 COUPLING BEER & BBQ
Hip Hops - Smoky, grilled meats have complex and wonderful flavors that deserve more than plain lager, so branch out to other beers. By Adam Jadhav When meat is cooked over a flame, beer should almost always be the drink of choice. Beer and grilling: The words roll off the tongue.
So why are we so often uninspired when it comes to buying the beer?
We typically limit ourselves to a case of light American agar when we fire up the grill. We soak our brats in it. We drink it from the can. Isn't there another way?
Enter Lucy Saunders, the genius behind beercook.com and the author of "Grilling With Beer" (F&B Communications, 2006). She was in town last month for Schlafly's brew &Q, the annual pork steak barbecue competition and festival, and I caught up with her at a meet-up with the St. Louis BBQ Society.
First and foremost, experiment, Sauders says. There are no hard-and-fast rules. If you like it (even if we're talking American light lagers and hot dogs), do it.
Beyond that, Saunders and others (me, too) have some easy tips for radically enhancing your grilling. Thankfully, they all involve beer.
"With a lot of grilled foods, you've got that smoky edge, you've got that caramel or the spice. And a lot of times the food itself is pretty rich - the spicy sauces, richer cuts of meat," Saunders says. "Those kinds of flavors go really well with complex craft beer."
HERE ARE SOME IDEAS
- Grilling tends to impart a caramel flavor as the heat interacts with proteins and sugars. Try pairing with a maltier beer to complement the caramel. Saunders suggest a good pale ale, an English brown, or even a big Scotch ale. Missouri brewers Schlafly and Boulevard have good, basic pale ales; I also recommend Samuel Adams Boston Ale.
- Steak, that king of grilled meats, has perhaps the strongest flavors to play with. Garrett Oliver, author of the "Brewmaster's Table" (Ecco, 2005), says a good Belgian farmhouse ale works wonders with a marbled rib eye. At a Boulevard beer dinner at Growlers last month, beef medallions paired perfectly with the brewer's Single-Wide India Pale Ale.
- The hamburger, that ubiquitous grill food, needs something to cut thought the flavor of the meat. Oliver's book calls for everything from a pale ale to a schwarzbier. The Anheuser-Busch cookbook, "Great Food Great Beer" (Sunset Books, 2007), pairs a wonderful salty Gorgonzola-topped burger with a crisp American lager.
- Chicken or pork, meanwhile, is the "blank canvas" of the grill chef, Saunders says. Beer options run the gamut, depending on your seasonings. Citrus marinade? I suggest Boulevard's Smokestack series Saison or Saison Brett, funky Belgian ales that are earthy and mildly fruity. How about an Asian flavor? I heartily endorse Left Hand's Juju Ginger.
- Try replacing the water in your brine or marinade with beer. Saunders has an easy suggestion: Soak meat for an hour in a bottle of brown ale, some salt and paprika. Then apply a rub and use indirect heat. (Saunders shared some of her chicken wings soaked in brown ale, tossed on the grill and basted with a fiery sauce at the last minute; I swear those were the best wings I've ever had.)
- Pair beer to your barbecue baste. Saunders suggests a Kriek lambic with a cherry barbecue sauce, or maybe try a Belgian witbier with its coriander and orange peel. You can even put the beer in the sauce. Jim and Mary Randall, competitive barbecuers and members of the St. Louis BBQ Society, say one of the secrets to their nationally award-winning beef brisket baste is Guinness Stout.
- How about seafood? Many grill masters say delicate flavors of fish can come alive with a light wheat beer. But Saunders says she loves a porter-ginger marinade with an oily fish like salmon. Going a step further last week, I soaked a big tuna steak in an IPA with some jerk sauce. Mmmm...
- Many of us combine grilled foods with spice that sets the taste buds on fire. Beer handles the jalapeno, the cayenne and even the habanero with aplomb. Try a big hoppy beer, like Schlafly's Export IPA, to accentuate those searing, wonderful flavors.
- The long soak: Gary Hairlson, a friend and coworker who specializes in smoked meats and makes his own barbecue sauce, soaked a slab of ribs in Bud Light Lime with surprisingly good results. (I admit to being shocked that particular beer had use beyond science experiments.)
- Mouth-drying heat outside? Saunders suggests a crisp, hoppy lager like a pilsner to cut through flavor and quench thirst. I've been enjoying Schlafly's Summer Lager, Nevada's Summerfest or just plain Budweiser.
- Try a six-pack grilling party. have everyone bring a different six-pack of beer and a different cut of meat. Concoct marinades, brines and pairings all night long.
 The options really are endless; these tips are only a starting point: This is all experimental. Whatever tastes good is, by default, good.
Now who's hungry and thirsty?
Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, copyright 2009. |
Patients who require splinting to prevent biting, benefit from the use of Duraflex™, as it is less bulky than conventional plastics, will not deform and is easy to keep clean. Most maintenance required is to replace straps periodically. This patient was subjected to tether of the arm to prevent biting before a Duraflex™ hand splint was built. 
This is a hand after the introduction of a Duraflex™ hand splint. (see figure 12.)
