"PhillyBeerWeek" news and stories

"I have a quote for you," said Green Flash Brewing Co.'s Brewmaster, Chuck Silva. And when the man who hand-crafted one of your favorite beers in the world tells you he has a quote, you listen. "The harder you work, the luckier you are," said Chuck in response to my query of how Green Flash has managed to have such great success in such a short amount of time. "It's not that we've been lucky, it's just that we work hard and we've had good fortune."

Chuck Silva has been Brewmaster with Green Flash for approximately four and a half years now. In that time, Green Flash has grown from a small San Diego brewery to one of national prominence and availability. It's hard to believe, but Mr. Silva wasn't even Green Flash's first Brewmaster (they existed for two years without him), which just shows how instrumental he has been to their success. I was lucky enough to be able to accost Chuck during a Philly Beer Week event at the P.O.P.E. (fully known as the Pub on Passyunk East, which, as a bar, is post worthy in it's own right, but I'm going to stay on task for the time being), and he was polite enough to answer a number of questions regarding his brews.

It's Beer Week here in Philadelphia, and while I'm not a huge beer drinker, the city-wide brew celebration has got me thinking about ways to incorporate beer into my cooking (we've also got a surfeit of beer around the apartment, leftover from a recent birthday/engagement party, that needs to be used). One of the tastiest applications for beer I've found recently is in beer braised cabbage.

Before I made beer braised cabbage for the first time, I searched the internet a bit, looking for some inspiration as well as confirmation that the recipe I was forming in my head was on the right track. I found a post by Shauna, the Gluten-Free Girl, in which she braises cabbage with gluten-free beer, and determined that my internal recipe was just about on. A few tweaks and I started cooking. The resultant cabbage was delicious and was an excellent foil for some beer braised brisket (I'm on something of a beer braising kick at the moment). This cabbage would be great St. Patrick's Day side dish, served up with corned beef and boiled potatoes (as well as a nice bottle of Guinness).

Recipe after the jump.