A Brewmaster Dinner with Garrett Oliver at Tribeca Grill

Last night's festive Bastille Day celebration at the Tribeca Grill included not a drop of wine or Champagne, for the legendary brewmaster Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery hosted an unforgettable evening pairing his special selections with Chef Stephen Lewandowski's renowned cuisine. After passed hors d'oeuvres with Brooklyn Summer Ale, Oliver began the evening's program by reminding us that we have only recently "dug ourselves out of the hole" with beer and food in the United States. Most of the prepared food items we see in the supermarket, he reminded us, are made of neither fresh nor pure ingredients. "A loaf of bread does not stay fresh in a bag for two weeks. It does not look like bread, or taste like bread," Oliver continued. Speaking of a certain well-known bakery item commonly referred to as "bread," he asked the audience: "So what is this thing that has 40 ingredients? A chemical sponge, a food facsimile. This thing has almost no bread attributes." Oliver went on to remind us that artisanal bakers, who largely disappeared after World War II in this country, were not the only victims of industrialization and convenience. "The same thing happened in this country with cheese. What these things technically are is edible plastic; the first edible plastic was Crisco. The mass market American beer is an amazing technological product. The same thing is true of bread," Oliver went on to remind us. "You cannot make a loaf of Wonder Bread at home." We admired Oliver's self-restraint in not discussing the mega-merger of the day, the sale of Anheuser-Busch to Belgian InBev, creating a distribution network of gargantuan proportions. While InBev said it will keep all 12 of Anheuser-Busch's North American breweries open, previous mega-mergers in the wine, beer and spirits industries have not portended well for salaried employees. Nor, one might add, for the consumer.

I had the pleasure of first interviewing Oliver some 15 years ago when he was brewmaster of the now-defunct Manhattan Brewery on Broome Street, and have followed his career with great admiration. He is a top authority on the traditions of brewing in the United States, and he serves both as authority and historian in his many public appearances. Last night he reminded the audience of the unfortunate demise of the American craft of brewing in the 1920s: "We used to have 4000 beers in this country," Oliver mentioned. "We had Prohibition, then consolidation, and then 'progress'; people thought this was really cool. This same thing happened to beer; rather than buying expensive stuff out of which to make it," large breweries went on to "spend all the money on advertising." (One only need think of Miller and Budweiser here.) "It's only now we are getting our culture back," he reminded the audience. "At Brooklyn Brewery we're trying to get older flavors back. A Belgian guy phoned me to today to do a story to see why Americans are so interested in Belgian beers." Fortuitously, Oliver then introduced his Local 1, a marvelous 100% full-bottled fermentation. This product is filtered, and then bottled flat, whereupon it goes into the brewery's warm rooms for two weeks. Moreover, a raw demerara sugar from Mauritius goes into it, ensuring the final product has very low sugar and tastes very dry. Oliver went on to describe how refermentation gives it depth, and the méthode champenoise is remarkably similar. Given that it was Bastille Day, Oliver pronounced his technique as méthode brooklynaise.

Like most accomplished brewmasters, Oliver is also big fan of wine. On a day-to-day basis, he declares, beer is at least as good an accompaniment as wine: "Beer covers so many flavors wine does not," and thus it seemed appropriate to pair with his Local 1 Gulf Shrimp. Given its 9% alcohol content, he suggested that "If you're a wine person, think of it almost as an Alsatian Gewürztraminer." Whether or not one agrees with that assessment, the chef's creative Gulf Shrimp & Lump Crab ‘Corn Dog’ served with Charred Corn, Yuzu & Scallion Relish was impressive and the flavors most harmonious.

For the connoisseur of great beers, assuredly Oliver's Brooklyn Dark Matter was one of the most extraordinary I have ever tasted. The lucky assembled worthies were told that Brooklyn Brewery hasn't designed a label for it yet; indeed, most employees at the brewery haven't even tasted it yet. Dark Matter is the stunning result of Brooklyn Brown Ale aged nine months in barrels, then refermented and filtered. It has a vastly different aroma due to the aging in Bourbon barrels, with a little more vanilla flavor coming through. Paired beautifully with Tamarind Glazed Pork Belly served with Caramelized Onion Pierogi and Choucroute, the tamarind of the pork belly nicely offset the oak flavor. (Not to mention that an Alsatian Bastille Day wouldn't be complete without Choucroute.)

As for the Brooklyn Brown Ale, Oliver noted that "in the old days, they would make sure no wood flavor wound up in beer. These days, it's to get the flavor in the beer." While his Dark Matter was indeed a "slightly hard act to follow," Oliver thought it would be interesting to pair the next course of Grilled Skirt Steak with Fingerling Potatoes & Chimichurri Sauce as his Brown Ale would work well with the Chimichurri. Oliver discussed here the caramelization process in beer, noting it "can grab on to essetial flavor in the steak to get the flavor of the char." Since we humans are evolutionarily predisposed to enjoy the flavor of fire, ("caramelization is built in to our bones"), Oliver calls this a "flavor hook." Stated differently, the brew can both offer contrast and harmony at the same time, a point the audience immediately absorbed through osmosis while devouring both the Brown Ale and Skirt Steak.

Then followed the Chef’s Selection of Artisinal Cheese paired with Brooklyn Grand Cru, of which a mere 350 kegs are produced by the Brewery. "After 6 or 7 weeks it is gone," said a wistful Oliver, reminding the audience of the fleeting nature of seasonal products. Based on a Belgian style wheat beer (with 30% raw wheat), Brooklyn Brewery uses ingredients both sweet and bitter, ranging from orange peel to Indian coriander, whole flower chamomile, honey from an Upstate apiary to achieve its sensational balance of citrus and honey overtones. "Beer has much greater affinity for cheese than wine," said Oliver, and it did not go unnoticed that the Chimay cheese we enjoyed comes from the same source as the legendary source of Trappist Chimay beer. Two other cheeses were equally well-suited for the Grand Cru, a sheep cheese (Zamorano), plus a charming Gouda-style aged cow milk cheese (Roomano). The evening closed with Chocolate Samosas and Cherry Crème Glacée nicely augmented by the delightful Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout.

Tags:   brooklyn brewery, garrett oliver, myriad restaurant group, tribeca grill

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Posted on 7/15/2008 ( Permanent Link )
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