were used to celebrate the changing seasons with each beer complimenting the weather conditions and changing tastes of the consumer -- from the spring Bock beers or strong beers for sustenance during the Lenten fasts to the Märzenbier styles for fall, which comes from the word "March" when the beer was laid down in the caves before the summer heat rendered brewing impossible.

Today, breweries are capitalizing on modern technology to brew a wide variety of beers year-round, while still honoring the traditions of our forefathers in brewing. Explore this vast selection of beers available to us today. There is a beer for everyone: Have fun finding the beers and styles that you like and ask for them at your local retailer. Prost!

Spring
With the warmer weather and the welcoming of spring, many breweries create a special brew to celebrate the season. This custom dates back to medieval days and carries with it many traditions. Today, you can find the range of styles to include Saison, IPA and the traditional Bock beer that German monasteries would brew as a strong beer for sustenance during their Lenten fasts. The goat is depicted on some logos because the beer was brewed during the sign of the Capricorn goat. Either way, the beers of spring are a symbol of better times to come and the moving away of winter. Celebrate spring with your friends with one of these fine beers from our spring portfolio.

Summer
The heat of summer months brings some truly refreshing beers to the forefront from our brewery partners. They have brewed these thirst-quenching beers with the warm summer days in mind, turning more toward lighter styles of beer, including Weiss, Lambic, Radlers and Fruit Beers. They are wonderful paired with your outdoor barbecues with any type of meat and fish dishes. Visit our summer portfolio.

Fall
The famous Oktoberfest biers are the distinctive fall beers or Märzenbier styles which come from the German word for "March." This word originated because the beer was brewed in March and stored in caves before the heat of summer rendered brewing impossible. This supply would be drawn upon during the summer -- and finally exhausted in October. For more information, visit our fall portfolio.

Little background on Oktoberfest: Oktoberfest in Munich began when Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on Oct. 12, 1910. The festivities were held on the fields in front of the city gates and all the citizens of Munich were invited to the celebration, thus started the annual celebration of their wedding nuptials, which we now know as Oktoberfest. Today, the Oktoberfest is the biggest public festival in the world with over 6 million visitors that consumer more than 6 million liters of beer.

Winter
The Winter selection of beers highlight a much different style created from our brewmasters. These typically tend to be the darker heartier selections reflecting the flavors and tastes from the region they are originating from around the globe. You will experience beers with coriander, nutmeg and even some hints of cinnamon on the finish. These breweries from around the globe have also developed special packages for you to consider for your customers during this gift giving season. Celebrate the customs of the world by sampling some of these unique products with your holiday feasts. Check out our winter portfolio.

For more information on seasonal beers in Glunz portfolio, contact us at (847) 676-9500 or info@glunzbeers.com.