Do I really have to add my own howls of derision to everyone else's comments on Estrella Damm Inedit? I think the world could do without yet another blogger pointing out that the marketing of a beer designed specifically as an accompaniment to fine dining should be received the same way as a hypothetical winery announcing that, at last, they have created a wine that goes with food. The guff surrounding Inedit is the point where ignorant snobbery meets cynical niche marketing, and the less this sort of thing is encouraged the better.So, ranting aside, what's the beer like? I shared a bottle with Adeptus on his recent visit to Ireland (thanks to him for the photo). It presents as a cloudy yellow witbier, and the tag promises all the usual witbier things -- coriander, orange peel -- plus some extra bonus liquorice. The latter does add an interesting kind of herby flavour, but it adds it to something that is otherwise a really really dull, thin Belgian-style wit. More than any of the interesting ingredients, it's the suspended yeast which stands out as the most notable element in the flavour profile, making the whole experience amount to little more than yeast-infused fizzy water with slight herbal overtones. Maybe the methods of production are supremely artisan and the pinnacle of the gastrozymurgist's art, but it still comes out like diluted Hoegaarden at the end.
If you're serious about choosing beer to go with your food, you could do a lot worse than pick up a book along the lines of The Brewmaster's Table by Garrett Oliver, or take a look at some of the many excellent blogs that deal with the subject in an entertaining and mouth-watering way. And if you're running a restaurant and are interested in high-quality beer to go with your food (and you should be), then start with a case each of Duvel and Westmalle Dubbel -- both available in diner-friendly 75cl bottles -- and perhaps some Brooklyn Lager or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for the spicier dishes. Or, if the wheaty stylings of Inedit appeal, there's always Hoegaarden.
Beer and food: yes. Special food-beer, as I keep saying: no.
Tsaw a bottle of that a few weeks ago and now I am glad I did not by it. It appears that part of their strategy is to have a fancy beer bottle and by default it become a beer for fine dining
ReplyDeleteAlso I have to second The Brewmaster's Table great book
Never heard of it until reading this. I guess I won't be buying one if I see it.
ReplyDeleteI've also reviewed the beer and I think this beer should be seen in the Spanish context.
ReplyDeleteFor Spaniards beer means "caña", a 0.25l glass of a beer-like beverage served extremely cold. That's it. The fact that a very high end restaurant and one of the best cooks in the world are somehow behind the product is likely to make some people start looking at beer in a different and more possitive way.
This said, out of Spain that marketing strategy makes very little if any sense, more so when the beer itself isn't all that special.
Thanks PF: I had been searching for that second post of yours but couldn't remember whose it was.
ReplyDeleteI still don't accept the Spanish context argument. Yes it explains why it was created -- by someone who doesn't get out and about drinking beer enough -- but it doesn't excuse the stupidity of the whole concept, nor the potential damage to beer's image as a good-value, goes-with-anything, fun and immensely varied drink. It all smells too much of wine fundamentalists trying to drag proletarian beer down to their snobby level.
How can anyone who clearly doesn't know shit about beer possibly be one of the best cooks in the world?
ReplyDeleteBecause such things are judged by other people who don't know shit about beer.
ReplyDeleteI purposely avoided this beer when I spotted it in Sweeney's. Just as well, it is even worse than I imagined. The cost was ridiculous too.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope you've recovered your composure for the beer/food pairing at Taste of Dublin on Saturday.
We don't want a scene.
I was dubious when I first read about this in a NY Times article. Ferran Adria may be a chef with amazing flair and creativity but combine that with a massive company like Estrella Damm and you get Heston Blumenthal in Little Chef all over again.
ReplyDeleteAs for a beer designed for fine dining?! *big sigh* What's so wrong with what we've already got? And how many dishes could this be paired with? By the sound of it, not that many.
Maybe this is Adria trying to branch out to 'el hombre' on the street, like he did with his burgers?!
I wondering if they are using a wit or beligan yeast for this. It sounds a little to similar to Coors blue moon, a large lager producing making a with like beer by adding some orange and coriander to it?
ReplyDeletethe beer/food pairing at Taste of Dublin on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteI'm expecting that to be very much on the mainstream side of things. I'll be very surprised if any special foodbeers are rolled out. But all the cutlery is plastic, so there shouldn't be any real safety risks if it does happen.
Mark, el hombre on the street is not going to appreciate the price tag (I paid €8.10 for this in Sweeney's; I've seen it dearer elsewhere in Dublin). I'd say it's more like trying to cash in on giving some beery street cred to el gato gordo in his restaurants.
Back to the Spanish thing.
ReplyDeleteWhat if Inèdit makes some of those who wouldn't think of pairing their meals with beer start thinking about doing so? Wouldn't that be possitive?
For what I've read in some Spanish blogs, the beer is very well presented at some restaurants, not just like any other one that you will get on your table. It shows that Damm, at least for the moment, is looking after this product.
It has also started to make non beer people talk about beer in general as a fine alternative to wine, and also has made many realize that beer isn't just super chilled "caña".
For most of us here, it is all obvious stuff, but it isn't so for the majority.
The main problem, as I see it, is the bollocks.
What if Inèdit makes some of those who wouldn't think of pairing their meals with beer start thinking about doing so? Wouldn't that be possitive?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. I don't think they will then start thinking about beer in general. Having a special food-beer automatically limits their horizons and implies strongly that other beers are not food-compatible. If the issue is simply that they don't know any beer but pale lager, then that's a whole other matter, and not food-related.
It has also started to make non beer people talk about beer in general as a fine alternative to wine
Well good. But it shouldn't require bollocks like this, and a poor witbier, to start that ball rolling. Had the restaurateur simply stocked some decent beers instead of creating a pretentious one of his own, that would have been better.
not just like any other one that you will get on your table.
That cliquey niche-ness is the problem. Drinking a Duvel at a bar, or with a meal, should not be some sort of vastly different experience. Drinking a glass of wine in a wine bar and with a meal certainly isn't -- restaurants wouldn't dream of stocking a wine that's not just like any other one that you will get on your table.
I don't think so. I don't think they will then start thinking about beer in general. Having a special food-beer automatically limits their horizons and implies strongly that other beers are not food-compatible.
ReplyDeleteGood point. But come to think of it, whether beer starts being considered as something to drink with "proper" food depends a lot on restaurant owners, who, as it happens in most countries, don't know the first thing about beer.
It might sound optimistic, but if Inèdit does well, that could open the eyes of more than one restaurant owner who would like to be "different", and they could start offering the beers you've mentioned above, for example.
I agree 100% with you on the bollocks thing. Really pisses me off.
Drinking a Duvel at a bar, or with a meal, should not be some sort of vastly different experience.
Actually, for most people, drinking Duvel, be it at a bar or restaurant, is a different experience than drinking their regular beer, and I'm speaking about the glass. Inèdit is served in wine glasses (we can argue about that, yes) and is left on your table in an ice bucket, something that has never been done before in Spain. It is all gimmicky, I agree, but it does make an impression on many people, and a possitive one at that.
Anyway, the bottom line is that the beer is nothing special and they could have certainly done something better had they really wanted.
if Inèdit does well, that could open the eyes of more than one restaurant owner who would like to be "different", and they could start offering the beers you've mentioned above, for example.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes me skeptical is that Inedit's approach has been done and, by and large, restaurant owners aren't getting any better at handling beer. Add in the underlying message behind all food-beers: that ordinary beer is not food-compatible, and you have a step backwards.
for most people, drinking Duvel, be it at a bar or restaurant, is a different experience than drinking their regular beer
That's not what I mean. The serving method for Inedit you describe is just the method for white wine. It's an attempt to make this beer seem like a wine. That, IMO, lessens its value as an alternative to wine. It reinforces the notion that only wine is really OK to have with food by presenting it as a beer in wine's clothing.
And if they pull that ice bucket shit with my Duvel, they'll be wearing it.
"if they pull that ice bucket shit with my Duvel they'll be wearing it"
ReplyDeleteLOL cna i use this in future LOL
For what it's worth, I did a review of the beer as well as critique the bizarre press release. (It is much the same as yours.)
ReplyDeleteI also have to dissent on the Spanish exception argument. I was contacted by a New York PR firm about the beer--it was they who later sent me a bottle. The US may still be boorish in the main about beer and food, but we don't live in a hole. For a PR firm to contact beer writers on the premise that this Spanish brewery had just solved a centuries' old conundrum was beyond naive. They deserve some criticism.
And then the fact that they brewed a fairly standard witbier .... oy!
Well, anyway, I actually enjoyed the beer, though it was perhaps not the zymurgilogical earthquake it was made out to be.
Jeff I do wounder if it is even standard Wit, its far to easy to add some spices,use their house yeast and cal it a Wit
ReplyDeleteThey don't even call it a wit. It's a "unique coupage [*blerk*!] of barley malt and wheat". That suggests to me it's a standard wit diluted with lager. That's how it tastes, anyway.
ReplyDeleteWell, "standard wit" may be stretching it. I think it's a wheat beer made with spices and a lager yeast. It is FAR superior to an insipid lager, however.
ReplyDeleteBut not to a decent lager. Not to the sort of lager that might cost €8.10 for 75cl.
ReplyDelete