Posts Tagged ‘locavore’
So You Want to Organize a Craft Beer Festival?
We Feature literally hundreds of Beer Festivals at TasteUSA – So when a recent Report came out from Eventbrite about Millenials choices when it comes to Food and Beverage Festivals (Report here – it may be restricted..) it was no surprise that Millenials and frankly all ages over 21 prefer craft beer festivals to all other food and beverage events!
Since TasteUSA is the #1 Food and Drink Festival Website in the US, we have a special insight into what makes for a successful or not so successful event. Below are some observations/anecdotes on how you the craft beer festival organizer can improve the ticket sales and audience of your event.
1)Always Go Local – today Foodies and craft beer lovers want to know what’s going on in their neighborhood when it comes to eating and drinking. You’ve probably heard it before – “locavore” but it means much more. Today’s craft beer audience is younger – Millennial if you prefer – and they want a story behind their craft beer experience. The best way to tell a story is to let the newest local breweries taste at your Festival. The good news is that craft breweries are popping up so quickly, this shouldn’t be a problem!
2)Great Food Is a Necessity – Gone are the days when you could hold a craft beer festival and just have pretzels, jerky and fried foods to fill the stomachs of attendees. Today’s craft beer aficionados are generally “Foodies” and they want a culinary experience to boot! I’m often asked to define “Foodie” – The Eventbrite survey simply asked if Festival attendees were serious about food – and 50% said “yes” – that pretty much makes you a Foodie!
The key to delivering a positive food experience at a Festival is to have a variety of cuisines – and the easiest way to do this is to use local food trucks if available. I’ve been to events with as many as 60 food trucks, but you may only need a few – it really depends on the number of people who are attending and if you have other food vendors.
I recently helped an Organizer by suggesting that rather than use the venue’s food service, that they should consider using a local food incubator called Mess Hall. Since Mess Hall already curates local food producers, this was a win-win – a great variety of food items and local food producers! You may not have a food incubator in your Region, but there are literally thousands of food vendors – it can’t hurt to check out a few brew festivals in your region and see who’s selling food – do your homework!
Bacon!
3)Add a Second Theme – Simple – just add Bacon! Seriously, Bacon Festivals are Hot right now in the US – we should know, TasteUSA Features More Bacon Festivals than any other website! Here are some other themes – each is linked to an actual event we Featured:
-BBQ – Beer, Bourbon & BBQ – well that’s actually 3 themes!
-Food Trucks – West End Food Truck Rodeo – built in draw – food trucks represent American inventiveness, freedom and ingenuity – they also are catering kitchens on wheels!
-Seafood – multiple potential themes: Crab, Oyster, Lobster, Crawfish or regional themes like Chesapeake, Alaskan, etc. – Chesapeake Crab & Beer Festival
-Cider – DC Craft Beer & Cider Festival – did you know that Cider is the fastest growing alcoholic beverage category? It’s also generally gluten-free – while few craft beers are free of gluten – so you’ve opened up a new marketing channel!
-Taste of <your town/city here> – Great Tastes of Tysons – why not – everybody loves to check out local restaurants and of course local beers!
4)Add Buzz with Social Media – Ugghhh..Social Media – it’s too much work .. or is it? Keep it simple – setup a Facebook “Fan Page” (you’re on Facebook – right?), and put a link to it on your website (you have a website right? If not, email us Email TasteUSA we can help!). Twitter too – create a name on twitter that is simple and try to include “beerfestival” somewhere in the name. Instagram? Maybe.. Pinterest? The answer is we’re all evolving with Social Media – there are no easy answers. I’m only talking free marketing here – if you decide to advertise, market your event Give Us a Buzz or hire a marketing consultant. That may be overkill – maybe all your craft beer festival is a quick start?!
Cheers!
Catoctin Creek Dinner Gets It Right
A Dinner to Remember..
Leaving Georgetown on a Friday night I was stuck on M Street for 40 minutes to cover about 7 blocks. The Weekend traffic made what should have been around an hour and 15 minute trip more than 2 hours, but the resulting dinner was truly worth it!
I (although I say “we” quite a bit – once you’re at a Whisky Dinner, you become a we!) attended a Cocktail Dinner at the Catoctin Creek Distillery, featuring the Wandering Chef – an entertaining and delicious affair and my first time visiting the new Catoctin Creek Distillery in the heart of Purcellville.
We enjoyed a private tour of the new space from owners, Scott and Becky Harris. Becky guided us through the process of making whisky, and Scott described for us the wonderful history of their “new” building, which is nearly 100 years old.
Dinner was a five course affair prepared by Chefs Wes Rosati and Maria Aros of The Wandering Chef. Chefs Rosati and Aros are formerly of Lansdowne Resort, and have combined talents to provide exquisite dining for our new venue!
Oh, and did I say cocktails? Yes, Katie Morrison was on hand to expertly craft cocktails paired with our dinner! As always, I forgot to get the cocktail recipes (shame!!), but the “Catoctinog” was a great starter for me – essentially a Whiskey egg nog, but more creamy nog than egg – cream and whiskey are made to be together!
Here is the Menu (all sourced from local producers and use of seasonal ingredients):
1st Course
Baby Winter Greens, Spiced Walnuts, Cranberry Vinaigrette
Crispy Pork Belly and Poached Pear Salad
Paired with CCDC’s “Catoctinog”
Cocktails at Catoctin Creek
2nd Course
Smoked Chicken and Bitter Green Risotto
Finished with Lemon, Fresh Herbs and Aged Parmesan Cheese
Paired with CCDC’s “Moonshine Chanukkah”
3rd Course
Braised Green Lentils with Local Lamb Sausage, Roasted Carrot Puree,
Honey and Chili Marinated Rack of Lamb
Mint and Lime Gremolatta – I think the Rack of Lamb stole the show – with whisky, you need meat (fat is good too) and the tender lamb on the bone was decadent..it also was delish with the lentils fatted up carrot puree (lamb sausage to boot!)
Paired with CCDC’s “The Wry Gingerman”
4th Course
Dark Chocolate “Pots de Crème”,
Cranberry-Mint Compote and Freshly Whipped Cream
Catoctin Creek Distillery is located at 120 West Main Street, Purcellville, Virginia and the new location is WAY better than the old warehouse!
For reference, the event was held on Friday, December 13, 2013 – yes, Friday the 13th – Boo!
Consider Yourself Paired – “Yinzer Torte”!
First of all, I want to mention that it’s really great that Daniel is using local resources as his ingredients. It’s really sad that people are so urbanized and removed from nature that they don’t even trust the fruit that grows on their local trees! Just like Daniel used the local quinces for this recipe, I have often thought about using the ginkgo “stinky” fruit that falls from the female trees that are common all over Washington, D.C. Stinky Gingko Fruit – unfortunately, it is SO stinky, that it will probably never happen!
The first point I want to make is that I am not a proponent of pairing dessert wines and dessert – the way I see it, there’s a missing synergy. In my book (sorry for the blatant promo!) I Drink on the Job – I have a complete chapter on pairing wine and food, and the principle that comes to mind is “1+1=1/2”. It seems weird, but when you put a sweet food in your mouth and then you drink a sweet beverage (it could be any beverage – fruit juice, cola, etc.), the sweetness is significantly reduced. The pairing rule I often learned was that the wine should be at least as sweet at the dessert, but I don’t see how it makes a difference – sweet and sweet mostly cancel each other out!
Another point is that the Yinzer torte is made with highly acidic quince fruit turned into a butter emulsion. So now you have acidity – and yes, you do want to match a dishes acidity with the wine, or the wine will taste really flat! You could easily pair this dish with a traditional dessert wine like a Sauternes or a Hungarian Tokaj, and that will do just fine. But let me throw a curve ball.
1) I prefer to have contrast to a sweet dessert dish – just like many people really enjoy coffee with sweets because the tannin in coffee contrasts the sweetness of dessert on your palate, I would rather pair this with a spirit – and my spirit of choice for this dish is either a Cognac or a Calvados. Cognac is distilled from grapes and has a nice fruit component. Calvados is distilled from apples and has that fruit component as well. You could have a whisky or a Scotch, but definitely avoid a really smoky/peaty version of the latter – there are no smoke components to this dessert (unless you’re puffing on a cigar at the time!),
2) Change the dish a bit to make it go better with wine – this is called a pairing “bridge”. For example, you could put some chopped walnuts on top and maybe serve with a slice of blue cheese and now Ruby Port goes perfectly! Crunchy nuts would also add texture which makes food more interesting on the palate. Add a caramel sauce, and now a Tawny port, which is port that has been pre-aged in barrel will work with those flavors. You could even bridge this dessert by making a dessert wine reduction, and that would bring the flavors together.
3) Add fresh whipped cream with a little liqueur in it like Cointreau. OK, it won’t match better with any wine, but certainly it will make the dish all the better, and isn’t pleasure what you’re really after?
Consider yourself paired!
Charlie Adler, Author, I Drink on the Job
