Helles Angels KC

Last week the Angels gathered for our monthly event. This month, in honor of an Angel leaving KC for study aeronautics in Wichita, we explored beers and foods we wish we could get on a flight. Given the lackluster beer selection and amble supply microwaved foods on board any flight, the Angels embraced this theme whole-heartedly. 

We started the night with a lone beer - la Goudale from France - a wonderful French farmhouse ale. Wouldn’t it be nice to fly to France, or Germany or Seattle and get the local brews on board? 

Next we paired Samuel Adam’s Verloren Gose with spicy tuna sushi rolls. This beer really complimented the delicate sushi without over-powering it.

Every Kansas City girl wishes she could get some pulled pork on a plane…

…And maybe pair it with a Southern tier 2X IPA?

Chimay and turkey sandwiches were up next. Turkey sandwich is un-pictured because we ate them too quickly.

Next, we tried a mini vertical of Schlafly Barleywine with both the 2010 and 2011. What was interesting is that the Angels were split 50/50 on which vintage they liked better. Wouldn’t a barleywine be the perfect sipper for a plane ride?

The first of our two (yep, two) desserts was brownies with strawberries paired with Fort Collins Brewery Chocolate Stout.

And then we had blondies paired with Collaboration not Litigation. Yeah, always have two desserts.

As always, a wonderful night of pairings with some wonderful ladies. Until airline food gets better and craft beer is available at 30,000 feet, we’ll have to stick with nights like these. 

Background:

In an effort to get ourselves safely home and not hate beer the next morning, our Helles meetings have morphed into beer-food pairings. Those who are attending pair with another Angel by virtually ‘raising their hands’ on the FB event page. They then coordinate the pairing where one cooks and the other brings the beer (usually 2 bombers or a 6 pack since we’re drinking 3-4 oz pours). Miraculously, we’ve never ended up with all dessert… it just seems to work itself out.

From this, themes were born. Each time we get together we come up with more themes, which usually get more interesting as the meetings wear on. Here’s a few ideas I’ve mined from our FB account. Add at will!

Themes:

• Brewery Night: We pair each of a single brewery’s beers with a dish and taste our way through a brewery’s line up.
• Regional Night: We pick a region, state or country and bring beers and foods from that locale.
• Style Night: We pick a single style of beer (brown ale, wheat, stout, etc.) and each bring one from a different brewery with a pairing. This would be an interesting food challenge to get a range of courses going.
• Showdown Night: We pit similar beers against each other and do a blind tasting to see which one gets the gold metal (why didn’t we do this when the Olympics were on?).

Beer Education:

• Sensory Development: Tasting characteristics and personal sensitivity to certain flavors.

Last week Helles Angels celebrated our first birthday. It’s been a great year. We’ve met so many interesting women in Kansas City who all share a passion for craft beer. We are all so excited for where the next year will take us, but for now, here are some pictures from our first birthday party!

The Foundry at McCoy’s was nice enough to host our event in the Cigar Room. The folks at Beer KC are wonderful advocates for the craft beer scene in Kansas City and we thank you for your support!

We started off the evening with McCoy’s Goode Farmhouse Ale…

…and some delicious Foundry food.

Some of the interesting beers we tried included, Grande Réserve 17 by Unibroue, Saison-Brett (2012) by Boulevard Brewing Co., Stone Ruination IPA by Stone Brewing Co., Saga IPA by Summit Brewing Company and a homebrew Bottle Blonde by Steinington Brewing Company.

A highlight of the evening was the newly release Love Child #2.

What’s a birthday party without cake? There was Ghirardelli Stout Cake. (Here’s the recipe, we used Dark Truth instead of Guinness.)

There was our server, Stu. (He was pretty awesome.)

And more great craft beers. 

And lots of great times with the Helles Angels.  Cheers!

Rarely will you get a chance to plan your week around beer like this. We’ll let Deschutes tell you what’s up, below. But first, let us take a minute to be very, very happy about this:

OK. On to the press release. See y’all there!

Deschutes Brewery brings its Base Camp campaign to Kansas City for an amazing week of specialty beer tastings, beer and food pairings, and appearances by Woody, the giant beer barrel on wheels. Deschutes brewers, ambassadors and fanatics will be on hand to provide some in-the-trenches insight into our courageously crafted brews.

What is Base Camp you may ask? It’s a place where Deschutes Brewery offers beer fanatics a spot to “pitch a tent” of sorts – and find their footing with the cornerstone of Mirror Pond Pale Ale. Deschutes Brewery Base Camp Week is a celebration of Mirror Pond’s easy-drinking goodness, along with many more of the brewery’s passion-heavy, pioneering brews. The Deschutes Brewery team is traveling around to cities all over the west this year, providing passionate fans with a seriously fun exploration of beer. Make the trek to Base Camp. It all begins here…

Check the event list below for Woody’s appearance schedule or visit www.DBWoody.com. Also, be sure to follow him on Twitter: @dbwoody.

You can also chime in and listen to the Base Camp chatter on Twitter using #BeerBaseCamp and by following @DeschutesBeer.

Event Overview:
Thurs, 7/26, 7pm-close: Chainbreaker White IPA Release Party (Charlie Hooper’s)
Mon, 7/30, 8pm-close: Deschutes Brewery Base Camp Kickoff Party (Grinders West) > Woody
Tues, 7/31, 6-9pm: Hats Off To Homebrewers (Amigoni Urban Winery) > Woody
Tues, 7/31 10pm-close: Deschutes Brewery Beer Trivia (Flying Saucer)
Wed, 8/1, 5-7pm: Build Your Own Tailgate (Hy-Vee in Liberty) > Woody
Wed, 8/1, 8pm-close: Women and Craft Beer Ice Cream Social (Waldo Pizza) > Woody
Thurs, 8/2, 5:30-7pm: Beer and Cheese Pairing (Lukas Liquor) > Woody
Thurs, 8/2, 5:30-7pm: Build Your Own Kegerator (Royal Liquors) > Woody
Thurs, 8/2, 7-9pm: Beer-lesque: Tastings and Tassels (The Riot Room)
Fri, 8/3, 4:30-6:30pm: Midtown Madness with Deschutes Brewery (Gomer’s Midtown)
Fri, 8/3, 8pm-close: Locals’ Night (All Star Pizza & Pub) > Woody
Sat, 8/4, 2-6pm: Dog Days of Summer (McCoy’s/The Foundry/Beer Kitchen) > Woody

At a recent Helles Angels meeting, we went around the room and shared which gateway beer got us to try craft beer. There were those to be expected such as Boulevard Wheat, Fat Tire or Sam Adams… etc.  

My gateway beer was Guinness.

It was post college, I was in my first real job and my tastes were beginning to expand. Up to this point, I had only tried the standard macros and I didn’t like beer. I was hanging out with a friend who was drinking Guinness and he set it down on the floor next to me as I was leaning up against the sofa. I asked if I could try it and was met with the response that I wouldn’t like it. On the contrary, it was wonderful. It was the first beer I bought for myself.

Fast forward to few years ago when my husband and I toured the Guinness Brewery.  They offered a wall where you can post personal notes to the brewery and I got thank them for opening up my palate to craft beer.

Unfortunately, I hear too many women (none in H.A.) turn down a number of beers because it is dark in color (roasted malt). Why the color so off-putting I will never understand. The flavor is light, yet rich. 

And a bonus… Guinness is actually a light beer with 12oz at 125 calories (okay, it’s not MGD 64).

 It’s America’s birthday once again and there will be mid-week parties full of food, friends, and our favorite – beer. With the Kansas City heat we’re experiencing, it’s bound to be hot and dry – so we offer up four session beers for the fourth.  These four brews will keep you refreshed, happy, and drinking local, this Independence Day.

Boulevard Zon

This Belgian style wit beer is not only a Kansas City summer stand-by but a 2009 Gold Medal winner at the Great American Beer Fest.  Zon has a cloudy appearances with notes of coriander and orange peel, and weighs in at 4.4% ABV. ”Zon” may be Flemish for “sun”, but this beer is perfect for keeping cool in the shade on a lazy afternoon.

McCoy’s Blackberry Lager

Swing by Westport and pick of a growler of the Blackberry Lager for your Fourth of July festivities. This 4.8% lager is brewed with real Oregon blackberries and has both a tart and sweet profile. What makes this beer special is the fact that it is a lager – not an ale like most fruit beers – making it especially light and crisp and great for a Kansas City summer.

Mother’s Sandy

We are just a week away from Mother’s Day – well the mother’s day for the KC craft beer scene.  Next week, Mother’s Brewing of Springfield, Mo begins distribution on both sides of the state line. Until then, you can get many of their beers on draft around town, including Sandy, a pale wheat. This beer is a great mix of an earthy, hop-forward pale ale and a fruity, unfiltered wheat.  A touch of grapefruit and an ABV of 4.8% make this local(ish) pint a great addition to your Fourth of July party. Bonus – Check out Lew’s in Waldo on Friday, July 6, for a firkin of this summer brew.

Freestate Stormchaser IPA

Looking for some hops to pair with your fireworks? Free State Brewing’s summer seasonal, Stormchaser is a lighter-bodied IPA that still packs in the hoppy notes. Add in a few citrus notes and you’ve got a great summer IPA for beating the heat.

Whatever craft beer you reach for this Fourth of July, cheers Kansas City!

Last week Helles Angels welcomed in the warmer temperatures the only way we know how - summer food and summer beers. Our May event was centered on putting a new twist on traditional summer dishes and pairing them with seasonal brews. Our evening was filled with light but tasty appetizers and satisfying beers. Here are some of the highlights:

We started off with what has to be the ultimate summer brew: Steigl Grapefruit Radler. This Austrian half-beer-half-soda has been spotted on draft around KC this spring, and is a welcome addition to our event. At only 2.5%, with a tart, slightly sweet taste and just the right amount of carbonation, the Steigl Radler is a great beer for any summer evening.

We continued with another grapefruit beer - the Shiner Ruby Redbird. At 4.2%, the Redbird is slightly stronger and leans more on the citrus flavor of grapefruit and has a touch of ginger. This beer was paired with our first dish of the evening, a brown rice and mango salad. The mangos were a hint of sweetness with the earthy grown rice. The fruit tastes in the beer and salad made this a great seasonal pairing.

The second course was a throwback to childhood - corndogs! (There were also vegan dogs!) These treats on a stick were dipped in a balsamic ketchup and paired with Bell’s Oberon Ale. The corndogs had an light, crisp batter and a meaty bite (even the vegan dogs.) The Oberon Ale, Bell’s wheat beer and summer seasonal, had a little bit of spice and yeast character but was overall nice and light. Another great summer pairing. 

The next dish was maybe the easiest of the night, but a delightful spin on summer’s favorite fruit - watermelon. Simple slices of melon were sprinkled with feta and basil. We popped open some of The JosephsBrau (Trader Joe’s Label) Dunkelweizen. This dark wheat did double duty on the pairing- being light enough to not overshadow the watermelon but strong enough to stand up to the creamy feta. 

Next, we moved on to a bean and corn dip paired with Third Stone  English Brown Ale from Empyrean Brewing. The dip was hearty but fresh with a bit of heat. The brown ale had pronounced caramelized malt notes that balanced with the spice quite nicely. This brown ale was on the lighter side, and the dip had all of summer’s best ingredients - making this pairing great for the season. 

An impromptu but surprisingly good pairing stepped in next. Our hostess made deviled eggs with blue cheese and another Angel brought New Belgium’s summer seasonal - Somersault. The eggs were incredibly rich with the blue cheese and the Somersault had subtle notes of apricots and citrus that complimented the deviled eggs. 

Before we wrapped up for the evening, we were surprised with some bonus beers an Angel brought from her home state - Kentucky. From the Lexington Brewing Company we sampled the American APA, the Kentucky Ale and a Bourbon Barrel Ale. All three were great, but the Bourbon Barrel Ale stood out because, let’s face it, Kentucky knows Bourbon. 

May’s event was a huge success with some great food and beers and was a great way to ring in the summer. Pick up some summer beers, grab your favorite summer dish, and CHEERS!