Page 38 - the NOISE August 2015

BY garY kurtZ
sour beers are weird. Like cheese, vinegar, and sauerkraut, sour beers are the artfull, controlled spoilage of a once fine product (milk for the cheese, wine for the vinegar, cabbage for the kraut) to make something that is greater than the sum of its parts. I generally have a tough time appreciating sour beers for this very reason. The fungi and bacteria that can take an average beer and make it into a lovely sour are the same organisms that, in a winery, can take a world class wine and make it undrinkable. If even a hint of Lactobacillus, Brettanomyces, or Pediococcus are detected in a wine, the barrel is quarantined and very likely the wine will be destroyed before the infection can spread. All of my professional career I have been taught to identify the flavor compounds that these organisms make as negative. so, it’s taken a lot of time and patience to be able to appreciate sour beers for what they are. And most of that time and practice has been spent at Wanderlust Brewing Company in Flagstaff.
enter Coconino Common, stage right. A sour rye session beer sitting at 4% alcohol. Crisp, clear, amber color with a lovely head that lasts and lasts. Unripe plums, apricots, prickly pear, and rye spiciness dominate on the palate. The hops in this beer are exceedingly mild, leaving almost undetectable bitterness. The malt’s sweetness is balanced with the sourness, instead of with the hops. This is a perfect introductory sour beer for palates, like mine, that cannot yet appreciate a more “over the top” offering. But to me, the most interesting part about this beer is the sour mash style in which it’s made.
when you hear the phrase “sour mash” what do you think of? In the production of alcohol, this can mean one of two things (neither of which has anything to do with the sour that we talked about earlier.) First, it can mean starting a batch of fermenting deliciousness by adding some of the previous batch. In essence, taking the batch that is already “soured” and using it to kick start the fermentation of the next. secondly, it can mean combining the starch conversion phase of the brew with the fermentation phase. In beer making, the starch conversion takes place during the “Mash.” Grains are soaked in hot water for a period of time — long enough to create enzymes in the grain that cleave the starch molecules into sugars and release them into the water so that they can be made into tasty, tasty beer. But, if one were to soak said grains in room temperature water and add some yeast to begin fermentation, one would have a sour mash. This is the process used to make the beer that gets distilled into Bourbon and other whiskeys, but that’s another class ... instead of the beer taking an hour or so to mash in hot water, sour mash beers take around a week. This is where wanderlust starts to have some fun with the process. Many sour beers are aged and/or fermented in retired wine barrels. Retired for what reason, you ask? Brettanomyces contamination. while this can create a great beer, it is also impossible to control. This is why, for the Coconino Common, wanderlust sours their beer in the kettle. Total control. This way every batch of wanderlust’s sour beer can taste no more or less tart than the last.
To me, Coconino Common is a wonderful monsoon season beer. It is exceptionally refreshing in hot weather. Pair with low acid foods such as grilled meats, like hamburgers and hotdogs or barbecue, which will play beautifully with the tartness of the beer. And since it’s low alcohol, you can safely have a few of them during a warm, muggy afternoon in front of the grill making those burgers we were just talking about. spring for the two liter growler and take it out into the desert. even though wanderlust makes all of their beers in house, in the same room even as their tasting room, up in the ponderosa forest, this is an open desert beer. Take it down to the Tonto Basin or up to Horseshoe Bend. watch monsoons roll across mountain ranges and desert valleys in the distance. Get hot. Get sweaty. The beer in that jug you’re carrying will refresh you like nothing else can.
| gary Kurtz is sipping sours as the monsoon season rolls through.
gtkurtz@gmail.com
BY angIe johnson-schMIt
some of life’s most important turning points are measured not in minutes or seconds, but in moments of unexpected epiphany. This is certainly the case for Aimee Novak, the chef behind the eclectic cuisine at Soldi Back Alley Bistro.
Ms. novak marks a dinner in Paris as the origin for her culinary passion. “My mom and I were traveling, it was cold and damp and we were exhausted,” said Ms. novak. The pair headed to a bistro near their hotel. They were seated at a less than ideal table in an alley, where they had to get up and move the table out of the way whenever a car drove by. In spite of the less than ideal seating, the meal was life-changing for Ms. novak.
“I ate a chicken in Paris ... I feel like my whole life will be trying to get back to that meal,” she said. “I realized I had never really dined before ... before I consumed food just to feed my body, but this was different and I loved it.” A passion for truly great food, al fresco dining and a leisurely meal was born.
The chef has tried many times to recreate the dish, but has never been able to duplicate it. Inspired by that chicken dish, Ms. novak enrolled in culinary school and opened soldi in February of 2013.
In culinary school, Ms. novak discovered that she loved world cuisine and street food. she noted that while many chefs tend to specialize, she was unwilling to choose. Instead, she began developing what she calls “global street food.” This core concept is reflected in soldi’s menu.
It’s not unusual to find Italian, Vietnamese, French and American dishes on the same menu. The one semi-permanent dish is a taco trio. “The menu is always changing and my staff tell me that’s part of why they like working here,”she said. The majority of her staff has been with soldi since it opened. “They all have great kitchen skills,” said Ms. novak. she made it clear that she considers them co-creatives in the process of developing a dish. “we are always trying to improve a dish, make it better.”
There were challenges to converting the 120-year-old house back into a restaurant. Once again, serendipity struck and Ms. novak came up with the clever, if somewhat unusual solution of using a food truck as her kitchen.
Food trucks are not normally allowed in Prescott, but with some modifications, the chef was able to make it work. The wheels were removed and the food truck was permanently placed in the patio area, where it continues to serve as the restaurant’s kitchen.
Ms. novak counts fresh, local ingredients as another key element. she considers herself a seasonal chef, meaning that her menu reflects whatever produce is “in season” at any given time. “I want to eat a tomato when it’s at its peak,” she said. “so I don’t usually have tomatoes on the menu unless they are in season ... who wants to eat a mealy tomato?”
Developing close relationships with local farmers, in particular Whipstone Farm in Chino Valley, has been tremendously helpful. “The farmers are the ones who can really help you,” she said. “They know their produce ... and can tell me if this carrot is sweeter and that one is more ‘carroty’ in flavor.”
when asked about signature dishes, the chef noted that she draws inspiration from the ingredients. Because local, seasonal ingredients vary, she never makes the same dish in exactly the same way. “we’re always changing things, improving them,” she said.
Ms. novak isn’t particularly fussed about guarding original recipes, either. “I don’t think there is a recipe anyone comes up with that hasn’t been done before,” she said. The chef has been known to give her recipes to diners who ask. “why not?” she asked. “I promise you that if you put your ingredients into google, you’ll find someone has already developed that exact recipe.”
Like many chefs, Ms. novak loves exploring cookbooks and recipes for inspiration. she has an extensive culinary library that she studies on a daily basis. “I’ve got a terrible memory for everything except recipes,” she said. “I don’t know why, but I can remember a recipe I read years ago and the book it was in.”
It’s the combination of continued study, a deep understanding of ingredients, and a commitment to experimenting with flavor profiles that makes Ms. novak’s food so interesting. while she probably won’t be willing to make you scrambled eggs, soldi’s patrons don’t come for the standard fare. After all, there are plenty of places to get great scrambled eggs, but not many that serve Croque Madame or curried beans on toast.
| Angie Johnson-schmit has a taste for fine cuisine.
slackerwriter@gmail.com
38 • august 2015 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
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