Beer Blotter: Week of September 27, 2009
Beer vs. Wine? It’s a Tossup.
By Nina Shen Rastogi
Q I’m hosting a dinner party next week, and I’ll be serving both beer and wine alongside the meal. Which has the lower carbon footprint?
A It’s hard to come up with a simple answer for this one, because so many factors affect the calculation: Where was your beverage made? What’s it packaged in, and how did that package get to you? How was it stored at the point of sale? Accounting for all these variables can make your head spin, and the best available research suggests that parsing out the difference might not be worth the headache.
In 2007, an analyst for the U.K.-based Food Climate Research Network attempted to tally the nation’s emissions related to alcohol consumption. Across the three categories considered — beer, wine and spirits — the research didn’t find significant differences in greenhouse gas intensity.
American drinking habits differ from those of our friends across the pond. Still, until someone undertakes a similarly comprehensive study on booze and the environment in the United States, the British data may be the best we have. So you might as well stick with your preferred tipple and then make the greenest choices.
When it comes to beer, the Lantern has already weighed in on bottles vs. cans: If your beer is brewed close to home and your town has a good recycling program, choose glass; if it comes from far away, stick with aluminum. A pulled pint of draft beer will always be the best choice for the planet.
A recent carbon footprint analysis of Fat Tire amber ale highlights a few other areas that deserve attention. Producing and assembling the ingredients — malt, hops and water — created 678 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent, or about 21 percent of the total footprint for a bottled six-pack. A chunk of that, 244 grams, comes from the production of synthetic fertilizers for the barley and related soil emissions, so the authors suggest that switching to organic barley could make a considerable impact.
Refrigeration, both in the store and at home, represented another third of Fat Tire’s footprint. All things being equal, then, beers that don’t need to be refrigerated, such as strong beers and standard ales, should have a lower footprint than lighter beers that are best kept cold.
Okay, so how about choosing a greener chardonnay or merlot?
First, check how it’s stoppered. Though oenophiles are constantly debating the performance merits of natural corks, synthetic corks and aluminum screw-tops, the World Wildlife Fund wants consumers to go natural, saying that the commercial investment helps preserve threatened forests and their attendant ecosystems. Natural cork stoppers should also be less energy-intensive to manufacture than plastic or metal closures.
Food miles are probably a more important consideration for wine, because the bottles themselves are heavy and can travel a long way from the vineyard to your dining table. The British study estimates that about 35 percent of wine’s emissions stem from distribution.
One of the easiest things you can do is look for wine that comes in lighter and larger packages. Some wineries ship their libations in bulk containers, to be bottled closer to the point of consumption. Others are reducing the amount of glass in their bottles, a practice known as “lightweighting.” Finally, there’s the much-maligned wine-in-a-box, which is actually a vacuum-sealed plastic bag inside a cardboard container. Once the box is opened, the wine inside stays drinkable for much longer than it would in a bottle. So if you want to lessen the impact of your drinking, get ready to swallow your pride, as well.
If Your Come Early, the Beer’s Free
By Fritz Hahn
The buzz: As I walk up to the bar at Midtown Loft, the bartender greets me with a friendly smile and a string of magic words. “Hi! Would you like a free beer?”
“Sure,” I say, and less than a minute later, I’ve got a glass of the house amber in hand, with no strings attached and have settled in on a comfortable leather couch at the front of the airy room. I’m keeping an eye on the foosball and shuffleboard tables, where play is free until 8 p.m. (The beer deal, sadly, ends at 6 p.m.)
Welcome to the city’s cheapest new happy hour, which starts at 5 p.m. every weekday.
“I think the happy hour is great — it’s hard to beat free beer!” says Jennifer Hardy, 24, who works at a nearby law firm and is out with co-worker Rami Bardenstein. She knows that timing is key, though, after coming with friends on a Friday afternoon. “We walked in right at 5:10, and by 6, there was a line down to the middle of the room.”
Bardenstein, nursing his free beer, also has his eyes on the games, and he looks more excited when he finds out they, too, are free. “I love shuffleboard,” he says. “It’s just another reason for me to be here.”
The scene: Midtown Loft, whose name sounds more like a new Massachusetts Avenue condo development than a bar, is the latest nightspot from Michael Romeo, the man behind velvet rope lounges Lotus, Midtown and Tattoo and the warehouse-size Fur nightclub. For this project, which sits above Midtown on the third floor of a Connecticut Avenue building, Romeo decided to take things in a decidedly different direction: No dress codes, no cover charges. Lots of drink specials. Buckets of beer ($20 for five) replace bottles of champagne. DJs play “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” instead of techno, and Dewey Beach, Del., troubadour Doug Segree stops by with his acoustic guitar on Tuesday nights. Fancy art and lighting? Think neon beer signs and exposed brick walls.
“Everybody’s on a budget now,” Romeo says. “People don’t want to go out and spend $1,000 on a table [for bottle service].”
Of course, you can get bottle service at Midtown Loft; the menu has $120 bottles of Grey Goose vodka and $300 for Patr?n Silver, which come with reservations for tables and couches. But that’s not really the point. Midtown Loft wants to be a neighborhood tavern where you grab a beer and shoot pool or try to beat the high scores on the Megatouch games. If you’re wearing flip-flops or baseball caps, so much the better.
In your glass: Midtown has three beer taps pouring Peroni, Miller Lite and Midtown Amber. Beers seem to be the beverages of choice, probably because they’re the cheapest things on the menu ($4 for bottles and drafts). Cocktails are $5 until 8 p.m., then the prices double. (Want something better than rail liquor? That will be an extra $2.)
On your plate: Eat elsewhere. Even though Midtown seems like the ideal venue for mozzarella sticks or wings, there’s no kitchen.
Price points: Nightly specials include $5 cocktails and free pool, shuffleboard and foosball all night on Mondays, “buy one, get one free” drinks all night Wednesdays and half-price drinks for women until midnight on Thursdays. The “Power Hour” happy hour on Saturday features $1 beers from 8 to 9 p.m., which rise to $2 between 9 and 10 p.m. and $3 between 10 and 11 p.m.
Midtown Loft 1219 Connecticut Ave. NW Contact: 202-466-7529. http://www.midtownloftdc.com.
Trouble Brews for Wine; Cheese Chooses Beer
By Davide Berretta
Bra, Italy – After wrestling for a spot on the gourmet drink list, beer is trying to push deeper into wine territory: right by the cheese platter.
“Some cheeses are considered to be jewels. And for now wine is a more prestigious partner,” says Leonardo Di Vincenzo, owner of Birra del Borgo, a young Italian artisanal brewery that has recently begun exporting to the U.S. But once they try beer with cheese, he says, “People are struck by how easily the two go together.”
The combination has long been a staple in Belgian cuisine, but in recent years, the pairing of beer and cheese has gained legitimacy even in wine-obsessed Italy — where beer is hardly the default drink to accompany fine dining. Similarly, in New York, at gourmet beer spots such as the Beer Table, serving cheese with a $10 brew no longer raises eyebrows.
For brewers, teaming up with cheese is part of a campaign to show that beer is as sophisticated as Bordeaux, not just a tipple associated with student parties and sports bars. The idea is to “bring it up at the same level as wine,” says Marc Stroobandt, a master beer sommelier and consultant at U.K.-based F&B Partnership, a company that trains restaurateurs on the best way to pair beer with food. Mr. Stroobandt says he sees “a lot of interest in experimenting” with pairing beer and cheese across Europe and in the U.S.
Slow Food, for one, is putting its clout behind the beer-and-cheese combo. At the nonprofit group’s Cheese 2009 — a biannual international fair held last week in Piedmont, the northern Italian region that shares a border with another cheese superpower, France — cheese lovers and producers from around the world tasted dozens of varieties, with beer helping wash down the food in addition to the usual wine.
Alberto Farinasso, events coordinator for the fair, says Slow Food is eager to give more attention to artisanal brews, and has elevated beer’s role from bit player to supporting actor. In previous editions of the fair, beer was present, but wine was recognized as the default partner for cheese tasting.
This time, the fair’s program and the crowds around the beer stands made it clear that beer no longer plays second fiddle to wine. Of 37 “taste workshops,” six were dedicated to pairing beer with cheeses. On Monday, the last day of the fair, one section dedicated to artisanal beers had to shut down because it had run out of beer to sell.
“It is a very valid union, both in terms of sensory experience and in terms of stories it can narrate,” says Mr. Farinasso.
At the fair, Parmigiano Reggiano, known in Italy as the “king of cheeses,” was paired with Italian artisanal beers. In other workshops, American and Italian microbrews accompanied U.S. cheeses such as Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Wisconsin and Rogue River Blue from Oregon. At another session, 39 people sat for more than an hour, tasting five raw-milk cheeses from central Italy paired with four unpasteurized Italian beers, guided by the cheese and beer producers.
Mr. Di Vincenzo, who led two of the beer workshops, says pairing beer and cheese is a no-brainer — “like bread and cheese. Beer is a bit like liquid bread.”
“The bitter note of hops gives a skimming strength that allows to cleanse the mouth from the fat” in cheeses, allowing for a better savoring of the flavors, he says.
Part of the appeal comes from the fact that beer and cheese are part of a common farm cycle. In the 19th century, Belgian monks would brew beer, feeding their cows the leftover barley husks. The cows’ milk yielded cheese that the monks — many of them vegetarians — liked to munch while enjoying their beers.
“You will often hear the argument that cows don’t eat grapes,” says Justin Philips, owner of New York’s Beer Table, a gourmet beer bar in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood. Mr. Philips, who has been serving beer and cheese since opening the bar a year and a half ago, says palates have warmed quickly to the pairing, such as his proposed meeting of Swiss cheese with Swiss Rebetez beer.
“A year ago, it was a new experience for everybody we presented it to,” Mr. Philips says. “Now just one in 10 are surprised.”
But beer fans still have a long way to go if they want to convince the public that suds are a worthy partner for cheese, especially in France.
“Have you ever seen anyone drink beer in Bordeaux?” asks Emeric Sauty de Chalon, president of 1855, France’s largest online wine shop. Mr. Sauty de Chalon agrees that the most flavorful cheeses have a flavor that is too strong for some red wines, but doesn’t think beer and cheese is necessarily the right alternative.
“With some lower quality cheese, why not?” he says. “But with the most high-quality cheeses from Italy or from France I really would not recommend it. Try something else.”
Mr. Stroobandt, though, thinks consumers just need a little hand-holding. “So far, wine people have been so much better at education and marketing,” he says. “They give people the confidence to try new things, telling them this is how you taste it and appreciate it.”
