Beer takes center stage at festival

GALVESTON — Hot summer days and cold beer seem like a natural pair, but the Brewmasters International Beer Festival is set to reveal some other great pairings with beer, ranging from burgers to elegant cuisine. The beer festival, a four-day event, will be held throughout Labor Day weekend at Moody Gardens and will be the biggest beer festival ever held in Texas.

Chef Urs Schmid, executive chef at Moody Gardens Hotel, has created a four-course dinner at Shearn’s Restaurant for the beer festival that pairs a unique craft beer with each course. The beer selections, chosen by event title sponsor Spec’s Wines and Spirits, showcase four different styles of beer. Schmid paired the appetizer course of snapper fillet in a dried-mushroom coating with a lager, or slowly fermented, beer.

Schmid selected a wheat beer to complement the roasted beet and citrus salad, and a darker porter to serve with the entree of beer-braised short ribs. The dessert course also features a double serving, with beer adding a flavor note to the chocolate stout cake and also accompanying it. The dessert beer is a raspberry beer, one of the fruit-laced beers popular in Belgium. Even the bread served with the meal will be made with ale, which augments the bread’s yeast.

Schmid also developed a menu of German dishes for the Bavarian Beer Brunch scheduled for Sunday in the Moody Gardens Hotel ballroom. The menu, served buffet-style, includes knackwurst salad, jaegerschnitzel, homemade spaetzle (dumplings), beef roulades braised in beer and other traditional German favorites.

Thinking up a Bavarian menu wasn’t difficult for Schmid, who was born in Switzerland.

“This apple kuchen is something my mother and my grandmother used to make,” he said. “This was our version of apple pie.”

For beer aficionados who want to make their own freestyle beer and food pairings, Sunday’s Brewlicious event brings in more than a dozen of the area’s renowned chefs from restaurants such as Bernardo’s at the Hotel Galvez, Le Mistral, Rudy and Paco and Merlion for live cooking demonstrations, tastings and beer sampling.

One of the hottest tickets for the Brewmasters International Beer Festival weekend is for the Brew Ha-Ha Grand Tasting, scheduled for Saturday afternoon. The Brew Ha-Ha will feature more than 300 international, domestic and local brews available for sampling. Many of the Brew Ha-Ha beers are small-batch craft brews, along with longtime favorites. Brewers from many of the breweries will be on hand, with guest speakers scheduled to give advice on home brewing, building a beer collection and other topics. David Toups, one of the “Foam Rangers” leading the home-brewing movement, will offer a seminar on home brewing designed to get newcomers off the ground and ready to enter a home-brew in the 2011 festival’s home brewing competition.

Both the Brew Ha-Ha and Brewlicious offer special reduced-price admissions to designated drivers or others who are interested in the food but not the beer. Even the premium-seating VIP lounges on both days have a designated driver, or non-alcohol, option.

For beer drinkers who already know what they like — beer and burgers, beer and bratwurst, or just beer — the poolside BrewTopia Beer Garden will be open all weekend.

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Ale Bread

Bread Mix

3 cups unbleached flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 good pinch kosher salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 bunch finely chopped scallions

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

12 ounces beer

Glaze (optional)

1 egg

2 tablespoons water

To make the glaze, whisk egg and water until frothy in a small mixing bowl.

To make the bread, heat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, scallions and cheese in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer.

Slowly mix in beer and mix until just combined. Batter will be thick.

Spread in a greased 8-inch loaf pan, and brush with glaze, if desired. Sprinkle with a bit of shredded cheese.

Bake until golden and toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. turn out onto rack, place top side up and allow to cool completely. Reheat if desired before serving.

— Recipe from “Cooking by the Seat of My Pants,” by Jerry D. Russell

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Brewmasters Food Events

WHAT: BrewLicious in the Ballroom — Food and Beer Pairing Event

WHEN: 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Frances Anne Moody Ballroom, Moody Gardens Hotel, 7 Hope Blvd., in Galveston

COST: $75 or $90 for VIP experience, which includes access to a special private Premium Room and admission a half-hour early into the event.

INFO: For tickets and information, visit www.brewmastersinternationalbeerfestival.com

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WHAT: Shearn’s Restaurant Four-Course Beer Pairing Dinner

WHEN: 6:30 P.M. Friday and Saturday

WHERE: Shearn’s Restaurant, Moody Gardens Hotel, 7 Hope Blvd., in Galveston

COST: $85 per person, which includes the craft brews per course, taxes and gratuities.

RESERVATIONS: Call Jeannie Walsh at 409-683-4404, or toll free at 888-388-8484, Ext. 4404

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WHAT: Sunday Bavarian Beer Brunch

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Floral Ballroom, Moody Gardens Hotel, 7 Hope Blvd., in Galveston

COST: $35 per person, which includes the brunch, two featured craft brews, taxes and gratuities

RESERVATIONS: Call Jeannie Walsh at 409-683-4404, or toll free at 888-388-8484, Ext. 4404

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WHAT: Burgers, Brats and Brew

WHEN: 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, and noon to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

WHERE: BrewTopia Beer Garden and the indoor Garden Cay, 7 Hope Blvd., in Galveston

COST: Various prices

INFO: No reservations are necessary, and it is open seating

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WHAT: Wing Thing Lunch

WHEN: Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Terrace Restaurant, 7 Hope Blvd., in Galveston

COST: Various prices

INFO: No reservations are necessary, and it is open seating

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WHAT: Brew HaHa Grand Tasting

WHEN: 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Moddy Gardens Expo Areana, 7 Hope Blvd., in Galveston

COST: $35 in advance, $40 at the door, $15 for designated drivers