Fort Point Beer: Schnebeck on Cheese, Grain Sacks & Natural Wine

A couple months ago I spotlighted at Mission Cheese for a special dinner featuring beer and cheddar stuffed sausages. The Mission folks needed some help plating salads. I wanted cheddar sausages. it was a perfect combo and I came in to work very happy.

Then, I learned that not only were they serving housemade brauts, they were pairing said cheese-packed meats to Fort Point beer, and I was even happier. 

The previous week I had visited Mill Valley Beerworks with my beer-loving Aunt Susan. Mill Valley Beerworks was the spot that gave birth to Fort Point Beer. It's a small little restaurant in Marin with three to five brewing tanks where brothers Tyler and Justin Catalana launched the venture that would become Fort Point (and serve great food right next to a redwood park). And It was there that I tried.... Manzanita, which inspired what some might call a beer epiphany.

This is what they say about Manzanita on their website:

Manzanita is a deep ruby colored ale with strikingly complex campfire smoke and firewood aromas. Beechwood smoked malt contributes an upfront roastiness while charred manzanita branches add hints of perfume and a slightly tannic woody finish.

In short, it's awesome. Rich yet bright with just the right amount of smokiness and herbal notes. It also just won a Good Food Award. Because it's damn good (as a side note, a lovely man I was dating brought a growler home from at the Good Food Awards marketplace a month ago and treated me to it. Now he's my boyfriend. Coincidence? A little. But worth noting).

This January, Fort Point opened a retail shop and tap room in the Ferry Plaza too.

Anyhow, at the lovely dinner, I made friends with the head brewer, Mike Schnebeck (pictured above), who not only let me visit the brewery and take pics galore, he poured me beer while I asked him an insane amount of questions about yeast and sugar (I'm a little fermentation obsessed), talked to me about his love of cheese (he worked at Cheese Plus years ago), and let me pet the brewery cat. Then he let me email him even more questions and pick his cheese and beer pairing brain. Following are the interview questions. Spoiler: He also likes sandwiches and natural wine.

Thank you Mike, and Fort Point, for your time!

Testing bacteria and yeast activity at Fort Point (like all the time)

What are your favorite 3 cheese and beer pairings? Fort Point beers, please. 

Our Professor IPA goes really well with Fiscalini Bandage Wrapped Cheddar. I love how two super intense flavors combine into one new kind of sensation. Professor's hop profile has a tropical slant that accents some of the fruitier cheese tones.

Westfalia and Bellwether Farms San Andreas is a pretty fun party too. That was one of the first cheeses I had that made me go wow! and Westfalia provides just the right amount of cut and complimentary flavor.

Manzanita and Jasper Hill Winnimere is an explosive combo. The spruce adds a nice touch to what is already a very woodsy/campfire combination.

What do you miss most about working with cheese from Cheese Plus?

The sandwiches. I mostly made sandwiches but did some cheese counter work too. I really like making sandwiches. If I wasn't making beer I would probably be making sandwiches. The cheese counter side was great because I was constantly learning and tasting new flavors. Being able to taste is extremely important in brewing too. The broader your palate the better. So in a sense I guess I was training for this job without knowing it. Cheese, like beer, is a vast ocean on the way to distant lands. I miss exploring all of that.

What convinced you that you wanted to be a brewer? 

I'm still not entirely convinced. I enjoy brewing beer but I am interested in many things. Lately natural wine has been calling very strongly. I know very little but the things I have learned have really sparked my interest. That's good for brewing though too, having outside interests I think makes you more creative and changes the way you view the job you do every day. If I had got a job at a famous college wine bar when I was 21 perhaps things would be different but then everything would be different because what college would have a wine bar??

Bryce Tyranski, brewer at Fort Point checking out yeast activity in the microscope

Have a favorite style of beer to make? Why?

Lower alcohol beers require less lifting of sacks of grain -those beers can be nicer to make. I have enjoyed making more aromatic, hoppier styles lately. I enjoy the progression of those beers, tasting at different times and being able to detect how the aromas are changing. The biological and chemical side of hops in fermentation is very fascinating.

The scene from Fort Point Brewing’s back door on a misty day

What are you excited about learning next?

Hop aromas. I did a brief experiment with my friends at Cerveceria de Mateveza a few months ago and discovered some very promising results. It feels like we are awash in hoppy beer but I think we have merely scratched the surface. There are many new techniques that will be developed that will change the way we use and think about hops. I am excited to be a part of these innovations. I am also excited to learn about lighter-style beers and hopefully create something that people never knew they loved.

The cuddliest fastest brewery cat ever.

Thanks again, Mike!

Rauchbiere Triple Whammy: Pairing Smoke & Cream

Like Mike Reis, educator and beer writer at Serious Eats, discusses in Smoked Beers: Your Secret Weapon for Beer Pairing, I detested my first sip of rauchbiere (smoked beer). And my second. And my fifth.

Smoked beer, made with smoked rather than toasted barley malt, is a force. Some of it tastes as light as the breeze wafting by on spring day after a neighbor lights a bbq. Some taste like they have been vigorously stirred with a just-charred stick. And others unabashedly flaunt their resemblance to a late-night camp fire pit that's just been doused with a bucket of water before folks retire to their tents.

That is to say that it has quite a presence. Beer used to all be made this way. Prior to the days of electricity, propane, or coal, all barley was cooked (and inadvertently, smoked) over open flames, so it all had a smoky note to it. Now people make smoked beer as a nod to those days, or because they genuinely like the flavor. Admittedly, that "genuinely like the flavor" part is hard for some to grasp. Because my first and second sip of it made me think more "ashtray" than "artisan" or "lost art," I can understand why. But now, my friends, I'm a believer. And a drinker.

I like smoked beer. Especially with triple-creme cheese. 

A few months after my fifth unappreciated taste of the smoked one, I picked up a rauchbiere that pleased me. Though I wasn't sure I would finish a second bottle, I sensed skill in the subtle smoky application, and definitely finished the first bottle. Then I saw Reis's article Smoked Beers: Your Secret Weapon for Beer Pairing in which he talked about how anyone could grow to love a smoked beer with the right food pairing. And what my friends, is the right food pairing? Cheese! Always, cheese!

Because he suggested pairing rauchbiere with heavy, smoky foods, grill-ables, or rich, sweet foods like pie, I thought, hey, maybe a triple creme would work. It's in-your-face rich, sweet, and, I thought, might be able to stand up to the ferocity that is a smoked beer.

So when teaching a "Perfect Pairings" class at The Cheese School of San Francisco, I decided to test this theory. Reis helped me select the lightly smoked beauty above, because, well, I had no idea what I was doing. The Schlenkerla It's a lightly smoked, wheat, marzen beer.

The class loved the pairing. Not all of them liked the rauchbiere immediately on its own, but even those that didn't liked it with the triple creme. I guess 75% butterfat helps make even the smokiest of ( delicious) medicine go down. And those whose favorite style of cheese wasn't a triple liked the buttery wheel better with the beer. Together they tasted like… smoky ice cream, which I can tell you, is pretty darn impressive.

The triple we chose that day was Brillat Savarin. Creme fraiche is added the whole milk when the cheese is made, hence amping up the butterfat factor to a velvety 75%. Other triples I'd turn to are: Nancy's Camembert, Delice de Bourgogne, Mt Tam, Kunik, or… do you have any ideas for this pairing? 

Next time you're heading to a bbq, think of picking up a couple rauchebieres for your party. One to try with the grill-ables, and another, to serve with a creamy cheese for a triple-whammy pairing.

Briar Rose's Lorelei: Goat Cheese ♥'s Beer

Awakening this blog from a deep winter slumber induced by holiday wine retail frenzy, the launching of my cheese club, backs being thrown out, sneaky asthma, and being caught flightless in New York City during Polar Vortex I  (but in what a wonderful place to be caught) is Briar Rose's Lorelei. Could be the best possible way to emerge from hibernation in the history of, well, …. emerging from hibernation.

Lorelei is a beer-washed goat's milk cheese with a rich flavor alternating between bacon and freshly baked, yeasty bread whose texture lends itself to being thickly spread on a baguette. It's named after German river siren with a reputation for luring sailors to their doom (crashing their ships into rocks) with her song (noted, said sailors may have heard wailing wind and also been slightly tipsy).

Ever since I shared a basket of fried pork rinds and a cup of sweet tea with cheesemaker Sarah Marcus in North Carolina at the American Cheese Society conference, I had an eye on this creamery. I had earlier heard about the magic of her goat cheese and chocolate truffles a year or so prior, but because Briar Rose was so small production, I couldn't get my hands on her other cheeses to try in California. Back then she was mainly dealing with fresh goat's milk cheeses, and didn't age any, or as many of her creations.

But now, man oh man does she age her cheese.

Woman knows her way around a cheese cave. The maker of such beauties as Freya's Wheel, Madrona, and Iris, Sarah Marcus launched Briar Rose in 201o in Willamette Valley, Oregon. Before Oregon, Marcus worked at the Cowgirl Creamery cheese shop, and spent time in England learning about Ticklemore (Freya's a beautiful nod to this cheese). She started making Lorelei March of 2013.

It is from local dairy Tideland Dairy Goats from Tillamook, Oregon that Marcus gets her goat's milk. And it is from the alfalfa growing on the coastal hills of Tillamook that the goats get their nourishment. Oh, Oregon goat cheese...

After Marcus gets the milk, she pasteurizes it, adds cultures and rennet, lets it set, then cuts the curd. From there, the curds go into robbiola-style square molds. They're left to firm, then are later salted and put on racks. A week later, she starts washing Lorelei down with Steam Fire Stout from Fire Mountain, a brewery ten miles from the creamery where Brewmaster Henry brews in a garage where he used to build three to four-person planes. Lorelei is doused with Steam Fire three to four time a week for around three weeks, then sent out the door.

I prefer Lorelei older- about six to eight weeks. Its then that it gets a little more sultry, softer around the edges, and easier to spread on a baguette. Marcus loves Lorelei with a beer related to its creation like a stout, porter, or nut brown ale. Agreed on this end too. If pairing with a wine, try with lightly yeasty, but mineral and un-oaked Muscadet made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape from the Loire Valley. Or maybe Harper Voight's Pinot Blanc from Oregon.

Marcus's cheese can be found around the west coast, in select stores nationwide, and ordered directly from the source.

Next posts- upcoming events, and.. a guest post from the wonderful Alexandra Cooks!

Cheesemaker events, Volcanic Classes &, Beer.

A few clases and event that have caught my eye around San Francisco, including one I'm teaching (last, on Volcanic wines, Shepherd Cheeses. They're listed in order of date. Hope to see you at some!

Meet the Cheesemakers Fundraiser: Thursday, October 10, 7-9 p.m.

The California Artisan Cheese Guild - an organization that helps cheesemakers with education, scholarships, marketing and beyond- is holding their annual fundraiser next week. Cheesemakers from Bellwether Farms, Cypress Grove, Cowgirl Creamery, Pt Reyes Farmstead, Redwood Hill, Valley Ford, Weirauch Farms, Bleating Heart, Laura Chenel, Nicasio Valley, Marin French, Shamrock Artisan, Gypsy Cheese, Delice de la Vallee and Tomales Farmstead will be there to chat, along with beer and wine, and even a demo or two. Always an awesome place to be. At the Cheese School's new location 

Cheese and Cider, Thursday, 6:30pm, October 17th

Like beer, cider is experiencing a renaissance. Delightful and complex small-batch ciders are popping up in stores and bars throughout San Francisco. More forgiving than wine and sweeter than beer, cider is an ideal foil for the creamy complexity of fromage. Author and SF Chronicle columnist Janet Fletcher will pair her favorite examples of the hard stuff with an array of cheeses. This is a pairing class sure to be easy on the palate.

Brews on the Bay, Saturday, October 19th, from 12-5pm

Put on by the San Francisco Brewers Guild, Brews on the Bay features the wares of fifty different breweries, like 21st Amendment, Almanac, and more.... with music. On the ocean. On a Boat. Brewers present.

Breakfast for Dinner: Tuesday, October 22 at 7pm

Four courses, and just to start: frittata, pork belly rancheros with lager, french toast with porter. Maple syrup with porter and pork belly had me, but who knows, maybe there will be cheese in the frittata. Either way- beer with breakfast. Go.

Shepherds and Volcanos: The Magic of Mountain Cheeses and Wines, Wednesday, Oct 30th, 6:30pm

Despite the treacherous climb (and even the threat of volcanic eruption), people have been making cheese and wine in volcanoes, on mountains, and in the Alps for centuries -- and not just because the views are picturesque. Alpine and mountain style cheeses are celebrated for their hearty textures, heavenly taste, and exceptional nutritional content. Kirstin Jackson, cheese and wine educator and author of It’s Not You, It’s Brie will explore the who and how of the mountain cheese, and explain why the finest cheeses and wines around come from uneven or even dangerous ground. The cheeses will be vibrant, the wines will be weird, and the class will be delicious.

Feel free to share any not-t0-be-missed cheese events in the comment section!