The Omaha Wine & Food Gazette July 2022

The Omaha

Event Report: It Takes a Lot of Beer to Make Great Wine Upcoming Events

JULY 2022

What’s New

Our new Board member, Dan Thrasher, launched his inaugural event with a stag at Pitch West, upstairs on their patio. Dan had a big twist for us to enjoy: a beer tasting from the wine maker of Screaming Eagle, Napa Valley’s most expensive Cabernet Sauvignon: Nick Gislason. Nick spent the first 3 years of his life on a house boat, then moved to an island with his parents. He became interested in making his own fireworks, then someone told him he should start making wine. Later, after being a winemaker for a while, he started making beer for himself to relax. However, his friends all wanted some as well, so he started Hanabi Lager Company and makes one beer per quarter. This was a super fun event because it was a perfect night to be out on the patio, we had a beer tasting, and the food was great not to mention the wine! Read about it within.

Some members have had trouble reading the Gazette on issuu.com, Or, they don’t want to sign in, which means you can’t even read the Gazette at all. They prefer a PDF since all you have to do is click it open. We have decided to offer it in both formats. In your email, a PDF will be sent along with the issuu.com link. The advantage of issuu.com is that you can see both right and left pages, like a paper magazine.

Our PDF only lets you view one page at a time.

“Bore,” A person who talks when you wish him to listen.”

- Ambrose Bierce

It Takes a Lot of Beer to Make Great Wine Written by Tom Murnan, Photos by Ron Policky & Tom Murnan

Dan Thrasher tried his hand at his first event, and hit the ball out of the park with his outsidethe-box event theme using beer as a focus. He prepped us with an attachment to the invitation about the story of Screaming Eagle winemaker, Nick Gislason who turned to making beer. He also included a short video about Nick. Both were innovative ideas. Dan obtained Hanabi Lager Co. bottles and brought them to Omaha. Gislason makes one lager a quarter, but his unusual idea was to concentrate on the type of grain used in making the beer. A short 6 minute video clip was played as Nick discussed our 3 beers. Autumn 2021 Bere Helles used barley that has been used for 5000 years. The Vikings named it Bere, where the word beer may have come from. Winter 2021 was a Bohemian Pilsner using grain from the Czech Republic where the lighter styled Pilsner originated from. Before Pilsner, beer was always dark. Finally, the Spring 2022 sample was a Baroness Pilsner. This grain had been abandoned because yields were not high enough. All are lightly hopped to prevent the hops from disguising the grain flavor.

Pitch West did an admirable job with the food. Fennel Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms and Beef Skewers with Dijon Aioli were quite tasty. The most imaginative dish was the Mole Dusted Halibut. The fish sat on a Black Bean Cake with Mango Aioli as the sauce and Tomatillo Relish as a side. The pairing of Château Beaucastel 2010 was inspired. The Châteauneuf-du-Pape easily handled the assertive flavors. The Certified Angus Beef Filet with the Hall 1873 Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 was also a spot-on good match. 1873 was the year a vineyard was planted. As the pièce de résistance, we had Remy Martin XO Cognac Fin Champagne to finish with dessert.

The words Fin Champagne refers to two growing areas in Cognac, Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne, and has nothing to do with Champagne the sparkling wine.

2022 UPCOMING OMAHA BRANCH EVENTS

JULY

14 AUG

18

BASTILLE DAY - VIVE LA FRANCE!

Le Voltaire Two First Growths face off Stag Producers: Hasan Hyder

VODKA & GIN MARTINI TASTING TO START V. Mertz Producers: Tad Singer

SEP

TBD

OCT

TBD

TBD TBD

TBD Producers: Mike Wilke

TBD Producers: John Matthews