Is beer wine when it goes through a second fermentation in the bottle? Is wine really beer when it retains characteristics that are best enjoyed without food. And, might beer qualify as wine when i
t is flexible enough to pair with opposite and conflicting flavors across one meal?
These all seem like meaningless technicalities when Ferran Adria and Juli Soler have a hand in its creation. So get ready to run to your Whole Foods and plunk down ten dollars to experience the beer from Spain that acts like wine with your meal.
Estrella Damm brewmasters in Barcelona joined up with the El Bulli team to create this cross that fits somewhere between premium beer and value wine. No matter how it tastes, it is unique and thus the name: Inedit(new or original in French). The new brew/wine was introduced this month at Blue Hill during a recent visit to New York by Ferran Adria, arguably the greatest chef in the world running the best restaurant to be found anywhere on the planet.
I have yet to try the wine (?) beer(?), but the brewery mixes various spices, yeast, barley malt, and wheat declaring:
With its delicate, sophisticated bubbles this beer can take acidic, sweet and sour flavours by the hand. the symphony of flavours in each dish is different, but there can be a common thread capable of unifying them all, for a sense of continuity so there is no need to switch drinks. This beer has a rich and highly adaptable bouquet. In other words a unique personality: smooth yet complex.
I am not willing to put beer where wine belongs on my table with any frequency. Yet, my bet is that Inedit will be fun and worth trying. If Danny Meyer can replace my ritualistic hot dog, knish and Guldens with pulled-pork on brioche, steamed corn with mayonnaise/cotija cheese/cayenne dusting, and a Kosher dog coated in matzo meal at a Met Game, then I can also permit Ferran Adria to replace a glass of my wine with his new concoction at a meal or two as well.