Lambic and salad

I had initially planned on doing Middle Eastern food today (home made pitas, tabouleh, hummus, and maybe some chicken kabobs), but I ended running around today and didn't have time. We hit my friend Max's brewpub (http://www.maxsfannocreek.com/) this afternoon at about 4pm. He recently added a Belgian IPA to his line up. The beer is essentially his NW IPA recipe brewed with his house Belgian yeast (which is a yeast cultured from La Chouffe). It sounds like a strange idea, but the fruity yeast esters actually work with the citrus/grapefruit aromas of the American hops that he uses. It's great idea and one that you'll likely see more of as Belgian brewers themselves start to use more hops (as the La Chouffe Houblon Double IPA/Triple and the De Ranke XX Bitter attest to). When you see a Belgian IPA at your local pub, remember you saw it here first and should give Max some credit. It's a great beer and was well worth the trip.

Of course since he had his Czech Pils on draft, I also had to have a pint of that as well. It's the real deal: golden, malty, and has the incredible flavor and aroma of real Czech Saaz hops. There are too few lagers in the craft beer scene and I'm thrilled he has such an authentic version pouring right now.

We left after a couple of pints but it was after 5pm when we got home and there was no choice of making anything for dinner that I had intended. Plus it was still too hot to even think about cooking indoors. Days like this are meant for entree salads. I had some chicken breast, so I lit a fire in the Weber and went into the garden to harvest some baby greens and basil. I had some amazing small, sweet shallots from the farmers market as well as some carrots, so we had a salad, of baby greens, grated carrots, shallots, kalamata olives, toasted almonds, and grilled chicken in a vinaigrette. I minced the basil and mixed it with olive oil, homegrown garlic, and salt to make a topping for the grilled chicken. The whole thing was quick and easy.

But all of this begged the larger question. What to have with a dinner salad with an assertive vinaigrette? If you ever want to give a sommelier a hard time, ask him what to have with a salad dressed with a vinaigrette. Vinegar and wine is generally a tough combo to pull off (unless you have a taut, acidic young white wine). Even beer can be scary here, but luckily the beer world has a few great choices. These choices are generally the various sour beers of Belgians. My favorite choice is good lambic, more specifically, good geuze, which is aged, blended lambic. Fortunately I had a single bottle of Boon Geuze on hand.

If you haven't had Lambic, you need to try it, because even the best description will do it no justice. The beers are sour, but they are incredibly aromatic and complex. Don't confuse the sweet fruit lambics from Lindemans, as good asa they are, with the real article. The real deal is tart, highly carbonated and refreshing. In fact, the perfect companion to a good salad, especially on a hot day.

Frank Boon is one of the more traditional makers and his Geuze is one of the best. It poured with a thick frothy head and a slightly cloudy gold color. The aroma was full of peaches and apricots and the distinct horse blanket of Brettanomyces (a wild yeast that lends a distinctive character to these beers). The aromas was like a ripe peach wrapped in a horse blanket, but in a good way (if you can imagine it). The beer had good body and wasn't overly tart or as aggressively sour as the magnificent beers of Cantillon, but it did finish with a distinct lemon/citrus note. Overall, a great beer with a good entree salad.

It was so good in fact, that I felt compelled to chill a bottle of my homebrewed Framboise, which is a lambic which has had raspberries added to it. This batch was made by blending two different lots of two year old lambic together and then adding about 1 pound of raspberries per gallon to the mix. It sat for about 4 months with the fruit and then was bottled. It's been bottled for about 10 months now.

It poured with a decent head and a deep ruby color. The nose had a distinct raspberry note, but had the underlying barnyard quality of good lambic. The acidity of the raspberries added a little extra zing to the already tart beer, which makes it a good choice as an aperitif, although I was enjoying it as a vibrant dessert. It's a great style of beer that deserves more attention in the beer world, and unfortunately seems virtually unknown in the mainstream "foodie" universe. With one foot in the beer world and one foot in the wine world, it can match a variety of foods that more traditional wine and beer can't touch.