Hair of the Dog x The Sweet Potato

Back in Berkeley now, and everyone seems so stressed. But wait--there is a cure! It's called Hair of the Dog, Ruth American Pale Ale. Named after granny Ruth, the grandmother of Alan Sprints of Portland, Oregon's Hair of the Dog Brewing Company, Ruth knows how to make things better. Couple that with this seriously yummy sweet potato soup that Chef Dre on a Tray makes, and things are back on track. A bright orange soup that releases aromas of ginger and garlicky sweetness through the house is pretty much impossible to pout around for too long. Chef Dre says, "ORANGE, a powerful healing color, is said to increase the craving for food, stimulate enthusiasm and creativity, aid in decision making, enhance cheer, confidence and assurance."  Bring it on! (Click on the link to see the fantastic soup that she made for me back in January. Do it. It could change your life). There's something magical about potatoes that brings people together and warms hearts. (Last time it was sweet potato fries.)

Now, grandmas in the American public imagination have been branded with an image of being warm, matronly, homebodies, funny (or just wacky), keepers of strange rituals, and secret recipes. Perhaps Ruth conforms to that idea, but I imagine that she's also a very powerful woman too, from the amazing taste of this beer. First of all, although it's called an American Pale Ale, you should forget about any sort of over processed, poorly stored, mishandled and misguided kinds of American Pale Ales. That is not the Ruth.

Ruth is an unfiltered ale that pours a murky dried apricot color. With a light beer that still has a lot going on like this beer, One Woman thinks that it's best served not too cold. I think this is key. For a pale ale, it has a very nicely shaped head, with big dreamy custard froth. I like to think of it as a "crumpet" head, with uneven, large and small sized bubbles forming a textured cloud. It smells very gently of summer fruits, lightly of apricot and rhubarb. Sweet dried fruit, and soft citrus malt explode with the first sip into something like a Crème bavaroise. A bit later on, it's nutty, a bit sweet and bready like hot crossed buns. In short, super tasty, and what amazement that all this is contained in a mere 4.5ABV light bodied beer. It's like the Yoko Ono of beers.

Musical Pairing: I'm going to pair it with Yoko Ono's song "Hi ga noboru" (Click on the link to listen) off of her new Plastic Ono Band album that just came out last year. It means, "the sun rises." How is it, that when Yoko Ono does something, it just seems so profound? After all she's been through, she still seems to insist on hope and believing in things like love and beauty, without a drop of irony. 

BONUS TIME:
Ruth really made me think of artist Miwa Yanagi's photography series, My Grandmothers, where she interviews women in their 30s and 40s and asks them to imagine themselves as grandmothers, half a century or so later. What you get is not "grandmother" as an immobile condition of continual decline, but as a future full of potential, dreams, and adventure. For Yanagi's grandmas, resting is a choice (for some), but not a fate. (Click on the link to see Yanagi's work)

minipost: the fcc won't like this beer

this just in from deutschland: according to das spiegel, a german company won the rights to name a beer "fucking hell" -- that's a helles bier (light beer) from the town of fucking in austria. it's for real. it even beats boring, oregon.

musical pairing: peter tosh, legalize it (click on the link to listen).

Fisherman's Brew in the Gutter

Bowling and beer (*sigh*) what a happy combo! Last night One Woman got to hang out with members of the eminent two piano / two percussion quartet, Yarn/Wire (Ian Antonio, Laura Barger, Russell Greenberg, and Jacob Rhodebeck) and other musically inclined friends for a night of bowling at The Gutter. (This was preceded by a day of culinary decadence with a brilliant rhetorician and collector of recipes, KSP, to Ippudo and Momofuku Milk Bar!!!--One Woman, having too much fun, as usual). Yarn/Wire not only knows their David Lang and Bartok; they also have a deep understanding of the beauties of the malty hoppy beverage that One Woman loves so.

The Gutter -- The little divey bowling alley has a nice selection of mostly domestic beers on tap (Troegs, Chelsea, Sixpoint were among them), as well as a handful of special bottled conditioned beers from Rogue and Brooklyn. One Woman decided on the Fisherman's Brew from Cape Ann Brewing Co. It's an American Amber Ale at a lightly hopped and malty 5.5 ABV and 30 IBUs. With a really nice toasty smell, it made me think of toasted honey graham bread. The smell and the taste are really nicely integrated too. Not a bombshell or anything, but a really great beer to sip on and chant some incantations to the yeasty gods for good bowling luck.

Musical Pairing: Yarny/Wiry (click on the link to listen). Performed by the members of Yarn/Wire, composed by Mei Fang Lin, a young and amazingly talented composer with superwoman ears. If my bowling chops were this amazing, the pins would be defying time and gravity.

So, dear readers, this One Woman's chronicles of life, love, and beauty seen through the lenses of beer comes to a close at one month. Life calls, and this blog is going to enter a new phase of twice weekly publication. Thank you for your warm support, and I hope you'll keep reading! (Never hesitate to send beer).

Destinations: Chelsea Brewing Company - Born in the USA

CHELSEA, New York. Post gallery hopping to attend the opening of artist Lawrence Mesich's "At Work," a delightfully fun installation that ruminates on the mundane (showing now at the AC Institute), One Woman hopped over to the Chelsea Brewing Co. with This One Guy and a team of gallery goers and friends. Located on the Western End of the island of Manhattan, the brewery is located inside the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex. They boast that they are the "only New York brewery on the waterfront" but One Woman wonder if they also they are the only brewery located inside a gym - that's what I call perks to a gym membership! Inside, you'll see the tanks used for making the beer which is pretty fun. At the bar, they serve about 6 beers on tap, all made in-house.

The beer -- Checker Cab Blonde Ale is a tasty, non-fussy beer. Perfect for a beer on the terrace, watching the sun go down over the Hudson river after ice hockey practice at the gym, followed by a sweet and sweaty moment in the sauna. It's a kind of German style Kölsch, a pale, straw-colored ale that's light bodied with low carbonation, a bit of the sweet yeasty, and a hint of lemon curd. Paired with their thick cut fries (skin on, of course), it's a heavenly experience. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, sprinkled with coarse salt and pepper, the fries themselves deserve an essay, but maybe some other time!

Musical Pairing: It's hard not to think of The Boss when Jersey is softly glowing across the river from the brewery. Today's song is "Dancing in the Dark" (click on the link to view video). Awesome jam from 1984. Watch the first 15 seconds to see awe-inspiring musical virility in action. But seriously, this video is amazing. Filmed in St. Paul, Minnesota, it was Springsteen's first big hit (off of Born in the USA), and also responsible for catapulting Courtney Cox into the limelight.

Destinations: Spuyten Duyvil - Mikkeller Draft Bear

WILLIAMSBURG, New York. Some people, like dude with the amazing Beer Stocked Refrigerator (click on the link to be impressed by a fridge!), are better prepared than One Woman. Around 6:00 pm, One Woman still didn't know what the beer of the evening was going to be. So she called up This One Guy to meet at the mighty Spuyten Duyvil (another reason to heart New York City). And after all, with One Woman's week in nyc approaching the later half, a trip without a visit to SD would just be wrong. Late afternoon / early evening is my favorite time to go to SD, before it gets too crowded. Last night was the perfect evening to sit outside in their recently expanded backyard. With its gravely ground, wispy green life, mismatched patio furniture, and J/M/Z subway signs lying around, and flanked by the sides and backs of neighboring apartment buildings, it's a cute backyard. In a Williamsburgy way.

In any case, SD is probably the most serious beer venue New York City has that's open to the public. Since opening in 2003, they pride themselves on a selective stock of the "rare and obscure" "antiques and curios" from all over the place, including, but not limited to the US. Their emphasis is on European (continental and UK) beers, which sets them apart from the recent domestic-focused craft beer phenomenon, but without limiting themselves to one region. They usually have about 6 beers on tap and 1cask beer going, and these rotate quickly. Using Riedel stemware (fancy!!) for some of their pours, the place commands respect. Some of this seriousness, One Woman has yet to fully appreciate, being the young beer exploratrice she is. But what makes this place truly amazing is their beers, and if you're looking for adventure, depth, philosophy, a good time, or education, go here. One Woman can't help but love it.

The Beer (or "bear") of the evening was the Mikkeller Draft Bear. Mikkeller is a Danish Brewery that's a beer lover's dream of passion-turned career, and of cross-cultural collaboration. It's a young, Old World brewery, started by two home brewers, Mikkel Borg Bjergsø and Kristian Klarup Keller, inspired by New World experimentalism. They challenge you to go on a "taste adventure" with them. Sign me up!

One Woman was unable to find any clues about why the Mikkeller Draft Bear is a "bear" (is it related to the mythical Boontville creature from Anderson Valley, the Beer?). But, the Draft Bear is sort of grizzly bear-colored. Named a righteous, Imperial Pilsner (!!), the Bear has slightly translucent reddish, copper color, that shines in the twilight sky. It has the pilsner smell (the fresh, yeasty whiff of pils malts), but nothing of your Danish grandpa's pilsner in color or flavor. At 8% ABV, it's a slow sipping beer that's warmly hopped and tastes like light brown sugar or that cotton candy flavor, but without being too sweet. All this is lovingly well-balanced to make a sexy, modern beer.

Musical Pairing: Thelonius Monk with John Coltrane, "Ruby, My Dear" (click on the link to listen). I love Monk and this is probably my favorite Monk tune, but I can't decide who I love more on this track. Is it Coltrane who can magically become transformed by Monk's style and still remain unmistakeably the Trane? Or Monk, 9 years Coltrane's senior, who has the ability to irresistibly draw in Trane who, left to his own devices, plays soaring long melodies that are gorgeous, but almost diametrically opposed to Monk's angular style that bursts with small explosions everywhere? Hearing these two very, very different players come together and blend so smoothly is nothing short of a miracle!

Alternatives: The Other Bubbly and an Opera about Fairies.

FORTGREENE, New York.
Event: The Fairy Queen (1692), Purcell's adaptation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Fantastic music and performance, Troubling dramaturgy (Benny Hill + Colonial British Empire humor). One Woman is both mesmerized, blown away by the sensitivity and depth affect of Baroque performance and sheer scale of this Opéra Comique/theater/dance production, and highly disappointed by the conservative political interpretation which, based on the original text, could have been so much more provocative and interesting.


Baroque Orchestra:  Les Arts Florissants
Produced by: Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opéra Comique, Théâtre de Caen, and BAM
Musical direction: William Christie
Directed by: Jonathan Kent
Duration: 3 hours 45 minutes

Accompanying libation: Pink mystery "champagne" courtesy of the BAM. Thanks, BAM. 

Brooklyn Lager, Love

Brooklyn Lager was perhaps One Woman's first malty love. I mean, *true* love. Of course, there's a lot to love about many, many beers. I love Green Flash Le Freak because it's a sexy masterwork of hoptasticness, or the Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour because it opened up whole new terrain of the sensorium. And can you really beat the delight of a fruity and potent Karmeliet Tripel poured to you directly by the brewery under a tent at the the beer festival in Brussells? But while Brooklyn Lager is  a great beer in its own right--it has deliciously toasted malts and  beautifully sculpted by understated foam, hops that smell like early summer grass--words fail to describe my love for this beer. As Uncle Roland used to say, "What is there to say about what one loves except I love it, and keep on saying it?" Brooklyn Lager is a beer with memories. The smell and the taste immediately awakens sensations of places, times, sounds, all swirled together into something magical and joyfully fizzy. That a trademark recipe, and the promise in the green, black, and yellow sign can bring you all this love is both wonderful and very frightening. Love complicates capitalism.  

One Woman lived in the moment with this Brooklyn Lager with This One Guy, who brought home a happy six pack of these beers for a movie night at home. While watching Roman Polanski's China Town, the Brooklyn Lager accompanied us in rediscovering the joys of 1970s Hollywood orchestral re-imaginations of 1930s LA.

"Hold it there, kitty-cat!"

Nothing stands between me and my Brooklyn, except Roman Polanski

Musical Pairing of the moment: "Feels so Good," by Chuck Mangione, fluegelhorn player and composer, born and bred in New York State (click on the link to listen). "Feels so Good" is a 1970s classic that sent Chuck soaring up the charts in 1977. It's got all the outward markers of smooth jazz, but with tight arrangements and real chops in the background--although that's sugar coated too. But don't be fooled by prejudice. Smooth jazz, just like any genre of music you're able to purchase, market buy tickets to see, share videos of, whatever, is bound up in a complex relationship of love, repulsion, and money. But anyway, it feels so good, and sounds so good. This is lounge jazz at its best, even though he's left out of most written accounts of jazz history. This song is dedicated to This One Guy, with love.

Destinations: Pony Bar - Hop Sun by Southern Tier

Another day in New York, another New York Beer! Hop Sun by Southern Tier is really a summer wheat beer, but they release it in March. Perfect timing for those first really warm weekends of the year, like this one. Golden, luminous, and crystal clear, hop sun is Meyer lemon yellow, and the happy friendship of wheat, barley, and hops. The result: crispy and light, yet the hops have a good kick without ever being overbearing. It's an energizing, refreshing, and easy-going beer that's very easy to have a crush on.

 New York City through a glass.

One Woman enjoyed the hop sun at the Pony Bar today, where she and Mom met up with This One Guy. Mom chose the toasty, Sly Fox O'Reilley's Stout, and This One Guy selected the Long Trail Brew Master Reserve Double IPA.

Pony Bar has amazing beers, tasty bar snacks (tempura battered string beans - um, yes please!!), and a game that you can enter into, where you fill out a sheet to 100 beers you've had there (once you reach 100, you win a Pony Bar shirt). On 10th avenue and 45th, it seems like off the beaten path, but no. At 6 pm on a Sunday afternoon, it was packed full with a beer loving crowd that calls out 'beer!' in unison when the bartender clanks on an old empty keg to signal the tapping of a new one. At any time, expect 20 exciting and unusual American craft beers on tap (today's selection included Green Flash Le Freak and Dog Fish 60 minute IPA on tap, and Otter Creek Brew Quercus Vitis Humulus on cask, and many, many more). Oh, and did I mention, all beers are $5.00?! 

Musical Pairing: If One Woman played beach volleyball, this would be the perfect beer to drink. But otherwise, it's a good bebop beer. And since the Pony Bar (located just a few blocks away from the epicenter of Times Square) is much closer to Birdland than to Hermosa Beach, the musical pairing is dedicated to the Bird, aka Charlie Parker and his version of "Cherokee/Koko." Light-headed, fuzzy, smoking hot.

Contest - Win a Beer From One Woman!

Mom's in town. She enjoys checking out the new sights and sounds of New York, and loves a good beer as well. But One Woman is running out of places to take her. Do you have any suggestions? Send me your picks, and the person whose suggestion is Mom's Choice gets a beer next time we hang!

******

It's an "alternatives" night, with ever growing love for New York State: Small batch Hudson Baby Bourbon Whiskey, brewed by Tuthilltown Spirits. Before bed. With a little piece of chocolate. It's pure warm and fuzziness, liquefied.

Musical Pairing: Clara Schumann's "Liebst du um Schönheit," which was written in 1841, when the Tuthilltown Gristmill was already alive and well, grinding up grains for people to bake with, and to distill spirits like this beautiful baby.

May you have rose colored dreams of love and bourbon.

I heart New York: Southampton Farmhouse Ales

RIDGEWOOD, New York –– One Woman really loves New York beers. It's good to be back!
As soon as I arrived, This One Guy and his cheese-loving cat (el gato negro) greeted me with some New York State Southampton Farmhouse Ales (Southampton Biere de Mars and Biere de Garde), some crusty Sullivan Street Bakery bread, a Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, and a Portchester from Saxelby Cheesemongers.

New York beers have a whole different set of flavors, characteristics, and criteria than California beers. Not just about hops or glam, these Southampon French farmhouse-style ales are solid, well balanced, and full of character. The Biere de Mars - Beer of March - is a clear, crisp, and bright ale. Meyer lemon colored, it's a delicious, effervescent amber ale that seems to burst with the joys of springtime (which has finally arrived in New York). Think, daffodils, spring flowers, and sunshine.

The Biere de Garde, is meant to be a beer that can be stored and enjoyed in years to come... or now! Frothy, shapely head, cloudy deep copper color, it's a yeasty one, with caramel and a great, warming spice blend. It's a great slow sipping beer.

This One Guy is awesome.

Musical pairing: Antonio Vivaldi, Spring, from The Four Seasons. In honor of springtime, and That Baroque Violinist, the talented M.L.

Destinations: Magnolia Pub and Brewery

Sarah Jessica Parker's Magnolia Bakery has cupcakes, but One Woman's Magnolia Pub and Brewery in San Francisco has the great bubblies. There's a lot to love about Magnolia Pub. For one thing, it's one of the most lady friendly bars around. One Woman has spent many a late afternoon or evening at Magnolia reading a book and sipping on some lovely handcrafted house-brewed ale after a shift at the Women's Community Clinic around the corner (FYI - ladies, the place is a FREE clinic for you, staffed by some of the smartest, coolest women around). Another reason to love Magnolia is their selection. By that, I don't mean more is better. Actually, on any given night, they'll only have about a dozen beers on tap -- most of them brewed in house, with a few guest beers from near-by places like Green Flash or Speakeasy Ales and Lagers. Part of the homemade charm of this place is that even if you order the same beer, it could taste substantially different. Finally, $3 beers all day and all night on Tuesdays! Do it.

The beer of the evening - Bonnie Lee's Best Bitter, cask conditioned. This beer is an English bitter, which is typically, a mild beer that's more about mellowness than being a knockout supermodel beer. The "best" is an indicator that loosely describes the bitter's strength - around 4% ABV for this one. The color of this beer is amazing. It has a dreamy golden ruby color with a little haze in soft focus. More about balance between the creamy, a nice dose of gently hopped bitterness, and a hint of buttery caramel, Bonnie Lee is a cozy beer that also lets you focus on your food, the music, or whatever else you want to enjoy in the moment -- like the conversation with an old friend from high school (this one I had not seen in 15 years!!). Cheers, JG.

Musical pairing - Smashing Pumpkins, "1979" off of their 1996 album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.  The other hits like "Today" and "Tonight, Tonight" on that album are more obvious hit material, but there's something a little bit softer, gentler, and touching in its way. It's just something about that little guitar riff...

P.S.
Did you ever notice that somewhere between the video for "Today" and "1979," Billy Corgan shaved his head?

Guinness Battle: Tummy vs. Hair (Beer Shampoo)

St. Patrick's Day. When One Woman couldn't find a store that sold single pub cans of Guinness, a store clerk suggested Murphy's instead. But to have a UK-brewed beer instead of an Irish Beer on an "Irish" occasion seemed a little cynical. Back on the hunt, around 10 PM, One Woman finally located a warm single bottle of Guinness. Ouch. (If you read the recent entry on Young's Double Chocolate Stout, you know why the nitro-pub can with the widget is so much better for many stouts. So, no warm is always a bummer, and no can and warm is a double bummer.)

And still, the world is full of possibilities. A couple of weeks ago, Elwyn Crawford, the amazing Oakland-based artist/milliner/agent of change, sent me a recipe for beer shampoo that she came across! Fantastic.

The ingredients:
Beer (choose something without too much smell)
Shampoo

How to make Beer Shampoo:
1. Simmer beer gently over low heat, and reduce to about 1/4 of its original volume.

Not an espresso

2. Let cool, and mix with beer reduction with a simple shampoo in a 1:2 proportion (you should have twice as much shampoo as beer reduction). 

That's as far as One Woman got.

Stay tuned for a report on results!

*******

Music for shampooing on St. Patrick's Day: The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin ), from Claude Debussy's Preludes Book I (click the link to hear Jascha Heifetz on violin). I always imagined the girl with the flaxen hair to be a willowy girl with sumptuous, silky hair that goes all the way down to her knees.

*******
Update: Beer Shampoo a success! Effects--hair feels soft and thick. Smell--much less than I feared. Go Guinness!

Blue Moon: (Can't Get No) Satisfaction

There are those days when a woman needs a piece of chicken. Today was that day for One Woman. Too much crap piling up, a visa crisis, and an alarm clock set for 4 am tomorrow morning was enough for One Woman to scratch the idea of cooking, and instead, head straight to College avenue for some fried chicken. Well, it turns out that it wasn't any old fried chicken. It was Norma's Fried Chicken from Summer Kitchen Bakeshop. Basically, amazing. Monstrous, vulgar, beastly, and f-ing delicious.

One Woman took a break from the world, sat on the porch with my box of to-go chicken to enjoy a lovely warm spring evening to watch the sun go down, sipping on a Blue Moon Belgian White. Blue Moon is a Colorado-based company, whose beers are pretty widely sold. Their Belgian White is probably the most famous one. It's an unfiltered, "Belgian-style" wheat ale brewed with white wheat, oats, coriander, and orange peel. It has a sweet, yeasty smell to it, and a color like a milky orange sherbert. I was surprisingly pleased with how nicely this went with Norma's chicken, once I plopped a slice of orange in that glass to balance out any confused elements. Things aren't so bad after all. Thanks, Blue Moon and Norma.

*****

Here's a multi-coursed fast-food musical pairing course for you tonight:

To Start: 
Samantha Fox, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." (Click the link to listen to some serious sass from the '80s. Move over, Mick Jagger. Uh-huh, that's what I said. From the 1987 album, Samantha Fox, this was One Woman's first ever vinyl purchase as a little girl.

Sam is not amused

The Mains:
[The sound of spiced, crunchy fried chicken, with biscuit-thick crust]

After:
Frank Sinatra, "Blue Moon." Even the mob couldn't get him down. Or maybe it was the other way.

Destinations: Healthy Spirits (Monk's Cafe - Flemish Sour Ale)

Destination: Healthy Spirits. I'm not lying when I say there was a bit of a flutter in my heart as I left the Women's Community Clinic to head to Healthy Spirits this evening after finishing a weekly volunteer shift. Riding MUNI (with all its recent travails) has never felt this awesome, even with the transfer.

Healthy Spirits in San Francisco, located on the corner of Castro and 15th, is your local corner store. Owned by Rami Barqawi, Healthy Spirits sells plastic-wrapped pastries, sandwiches, coffee, cookies, Middle Eastern foods made by "Rami's Mommy"... and the most amazing selection of beers One Woman has seen in the Bay Area. Indeed, they claim to have the largest beer selection in San Francisco. The most amazing thing is that this large beer selection is a selection made mostly of beers you don't encounter at you average grocery store! Dave Hauslein, the beer manager at Healthy Spirits, told me that the store itself has been around as a corner store / deli for eleven years. It has been a specialty beer store for three. What I love about this family owned neighborhood store is that it totally has the feel and openness of a bodega or corner store (as they call them out here), but with the selection and quality of beer that's unparalleled by most beer stores. So, while Dave was responding to my barrage of questions about aged and sour beer, he also nuked and wrapped up a falafel sandwich for another customer who got dinner and a beer to go.

Aged and sour beer?! - Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale

One Woman learned today that there is a whole art and science to aged ales -- they can "peak" at up to 15 years! -- but let's leave this story for another time. The theme of the day is sour ale, actually, many of which are aged longer (a year is not uncommon) than many other beers. One Woman has tried "sour beers" before, with not too much success. I echo Jay of the Hedonist Beer Jive, who found that it took a few tries to come across a sour ale that made him a believer. On Dave's recommendation, I took home a 11.2 oz bottle of Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale. To my delight, I found a tart, invigorating, yet satiny brew, perfect for a warm California evening!

This beer is brewed and bottled by the historic family-owned Belgian brewery, Van Steenberge especially for the Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia. Aged in Oak barrels with cherry juices, this beer comes close to being a wine, both in process and in flavor. The big difference, of course, is the malt, yeast and lactic acid (!) present in this beer.

Opening the bottle, I caught some whiffs of the mouth-watering sourness, coupled with a tart cherry smell. The pour was pretty, with a mellow burgundy/brown color like a red velvet cake, topped with a creamy cinnamon froth. With very mild carbonation, and only 5.5 ABV, this sour ale goes down very easy. One Woman tasted dark brandied cherries, oak, and a hint of vanilla, with sourness, sweetness, and maltiness blended to blissful harmony. The sour was actually not even the most noticeable aspect of this beer, but I'm beginning to suspect that the particular batch that One Woman enjoyed was on the sweet, rather than sour side of the spectrum for this Flemish Sour Ale.

One Woman found that this beer makes an excellent accompaniment to a juicy salad of beets, fennel, citrus with mixed baby lettuces and a hard boiled egg. A big squeeze of California lemon on the salad brightened everything up one notch and brought out a sparkly zing in the beer.

************

The musical pairing of this evening is Ornette Coleman's Shape of Jazz to Come. Released 51 years ago, Coleman's avant-garde is the kind that redefines not only the future of music, but once in the future, his music provides its interpreters with a language that encourages listeners to hear the past differently. Oddball (like a sour beer), perhaps, and certainly not in tune with the mainstream or with contemporaneous avant-gardes, Coleman possesses a profound knowledge of the range of human emotion -- especially the different flavors of joy: tangy, malty, and a bit sour with a whole lot of pizzazz.

Critical Mass: Ein Radler Bitte!

At the Paragon Bar and Café of the Claremont, departing housemate HZ ordered a "Radler," or "bicyclist" auf Deutsch. In his honor, I decided to go along and order the same thing. A Radler is a beer-based concoction made by blending equal parts beer (choose a light and refreshing one, like a pilsner), with lemonade or a lemon/lime soda. In French it has a slightly sassier name, panaché! In German, it is also known as a type of Biergemischgetränke. Remember that word for your next beer pop quiz, kids. There are many theories, reasons, and stories behind this beverage. One of them, according to professor of Beer and music, "pa" (aka Dr. Clare G. Rayner) is as follows:

"On a hot summer afternoon in June of 1922, Franz Xaver Kugler, the owner of a Gasthaus high in the Deisenhofner Kugler-Alm in Bavaria realized that he did not have enough beer to accomodate all of his guests for the day, both bicyclists as well as mountain hikers. Hence, he decided to offer his remaining beer, interestingly a dark beer, as a mixture of beer and lemon-lime soda of which he had an ample supply, and thus he nick-named his newly-found drink after the bicyclists--hence a RADLER!"

Or, if you ask HZ, it's the source of a conundrum: "it's good because it's only have the alcohol, but it's so good it makes you drink twice as much."

HZ goes for the pour 

In any case, the combination of two thirst quenching drinks only makes things more thirst quenching. Think of it as a grownup lemonade with a bit of the bitters and the malt. Mix up a Trumer Pils with a freshly made lemonade, and say Prost! to a perfect afternoon of sippin' in the sun.

The musical pairing: "Tour de France," by the German electronic music group, Kraftwerk. Other bicycle songs can be found on this list of 10 Best Songs About Bicycles, shared to me by a local Carillonist. 

 ***BONUS TIME!***
"He was a hardworking farm boy. She was an Italian supermodel. He knew he would have just one chance..." to say, cin cin! The Alternative Whisky Academy can teach you how to say "cheers" in many, many languages.

Iechyd da! (Welsh)

Congrats, and good luck, HZ and CL!

Mocha Porter - A Friendly Rogue

Porters and Stouts often get lumped together in a group called darkandheavy, misleading potential drinkers about its diversity. As I already mentioned in my recent report on young's chocolate stout, dark color does not automatically translate to heaviness, high alcohol, or high calories. This neat list at the shapefit.com website reveals that Guinness, Anchor Steam, and Tsingtao all have the same number of calories (153 kcal/bottle). Of these three, Guinness has the least alcohol by volume - only 4.2%. Porter gets its name, not from any sort of portly quality, but from its popularity among porters--transportation workers--in eighteenth century London, as the Alström Bros, founders of the Beer Advocate, explain.

Porters may be very heavy, or not heavy at all. The point is, don't judge a beer by its name, or worse, its color!!

Brewed in Orgeon, the Rogue Mocha Porter is a little bit of a trickster of a beer. Full of smokey, dark, and robust flavors, it seems like a heavy beer. But it's not. The initial sharpness of its flavors seem to defy food pairings, but it turns out to be an excellent food beer. 

It's all about the malts in this beer. With 9 different kinds of malts, they color and flavor this fun beer. One Woman tasted burnt sugar, moist tobacco, charcoal, a bit of dark toffee, and of course, mocha. With very little carbonation, it pours to create an airy crumpet-like head the color of a café au lait that quickly disintegrates. With all the burnt flavors, it would seem like the beer would be much heavier, but this is the beauty and the surprise of this porter. After the initial hit of flavors, it doesn't linger. It's not sticky-sweet either, so it doesn't fight with food. A little amazed about how well this porter slipped into the meal, One Woman enjoyed this porter with a meal of roasted beets with crushed almonds on a bed of greens tossed with a honey dijon vinaigrette, a grilled cheese sandwich (yeah, baby!!) made with a mild Petaluma Creamery cheddar and sautéed onions, plus a little spot of apple sauce on the side.


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Musical pairing: Igor Stravisnky's Rite of Spring, a riot-causing, very HEAVY piece that premiered in 1913. The selection tonight is dedicated to those still craving the weighty, heavy and dark of the primordial pagan ritual sacrifice. It's also probably one of One Woman's favorite works for orchestra. Congrats to David Milnes and the UC Berkeley University Symphony Orchestra for an awesome performance of the piece tonight!

Skull Splitter: Orkney Ale

Is there such a thing as an appropriate beer pairing for the musical shamans of the late 20th century, aka Caroliner Rainbow?! Walking out of the Berkeley Art Museum performance, One Woman was in search of a beer to match this crazy ensemble.

Variously described as noise, bluegrass, and costume rock, Caroliner is ridiculously loud, ridiculously fun, and pretty self-absorbed. (Fun, and relaxing, in many cases. I have a thing against noise music being perceived as always aggressive, violent, or radical. On the contrary, there is actually very little going on in noise music in terms of movement because the signal is at a constant state of near saturation. This means, if you perceive noise as a disruption of the ordinary, or of the message, nothing is actually being disrupted in noise. So, when some idiot asked me at the show what I thought of the music and I replied, it's nice, meaning it was sort of relaxing, he got offended because I was somehow diminishing his desire to hear noise music [as distinguished from noise] as only cathartic, violent and difficult, I was even more convinced that I need to write about noise in a noisy but simultaneously meaningless way that could, or may be tuned out...O, I digress)  Listening to distortion and feedback, emanating from a saturated fluorescent stage illuminated by a black light, the colors sound and the sounds illuminate. Caroliner drones on, gyrating and thrashing about so that you can sit there motionless and absorb it all. And it is loud. So loud, that you feel the vibrations on your clothes, on your skin, and in your skull.

Enter Skull Splitter, a strong ale from Orkney, Scotland. Skull Splitter and Caroliner share a desire to resonate through an epic, mythical past. The Orkney brewery itself is relatively new (est. 1988), but the island is home to some neolithic ruins dating back 5,500 years. And Skull Splitter is named after a real tenth-century viking, Thorfinn Einarsson (aka Skull Splitter), who was the 7th Viking Earl of Orkney. Skull Splitter has an amazing dark red amber hue that's very clear. At 8.5% ABV, it's a strong beer, which, in this case comes out most up front as pure sweetness: dark raisins, dried red cherries, toffee, and a splash of bourbon. One Woman has a bit of a tough time figuring out many red ales, but this one is definitely more exciting than its cousin, Newcastle. The blend of pale ale, crystal and chocolate malts creates a toasty, fresh-baked graham bread smell that's very pleasant. But in the spirit of adventure, and to balance out the sweetness, I'm going to be a little playful and suggest this as a desert beer. One Woman tried it with slow baked rice pudding from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook, but I'm imagining it might go well with an Irish soda bread, or other lightly sweetened quick bread with fruit and nuts. 

***BONUS TIME!***

Slow-Cooked Rice Pudding recipe adapted from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook:

Ingredients
2 cups milk
1.5 tablespoons rice
3 tablespoons sugar
1 small pat of butter 
optional – pinch of nutmeg

serves two


1. Heat oven to 300º
2. Butter a baking dish, and mix all the ingredients together. 
3. Stir 2-3 times the first hour of baking. 
4. Bake around 3 hours, until thickened but not solid. The rice should be a beautiful golden color, and the skin formed on top should be browned. Serve warm or cold, with whipped cream if you're really going for it.
5. This stuff keeps well in the fridge, so make a bunch and enjoy, with or without the beer!

Home Brewed Bacon Bourbon - Double Trouble with the Japonize Elephants

Today's edition of One Woman, One Beer is about a distant cousin of beer: the whiskey--the other grain beverage. Attending a Japonize Elephants show at the Bottom of the Hill in SF, One Woman was handed a glass of Bacon Bourbon by Wasabi-T Fab (aka the smokin' accordion player chick in the cowboy hat) of the group.

Wasabi-T knows she has a genius idea in her hand

Bacon Bourbon, a homemade concoction by Wasabi-T, is Bulleit Bourbon infused with apple-smoked bacon. That's all there is to it. A novelty, for sure, and a damn fine one. A good part of the bacon lingers in the smell, the initial encounter with this mysterious dark golden potion. Because the fat is frozen off and removed in the infusion process, the blended product has a clean, bright taste, with a bacon flavor sure to catch your attention but not by overpowering everything else.  It sips much smoother than a regular whiskey, and salt from the bacon cuts the heat of the alcohol, bringing out its sweetness.

Add dark chocolate (which, somehow, magically appeared on scene) as a pairing , and you get a whole new set of sensory relations. The taste of cacao suddenly jumps out brightly, amplified and almost caramelized by the salty vanilla of the bourbon.

The musical pairing, needless to say, is the romping but oddly articulated blue-grass/Baltic punk of the Japonize Elephants, who play songs with names like "Bob's Bacon Barn Train Bacon Grass Special" and "Whiskey Willie." Now, stop staring at your computer and get out your dancing shoes.

Double Chocolate Stout - Just What a Girl Needs

What better way to end the day when it involved a lot of chocolate, hot water bottle, and pain (some gently call it the "moon cycle"), than with a smooth chocolatey stout?

The stout, when done right, can hold all sorts of different flavors and qualities. But contrary to many legends about stouts, most stouts (including this one and Guiness) are not that heavy, nor higher in alcohol or calories than a pale ale. So if your definition of a tough beer is a high alcohol, super heavy beer, you'll have to look elsewhere. Go ahead, have your "meal in a can," but I'll bet you'll be getting a fourth meal not too long after.

One Woman's Chocolate Stout came in a nitro-can (the kind with the little "widget"). Have you ever wondered about the magical little ball inside Guinness cans and other stout cans works? Well, basically, they were developed in the 1980s by Guinness so that the home drinker could experience a similar kind of foam texture to a heady draft beer. The widget and the pressurized nitrogen gas inside make it possible for those decadent fine bubbles to form. The amount of gas inside the bottle control how fine the bubbles are.

Young's Double Chocolate Stout, a sweet/milk stout brewed in England, is nowhere as heady as a Guiness, but just as tasty in so many ways. The color is a dark red brown, but it's so dark you can't really see through it. I was immediately hit by the smells of coffee, bourbon, and dark chocolate. Yum! Plus, there were hints of roasted cacao, beeswax or toasted honeycomb. Despite all the smells though, these are qualities and scents, not in-your-face flavors. It goes down so smoothly, even though the flavors are dry like a bittersweet darkchocolate. The combination of a pre-dinner Double Chocolate Stout with sweet potato chips was like a match made in heaven.

Which brings me to the musical pairing of the day: Flight of the Condor, a traditional Peruvian song, also familiar as the tune covered (or was it stolen) by Simon . This is in honor of the First Condor Nest in Pinnacles in 100 years. The article mentions that Condors stay with one selected partner for life. Amazing!

Back to Beer: Anderson Valley Brewing Company, Boont Amber Ale

One Woman liked this Beer so much she mistook it for her own baby?!

After an evening of apple cider (that didn't finish too badly--it ended with "drunken" apple cider muffins for breakfast), back to beer feels so good, especially when it's Anderson Valley's Boont Amber Ale.

Brewed in Boonvile, California, Boont is the best known beer from the Anderson Valley Brewing Company. What's cool about this modern brewery (est. 1987) is that they grow hops on their estate (see pics here).

Quickly--stats: 5.8% ABV, and 15 IBUs. From a purely numerical level, this translates to a beer that's just a tad sweet, and not super hoppy at all.

Boont has very gentle carbonation, that allows for a very soft encounter. In terms of flavor, it has a hint of caramel... or was it persimmon with light brown sugar? Dissection, or over analyzing doesn't seem right for this lovely, curvy beer. Boont Amber Ale is so well-rounded! Suddenly, it's not about the malt in relation to the hops, and the nose and the mouth. It's about the chemistry that happened to make this ale that feels so right. As for color, the amber is jewel like, and so pretty. I could have just stared and admired it for a long time, had I not been overcome by the urge to quench my beer thirst with this beauty.

One Woman enjoyed her Boont with Chef Dre's crazy good legendary empanadas and fried green plantains, blessed with the company of poet SR, and a fiddler/photographer CS, who I credit with the genius idea behind today's photo.

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Did you know that the weird animal on the Anderson Valley Brewing Company's label that looks like a bear with antlers is "not a bear," but "a beer"? (Um. Okay, Stoners) Anderson Valley also has its own language that locals developed in the 19th century called Boontling.

Musical pairing of the evening: Jack O' the Clock. Good ol' Americana--quirky, weird, amnesiac folk of found sounds and ballads.

Ace Apple Hard Cider: Produced by the California Cider Company

Why does apple cider live in the beer section at the store? It's bottled in the same kind of bottle, and often sold as six-packs. But there's nothing that really legitimately makes cider a beer. Cider requires one ingredient only--apple juice, which is fermented to make the alcohol. So unlike a lambic or other fruit beers, there is no barley or yeasts that make a beer a beer. There are similarities though--it's carbonated, related in color, and similar in alcohol content, hovering between 3–15% alcohol by volume. One Woman feels that if Cider gets to live in the beer aisle, there should be a special designation for certain malted milkshakes to qualify as beer by virtue of its foam resilience.

 

Some studies (and this one) say that Apple Cider as health benefits (phenolics and antioxidants!) so drink up! Well, not so fast. Others say that they don't really. Hmm. Sounds like that never-ending debate about coffee or wine.

In any case, Ace Apple Hard Cider is made in Sonoma County from California apples. It has a very pale, light color like a sparkling white wine, and mild carbonation. It's pretty sweet, but not syrupy, and has a little hint of the bitters. You could think of it as an alternative to wine or beer, but One Woman prefers to think of it as an alternative to a soda or sparkling water. Think, picnics on a grassy, sunny afternoon with a brie and fig paste sandwich on a chewy baguette. Pick a spot where you can see lots of wild flowers, and take a deep breath and savor.

Musical pairing of the evening: Filament (Sachiko M and Otomo Yoshihide). Because there is always some agitation beneath the sweetness.
(And also, because One Woman is trying to prepare for a lecture on Noise music).

Corona Extra – Mas Fina! Itadaki maaas!

One Woman loves the Corona Extra, even though plenty of folks like to hate on this number one best-selling beer in Mexico, and the number one imported beer in the US. The pale, straw-colored pilsner with the energetic foam that rushes out of the bottle if you're not careful is a great choice for Japanese food, like the awesome yellowtail and avocado roll topped with eel, aka the Manpuku Roll that I enjoyed this evening. Manpuku, by the way, is One Woman's favorite local sushi/noodle joint, Korean American owned, and Mexican and American rolled in Berkeley, CA.

The reason (or, One Woman's theory) for this particular affinity for Japanese flavors: the slight bitter taste in Corona, which turns some people off, complements the sweetness in flavorings like the BBQ eel sauce, sushi rice, and pickled ginger. I favor the addition of the oh-so-controversial slice of citrus, because it brings out the best of the Corona, as well as in foods with natural and not so natural oils, from avocado to a buttery slice of yellowtail sashimi to a righteous tempura battered shrimp. I also like the malty smell of the Corona that's assertive enough, but not overpoweringly so. If you want to do flavor theory, a Corona with a citrus wedge covers at least 3 of the 4 bases (sweet, sour, bitter out of sweet/sour/salty/bitter), complements the remaining salty, and enhances that mythologized fifth flavor, umami.

As for the taste of the Corona itself, it just makes me think of the very basic ingredients of beer: malts, hops, and yeast. No micro/craft/fancy brew spice combinations or incantations by monks. That's what you taste, and one of the reasons that I like this beer.

Another perk: bottle design! As a beer that many choose to drink out of the bottle, the lip is essential. All the way from color (clear) to the gentle curve on the lip that sits and sips marvelously.

Kanpai!

 

Musical pairing: Deer Hoof, Apple O – partially born in Japan, but experiencing a creative blossoming in the US, like the rainbow roll and the fried California roll. Rock 'n' roll.

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Did you know?
Corona, Pacifico, and Negra Modelo (among many other brands) are all produced, distributed and marketed by Mexican beer giant Grupo Modelo?

Alternatives: Another Kind of Foamy Drink

One Woman enjoyed a milk shake from In-N-Out Burger tonight on the way back from a fun conference in Santa Cruz. By the way, does anyone know of a system of beer taxonomy that categorizes malted shakes as a type of beer?

Sweet, pink and very viscous, an In-N-Out strawberry shake has amazing foam retention, maintaining its fluff even at room temperature! Their specialty malts are an off-menu secret. Trace ABV, -123 IBUs.

Musical pairing of the day: Joana Newsom, Have One on Me. Sticky, sweet, spiritual, and a bit dark.

 

California Dreamin' off of CA-237

Simpler Times Lager – Minhas Craft Brewery (or, the Trader Joe's Lager)

"Simpler Times Lager." It's a lager, for the simpler times. The name, "simpler" describes the "times," not the beer. Perhaps it's trying to strike our nostalgic nerve. Simpler. Simpler, compared to what? But then again, Trader Joe's is the last place this One Woman would associate with those good old days. (Remember this madness when TJ's opened in NYC?). Besides, I say good riddance to those simpler times when it was not so cool for ladies to drink, much less write, about beer.

But title aside,  $4.00 for for a six pack! Unbeatable! The cost makes this casual, unobtrusive, yellow beer an excellent choice for Trader Joes receptions, preferred by artists and musicians in the US, coast to coast. Seriously, what would the US art world do without TJ's?

...this is how One Woman ended up with a can of Simpler Times in her hand this evening, at a gallery opening at Warehouse 416 in Oakland, part of the monthly Oakland Art Murmur event. The space and rocket-themed show included a display of glowing alien specimen in tubes by Molly Reichert and Colleen Paz, and tunes by Patricia Chavez.

Inside Elwyn's studio
 

Also exhibiting, or actually, opening up her workshop, was milliner, artist, and DJ, Elwyn Crawford, who is the owner of O'Lover Hats. These hats are so lovingly crafted, look, feel, AND fit gorgeously. I love that Elwyn opens up her studio to visitors, and makes the work in progress part of the thing that she's selling. Asked about the relevance of beer in relation to her lovely hats, she immediately responded with something to the extent of, of course beer and hats go together - party people love hats, and beer! This woman rocks.

Outside, One Woman ordered a delicious falafel sandwich with sweet potato fries (very highly recommended) from Liba's food truck. A small sweet potato fry offered by One Woman to two more women (Ruth Boerefijn and Elizabeth) outside the truck prompted Ruth, an artist, to tell a beautiful story about how meaningful one sweet potato was for one struggling woman in a mining town in 19th-century America. Then, Elizabeth, also an artist, and Ruth's former assistant, told a story about potato peel pie. Potatoes? WTF, you may say, but throughout history, these grains--as nourishment, as commodity, as memory, and as national symbol, have managed to make some serious impact on the lives and livelihood of people.

What does all this have to do with Simpler Times / simpler times? Not too much. But without at all saying that a beer enables anything (as of now, I'm under the impression that beer doesn't have agency), tonight, all around, cans of TJ beer witnessed so many connections, conversations, and meetings, unforeseen, which I thought were quite lovely.

Musical pairing of the day: Tuning in to the outer-space and rocket ship theme, and exploration of the unknown, of the the show at the Warehouse the musical selection today is, "Cosmic Rays Dreaming," recorded by the Cosmic Rays, a doo wop / rhythm and blues group active in the early 1950s, led by someone you may know better as Sun Ra, since the later the 1950s.  Sun Ra biographer John Szwed writes that the songs and lyrics were based on dreams that Sun Ra had recorded. If you listen to it expecting the Sun Ra you know and love, the cosmic rays are shockingly doo wop. But it also has the unmistakable sound of Sun Ra.

Affligem Blonde: Brewed with faith since 1129

Thrusday, March 4, 2010. The state-wide "Day of Action to Defend Public Eduation" took many shapes, forms, and sounds today. One Woman took a bus to Sacramento to take part in a rally at the state capitol. Political action is a strange thing though. This current budget crisis, deep cuts in public education, and government, as well as UC Regents' responses have been somewhere between confusing, disappointing, and straight up stupid. And still, the most frustrating part is the ability for "we" (the students and teachers) to make real change. Can we do it? What about the gaps and the changes in meaning that grow wider, between "yes we can" and "si se puede"? One Woman encouraged her students to participate in this action, because the future of UC as a great place to learn and thrive is at stake. Participate. But what of the future? What can policy changes accomplish? A lot, no doubt, but how, and to what extent is also a question.

When One Woman was overcome by a sense of political inertia on this big day for California education, she was inspired to search for the oldest beer at her local grocery store. What she found was Affligem, a Belgian Abbey Ale. The Abbey was founded in 1074, and Affligem claims that they have been brewing beer since 1129. This is way before there were any nation states as we know them today existed (and by association, their governments, laws and national institutions). This was a comforting thought for One Woman. Some things endure, even if it goes through changes, but other things, like states, don't last as long. Compared to the Affligem, the history of California is so short. This says two things: 1) precisely because political structures are so short lived, we need to embrace them or fight them to the best of our intellectual and ethical abilities. 2) When that does nothing, well, as my mother says in her moments infinite wisdom: "good things and bad things happen. After a bad thing, a good thing happens." The worst moments pass.

To think that a recipe for beer can endure longer than the history of any nation state--this makes me question how enduring the actions one individual, or even collective political entity can be in the long run. And then there are stories, ideas, and works of art, which have similarly endured. What does that say about these things, which are too often viewed as excess, or ornaments of society?

Getting back to Affligem now. It's a nice Belgian Blonde; lightly floral, with a comforting mature yeast flavo and just a hint of bitterness. With a burnt strawberry blond color, that's very clear, it also has a big, fluffy head. Served with cream of broccoli soup, beet and carrot pancakes (a variation on Mark Bittmans's Beet Rösti), and a piece of toasted sourdough.

The musical pairing: "This Little Light of Mine," an old spiritual with associations to the Civil Rights Movement and the Student Movements of the 1960s. Because there is the past, and the future, and hope in between. And because inevitably, someone will sing it at a rally.

Black Diamond - Freestyle: Artichoke Eater's Companion Species Manifesto

A pilsner in winter? One Woman was a bit perplexed. Add to that, Mme. J.C's warning that you may not want to have wine with artichokes, which were the vegetable du jour. "Wine changes its character when drunk with this vegetable," she says.

Despite the French authorities who, back in 1961 suggested that water should be the diner's beverage of choice for artichokes, One Woman discovered today that beer goes superbly with artichokes, steamed or roasted. Choose beer if artichokes are for dinner.

NON:

Don't drink wine with artichokes!

 

As for this particular beer, the Black Diamond's label describes it as "a brilliant golden colored ale with rich silky flavor of European Pilsner malt that's punctuated with spicy notes of rye and accented by the complex Belgian yeast." What that translates to is a cultural confusion, or a "hybridity" of genres. Is it American? German? Belgian? A lager? An ale? A summer beer? A winter beer? The answer is, well, it's sort of all correct. With a reddish gold hue, and soft white head, it has a floral scent like a slow summer evening, but also some winter scents, like spruce, cloves, and a dash of orange zest. The crazy thing about this beer is that it's simultaneously pilsner and Belgian -like.

Back to artichokes. The combination was fascinating. The Freestyle mellowed out the strange bitterness of the artichoke, and in the process, changed its own character. Suddenly, with the artichoke, it became the lighter weight sibling of a classic Belgian blond like La Chouffe!

To recap: Black Diamond is an German inspired, Belgian blonde beer with an American personality. It's equally welcome at the fireplace after a day of snowboarding, or on the deck, watching the sun go down over the Pacific Ocean.

Musical pairing of the day: Breeders, Last Splash (1993) – slightly quirky, pretty poppy, super fun. (Yeah yeah, I know, you like Pod better).

OUI are family!

Anchor Brewing - Anchor Steam for the Good Times

Mad rocket scientist / architect Molly R digs Anchor Steam, and so should you. Anchor Steam is One Woman's go-to beer for those days when she doesn't know which beer to drink, or isn't so much in the mood to fuss over pairings this and IBUs that. Mellow gold, friendly, and brewed in San Francisco, Anchor Steam is a joyful American beer. (Although, one thing One Woman does find in this beer is that it has a pretty large range of flavors that changes depending on the batch –  sticky sweet, to a bit stale are always disappointing. This batch, though, tasted super FRESH and clean!) It's like a pair of comfy but flattering jeans that every girl needs. Not the little black dress – just the old casual standby.

Molly's rocket ships and space creatures will be soaring this Friday at the Oakland Art Murmur, (held every month on the first Friday) so you should check that out if you're in the Bay Area, perhaps with an Anchor Steam in hand.

Musical pairing: Music of the legendary guitarist of le hot jazz of Paris, Django Reinhardt in the background; engaging conversation, great company, and the culinary creations of the fabulous Chef Seth S in the foreground at a casual Tuesday evening South Berkeley hang.

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Web Edition Bonus! Party pics that didn't make the feature cut:

Green Flash Pt. 3: Hop Head Red Ale

 

(A studious beer? Reading a 1918 classic:  

The Fanny Farmer Cookbook)

With a very rich copper tone that's almost ruby in some light, the Green Flash Hop Head Red Ale is a real classy lady. Well-balanced, complex, but not fussy. Brewed with dry hopped caramel Amarillo malt, it'a 6.4% ABV, with 45 IBUs. It's much more down to earth than Le Freak or the West Coast IPA that One Woman wrote about in the last two days. Not overpowered by hops, it smells of moist malt, resin, autumn leaves after a light rain, a hint of ocean breeze, and maybe, just maybe a memory of anise. 

Thinking of all those tinny, metallic, red ales on the market (yuck) One woman was concerned that red ale wouldn't go well with food (or with life, for that matter). Not to worry! This versatile red ale, which actually might be a young IPA in disguise (!) went quite nicely with a pretty salad of shaved candy striped beets and almonds with a lemon-shallot vinaigrette. 

The musical pairing of the evening is Billie Holiday–so refined, elegant, and complex in her music. Have you listened to her interpretation of Duke Ellington's "Solitude"? Lady Day--How can you sing about "solitude" and be so warm and uplifting at the same time, all the while, holding on to every word and emotion so carefully? 

And that does it for the three-part Green Flash series. Thanks for tuning in to One Woman, One Beer. Tomorrow she will report back with a new theme and new surprise. Will she go with a Belgian? A golden lager? Or... or...