Taste DC Beer 101

TasteDC conducts many cooking seminars and wine classes. But they have never had a beer class ... until last night.

Charlie Adler invited me to host his first. I led a tutored tasting of 9 Clipper City beers, and, in a 2 hour period, touched upon:

1) Clipper City: 49th largest craft brewery in the nation.
2) What is beer? How is it produced?
3) The 2 basic styles of beer.
4) What are the flavors of beer?
5) How does one taste beer? Like tasting a wine?
6) Beer and food pairing: is beer the 'new' wine?
7) The born-on date: truth or marketing?
8) Cask Ale: the old becomes new!

Artisinal cheeses and gazpacho were served at the outset. A spicy Chicken Vindaloo accompanied the Small Craft Warning Uber Pils. Lemon pound cake topped with strawberries and creme fraiche was served with Below Decks Barleywine.

I tapped the 9th beer outside on a cool evening, concluding the program. It was pulled from a pin: a small cask, at 5.4 US gallons (4.5 U.K), exactly half the volume of a traditional firkin. The beer, alive inside, was Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale.

More photos.