WILK Friday BeerBuzz–18 May 2012 Brooklyn w/Garrett Oliver

Every so often my production & hosting duties on the WILK Friday BeerBuzz offer me what I call a “holy cow” moment….and today was one of those moments.  For me to sit in the studio and sample a Brooklyn Brewery Beer while speaking to the one and only Garrett Oliver was exciting and somewhat surreal experience.

Brooklyn Brewery remains one of the earliest and most influential craft breweries in the northeast.  In my early craft-beer-years, I was still pretty new to great beer and I was excited to find so many coming out of one brewery in nearby Brooklyn, NY.  I’ve also been a huge fan of the Brewmaster’s Table, a book Garrett Oliver wrote in 2003 that not only teaches you about tasting craft beer but also the “pleasures” of pairing it with great food.” Garrett’s writings were some of the first experiences I’ve had with pairing beer & food, and for me, the Brewmaster’s Table is the absolute beer/food bible.

It was a lot of fun talking to Garrett about his Brewmaster’s Table book, but also his latest The Oxford Companion to Beer.  This is the first and still ONLY encyclopedia devoted to craft beer, and more importantly the history & development of craft beer as well as brewing.  These are both must-read books for anyone new or even experienced with craft beer.

It was also exciting to talk to Garrett about the expansion and exciting news coming out of Brooklyn Brewery.  Their move to canning beer and the growth of their facilities speaks well for the future of Brooklyn Brewery and is certainly exciting for beer lovers.

Sampling Sorachi Ace with Garrett was quite an honor.  I still consider myself new to food and beer pairing so it was a lot of fun working with a great Brooklyn beer and then with Garrett’s guidance, pairing it with food.  Garrett recommended the fresh goat cheese we sampled today, and the pairing was perfect.  For me personally it was the lemongrass flavor of the Sorachi Ace hop that made the pairing perfect.  The beer was dry and clean and the flavors complimented the goat cheese really well.  If you remember back on our Christmas Show we paired Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout with several dishes based on mascarpone cheese, and as amazing as that was, it was even more amazing to get another try at beer/food pairing with Garrett.

Thank you to Garrett Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery

, Nancy, John, & Joe for yet another fun Friday.

The Friday BeerBuzz…bringing good beers and good people together.

As always you can check out the video on-line at the WILK Friday BeerBuzz page by clicking HERE.