As you may recall, I recently had the honor of being flown to Charleston, SC to attend an all-expense-paid, super special beer dinner co-hosted by the Culinary Institute of Charleston and Samuel Adams.

Prior to the actual event, I was sent the invitation above — which listed the various courses and pairings for the beer dinner. Other than knowing the tentative list of food & beers, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the evening.

And any expectations that I might have had, were completely blown out of the water.

There were several highlights of the night –one of which included meeting and conversing with the phenomenal team of chefs from the Culinary Institute of Charleston.

Two such chefs were Chef David Vagasky and Chef Ben Black — the brilliant talent behind the fantastic appetizer spread.

The Wench & Chef David Vagasky

The Wench & Chef Ben Black

At the end of the evening, I got the opportunity to interview the main chef behind the entire orchestration of the Samuel Adams beer dinner, Chef Michael Carmel. Chef Carmel is the Department Chair of Culinary Arts at the Culinary Institute of Charleston-Trident technical College. He is a Culinary Institute of America graduate, 1978 as well as holds a bachelor’s degree from Long Island University, master’s degree at National-Louis University and he is currently pursuing a doctorate degree.

The music in the background of the video is fairly loud, which makes the interview difficult to hear. This is only my second use of video on my blog, so I will note this for future posts. Oh and disclaimer number two, this interview was unplanned and completely off-the-cusp. So if I stutter, sorry Either way, I hope that at least some of it is entertaining and informative.

THE BEER WENCH INTERVIEWS CHEF MICHAEL CARMEL

CHEERS!

This, my dear friends (and loyal subjects), is an extremely important landmark in the history of The Beer Wench blog.

I am extremely honored and excited to present my first ever official Beer Wench video interview.

And if that was not cool enough, the interview is with the head brewer from Sam Adams –the one, the only– Mr. Bob Cannon.

As you may recall, I recently attended a Sam Adams beer dinner at The Culinary Institute of Charleston. While I was there, Bob Cannon was kind enough to let me interview him.

Since I was unaware of the fact that I would be given this opportunity, the actual interview is completely of the cusp. Nothing that was discussed was planned in advance — and actually, the “interview” flows more like a conversation.

As you will notice, the interview is in two parts. This is because both Bob and The Wench love to talk — especially about beer.

So without any further ado, allow me to present The Wench’s very first video interview with Bob Cannon from Samuel Adams.

SAM ADAMS INTERVIEW PART ONE

SAM ADAMS INTERVIEW PART TWO

Feedback is greatly encouraged!

Cheers!

This past week I had the honor of being flown to Charleston, SC to attend an all-expense-paid, super special beer dinner co-hosted by the Culinary Institute of Charleston and Samuel Adams.

There were several highlights of the night –one of which included meeting and conversing with the phenomenal team of chefs from the Culinary Institute of Charleston. The food and the beer were obviously major highlights as well.

But hands down, the ultimate highlight of the entire evening was the opportunity to meet, interview and talk beer (and other non-beer topics) with Sam Adam‘s Head Brewer, Bob Cannon. And get this — he not only sat at MY TABLE, but also sat RIGHT. NEXT. TO. ME.

And let me just tell you, Bob is one heck of a guy. He is extremely personable and an amazing conversationalist. I could have talked with him for hours upon hours … upon hours … upon hours (and so on and so forth).

Prior to the actual event, I was sent an invitation that listed the various courses and pairings for the beer dinner. Other than knowing the tentative list of food & beers, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the evening.

Needless to say, any expectations that I may have even remotely had were completed exceeded by both The Culinary Institute of Charleston and Sam Adams. The Culinary Institute was beautifully decorated and the table settings were simple, yet effective.

I arrived at the event early with my good friend Lain Bradford. Almost immediately upon entering the building, we were both introduced to Bob Cannon. Even though I didn’t believe him at first, I was very humbled to have learned that Bob had actually heard about me and my blog prior to the event. (Apparently, “The Beer Wench” was a brief topic of conversation at the Great American Beer Fest … who woulda thunk?)

Bob was kind enough to allow both Lain and myself interview him. The footage will be released in the near future.

And now without further ado, allow me to present my Sam Adams Beer Dinner RECAP through the use of visual media …

Disclaimer: the following video is the first of its kind to be released on my blog. I used a FLIP camera to record myself prior to the start of the dinner. Ummm … enjoy?

Okay, so I might need a wee bit o’ practice in the self-video department.

Let us move on to the nitty gritty.

Upon entering the doors to the Culinary Institute of Charleston, guests were immediately “bombarded with beer. We were forced to sample the Samuel Adams Pils and the Samuel Adams Ale.

We were asked to vote which one we preferred best. And you will NEVER guess in a million years what The Wench voted for …

(If you even need to ask, then you are not stalking me well enough — tisk tisk)

Soft pretzels and whole grain mustard and beer is a natural pairing. These delicious knots of joy were a slam dunk with the Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

This was our modest cheese spread. Only about 5 pounds worth per guest …

Super sexy close-up of the cheese. Ohhhhhhh yeah.

That was some seriously coagulated casein. I’m drooling just looking at the picture.

Mmmmmmm beer.

Adobe chicken wings and livers. To die for. Really.

Mussels steamed in garlic & Boston Lager. Absolutely delicious!

The Beer Wench and Chef David Vagasky — the brilliantly talented chef behind all of the appetizers.

The simple, yet completely perfect center piece.

The spit bucket was just for decoration.

I don’t think anyone  actually used it …

The table confetti consisted of two types of barley and dried hops leaves — which I proceeded to chew on at the end of the meal. HEY, hops are good for digestion. Among other things

The Beer Wench with Chef Ben Black — the other brilliantly talented chef responsible for the amazing appetizer spread!

The Salad Course: Shrimp and Citrus Salad paired with Samuel Adams Summer Wheat Ale.

The salad was super light and refreshing and the beer complimented it extremely well.

The First Entree Course: Cajun red snapper with Texas caviar and mango salad with a mango Irish Red reduction. This was paired with Samuel Adams Irish Red Ale.

I loved this course. I would almost argue that it was my favorite. The Irish Red Ale was definitely my favorite beer of the night, hands down. (It is also Bob Cannon’s favorite SA beer)

The Second Entree Course: Salmon Nicoise — Fennel crusted salmon atop a nicoise olive & haricot vert salad finished with a reduction of whole grain mustard and paired with Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

This dish was very tasty and the salmon was cooked perfectly. Samuel Adam’s Boston Lager is one of the only American Lagers that I actually enjoy.

The Third Entree Course: Pan-seared SA Blackberry Wit Muscovy duck breast with blackberry-lemon gastrique and griddled Anson Mills hoe cake paired with Sam Adams Blackberry Wit.

The duck was out of this world. This was also the first time I tried the SA Blackberry Wit — and needless to say, I was impressed. Light & fruity. Perfect pair for this dish.

The Fourth Entree Course: Hold onto your seats for this one, kids.

Kobe beef short ribs braised in SA Cream Stout atop a bed of roasted garlic buttermilk mashed potatoes and paired with Sam Adams Cream Stout.

This dish was absolutely pornographic. The cream stout was rich, thick and oooohhh so creamy.

The Fifth Entree Course: Sam Adams Black Lager & chocolate ancho chile rubbed lamb ribs paired with Sam Adams Black Lager.

Ridiclous. Absolutely ridiculous.

The Dessert Course: Paired with Sam Adams Cherry Wheat.

Part 1 = Apple walnut & cream stout tart

Part 2 = Malted chocolate gelato with macerated cherries, vanilla bean creme fraiche and SA Cherry Wheat foam.

I completely devoured both desserts. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if pictures of me licking the plate surfaced.The cherry wheat complimented both deserts very nicely. It was not too sweet and slightly tart.

LA PIECE DE RESITANCE: SAMUEL ADAMS UTOPIA.

This is the strongest beer in the entire world. It is roughly 27.5 %ABV. It is only produced every two years — and will run yo about $200 bucks a bottle.

And what does The Wench have to say about it?

Wow. Just … wow.

I am still speechless.

Well, folks. That is all the photos I have to share from the event. The event was almost too enjoyable that I forgot all about taking pictures.

BIG THANKS go out to both Samuel Adams and The Culinary Institute of Charleston for putting on such an amazing event and allowing me to be a part of it. I had a tremendously wonderful time. The food was amazing and the beers were spectacular — but it truly was the people who made the event as enjoyable as it was.

CHEERS!

I am still speechless.

After taking a kick-ass tour and enjoying a tasting flight of beer at the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton – my friend and I made the trek down to the Dogfish Head Brewpub (called DFH Brewing & Eats) in Rehoboth Beach, DE.

Along the way we stopped off at an enormous liquor store (whose name currently escapes me) in hopes of finding the extremely coveted Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA. Despite my excess begging and threats to handcuff myself to the bar, the actual DFH brewery did not have one single bottle of 120 minute on hand.

DFH was lucky – this time. I was able to locate a few bottles of 120 Minute IPA at local liquor store and did not have to handcuff myself to the bar in protest!

While at the liquor store, I also picked up a bottle of World Wide Stout and Rogue’s latest release – DOUBLE DEAD GUY ALE.

After the brief – yet successful – stop at the liquor store, it was on to Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats for some brews and eats!

The Dogfish Head Brewpub is the original location of the DFH Craft Brewery. The teeny tiny little brewpub was the sole production facility for all of Dogfish Head’s beers for several years – until demand exceeded production SO MUCH that DFH was forced to expand into its operations to its current brewery in Milton, DE.

After Dogfish Head relocated its brewing operations to Milton, Dogfish Head replaced its brewing equipment upstairs in the brewpub with small pot still. Dogfish Brewing & Eats is currently Delaware’s ONLY legal distillery. Although small, it does produce enough to liquor to sell throughout the state – in limited quantities.

Here is a little more information about DFH Brewing & Eats. Source: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.

Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats in downtown Rehoboth Beach, Delaware is where Dogfish Head all began back in 1995. It’s a cozy place, finished with antique barn wood and great old black & white photos – a great place to meet friends for a beer, a meal, or just stop by to hear some of the live, original music we book every weekend!

The menu features lots of tasty wood-grilled food – pizzas, seafood and steaks are our specialties, but we do some mean salads too!

Our small experimental brewery is housed in the Rehoboth Beach brewpub, so we always have something interesting on tap or in the fermenters. Upstairs is the state’s only legal distillery where we make lots of hand-crafted spirits.

Since prior to my Dogfish Head visit I had tasted just about every DFH beer that was available to me, I was extremely intrigued by its spirits.

Now, EVERYONE knows that the Beer Wench loves beer. That is a given. Most know that I also love wine. What most do not know is that I am OBSESSED with the Bloody Mary. In fact, I have dreams of owning my own bar with an extensive Bloody Mary list. But more on that another time.

And so, it was only natural that I order one of Dogfish Head’s own Bloody Marys – made with a housemade Bloody Mary mix and house distilled Blue Hen Vodka.

The vodka was ultra smooth and the Bloody Mary mix was very delightful. For a brewing company, this drink was pretty damn tasty. (Although it was not as spicy as I would have liked!)

My friend ordered a rum & coke with the housemade Honey Rum. Personally, I am not a fan of rum & coke. In fact, I detest the drink. Yet, for the sake of research – I gave it a taste. The Honey Rum was extremely delicious and ALMOST made the drink bearable!

By this point, the Beer Wench was starved and craving some wood fired pizza. There were a lot of tasty combinations to choose from as well as an option to create your own. Dogfish Head makes all of its pizzas with crust made from bits of wheat, barley and pre-fermented ale “to impart a rich earthy taste.” All the pizzas are available with either basil pesto, red sauce, or olive oil & fresh garlic.

Being in the Chesapeake Bay area, it was common sense to choose “The Chesapeake” pizza. The incredients included: Lump crab, asparagus, vine-ripened tomatoes, fresh basil. I chose red sauce for the base.

After scarfing down The Chesapeake pizza and my Blue Hen Bloody Mary, I decided to give myself a self run tour of the brewpub. Here are some pictures from my adventure:

Decoration upstairs in the brewpub!

Mmmm barley.

The upstairs

The Wench is all ALE baby … ALL ALE!

Article on the wall

Another article

Kiss goodbye for Sam Caglione, MY BEER HERO!

BIG THANKS to my good friend Chris, who shuttled me around to the DFH Brewery and Brewpub! Good times! Great memories! Amazing beers!

I will be back soon! GUARANTEED!

Where did we last leave off?

Ah yes, now I remember …

Last week I made the bold decision to leave the state of Ohio – never to return again. (Well that is a BIG lie. Being an Ohio State alumni and a wickedly obsessed Buckeye football fan, it is guaranteed that I will return on multiple occasions for games. Moving on …)

And so last Monday I packed up my car with only my essentials and embarked upon a road trip to my new home in Orlando, FL. First stop was a Twitter friend‘s house in Downington, PA – complete with a VIP tour of Victory Brewing Co. as well as my first experience eating BACON! (Another story for another time!)

This brings us to day two. A day that will forever live in Beer Wench infamy. The day I toured my favorite craft brewery in the whole entire country. The day I met Sir Hopsalot. The day I visited DOGFISH HEAD BREWERY!!!

Luckily, I had a good friend from college that lived about a hour north Milton, DE – where the Dogfish Head Brewery is located. He offered to join me on the tour and then crash at his place. In return, I treated him to dinner and drinks at the Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, DE. The brewpub experience deserves a blog of its own. SO, without further ado, I present to you …

Wenchie’s Dogfish Head Brewery tour!!!

THE DOGFISH HEAD BREWERY … (and yes, I am peeing in my pants – correction – I am peeing in my spandex leggings right about now)

CHALK BOARD on the wall at the entrance listing all the beers that DFH is featuring on tap at the brewpub.

GIGANTIC BANNER advertising Dogfish Head’s newest ale creation – Theobroma. Ironically, this beer had just been bottled THE DAY BEFORE I arrived and was neither available for tasting nor sale. BUMMER man.

The LIST OF BEERS we were going to taste (for free!!!) after the brewery tour. (It was enough incentive to keep my mouth shut and ask as few questions as possible! Lucky for me, I am very familiar with the Dogfish Head story, beers and brewing process – so I had no questions!) Mmm … MIDAS TOUCH on DRAFT! SCORE!

Our SUPER AWESOME tour guide Jill. She was a total stud. She told us that out of th 1,400 craft breweries in the United States, Dogfish Head is currently the 25th largest.

Jill also informed us that Dogfish Head is known for two huge differentiating factors:

ONE: Dogfish Head uses more HOPS PER BARREL than ANY other brewery in the world.

TWO: Dogfish Head is infamous for adding unique and exotic ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS to their ales.

I want you to meet my little friend, SIR HOPS A LOT. Are you familiar with Dogfish Head’s infamous line of IPAs? Aka … the 60 minute IPA, the 90 minute IPA and the OH SO COVETED 120 minute IPA? Do you know how they got their names?

Dogfish Head is the ONLY brewing company that continuously hops its beer. This is because its founder and owner, Sam Caglione, INVENTED and TRADEMARKED the continuous hopping process.

Typically, brewers only add hops during two points of the brewing process – once in the beginning and then again at the end. Once upon a time, Sam was watching a cooking show and the chef was preparing soup. The chef on the show emphasized the importance of slowly and continuously adding the pepper throughout the cooking process. He said that continuously peppering the soup would yield better flavor than just adding it all at once.

And then a light bulb went off in Sam’s head … instead of adding the hops all at once, why not try to continuously hop the beer over a set period of time? This is how the 60 minute ale was born. The first time Sam brewed 60 Minute IPA used an old vibrating tabletop football game that he found at a garage sale. He put the game over the brew kettle and covered the surface with hops. The little plastic football players shook and spun their way down the field, continuously distributing hops into the kettle over a 60 minute time period.

Obviously, an old plastic game from the 80′s was not the most efficient tool for the continuous hopping process. So Sam decided to build his own apparatus to do the job. The first model was SIR HOPS A LOT.

This is me and my new boy friend – SIR HOPS A LOT

Sign on the ORIGINAL KEGGING LINE

Sign on the ORIGINAL BOTTLING LINE

Mmm roasted barley …

Jill explaining how Dogfish Head sends its used mash to local farmers, who feed it to their cattle. AND THEN, Dogfish Head buys the cattle meat for the steaks and burgers at the brewpub. Circle of life anyone?

Dogfish Head’s current brewing line … where the magic starts!

THE HEAT EXCHANGER! This system is freaking awesome. Before it can be fermented, the wort must first be cooled down to yeast pitching temperature. The large steel barrels are filled with cold water. The super hot wort flows through the pipes in the barrels of cold water which yields 2 results: 1. the wort is cooled and 2. the water in the steel barrels are heated.

Dogfish Head then uses the hot water to produce more wort. Since boiling large quantities of water takes a lot of energy, this heat exchanger saves a HUGE amount of energy.

Dogfish Head also has its own water wells on site and does not require water from any other sources. All “waste” water (from cleaning etc.) goes to the local farmers for irrigation. NEAT-O!

UH OH. Wenchie found the barrel of Dogfish Head 120 IPA – aka THE HOLY GRAIL FOR HOPHEADS. SAVE SOME FOR THE OTHERS!

BATHROOM BREAK!

Other interesting tidbits about Dogfish Head:

-Dogfish Head has 4 different labs with 3 full time quality insurance employees (Yes, we are talking about every beer drinker’s dream job – the tasters. That is all they do … taste beer … PHENOMENAL BEER … ALL DAY. Ahhh the life!)

-Every batch of Dogfish Head beer is tasted 40 times

-Due to its inability to keep up with the high demand, Dogfish Head is only able to ship 30% of its beer orders

-Dogfish Head is available in 28 states

-Dogfish Head has 24 varieties of yeast in the house and posses the ability to propagate its own yeast

-Dogfish Head just added new fermenters in the last 8 weeks.  In order to get them into the brewery, the roof had to be removed and the fermenters were flown in by helicopter.

My tasting cup with Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. After this we tasted Midas Touch, 60 Minute and Indian Brown Ale. And yes, they were all as wonderful as you can imagine!

Punkin was my first pumpkin ale of the season. It was not as spicy and a little more creamy than past versions. All in all, it was ABSOLUTELY delicious.

For me, the biggest highlight was being able to taste Midas Touch on draft. Although it is a year round beer, it can be extremely limited and hard to obtain. And forget about finding it on draft … impossible! It was quite an extraordinary treat!

Me and the truck that got Sam Caglione and Dogfish Head to where they are today!

WHEW! What an amazing tour … but my Dogfish Head experience didn’t stop here! Stay tuned for my next blog on my brewpub experience!

CHEERS!

Recently, I made the bold decision to completely uproot my life and embark on an entirely new adventure.

I quit my job without the prospect of another one.

I forfeited my lease with my old landlord (which unfortunately cost me a PRETTY penny).

I gave away everything I owned that would not fit into my super small Dodge Neon.

And then I whole “life” packed into my ity bity little car and moved from Columbus, OH to Orlando, FL.

Instead of just driving straight down, though, I decided to turn my road trip into a mini beer adventure. Along the way I stopped at and toured 2 of my favorite breweries as well as took a side trip to a microbrewery brewpub. All of my little detours were well worth it and I look forward to blogging about them all.

I left Columbus mid-morning Monday, September 15th. My first stop was right outside of Philadelphia in a town called Downingtown.

For those of you who are not quite aware, I am addicted to the social network slash microblogging tool known as TWITTER. I am going to refrain from talking about Twitter at this time since it would completely take over this blog.

Thanks to Twitter, I have met some really amazing and impressively intelligent people across the world. Many of the people I follow and interact with on Twitter also happen to be huge food & beverage geeks and aficionados as well. I have spent hours on Twitter with other foodies, winos & hopheads – discussing and posting pics of food & booze.

One of my buds from Twitter -the brilliant brains behind 1WineDude blog- invited me to come stay with him and his wife in Downington, PA. They are good friends with the event coordinator at Victory Brewing Co. and were able to set me up with a private tour. This was not an offer The Beer Wench could refuse.

And of course, I accepted @1WineDude‘s invitation and went on a special VIP tour of Victory Brewing Company – followed by a delicious dinner with some delicious Victory beers in the Victory brewpub!

And without further ado, here is my tour (via photos)!

VICTORY MALT MILL. The object of milling is to split the husk, preferably lengthwise, in order to expose the starchy endosperm for milling and allow for efficient extraction and subsequent filtration of the wort. Malt milling is usually done by either dry or wet milling. In a wet milling operation, the whole uncrushed malt is presteeped in hot water to the point where the husks reach a water content of approximately 20% and the endosperm remains nearly dry, which results in a semi-plastic, almost pasty consistency. Source: The Brewer’s Handbook.

Victory is the ONLY craft brewery that wet mills.

BARLEY

CONTROL PANEL. WARNING – DO NOT LET BEER WENCH TOUCH, EVER!

DRIED WHOLE LEAF HOPS

FERMENTATION TANKS

YEAST FILTRATION MACHINE THINGY

Mmmm HOPDEVIL KEG!

KEGGING LINE

BOTTLING LINE

PACKAGING AND SHIPPING AREA

JACKPOT!

HALF OF THE BAR

132 CENTS IPA ON CASK!

GOLD RUSH ALE & CREOLE SHRIMP AND SPANISH RICE SPECIAL ENTREE

HOPDEVIL IPA ON CASK

After finishing all the great food and beer, our lovely and very knowledgable tour guide gave us a few bottles of Victory Baltic Thunder as a parting gift. Then we all trucked back to my friend’s place where we sipped on some Victory 10 Years Alt Altbier while looking at some amazing photos in scrap books that his wife put together! Perfect ending to a perfect evening!

SPECIAL THANKS TO Wine Dude, Mrs. Dudette and Baby Dudette. You dudes are the cat’s meow!