“Take off your shirt!” These words floated up to me as I stood on the first-story roof overlooking the patio at Bay Park’s High Dive Bar and Grill. The outdoor space was chock full of women, many of which were hooting and hollering. At first I blamed the high-octane beers for this request—one I’d never received before and will surely never hear again—but I soon learned it’s a Chicks for Beer tradition for males to take to the roof, strip off the top-half of their apparel for the evening and put on a gyration-rich show for the clientele. This was but one thing I leaned about the several-year-old monthly tradition that is Chicks for Beer.
Until that night, the closest I’d come to experiencing this women-only beer-education series (held the third Tuesday of every month) was pressing my sad face up to the windowed doors separating the patio from the High Dive’s interior. And that’s as it should be. It’s because of gender-segregation that the ladies—or chicks—in attendance can feel as comfortable as they do. That comfort-level provides the perfect conditions for attendees to be able to take in the wealth of information presented by a rotating roster of representatives from guest breweries.
The majority of the breweries that participate in Chicks for Beer are local interests, but a number of big-name out-of-towners such as The Bruery and Faction Brewing come in specifically for the event. The night I attended included the best of both worlds, as the duo sharing their knowledge consisted of Gwen Conley, QC guru from triple-threat San Marcos operation Port Brewing Company/The Lost Abbey/The Hop Concept, and Julia Herz, craft beer program director for Denver-based US craft-brewer advocacy group the Brewers Association. In addition to being experts in their respective fields, Conley and Herz recently published a book titled Beer Pairing: The Essential Guide from the Pairing Pros. Rather than simply going through the beers of Conley’s split-personality interest, they used them as examples of how to go about pairing brews and edibles as outlined in their instructional work.
But Conley and Herz were only half the equation (or is that two-thirds of the equation…math’s never been my strong suit). The food that was paired with the beers came from the mind and hands of High Dive chef Rosa Peyron, who composed a quintet of dishes after thoroughly sampling an equal number of beers.
“I try to stay outside the box when I pair, and never do what people expect,” says Peyron. “For instance, I’ll never pair a stout or brown ale with dessert. I’d rather do a double IPA with dessert or something fun like that.”
True to that form, Port Brewing’s coffee-infused brown ale, Board Meeting, was served during a savory course opposite a roasted sweet potato soup with a cashew-herb puree. The nuttiness of the garnish oil and the earthiness of the tubers matched up nicely. Conley and Herz added their own unorthodox rift to the menu, starting out with a brown ale followed up by a huge, 13.5% alcohol-by-volume barrel-aged strong ale, Track 10, paired with, of all things…a beet salad! But it worked thanks to aggressively spiced pecans and a rich blue cheese-celeriac dressing.
The dainty-by-comparison 6.3% Devotion Belgian blonde ale came next with twice-fried cauliflower dressed with chili honey and preserved lemon, followed by Avant Garde biere de garde with squash risotto and meaty roasted mushrooms. Last up was coconut rice panna cota and, in keeping with Peyron’s MO, it was coupled with Shark Attack double red ale. It sounds pretty out-there (and it was), but it worked better than one might have expected.
“When I started at the High Dive last September, Fall Brewing—which is one of my favorite breweries—was the guest-brewery for my first Chicks for Beer event, and I didn’t really know how to pair food with beer,” says Peyron. “I went in to Fall on my own to try the beers that were chosen and I got lucky. I got to sit with brewer Jeff Swem, who were very helpful. They both shared what they thought would work well and the passion they had for their craft was fucking inspiring. Those dudes felt about beer the way I felt about food, and that was the moment I knew I wanted to learn everything I could about beer-pairing.”
It would seem her instincts make her well suited to this practice. Although she rarely gets to taste the dishes she conceptualizes before they’re served to Chicks for Beer patrons, they have been very well received. Enough so that most of them sell-out immediately or shortly after tickets go on-sale. This is good, not only because it increases so many women’s knowledge of the beer world, but because all proceeds from the events are donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to aid its work to fight breast cancer, something near and dear to High Dive owner Ingrid Cherney’s heart. After beating breast cancer several years ago, she felt inspired to use beer as a vehicle to continue her fight against this scourge and, many dishes, even more beers and plenty of strip-teases later, she and the many involved with Chicks for Beer have made a very significant, very positive difference.
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Upcoming Chicks for Beer Events
May 17: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company featuring the Beer Camp Series
June 21: 21st Amendment Brewery with founder Shaun O’Sullivan
Sweet Potato Soup
with Herb-Cashew Purée
Paired with Port Board Meeting Brown Ale
5 pounds sweet potatoes
3 quarts vegetable broth
3 cups heavy cream
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 cup roasted cashews, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
½ cup olive oil
Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Wrap the sweet potatoes in aluminum foil and place on a sheet pan. Place in the oven and roast until the potatoes are cooked through, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool. Unwrap and peel the skin off of the potatoes. Add the potatoes to a blender and add stock, 1 cup at a time, to blend into a smooth mixture. Add the mixture and remaining stock to a large pot over medium heat. Once heated through, add the cream and season with salt and pepper. Add the cashews, lemon juice and herbs to a blender. Turn the blender on and slowly drizzle in the oil. Once the mixture is completely blended, season with salt and pepper, then transfer the mixture to a squeeze-bottle.
To serve, ladle the soup into bowls. Garnish with the herb-cashew mixture and serve immediately.
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Steak Salad
with Pickled Onions, Focaccia Croutons, Horseradish Yogurt & Herb Vinaigrette
Paired with Alpine Singled Out IPA—Equinox
2 cups arugula
¼ cup Herb Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
¼ cup Horseradish Yogurt (recipe follows)
3 Pickled Onions (recipe follows)
¼ cup blue cheese, crumbled
12 Focaccia Croutons (recipe follows)
1 flat-iron steak, seasoned with salt and pepper, grilled and sliced into thin strips
2 Granny Smith apples, stemmed, cored and thinly sliced
Place the arugula in a bowl. Add the vinaigrette and toss to coat.
To serve, spoon the yogurt onto the bottom of a large plate. Top with a mound of arugula, then arrange the onions, blue cheese, croutons, steak and apple slices atop the arugula. Serve family-style.
Herb Vinaigrette
½ cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp shallot, minced
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup olive oil
Place all of the ingredients except for the oil in a blender. Turn on the blender and slowly drizzle in the olive oil.
Horseradish Yogurt
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 Tbsp horseradish
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
salt, to taste
Mix all of the ingredients together until thoroughly incorporated.
Pickled Onions
1 cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup water
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp salt
12 ounces red pearl onions, halved
Whisk together the vinegar, water, sugar and salt in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil. Place the onions in an airtight container. Cover the onions with the vinegar mixture and seal the container with a lid. Let the mixture stand for at least 24 hours. Strain the onions out of the mixture before serving.
Focaccia Croutons
1 loaf focaccia (or any day-old bread, to substitute), cut into cubes
extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the bread in a large bowl, drizzle with oil, and season with salt and pepper. Place the bread on a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil and bake until golden-brown and crispy, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.
—Recipes courtesy Rose Peyron, Chef, The High Dive