\n\t\t\t\tRep. Mario Taitano is joined by other distinguished guests at his table. (Saipan Tribune)\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n
\nCall me a philistine but I\u2019ve always thought that beer was a beverage that you swill beachside on lazy Sunday afternoons while searing pieces of meat on a bed of burning coals. That it doesn\u2019t require much science or frills to enjoy a cold glass of lager. Of course that\u2019s also true but I learned Monday last week that there\u2019s more to beer than meets the eye\u2014or in this case, the palate. Much like wine, I learned that beer is best enjoyed when paired with carefully selected food, that each brand of beer has its own character, and that beer is best served on a glass, with a frothy head of foam to prevent bloat.<\/p>\nMarPac, the distributor of Anheuser-Busch beers in the CNMI, hosted Monday at Coral Ocean Point\u2019s elegant Double Eagle Restaurant the \u201cMeet the Brew Master,\u201d a beer-and-food pairing event that featured the expertise of George F. Reisch, a fifth generation brewmaster who is also the director of Brewmaster Outreach for Anheuser-Busch. <\/p>\n
The occasion, attended by many of Saipan\u2019s cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me, featured five food stations, each one paired with five, free-flowing Anheuser-Busch products: Budweiser, Budlight Platinum, Landshark, Michelob Amberbock, Budlight Lime-a-rita, and Budlight Straw-ber-rita. The extensive array of food, courtesy of COP executive chef Eduardo Olarte and his team, highlighted the subtleties and complexities of each beer brand, giving lie to the notion that beer is just beer.<\/p>\n
Olarte told Saipan Tribune that he came up with the menu suggestions and he and his team collaborated with the MarPac team to ensure the perfect fit for each beer that would be featured at the event. What was amazing was that the food being paired with the beers were not just appetizers and main entrees but also dessert, fruits, strudels, eggplant caviar, spring rolls, and a whole lot more that you\u2019d never thought would go well with lager.<\/p>\n
MarPac resident manager Guy Pudney said that Monday\u2019s event was part of the celebration of the 65th anniversary of Ambros Inc., which is MarPac\u2019s Guam branch. That also explains the reason for Reisch presence in Micronesia. He said that after Saipan, Reisch will be going to Palau, where the company is celebrating its 25th anniversary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very excited [to celebrate our 65th year], we\u2019re very blessed, we can only thank our very loyal customers out there and we\u2019re hoping that we\u2019ll be around for many, many more years,\u201d said Pudney.<\/p>\n
This is the second time for MarPac to host the \u201cMeet the Brew Master\u201d event. The first one was held last year at the Hyatt Regency Saipan. This year\u2019s event also featured the relaxing melodies of the Marianas Project Band.<\/p>\n
MarPac would like give thanks to Coral Ocean Golf Resort, Triple J, and Angus Beef for sponsoring the event. We\u2019d also like to recognize Coral Ocean Point\u2019s staff, most especially Chef Ed, for their tremendous service and delicious food pairing ideas.<\/p>\n
Five rules to live by when drinking beer<\/strong>
\nGeorge F. Reisch, a Brewmaster at Anheuser-Busch Inc., talked about the importance of drinking beer from a glass at the \u201cMeet the Brew Master\u201d event at Coral Ocean Point. In a later interview, I asked him of five rules that any amateur drinker should know about when drinking beer. Here is his rundown:
\n1. \u201cIn the history of mankind, drinking beer and wine helped us to survive up to this point because pathogens cannot grow in beer and wine. So if you are in an area where you\u2019re worried about the water, drink beer.\u201d
\n2. \u201cAlways use a glass when drinking beer because beer was designed to be served in a glass. It wasn\u2019t until bottles and cans that people started drinking directly out of the bottle and they\u2019re not supposed to do that.\u201d
\n3. \u201cBeer physically makes you hungry. So it\u2019s a great way for some people, if they don\u2019t have an appetite or for a lot of older people, by just sipping three ounces of beer their stomach will start to growl and they\u2019ll want to have food. It\u2019s very important to eat, so beer is a natural fit with food because it physically makes you hungry.\u201d
\n4. \u201cPeople need to have the whole beer experience. It\u2019s not just drinking beer. The beer experience includes what\u2019s the story of the beer, where is it from, how is it brewed, what ingredients does it use, tell me something about it.\u201d
\n5. \u201cA beer\u2019s clothing is the glass. The glass shape is vitally important because it makes you appreciate what that beer wants you to appreciate. For instance, Michelob Amberbock is meant to be in a wider glass because you want it to look rich and smooth. If you put it in a champagne flute, it looks very light and looks like a totally different beer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Call me a philistine but I\u2019ve always thought that beer was a beverage that you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[42,233,67,38],"class_list":["post-177431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-and-style","tag-food","tag-hyatt-regency-saipan","tag-people","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}