{"id":243996,"date":"2010-11-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/beyond-the-pint-glass-craft-beer-takes-over-the-plate\/"},"modified":"2010-11-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-12T08:00:00","slug":"beyond-the-pint-glass-craft-beer-takes-over-the-plate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/beyond-the-pint-glass-craft-beer-takes-over-the-plate\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u00e1s all\u00e1 del vaso de pinta, la cerveza artesanal se apodera del plato"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lauren Duffy Lastowka<\/strong> | SDUN Hoptown Girl<\/p>\n

\"Beyond<\/a>
A tower of Misty Birchall's cupcakes of Pubcakes bakery are made with beer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pubcakes <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a one man show\u2014just me,\u201d says Pubcakes\u2019 owner and baker, Misty Birchall. More accurately, though, the operation is a one-woman show. \u201cI\u2019m a beer girl,\u201d she explains of how she came upon the idea to marry the widely diverse worlds of cupcakes and beer. A baker at heart, Misty had been baking cakes for friends and office celebrations for years when she came across a recipe for a stout cake. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty common,\u201d Misty says of the recipe. Except that when she found it, sparks flew. She transformed the stout cake recipe into \u201cIrish car bomb\u201d cupcakes, using Guinness as the cake base and Bailey\u2019s Irish Cream in the frosting. Soon she was hooked on baking with beer\u2014and so were her friends. \u201cI would bring them into Toronado on Monday nights and just give them away,\u201d she said of the dozens of cupcakes she was baking but couldn\u2019t possibly eat herself. Finally someone told her they were good enough to sell.<\/p>\n

So Misty created Pubcakes, a beer-friendly bakery that exclusively makes beer cupcakes. \u201cI try to stick to local beers if I can,\u201d she says. She uses the beer in the cake batter, and then creates frostings, fillings, and garnishes to accentuate the flavor of the beer.<\/p>\n

As for the flavors, they are a result of \u201clots and lots of research\u2014 and sampling.\u201d Sometimes, Misty explains, she\u2019ll be inspired by a beer and work to create flavors that complement it. This was the case with her Top Ten Cake. \u201cI knew I wanted to do an IPA beer,\u201d she explains, but realized the challenge, as IPA\u2019s characteristic bitterness is a complete clash with sweet flavors. She chose Karl Strauss\u2019s IPA for its mild hop profile, and then created a quadrant of flavors to surround the beer: \u201cspicy, sweet, tart, and smoky.\u201d The result is a hoppy cupcake base garnished with cayenne caramel, cherries, and ancho chiles. Misty does not mess around.<\/p>\n

Other notable flavors are her Beer for Breakfast cupcake, which pairs Alesmith\u2019s Wee Heavy beer with bacon and maple cream cheese frosting (yes, you need to try it), and her Stoned Portzilla, which marries Stone Smoked Porter with coffee ganache and caramelized coconut.<\/p>\n

The future has a lot in store for\u00a0Pubcakes. Misty is working on a collaboration with homebrewer and North Park Beer Co. owner Kelsey McNair, who is brewing a beer specifically for her to incorporate into a Red Velvet cupcake. She\u2019s also in the process of partnering with Treehouse Coffee, a local coffee company and coffee roaster, to open up a shared storefront in La Mesa. Misty expects the store to open in late December or January.<\/p>\n

Until then, you can find Pubcakes at Toronado in North Park, the Tipsy Crow downtown, and KnB Wine Cellars in the College Area. You can also order a dozen or more cupcakes through her website, pubcakes.com.s<\/p>\n

Mike\u2019s Beer Cheese <\/strong><\/p>\n

Normal Heights resident Mike Palmer has a pretty sweet gig. He\u2019s the creative director at Stone Brewing Co. and spends his days working with, thinking about, and promoting beer. So it\u2019s no surprise that over the past 10 years he has taken his appreciation of beer in a wildly creative direction: cheese.<\/p>\n

Mike\u2019s Beer Cheese is a simple and delicious concept: a spreadable concoction made from shredded cheese and beer. \u201cMy original inspiration came from a cookbook in an antique store,\u201d says Mike of the pre-Prohibition recipe he found for \u201cOld Kentucky Beer Cheese.\u201d Fast forward 10 years, and Mike\u2019s creations are a bold departure from the original recipe. \u201cThey might be very upset if they tried my version,\u201d Mike says of the original recipe writers.<\/p>\n

Mike\u2019s beer cheeses marry the distinct flavors of beer with wild and downright addicting flavors. New this year is the 10- 10-10 cheese, which pairs Stone\u2019s 10-10-10 Vertical Epic with six-month aged Winchester Gouda, coriander, cumin, and Clementine peels. \u201cIt\u2019s outside of the box,\u201d Mike says of his newest creation. Other tried-and-true favorites include the Stone Smoked Porter & garlic cheese, a Stone Pale Ale cheese with sundried tomatoes and fresh basil, and a Stone Ruination cheese with fresh hops and mustard. Then, of course, there\u2019s\u00a0the Napalm Bastard\u2014a fiery concoction of Stone Arrogant Bastard, fresh jalape\u00f1o, Serrano and Thai chilies, bell pepper, and an Indian chili powder called reshampatti. \u201cIt\u2019s really hot,\u201d Mike says, which is a bit of an understatement.<\/p>\n

The flavors, Mike says, are simply \u201cbased on what I think will taste good.\u201d He explains that when he\u2019s drinking a beer, he will imagine what flavors would go well with it. \u201cI actually wrote the recipe for the Ruination [cheese] while drinking a beer,\u201d he says. He tries to keep the recipes basic, allowing the subtleties of each beer\u2019s flavor to enhance the cheese.<\/p>\n

When I caught up with him, he was in the midst of making 250 pounds of beer cheese for San Diego Beer Week. Most of it was served at Stone World Bistro and Gardens on Nov. 7, where a special Beer Week event featured appetizers and entr\u00e9es showcasing his cheeses. Right now, Mike is making the cheese mostly for Stone special events, but he hopes to expand in the coming year.<\/p>\n

In fact, as Mike approaches the 10th anniversary of the first beer cheese he made\u2014\u201cfor my cousin\u2019s Super bowl party\u201d\u2014he has a keen eye toward the future. His goal is to get his beer cheese onto menus at bars and restaurants around town, and eventually, to package it for retail sale. \u201cWe\u2019re almost there,\u201d he says, predicting that you\u2019ll find his beer cheese around town as early as next year. Keep\u00a0abreast of developments at mikesbeercheese.com.<\/p>\n

Doggie Beer Bones<\/strong><\/p>\n

The colorful packages of spent-grain snackables made by Golden Hill resident David Crane aren\u2019t exactly for the human palate. But they\u2019re quite popular with the canine set. In fact, Doggie Beer Bones was born when Crane\u2019s friends encouraged him to take his spent-grain doggie treats from a seasonal holiday gift to a year-round business. So, just a few months ago, Crane launched a website, designed packaging, and started selling his doggie treats at the Little Italy Farmers Market and Super Junior Market Downtown.<\/p>\n

The treats, which come six or 12 to a package, are baked with spent grain from David\u2019s homebrewing batches, along with peanut butter, eggs, and flour. \u201cThis is from a batch of pumpkin ale I made,\u201d David explains as he points out an array of light colored treats, \u201cwhile these are from an oatmeal stout.\u201d The grain bill depends on David\u2019s homebrewing schedule, although he thinks the treats probably have a pretty consistent flavor. \u201cIt\u2019s the peanut butter that dominates,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Despite the name, the treats don\u2019t actually contain any alcohol\u2014the grain is used early in the brewing process, before the sugars are converted to alcohol. Still, being able to offer your canine companion a beer-friendly treat just seems like something that should be possible in this beer-friendly city. To order online or<\/p>\n

learn more about David\u2019s treats, visit doggiebeerbones.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lauren Duffy Lastowka | SDUN Hoptown Girl Pubcakes \u201cIt\u2019s a one man show\u2014just me,\u201d says Pubcakes\u2019 owner and baker, Misty Birchall. More accurately, though, the operation is a one-woman show. \u201cI\u2019m a beer girl,\u201d she explains of how she came upon the idea to marry the widely diverse worlds of cupcakes and beer. A […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1312,"featured_media":243997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Beyond the pint glass, craft beer takes over the plate","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1312"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}