Thursday, December 13, 2007

Beer Dinner Party

One of my new favorite blogs is Relentless Thirst from Eric Delia. I just write about my musings and my takes on beer, but Eric’s blog is thought provoking, well written, and sounds like he could do it for a living. One of his blogs (actually an offshoot from Appellation beer) was about the four people who you would invite to a beer dinner either living or dead. It got me thinking and I put together a list of people that I would invite to this dinner:


One of my personal heroes and favorite person to read about is Winston Churchill. I read in his biography that when Churchill was serving as an officer in the army that officers drank only tea and condensed milk. Alcohol was permitted on the front lines, so that is where Churchill headed. His love of the drink, food, and life would be a welcomed addition at the table. Churchill liked his whiskey so choosing a beer for him isn't easy. I am going to go with Duck-Rabbit Baltic Porter. I am sure Winnie is well used to porters, but something with a bit more flavor and bit stronger would be nice. He had an American mother as well, so an American take on an English beer would nice. A part of me also wants to serve him a warm Bud Light. Why you ask? So I could see and hear firsthand one of Churchill's off-the-cuff tirades.

Larry David would be my next choice. Besides creating two of my all time favorite shows hearing David's take on all subjects that would come up would be well worth the time. I don't think there could be a dull moment with Larry David. The beer on this is pretty easy. He'Brew Jewbelation 11. If you watch "Curb Your Enthusiasm" this just seems like the best choice.

Jamie Oliver. He really started my love affair with food. He is just such a damn nice guy as well. I actually sat next to him at his restaurant in London, but I didn't want to say anything and be an annoying tourist. Looking back I should have just done it. He has so many great programs going on out there trying to help the school lunch programs, turning crime likely kids into chefs, and putting out my favorite cookbooks. It is really hard for me to choose a beer for Jamie. He has such an amazing palate I would probably go with Russian River's Supplication Ale. I would think Oliver would appreciate all that was going on with this beer and would have the palate to really appreciate it.

Thelonious Monk. I hated jazz until I heard "Brilliant Corners" from start to finish. Every time people start talking about jazz I am very surprised that so few people have really given him a good listen. Just listening to the music he made and stories he has with all the famous people he made them with would be fantastic. I see Thelonious sipping a nice Belgian strong like Cuvée Van De Keizer from Brouwerij Het Anker. I just see him at the piano with bottle and chalice doing what he did best.

Honorable mention (but still not invited to dinner) Bill Belichick. He gets Arrogant Bastard and a solo cup (and he only gets the solo cup out of respect for Arrogant Bastard). No explanation needed.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like this entry, and it'd be cool to drink beer with all of those people (even Bill Belichick). Anyway, I got one of those Two Hearted mini-kegs a few days ago. Holy fucking shit, it's amazing. I'm really trying to figure out how many of these I should buy up, as it's the first GREAT beer to be released like that. Hell, I don't even know if it's a limited release or anything. Off the top of my head, my dinner party picks would be: Colbert, Prince, Scorsese, Dylan, and Gervais.

Matt said...

I am not sure either if they will be making those all year long. How is the beer a day after opening it? That is the main reason I haven't bought any of it yet.

It is one of my very favorites though, so I will buy some soon.

Anonymous said...

Well, the mini-keg was phenomenal on days one and two. It started to fade on day three, and by day four I was wishing that I had just drank it all on day three (it was still drinkable, though). Garber and I figured that it holds about 14 12-ounce beers. So at 7%, that's a lot of beer for one person to consume in the span of a few days.

Overall, I'd say that it was worth Parti Pack's 23 dollar price tag. I mean, it's hard to put a price on having an amazing craft beer on tap in your fridge, ya know?

How are things going for you, Matt? I hope all is well. I'm having hernia surgery on Tuesday, so I won't be able to drink for a while (due to the pain medication).

Matt said...

I didn't know you were having surgery coming man. That really sucks around the holidays, but hopefully you will recover quickly and be all right. Give me a call when you are all healed up and I will buy something nice from Badaboomz.

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a hell of a table! My favorite guest of yours, and one that I wish I had room for at my dinner, is Larry David. Absolutely hilarious, and you picked a great beer to suit him.

Belichick was also a good choice, and maybe a beer or two would get him out of his stern press conference mode.

Overall, good beer-to-guest pairing, well thought out. Thanks for the mention, and keep the insightful reviews coming!

Anonymous said...

Well, let's shoot for the Badaboomz trip somewhere between Christmas and New Year's. I'm already feeling better after the surgery. I just had the surgery yesterday, and from a pain-level, it basically just feels like I did a bunch of sit-ups yesterday.

So, it looks like I won't be needing to use my entire four weeks of leave. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I might still take the time to be away from work, try to look for a better job, and do some writing.

But yeah, Dude appreciates the beer offer.

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