Looking for palate excitement this year? Like eating on the cutting edge?

McCormick’s 2010 Flavor Forecast offers 10 new ways to pair food and spices. How does a spice company decide what’s hot? The flavor experts at McCormick team up with leading chefs, food writers and other culinary authorities to identify the top flavor pairings and key trends that are poised to shape the way we eat.

This is the 10th anniversary of the McCormick Flavor Forecast, so join the celebration and try the recipes (THE NIBBLE has been publishing them since 2008). We’ll present one a day for the next 10 days.

The first pairing is almond and ale. You might enjoy nibbling on almonds as you drink an ale; now see what it’s like to put almonds into the ale.

Why does this pairing work?

You like ale, you like almonds; so how about
an Ale Almond Spritzer? Photo courtesy McCormicks.com.

The Recipe:

The bittersweet character of both ale and almonds makes a congenial, cozy and hearty match. Invite friends to try this recipe for an Almond-Ale Spritzer, a moderately sweet beer-based cocktail. Enjoy it with a good food-themed movie.

And come up with your own recipes: ale-steamed shrimp with toasted almonds, for example.

Love hops and malt? Get to know India Pale
Ale. Photo courtesy New Belgium Brewing.

New Belgium Brewing, the third-largest craft brewer in the U.S., rolled out its new Ranger India Pale Ale this month. The brewer’s hoppiest offering to date, it’s named after the brewery’s sales team, known as the Beer Rangers, who lobbied long and hard for an IPA.

This 6.5% ABV IPA has hops for days: Cascade (citrus), Chinook (floral/citrus), and Simcoe (fruity). IPA lovers will relish the intense, dry hop flavor.

The ale is brewed with pale and dark caramel malts that harmonize with the hop flavor. Will you be singing after your first sip? Try some and find out!

Hoppy and malty are the cornerstone flavors of India Pale Ale, which was first brewed in 18th-century England as a heavier style beer that could make the long trip by boat to British troops and government officials in India. Though it’s not new on the scene, IPA is currently one of the hottest styles in American craft brewing (hence, the Beer Rangers’ plea).

Read more about the different styles of beer in our Beer Glossary.

To celebrate the launch, New Belgium Brewing held a beer pairing lunch with a menu by caterer Sarah Tomsic. The hoppy IPA was paired with:

So, grab some Ranger India Pale Ale and schedule a dinner party. Variations on all of the recipes above can be easily found in your favorite cookbooks or online.

* Pulverize hops into hop dust. If you can’t get your hands on hops, substitute fennel pollen.
**Chile caribe, is a concentrated chili powder.

Make a gift of a wine-tasting course or a home microbrewery kit even better: give it in tandem with a subscription to a relevant magazine (for wine, we love Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate—subscribe at eRobertParker.com).

The recipient will enjoy being able to build on his or her expertise on an ongoing basis.

Forget the stein: This is the classic
Pilsener glass.

Say “cheese” and check out our beer and
cheese pairings. Photo courtesy of
Cabot Creamery.

It’s not only National Lager Week, but December 10th is National Lager Day.

Earlier this week, we described the difference between lager and ale.

Lager and ale are just two of some 30 styles of beer. How about those pilsners (also spelled pilsener) you’ve been quaffing? What about porter and stout? Where do IPAs fit in?

Our Beer Section has enlightening articles.

Love your lager? This is the week to celebrate: It’s National Lager Beer Week.

Lager (the German word for storage) refers to any beer made by bottom fermentation. It is usually golden in color but sometimes can be dark.

Lager requires a longer, colder fermentation than ale (which is a top-fermenting beer), and uses a different species of yeast that tolerates cold temperatures well. The result of the cold fermentation is a lighter, crisper, smoother beer.

Ale is the favored beer style of England, and as the British colonized America, it became the beer of the Colonies. Lager beer was introduced to the U.S. during the German immigration of the early 1800s. It was immediately adopted and the country switched from being an ale-drinking country to a lager-drinking country.

The only challenge was that brewing lager required a colder environment, 30°F to 40°F.

Tip a glass to National Lager Week! Photo by Duncan Tidd | SXC.

Brewers in the days prior to refrigeration would brew the beer in caves or burrow into sides of mountains to create the right environment (in Germany as in the U.S., hence the word for “storage place”). Thankfully, in modern times, countries with no mountains or caves can brew lager. That’s another reason to celebrate National lager Week.

Buckbean Beer, a Nevada craft brewer, uses
cans for its Black Noddy Logger and Orange
Blossom Ale. Photo courtesy of Buckbean
Beer.

Is canned beer making a comeback among those who enjoy the finest? More craft brewers are turning to canning their brews. In the past, canning lines weren’t made small enough to handle small craft beer lines, so brewers had to use glass; glass became associated with quality beer.

While canned beer comprises a fraction of craft brews, some companies have started canning their beer exclusively, for environmental reasons as well as for consumer convenience:

(Although note that beer should be drunk fresh and not stored longer than six months, so this should be a theoretical argument. Resist the temptation to buy more beer than you need in any given month.)

On October 23rd a competition of canned craft beers, CANFEST, will be held in Reno, Nevada. Beer seminars, beer and food pairings, tastings of the competing beers and a forum of brewers are planned; celebrities from the beer world will judge the beers. A sample of the entrants includes Big Sky Brewing Company, Buckbean Brewing Company, Maui Brewing Company, New Belgium Brewing Company, Oskar Blues, Rochester Mills Brewing Company, Surly Brewing Company, Ukiah Brewing Company and Uncommon Brewers. Ticket prices are $35 and room packages will be available. For more information, email Constance Aguilar, constance@abbipr.com or call 1.775.323.2977.

Rejuvenator, one of the numerous varieties of HE-BREW.

It’s never too late to celebrate your bar- or bat mitzvah. He-Brew Beer—an uber-kitschy concept to start with—wants to put vintage bar mitzvah pictures on the label. You with Uncle Izzie, with the challah, with your pink cherub cheeks under that yarmulke.

The company, Shmaltz Brewing of San Francisco, is celebrating its 13th year of beer and shtick with a special release called Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah, their 13th “Chosen Beer” in 13 years of Shmaltz. Brewed with 13 malts, 13 hops and soaring to 13% ABV, Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah will be nationally available in 22 oz. bottles and a very limited amount of draft for select bars.

While the concept may seem schmaltzy, Shmaltz’s Jewbelation series, launched in 2004, has receiving top accolades from critics, including “5 Stars” from Celebrator Beer News, “Best Holiday Beer“ from Pacific Brew News, and 97 out of 100 points for 2007’s Jewbelation Eleven from Ratebeer.com. A recent issue of Beer Advocate (Volume II, Issue VIII) commented, “Today, Jeremy Cowan of Shmaltz Brewing Company is arguably making some of the best contract-brewed beers in America.”

The beer is certified kosher, of course, by KSA. It just may be the perfect beer to serve at bar mitzvahs—to the grown-ups, of course. While Jewish law may deem the 13-year-old a man (or woman), there’s still the state liquor law to contend with.

TO ENTER:

Bar/bat mitzvah men and women (age 21+ only): Submit photos of you in your braces, awkward suits, frizzy hair, ’80s-tastic family portraits with Aunt Linda and Uncle Dan… and celebrate the day you became an adult. The “winning” photos in each of these categories will receive a HE’BREW Bar Mitzvah Gift Set and will be featured on Shmaltz’s website: “Best Hair,” “Best Family Photo,” “Most Awkward Moment,” “Youngest-Looking Adult,” “Funniest Shot,” “Best-Dressed,” “Best Braces,” and “Best Dance Moves.”

Send photos with your name, date and location of event to info@shmaltzbrewing.com. If you are on Facebook, join their group “The Jewbelation 13 Project,” and check out some photos they’ve collected, post your picture, and become a fan of Shmaltz Brewing and HE’BREW Beer.

Then, track down some Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock (a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week). This beer, made with Scharffen Berger chocolate nibs goes great with cupcakes. We bought ours at a Whole Foods Market. A 750ml bottle is about $20.00, but much more memorable than Champagne. If you want Champagne to go with the cupcakes, be sure it’s a sec or demi-sec, a sweeter-vinified Champagne. Dry Champagnes are not meant to go beyond the main course, except perhaps with a nice triple-crème cheese course.

Read our review of Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

For your Valentine quaffing pleasure, mixologists combined O’Hara’s with Früli Strawberry Beer, a gold medal winner at the International Beer Competition in 2004. Made with high quality Belgian white beer and natural strawberry juice, Früli Strawberry Beer is a new, easy-drinking style of premium fruit beer,  more “accessible” than traditional lambic fruit beers. It has sweet, rather than sour, beer characteristics.

Preparation

Combine 3 Parts O’Hara’s Irish Stout and 1 Part Früli Strawberry Beer in a handsome glass.
Garnish with a fresh strawberry.
Serve with a kiss.
Optional side dish: chocolate-covered strawberries.

- Learn more about the different types of beers in our Beer Glossary.

- Check out our Beer & Cheese Pairings.