La Parilla Nachos Fajitas & Cigar City Humidor Series IPA

Last time I posted about an All-American, easy to find collabo. This time, not so much - this post features highly local and hard-to-find fare.

My cuisine this time is from Taqueria la Parrilla in Athens, GA. It is a helping of tortilla chips covered in meaty grilled chicken strips, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and oh-so-good queso sauce. They call it Nachos Fajitas. Such a simple dish, but it is heavenly the way they put it together over in Homewood Hills. The beer that I chose to go with my nachos is a special one, indeed: Humidor Series IPA from Cigar City Brewing out of Tampa, FL.

The Humidor Series IPA is Cigar City's Jai Alai IPA aged on Cedar Wood. It takes the smooth, cistrusy IPA into another dimension, adding mellow spicy dimensions to an otherwise bright beer. This beer is tough to find in Florida, and nearly impossible to find outside of the sunshine state. I feel fortunate to be able to make this pairing at all.

The nachos are very tasty, with the chips that are submerged in queso quickly becoming something of a corn cheese mush that compliments the chicken and veggies very well. The chips that are left dry add a nice crunch to the dish, and the queso itself adds a richness that defines these nachos. It isn't a sophisticated dish, but it does make kickoff that much more enjoyable on a warm Saturday afternoon in September.

 The beer pours a cloudy pale orange with a giant frothy off white head. This beer is an unfiltered IPA, and it looks the part. The nose really shows off the cedar wood, with citrus hops fading into the background. The wood and hops make a nice pair, and it's a wonder more breweries haven't experimented with cedar (oak being the wood of choice for most beer aging).

The beer has a distinct wood character, with a spiciness that compliments the hops perfectly. Paired with this cuisine, the beer finds a perfect partner in the thick, heavy queso sauce. The sweetness from the cheese does punctuate the beer's bitterness to a degree, but the contrast makes for a wonderful pairing, and one that I would love to explore further.

Cigar City is doing some very interesting things with their beer in Tampa, and I'm lucky to have the chance top access it way up here in Athens. This quality, unfiltered IPA aged on wood makes a great pairing for any hearty Mexican dish, much like any bold IPA would. This one, however, does it with flair, building on the impressive cuisine with a bold wood spice of its own. Both the food and beer in this installment come highly recommended.

Beer Brats & Ommegang Hennepin

For the first edition of The Beer Fridge, I'm doing an All-American Classic: Bratwurst soaked in beer and grilled to a crispy delicious brown. Now, as you'll soon learn, I'm not one to use bad beer for anything. I wouldn't even pour Budweiser on a flaming Steve Spurrier (I should also mention I'm a devoted Georgia Bulldogs fan). Hence, I've chosen Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to soak my brats in. Preparation for this dish isn't complicated at all. I simply bought one onion, two brats, and one 24oz bottle of SNPA, combined then all, and let it simmer for a little over an hour. I then moved the brats to a grill over medium heat for about 5 minutes (until lightly browned), and then served them on whole wheat rolls. You don't want to boil the brats or put them on a high heat grill, as you'll break the sausage casing open, causing the brats to lose valuable moisture.

I chose Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in hopes that it would impart an element of hoppiness to the brats. As most beer geeks will attest, there is nothing like the aroma and flavor of a good hoppy beer. In the end, the brats were delicious and juicy, but I didn't get much hop character. Maybe I simmered them too long? In any case, my house smelled awesome while these bad boys stewed.


My beer pairing for this dish is Ommegang's Hennepin Saison. It's a classic Belgian Farmhouse Style ale brewed in Cooperstown, NY. Hennepin is a crisp, dry ale, and it pairs well with just about any food. The beer itself is a traditional Belgian style, originally brewed to be refreshing through the harvest season on Belgian farms. Hennepin puts citrus flavors squarely on display, with a slightly tart lemon flavor taking center stage. The beer's high carbonation helps rinse the lingering juices of the bratwurst, making this a great combination.