Rauchbier Tasting, March 29, 8:00pm

Rauchbier is a type of beer with a distinctive smoke flavor imparted by using malted barley dried over an open flame.  Beginning in the 18th century, kiln drying of malt became progressively more common and, by the mid-19th century, had become the near-universal method for drying malted grain. Since the kiln method shunts the smoke away from the wet malt, a smoky flavor is not imparted to the grain, nor to the subsequent beer. As a result, Rauchbier became less and less common, and eventually disappeared almost entirely from the brewing world.

The Schlenkerla brewery-tavern in Bamberg, Germany, however, has maintained the smoked beer tradition for over two centuries by continuing to use malt which had been dried over open beech wood fires.

The Rauchbier tasting is on Monday, March 29 at 8:00 PM.  Tickets for this event are on sale now at $18 and include one glass of Schlenkerla Weizen, one glass of Schlenkerla Marzen and a sampling of sausages, mustard, bread and sauerkraut.  There are only 7 tickets available to this event.

Port Wine Tasting, April 12, 8:00 pm

The next event is a port wine tasting.  In 2005 Karrie and I visited Portugal for Fantasporto Film Festival.  The festival is held in Porto, home to all worldwide port production.  We became obsessed with port during that trip and always stock several vintages at the house.

Port wine was an accidental discovery by the British sea merchants in the later half of the 17th century.  During long voyages, they found that if they poured brandy into the casks, the wine for the voyage would not spoil as quickly.  What they later found was that with further aging, this fortified wine would begin to change and mature, becoming the complex, long finish delicacy we know as port today.  Vintage ports are the kings of all ports.   Two years after each years harvest, the port wine that has been aged in oak barrels is sampled.  If the weather conditions were perfect and the taste is superb after two years, a vintage year is declared.  These ports are then bottled and aged for 15-30 years more in the bottle until they mature to perfection.

At the port wine tasting, we will be sampling from some of the greatest vintage port years: a 1980 Warres, a 1970 Cockburns, a 1966 Quinta da Cachao and a 1963 Taylor Fladgate.  All of these years are phenomenal vintage years, declared by all major port lodges, but 1963 is considered by many to be the best vintage year of the 20th century.  In addition, we will be sampling a 40 year tawny port.  Tawny Ports are ports that are non-vintage, but aged for a very long time in oak barrels.  In our case the port will be a blend of various aged ports, but the average age in the barrel for this blend is 40 years.  Tawny ports are lighter in color due to the aging process, but also have an exceptional long complex finish.

We will be pairing the ports  with a variety of cheeses, fruits and chocolates.  Tickets to this event are on sale now at $57.  There are 18 tickets available.

Both of these tastings will be held at the home of Tim and Karrie League, founders of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and the Highball.  Directions will be provided to ticketholders.