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“The greatest dishes are very simple.” — Auguste Escoffier, the “Emperor of Chefs”
“A home cook who relies too much on a recipe is sort of like a pilot who reads the plane’s instruction manual while flying.” – Alton Brown
These are two of my favorite quotes from two of my favorite chefs. I think they exemplify what makes food so wonderful across the globe. I also find that these two statements transcend strongly into the beverage industry spanning wine, beer, spirits, and cocktails.
During my time as a professional cook I spent a lot of time tasting new foods, individual ingredients and finding ways to incorporate them together for the ultimate food experience. As a homebrewer I attempted to do many of the same things with food and beer. Blending flavors that I felt would go well with each other only to find my results for both food and home brew were muddy, disorienting, or capable of causing sensory overload to the person eating or drinking the creation.
As I grew in the culinary world and later the world of craft beer I began to relate a rather abrupt statement I received from an elderly New Mexican man while I was looking at Kachina dolls. The dolls are carved from a single piece of cottonwood and are some of the most beautiful thing’s I’ve ever seen.
While I was admiring the art the gentleman tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Its not that complicated, and it doesn’t have to be literal.” Before I knew what happened he had left. That was 16 years ago, and I’ve applied that statement to many things in my life. Especially food and beer.
There’s nothing as good as mom’s tuna noodle casserole….simple, noodles, tuna, peas, and cream of mushroom soup. At least that was my mom’s recipe. Why was I not applying this to my food and beer? Complexity can be achieved with the simplest of ingredients if you put them together with care, precision, and love.
When I put together a beer recipe I use an approach to simplicity. You can’t get much more basic than beer. Four ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast. Complexity comes from the way you incorporate them into the beer.
If I want a malty beer I may add more malt (of course) scale back the hops, adjust the water to brighten malt character, and choosing a yeast that will either produce some great fruity notes that mesh well with malt, or a yeast that will be super neutral and allow all those grain flavors to come through. On the flip-side, I may want a hoppy beer, where I can create complexity the same way via water, malt, yeast, and especially the hops.
Blending these ingredients in the right way is what truly becomes the challenging portion of the task. What do I want to achieve? Can I taste the final product in my head. Do I want to brew something that reminds of me blank beer? Do I want a dark beer, a light beer, amber, orange, etc.
Taking all of these things into account I can develop a strong mental image of what the final product will taste like.
Just like with a new food I taste each ingredient by itself. Each type of malt, raw hops, the water, and yes even the yeast. If you don’t have quality ingredients you won’t get a quality final product!
Once I put together the recipe using brewing software to figure out all the math for me…because well, I’m terrible at math…I can begin the process of brewing. Seeing the wort as it moving to the kettle and gathering flavors during the boil, hopping additions, and any special ingredients I add are some of the best part of the brew day!
On occasions I find myself jumping back onto that bandwagon of throwing all sorts of things into a beer. Blending flavors that many people may not think about blending together. Our Smoky Persimmon ale fell into that category.
I wanted to exemplify something truly part of my new state, and put a little of my own flare into it as well. I studied cooking in Santa Fe, NM and fell in love with the variety of woods for smoking while I was out there. When I saw Briess Malting Company offered a mesquite smoked malt, I jumped on board! I could taste the blend of smoke and persimmon in my head and knew that this combination needed to be in a beer!
My newest experimental recipe has yet to be named. I blended the palest malts I could find, along with wheat malt and Belgian yeast. Within the next few days I will incorporate an addition of Pinot Noir must (juice) to the fermenting beer. The Belgian yeast produces some amazing spicy and peppery phenolics and fruity esters that will blend well with the jammy, chocolate, and tobacco notes that the Pinot Noir must already has in its natural fermented character.
Beer can be as complex or as simple as you make it. I have learned in my travels, experiences, and experiments that often times it doesn’t have to be hard, or literal, but what really counts is what you put into the project, and when you truly understand each of the individual elements that it takes to produce a beer then it becomes less of a process and more of an extension of your very being.
Prost!