FSNSA Oktoberfest
Sophia Pollack
FSNSA President
A couple of weeks ago, Straub Distribution Company graciously hosted FSNSA's first fundraising event of the new school year and it was a great success! We had a fantastic group of food science students, MBA students, friends and family! The evening starting off by welcoming everyone into the tasting room, followed by a short information session given by Budweiser's Director of On Site Operations, Howard.
Do you know what the difference between lagers and ales are? Or what does IPA stand for? Or what are the four main ingredients in beer? Theses are just some of the fun facts that our guests learned the answers to! Howard began by teaching our guests the four main ingredients in beer: yeast, water, barley, and hops. The participants were able to taste various grains, each roasted to a different degree, providing a variety of flavors to beers, and have hands on exposure with hops, which Howard explains, provides the bitterness and some floral notes to beers. Did you know there is a correct way to pour a beer that allows you to actually drink more beer?! Well, there is!! If you pour a beer into a "beer-ready" glass straight down the middle, it is a better pour than if you were to pour it down the side of the glass, as many people think is the correct way to pour a beer. This was demonstrated by Howard by pouring a beer the right way in one glass, and the wrong way in another glass. Next, he put a piece of a paper napkin into the each of the glasses, to represent what happens to the beer when it is in your stomach. The beer that was poured correctly, did not foam over the sides when the napkin was added to the glass; however, in the glass that had the beer poured incorrectly, immediately began foaming over the side and did not stop when the napkin was added in. This shows how beer poured correctly does not expand in your stomach like a beer that is poured incorrectly does!
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| The Venue |
After the short educational session, it was time for dinner to begin! The menu was designed by me, Sophia, and Howard, Cord and the Budweiser team paired the beers to go with them.
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| Kelly, Cord, and Jim |
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| Howard |
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| The Kitchen Crew: Kevin, Tony, Sophia, Hunter and Jill |
The courses were served tapas style.
The first course was a charcuterie platter consisting of a variety of cured meats, Terrine "Paul Bert," Seaweed butter, Delice de Bourgogne cheese, and accoutrements paired with a Stella Artois Pilsner
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| First Course: Charcuterie Platters |
A trio of bruschetta were served next (kalamata olive tapenade, roasted eggplant, and conserva) paired with Goose Island 312 Wheat American Wheat.
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| Second Course: Bruschetta trio |
Next was a Spanish style tortilla with chorizo with a sofrito. This was paired with Ninkasi Noir Milk Stout with Coffee (Not Pictured).
The fourth course served were latkes with creme fraiche, house-cured gravlax and chives. This course was brilliantly paired with Bootlegger's Lemongrass White.
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| Fourth course: House cured salmon, latkes, creme fraiche |
Following the salmon was shredded chicken in a lime salsa verde sauce on a fried potato garnished with red onion and cilantro. The flavor of the coriander brought out the wonderful flavors of the Black Market Deception Blonde with Lime and Coconut beer it was paired with.
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| Fifth course: lime chicken |
To finish off the savory dishes, a BBQ pulled pork sandwich with house pickled onions and jalapeños on a sweet roll which was paired with a Spaten Oktoberfest.
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| Sixth course: Pulled pork, pickled onion, jalapeños. |
And to finish-chocolate three ways paired with Karl Strauss Peanut Butter Cup Porter
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| Av with two of our wonderful alumni Tamar and Erin! |
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| Vice President Emma with Joele, Jess and Fior |
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| Sophia the President of Food Science and John the President of MBA |
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| Kevin, John, Jason and Stefani enjoying the beer pairings |
Thank you for all those that donated to our program, and a special thank you to Cord, Howard, Jim and Kelly at Budweiser for helping us organize the event, for the space, beer and all your help and support; Coosemans LA for donating the produce; Alan, Toni and Nick Pollack for their donations; Tika Muslin for the conserva; my wonderful sous chef's Hunter, Kevin, Jill and Tony; and our FSNA executives Emma, Vyom, Adam and Alex. We could not have done this event without the help and support of all that donated and came out to the event! Thank you!!!
