Charlie Bamforth- professor, scientist, heartbreaker.
I'm an IPA kind of gal, something a lot of men have a hard time believing. The hoppier, the better (my favorites are Dogfishhead's 90 minute, El Segundo's White Dog IPA, and, not surprisingly, Russian River's Pliny the Elder). Of course, this means I'm a fairly inexperienced taster for many other categories of the golden fizzy stuff. So when I was asked to participate in a Belgian tasting class at King's Row Pub in Pasadena, I was really excited.
After the two hour drive through downtown Los Angeles in rush hour traffic, I really needed a beer. I was greeted instead with a hop-infused vodka distilled by Anchor Steam (who apparently also have a distillery...who knew?). It smelled of hops, tasted less like vodka than expected, and sat heavy on the tongue. Perhaps not something I'd drink every day, but it was truly interesting. Bon Appétit did a review of the stuff quite literally days before my encounter.
The tasting consisted of a set of four Belgian and four American Belgian-style beers. We were given advice on how to taste each brew by our instructor, trained cicerone and general bad-ass James Willis. We tasted everything from Duvel to Allagash, grading each on their unique characteristics. I had a terrible time guessing which beer was domestic and which was a true Belgian, which may have hurt my pride just a smidge. The free IPA battered fish and chips helped me recover.
The head on this beer was so thick it reminded the whole table of merengue
I didn't realize Belgian ales could be so red!
Overall, the event was really interesting, informative, and tasty. James is incredibly enthusiastic and educated in all things beer, which only further convinced me that everyone who is even remotely interested in the stuff should pay him a visit.
Want to learn more? Check out my article, then hop on over to their website. And with that awful pun, I'm off to do more exploring around my kitchen and my town. Visit again soon!
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