Fat Tire
Named in honor of our founder Jeff's bike trip through Belgium, Fat Tire Amber Ale marks a turning point in the young electrical engineer's home brewing. Belgian beers use a far broader palette of ingredients (fruits, spices, esoteric yeast strains) than German or English styles. Jeff found the Belgian approach freeing. Upon his return, Jeff created Fat Tire and Abbey Belgian Ale, (assuming Abbey would be his big gun). He and his wife, Kim traveled around sampling their homebrews to the public. Fat Tire's appeal quickly became evident. People liked everything about it. Except the name. Fat Tire won fans with its sense of balance: toasty, biscuit-like malt flavors coasting in equilibrium with hoppy freshness.
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Robert Poland, Co-Owner, MouCo Cheese Company, Inc.
ColoRouge Beer Cheese Soup
Ingredients:
• 5 Tbs. Butter
• 1 Red Onion
• Enough Bread to diced into dice size pieces and fill your cupped 2 hands
• 2 Tbs. Flour
• 3 Garlic Cloves
• 3 Tbs. Cream (Half and Half)
• 3 Egg Yokes
• 600 ml. Water
• 500 ml. Fat Tire Beer
• 1 Whole Clove
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 3 Tbs. Sugar
• Salt and Pepper
• Sprinkle of Nutmeg (Optional, we forgot it)
• Toasted Almonds (Optional)
• Sprinkle of parsley (For Color)
• 1 MouCo ColoRouge (for Yumminess)
Preparation:
- Brown Butter
- Set up a pot to warm with 3 tbs. butter on medium high heat.
- Set up a skillet to warm with 2 tbs. butter on medium high heat.
- Cut onion into desired size pieces, we went with a small dice, browns nicely to a lot of flavor while still maintaining some texture. Also dice garlic.
- Dice Bread into Die size pieces; create enough to fill your two cupped hands.
- Once the butter is browning add the onions to the pot and the bread to the pan.
- Stir both frequently for 3 minutes, add Garlic to the pot and continue to stir frequently for another few minutes.
- When the bread has achieved a nice color remove it from the heat.
- Once onion and garlic are quite brown add 2 tbs. butter in one spot and let it melt, then add flour to this pool and stir it around to get it wet.
- Toast this mixture for another 3 minutes; turning up the heat to high for the last 30 seconds.
- When the flour/butter mixture, Rue, has achieved a light brown color stir it into the onions.
- Then...add the beer and water. Turning up the heat at the end onions will set you up for faster boiling for the water and beer addition. You could substitute broth (50% beef, 50% chicken) for water, but we think this adds more calories than necessary, the flavor is already there from the onion and rue.
- Reduce the heat to lightly boil for the next 10 minutes.
- While the soup is boiling separate 3 eggs; yolks for this recipe.
- Whip the egg yolks and slowly add the sugar after about 1 minute. Once the mixture turns a pale white stop whipping and add the cream slowly while stirring lightly.
- Once the egg yoke mixture is done, stop the mixing and add the cream while lightly stirring.
- When then soup is done boiling, remove it from the heat and wait one minute then add the egg yoke mixture while stirring the hot soup lightly.
- Return the soup to the heat, but do not boil.
- Once you have achieved the heat that you desire it's time to plate.
Plating:
- Slice MouCo ColoRouge cheese into small pie slices or long strips just 1/8 inch think.
- Fill a bowl with soup
- Top with Bread Croutons and ColoRouge mini pie slices.
- Immediately cover hot bowl of soup with a plate to arrive at table hot and melt the cheese.
For more cheese excellence visit http://www.mouco.com
Chef Todd Davies, Partner of Tap House Grill, recommends:
Fontina stuffed banana peppers with smoked chicken, fennel sausage, corn flan, and tomato fonduta. Spicy banana peppers cut the sweet malts as the stuffing of the sweet hickory smoked chicken and fennel scented sausage complement. The fontina adds a pepperey element, complimenting the hops. The tomato sauce, cooked with Fat Tire, blends and smooths the ingredients, and the sweet corn flan cuts the spice while adding and intensifying the sweetness of the malts.
Melissa Newell, Owner of Terroir Restaurant, recommends:
My favorite beer of all beers. Period. When tasting this beer, immediately nuts and malts engulf my taste buds. Sweet caramel and a balance of earth make this beer very easy drinking and very palatable with many different foods. For starters, I would pair Fat Tire Amber Ale with a salad. Simple. Spinach, spiced pecans (cayenne, salt, light brown sugar - toss to coat and toast in oven), apples, and a sherry shallot vinaigrette. For second course, this beer would go well with a number of dishes. From a chestnut soup with crème fraiche to a lentil pate to, my favorite, an open faced ravioli with Coca-Cola braised pork shoulder (preferably from your local hog farmer) and shitake mushrooms in a light reduction sauce. The sweetness of the cola with the caramelization and umami of the mushrooms, make this a match made in heaven. To finish any meal with Fat Tire Amber Ale, I would pair this with the cheese Gjetost. The sweet caramelly notes of this goat's milk cheese with the earthiness that it suggest, lend it kindly to be paired with Fat Tire Amber Ale.
Derek Kennedy, Cheese Aficionado, recommends:
Fat Tire is a perfect example of a beer that pairs with lots of different flavors. Its sweet malts and aromatic, bittering hops allow a choice of a robust cheese. I like to go big with either a farmhouse cheddar or Parmigiano-Reggiano. The cheddar is creamy and plays with the sweetness of the malts for a swirl of difference; the dry nutty undertones of the parm allow the fullness to come through.
Lauren Salazar, our sensory specialist, recommends:
Fruit salad, turkey burger, aged gouda, mushroom ravioli.
