Combing art and science in new beer recipe book

A new book by the award-winning writer, Melissa Cole, features over 70 recipes using beer as an ingredient.

In the The Beer Kitchen Melissa has combined two of her greatest passions: great brews and delicious food combining the art and science of cooking and pairing food with beer.

The book offers ideas for simple dips, chutneys and pickles to show-off roasts, classic pies and inventive desserts, by combining an instinctive and scientific approach to cooking with beer.

Readers can feast on the exquisite Beer-brined Pork Chops with Blue Cheese Polenta, the perfect Sunday lunch of Ale Roast Goose with Double Red Cabbage, or for a light but tasty snack try the creamy Celeriac Croquettes with Hefeweizen Sauce.

The Beer Kitchen is the first cookbook that specifies a style of beer – and even a few different brands – from the supermarket shelves. It has multiple vegetarian and vegan options, thorough advice on tasting notes and a whole section dedicated to cheese, plus all the science on obtaining optimum flavour.

 

 

Christmas Day Lunch – time to bring out the beers!

Here’s beer sommelier, Annabel Smith’s beer suggestions for Christmas Day:

Before you open that calorie laden bottle of Prosecco, or hangover inducing Chateauneuf-de-Pape with your turkey dinner this year, take some advice from the Dea Latis crew and reach for the beer.

Beer has no problem with any of the traditional comestibles we devour on Christmas day, and what’s more, it’s better for you, contains less calories and you’ll wake up on Boxing Day feeling far fresher!

We’ll start with a plate of smoked salmon for breakfast. Pour yourself a glass of refreshing, fizzy wheat beer, such as Vedett White, Erdinger Heffeweisse or Franziskaner Weissebier. Make sure it’s in a champagne flute; the carbonation and citrus will slice through the oiliness of the salmon with a knife, refreshing the palate and complementing the fish. For the veggies amongst you, bake a whole Camembert and serve with chunks of bread, accompanied by Leffe Blonde or Affligem Tripel. These beers blow wine out of the water with their sweet breadiness.

With a clear head, you can start on the star attraction – the turkey. Substitute the cranberry sauce with a cheeky glass of Titanic Plum Porter. The fruitiness of this beer is a perfect foil to the delicate flavours of white meat. If pork is your meat of choice, there’s no better beer than Jenning’s Cumberland Ale, it’s got a lovely apple peel aroma and flavour. For the nut roast gals out there, we recommend the gorgeous Brooklyn lager, full of toffee, caramel and sweet notes.

Onto the Christmas pudding, reach for Shepherd Neame Bishop’s Finger or Robinson’s Old Tom – both are full of stewed and dried fruit flavours which complement the richness of the dessert.

Here comes the cheeseboard, laden with Stilton, and we’re going to be drinking Theakston’s Old Peculier or Fullers London Porter. Both there beers tone down the metallic, coppery elements in the cheese. It’s a weird combination but it works so well!

And finally…well Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a chocolate or two. Settle back and sip a glass of Liefman’s Kriek to recreate that cherry liqueur experience

Best of the West Dinner

Join Dea Latis at The Albion, Boyce’s Ave, Clifton Village, Bristol BS8 4AA from 7pm, Thursday 20th July 2017 for a Women and Beer Dinner.

Enjoy a delicious five-course beer and food matching dinner in partnership with St Austell Brewery and Bath Ales.

Held at The Albion in Clifton, which prides itself on its modern British cuisine from local ingredients, each dish will be matched with a different beer by Beer Sommelier, Annabel Smith.

Tickets are £25 per person, go to our EventBrite page to purchase them.

Cheers from Burton with beer-loving women

In an event to mark the national celebrations for Beer Day Britain, Dea Latis, is holding a beer and food tasting evening for women at Marston’s Brewery Visitor’s Centre, DE14, on Thursday 15^th June from 6.30pm. Guests will join in with the annual ‘Cheers for Beer’ at 7pm.

Guests are set for a fascinating insight into women’s involvement in beer and brewing as well as sampling six different types of hand-held locally produced foods each matched with a different local beer. Beer Sommelier Annabel Smith will host the evening.

Jo Wyke, Marketing Manager for Marston’s said: “We are excited to be hosting this double celebration; inviting women to learn about beers brewed in Burton as well as joining in with Beer Day Britain’s celebration of our national drink with a countrywide ‘Cheers for beer’ at 7pm. She added: “At Marston’s, five of our brewers and over 75% of the brands marketing team are women so we are really behind this event.”

Alongside beers brewed by Marston’s the evening will also feature beers brewed by Burton Bridge Brewery, Freedom Brewery and a couple of surprise guest beers. Dea Latis organiser, Lisa Harlow said: “Burton Upon Trent is famous the world over for brewing beer so it’s time we united Burton’s beer-loving women with those who would like to know more about our national drink.”

The Dea Latis team are keen to point out that it is not a women-only event but clearly want to see women represented in force. Tickets are £20 (including a booking fee) per head and available online at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-burton-with-love-tickets-34850717434

Dea Latis goes international

Annabel Smith, one of the founding members of Dea Latis, attended the 13^th International Beer Strategies Conference in Barcelona on 10^th May, to speak on the subject of how beer can appeal to a wider female audience. She was accompanied by Jenny Elliott, a fellow Beer Sommelier, and the Brand and Beer Champion at Molson Coors.

The conference was attended by representatives from the entire spectrum of the brewing industry, and hosted speakers from Asahi Europe, Heineken, Diageo, Carlsberg, Brooklyn Brewery and Bieres de Chimay amongst others.

The conference was held over two days and included a behind the scenes visit to the Estrella Damm brewery.

Annabel said “The conference was really enlightening in terms of learning about future trends, current research and emerging brands in the beer industry. However, our ultimate mission was to communicate how the beer industry could engage a wider female audience by highlighting the challenges women face in choosing a beer as a drink of choice: namely misconceptions about health and calories, presentation and serve, brand positioning, and marketing”.

She added: “One really important message we did want to get across was that women do not want a beer which is designed specifically and solely for the female consumer. These type of beers have been launched before and they have failed. It’s patronising to assume that all women will like a particular flavour, style or colour of beer. What the beer industry needs to do is invest more time and funding in education, awareness and product presentation to engage women with the vast array of fantastic styles and brands which are already available on the market. There is a beer style which suits everyone, regardless of their gender.”

Annabel and Jenny hosted a panel discussion and invited questions from the delegates on how they could overcome some of the challenges the beer industry faced in getting women to choose beer as drink of choice, particularly in the UK where female beer consumption is far lower than the rest of Europe or the US.

The photograph above shows Jenny Elliott and Annabel Smith at the conference

It’s back…..beer and breakfast

Amaze friends with your beer knowledge this Christmas!

Our annual beer and breakfast get together is taking place on Friday 2nd December from 9.30 to 12 noon at the Kings Stores (courtesy of our friends at Greene King).

Situated at 14 Widegate Street, London, E1 7HP the Kings Stores is close to Spitalfields Market so you can squeeze in a cheeky bit of Christmas shopping afterwards or get back to your day job, invigorated, inspired and educated!

If you want to know what goes with a veggie sausage sandwich, avocado & bacon on sourdough and even granola and yoghurt then come along and find out! Each of the five courses is served with matching beers with commentary by the brewer or a beer expert.

Tickets for the five-course breakfast served with matching beers, tea, coffee and of course networking with other beer-loving women are just £25.

There are complimentary places available for press guests, please tick the ‘press ticket’ box.

We look forward to seeing you for a chat, a slurp and a taste.

To book your place, visit our Eventbrite page.

Women & Beer Survey 2016

Please can you spare less than five minutes to take part in a women and beer survey to help us conduct some research?

We want your opinion on whether attitudes by women towards drinking beer have changed over the last decade.

We would be delighted if you could share the survey link with any other friends who you think might be interested in taking part and we are very happy if you want to share the survey on social media. When the feedback is collated we will share the results with you.
If you could complete the survey by Wednesday 11th May we would be most grateful. Please click through here – Dea Latis Women & Beer Survey 2016

If you have any other views, strong opinions or even your own research that you would like to add please drop a separate email to us here.

Beery Bank Holiday Baking

As beer loving ladies we couldn’t resist this beery cake recipe from our lovely Spanish friends from Estrella Galicia featuring their Black Coupage, a 7.2%abv Munich Dunkel-style lager.

It could be the perfect diversion for a wet Bank Holiday weekend!

INGREDIENTS: (for 30 servings)

For the sponge:

660ml Black Coupage Beer
660g butter
240g cocoa powder
1kg sugar
8 eggs
900g flour

For the icing:
250g cream cheese such as Philadelphia
125g sugar
250g icing Sugar

RECIPE:

1. Add the beer with butter in a saucepan and bring to the boil carefully.
2. Add the cocoa and stir.
3. In a separate bowl, blend the eggs with the sugar.
4. Combine the two mixtures, stirring carefully.
5. Sift the flour into the mix gradually and mix carefully each time.
6. Pour into a greased cake tin and place it in an oven at 180 degrees for 40 minutes.
7. Remove and cool.
8. Combine the icing ingredients until smooth.
9. Ice the cake and serve with some more Black Coupage Beer.

Salud!

You can buy the beer from specialist retailer, Beers of Europe at £2.09 a bottle.

Success for first women-only beer fest in Canada

Interesting article here on Canada’s first women-only beer festival, attended by 800 guests.

http://torontolife.com/food/wine-and-beer/streeters-society-of-beer-drinking-ladies-only-fest-brick-works-canadas-first/

 

 

Dea Latis hosts pre-Easter beer and chocolate tasting

As part of its continuing quest to encourage more women to enjoy our national drink, industry group Dea Latis hosted its traditional pre-Easter beer and chocolate tasting earlier this week.

Twenty guests gathered in the Clarence pub on Whitehall to taste five beers, each paired with a chocolate chosen to enhance the flavours in each. Expert guidance to the beer and chocolate matches was provided by beer sommelier Jane Peyton.

Peyton said, “The Mayans described chocolate as the ‘Food of the Gods’ – I know a lot of people who agree with that! Beer and chocolate are perfect partners. Essentially, they both have a balance of bitterness and sweetness. So when they’re consumed together, the tastes and textures complement each other.  Add to that the carbonation in beer, which cuts through the fattiness of the chocolate and you have a truly magical match.”

The beers and chocolates tasted by guests at the Clarence were:

• Elgood’s Coolship with Divine Dark Chocolate with Raspberries
• Erdinger Weissbier with Green & Black’s White Chocolate
• Bager Ales Poacher’s Choice with Paul A Young Valrhona Jivara Milk Chocolate
• Hogs Back Brewery Montezuma’s Chocolate Lager with Montezuma’s Lordy Lord
• Left Hand Brewing Nitro Milk Stout with Divine Milk Chocolate with Toffee & Sea Salt

Dea Latis – named after the Celtic goddess of beer – was launched in 2010 as a forum where women working in breweries, pubs or related jobs could share insights and experience.

The group now holds a number of beer and food tastings through the year and regularly communicates with around 260 women including brewers, licensees, quality managers, trainers, writers, bloggers and a growing number of interested beer drinkers.

The next Dea Latis event will be a Brewsters Brunch at the Birmingham Beer Bash, taking place on Saturday 22 July from 10 – 11.00 am.