Results tagged “fredbueltmann”

          

Last night's beer dinner at the Publican was the culmination of six months of planning and discussions between Paul Kahan and New Holland Brewing Company. After all the brewing, the emails and phone calls, getting to know each other and travel between Chicago and Holland, it came down to the beer and the food, as it should have been. The proof, as the adage goes, would be in the pudding.

One of the agenda items left on the table when Paul Kahan and his entourage returned to Chicago from New Holland Brewing was finding a name for the biere de garde they brewed for their August 23 beer dinner at the Publican. Kahan and New Holland's Fred Bueltmann were riffing on mutual jazz musicians they were fans of, before the New Holland Knickerbocker gin and Zeppelin whisky took the riffing to a very dark-but-funny place.

(Today we wrap up our week-long series following chef Paul Kahan as he brewed beer at New Holland Brewing and planned a menu for an August 23 beer dinner at the Publican. If you haven't already, you can go back and read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4)

Many local beer drinkers owe their first experience with New Holland Brewing to Larry Bell. It was in October 2006 when Bell decided to pull his beers out of Illinois as a protest of the Illinois Beer Industry Fair Dealing Act. October in Illinois is premium weather for hoppy ales such as Bell’s Two-Hearted ale and Bell’s decision (which was equal parts protest, fit of pique, and masterstroke of marketing) left bars, restaurants and liquor stores throughout the city scrambling for a replacement.

      

(This is Part 3 in our week-long series following the evolution of a beer dinner at the Publican, from conception to the actual dinner. IF you haven't already, read Part 1 and Part 2.)

              

(This is the second in a series following the evolution of a beer dinner at the Publican, from conception to reality. Read Part 1 here.)

      

“Cooking with beer is a little new for me.” To hear a chef say such a thing would be surprise enough. That the chef admitting this was Paul Kahan made me take even more notice.