Odyssey Tavern presents Mornington Peninsula Brewery Beer Degustation

A well thought menu, complete with tasting
notes from both brewer and chef!

Last Wednesday night (2^nd August), I had the opportunity to attend the Geelong region’s first Beer Degustation, held at Odyssey Tavern in Mt Duneed. The brews featured on the night were all from the Mornington Peninsula Brewery (MPB), with six beers matched to six courses by the chefs from Odyssey.

Grant and the crew have been operating the Surf Coast craft-beer mecca that is Odyssey Tavern since March 2012, giving the region a much needed opportunity to sink its teeth into the boutique brews that the mainstream invariably forces out in set-in-its-ways Gee-troit. With over 80 beers from Australia and New Zealand, 8 taps of continuously changing guest pours, and a menu that caters to pretty much everyone, it is rapidly becoming a favourite in the area. You won’t find a Carlton Draught, a VB, or (heaven forbid) a Corona in the place, but what you will find are passionate staff who are happy to guide you on your first steps along the path to malty, hoppy enlightenment.

Lots of speculation about the upcoming pairings
(Photo courtesy Odyssey T&B)

After a weekend at Splendour in the Grass, subject to mid-strength beers and foot-deep mud, I was eager to get out to Odyssey for what was shaping up to be a great occasion. So eager that while on the bus, I missed my stop, and ended up in Torquay. Look, it was dark, and it’s the Surf Coast Highway. After hitching a ride back to Whites Road with an off-duty bus-driver, I was met by the warm glow and happy buzz of pre-drinks, with attendees mingling around the two long tables and, of course, bar. I started with the MPB Sorachi Kolsch, a clean, light, refreshing brew, with a nice lemongrass hit on the tongue, most likely from the Japanese Sorachi Ace hop. Would be perfect for a few in the hammock come summer, and was a great way to start the night.

After finding our seats (well, everyone really just sat where they were and got to talking to the people around them), and a brief welcome by Grant, he handed over the floor to the guys from Mornington, Head Brewer Andrew Gow and Michael “the sales guy”. It was fantastic to have these guys introduce each of the beers, talking about the ideas and influences, the process, answering every question thrown at them, and with a good dose of humour. Their passion was contagious, and really took the appreciation of the beers to another level.

Smoked Salmon Wonton w/ MPB Witbier

First up was the MPB Witbier, matched with a smoked salmon wonton stack, with wasabi mayo and balsamic reduction, served with roast pear and pickled ginger. Now, I’m not usually a huge fan of witbiers. I find them quite confronting, with a sense of umami that I’d sooner associate with cured meat, vegemite, or sushi than a beverage. However, paired with this dish, I found a certain appreciation, and the witbier and I made a tenuous truce. The beer has a real coriander element, with citrusy overtones, which worked wonderfully well to create a sweet and sour sensation with the soft pear, spicy ginger, and gentle warmth of the wasabi. It also cut well through the richness of the smoked salmon, and the whole dish was lightened by the crunch of the crispy wontons. One of my top two matches of the night!

Herb-crusted lamb w/ MPB English Special Bitter

The second entrée was a herb crusted lamb backstrap on citrus couscous with a quince jus, matched to the MPB English Special Bitter. It was a beautiful deep orange colour, would be perfect around autumn harvest with big sweet raspberry notes, and a bit of earthy brown-sugar toffee. Something a bit fruity as well, almost reminding me of trail mix, or Christmas cake. The lamb and quince worked really well with this beer, bringing out some of the more complex flavours, but consensus at our end of the table was the summery couscous was a little out of place. Whilst delicious, and working very well with the lamb, the bitter really felt like it needed something a bit more earthy, like sweet potato, or a parsnip mash, to really complement the autumn characteristics of the beer. 

Poached Rockling w/ MPB IPA

It was then on to the MPB American-style IPA, matched with a delicate poached rockling, scalloped chat potatoes, and a baby caper, thyme and verjuice sauce. The chef was not kidding when in his notes he said it was “something a little left of centre”, but it worked! The IPA was beautifully malty, quite bitter, and a little on the alcoholic side (~6.2%), with subtle nectarine/peachy flavours. From memory, this is attributed to the three types of hops, Citra, Centennial and Simcoe (correct me if I’m wrong!). The creamy sauce played down some of the bitterness, though the bite from the red onion gave a bit of the punch I’d associate with IPA’s usual spicy pairings.

Too tasty to last (Pork & White peppercorn sauce)

The final main was pork medallions, with blue cheese and green peppercorn sauce, topped with some leafy green salad, and matched with the MPB Brown Ale. One of the few brown ales available at the moment, this was the beer highlight for me, a really nutty, warming beer, very malty. Really reminded me of rum & raisin chocolate. While this paired really well with the pork (chocolate and pork are always a winning combination in my book), the thick, creamy sauce got in the way a bit, bringing out all of the pepper, and drowning any more subtle flavours that the lighter white meat would have brought forward.

 

Sex on a plate: Vanilla pannacotta w/ MPB Porter

Dessert one was the highlight of my night. The MPB Porter, paired to a vanilla pannacotta with burnt orange syrup and roasted pinenut toffee. There are those moments in your life where something just works. I flushed, I giggled, and I melted into a pool of dessert ecstasy. The porter is beautiful and rich, with big, bitter dark chocolate and coffee flavours, with a subtle thread of vanilla to round it out. Combine that with the luscious, perfectly set pannacotta, which really brought out the vanilla in the porter, the bitter orange caressing the chocolately notes, and the way that the bright pinenut toffee brought out the brown-sugar notes of the beer were amazing. I could have died a very happy woman there and then. The guys opposite me at the table were asking if I needed a moment to recover. If Odyssey does not make this combination a permanent fixture, they are missing a beautiful opportunity.

Chocolate Pikelets w/ MPB Imperial Stout

The final course was a super-rich stack of dark chocolate pikelets, with white chocolate and honeycomb filling, served with a mulled wine syrup, and matched to the MPB Imperial Stout. It was a great match, the chocolatey stout adding another chocaholic layer to this decedent end to the night. A touch of liquorice, and something reminiscent of cherries in the beer was enhanced by the syrup, which I could happily have drunk on its own. It was the prefect winter dessert, matched with a brilliant winter stout (at 9.5%, it’s a real warmer). Coming at the end of what had been a huge meal, it was perhaps a slightly heavy note to finish on, but a tasty one none the less. I did manage to resist the urge to curl up under the table and go to sleep afterwards!

After dinner, it was great fun to hang around, meet some of the beer aficionados of the region, and sample a few more of MPB stable, including their delectable Imperial Amber (figgy caramel goodness), and the ol’ faithful Pale Ale (My original introduction to the world of beer!). Whilst the beer was the star on the night, the food was beautifully presented, and every course was delicious. I will certainly be back for more. This was an absolutely wonderful event, and I express my whole-hearted thanks to everyone that was involved in making it such a memorably experience. May it be the first of many (official) beer appreciation sessions!

Neysa xo

Social Media for Scientists - Science Under Siege

Dr Rachael Dunlop speaking at Social Media for Scientists (Photo: John Carney, with permission)

@andanin: Weeeee, #socmedsci tomorrow! How am I supposed to sleep? Far too excited! #nerd

Yes, Thursday night I was a hyper little bunny, and by the time midday Friday rolled around, I was nearly jumping out of my skin with excitement. I was on my way to the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne to attend one of the most highly anticipated events on my calendar, a seminar on the use of social media for the promotion and communication of science. The speakers were all people whom I hugely respect, following their online personas religiously. Due to train timetabling, I arrived rather early, and ended up having to seek out coffee while waiting, in hindsight perhaps not a wise move in my already supercharged state. Incidentally, the guys at Royal Fig Cafe are lovely. After half an hour catching up on tweetdeck (sans internet connection), it was 3.42pm, and time to get amongst it!

What follows is a bit of a mash-up between what went on at the seminar, my own thoughts, and the twitter conversation both during and after. It's long, very long. Many of the tweets and comments by the panel are no longer in chronological order, as I've tried to group things into the conversation points they are relevant to. Note: If you feel I have quoted you incorrectly, or misrepresented your view, please let me know. I WILL fix it. Some excess hashtags & @'s have been removed to allow for ease of reading.

@embws Sitting w scientists & communicators ready to hear exciting talk of how we can embrace social media to tell others about our work
@MissPezaro I'm watching to encourage scientists to jump on board, share their work & engage with us. We want to learn from you!

The excitement was palpable in the filled-to-capacity theatre, with its dimmed lights, microphone checks, powerpoint presentation splashed across the front wall. From the outset, you could tell this was no usual scientific seminar, as everyone pulled out their phones, laptops, and assorted other nerdy paraphernalia. Discussion was initially hushed, as people quietly confessed to those sitting next to them the extent of their social media addiction, conversation quickly buoyed as each became assured of the knowledge that in this room, they were by no means alone. I was wired, my hands shaking, knots in my stomach. I could hardly hold my pen, almost out of place at this type of forum, but the only option given my inability to type well when hyperactive. I was starting to regret that latte. A bit of shuffling to incorporate the late-commers into our ranks, and Dr Krystal Evans called the room to order. Many know her simply as @dr_krystal, the bright twitter personality who came to the attention of the wider science community as a passionate advocate during the baptism-of-fire that was the "Discoveries Need Dollars" campaign. It is hard to believe that the rally was only 5 months ago. There's short burst of laughter at the realisation that we're actually being encouraged to use twitter (and any other social media platform we desire, so long as all devices are on silent) during the event. Yes folks, for the first time ever, people were ENCOURAGED to use their phone during a seminar.

I'll just let that sink in for a moment.

Unfortunately, not long before this came up, I'd made the sad discovery that there was no wifi in the theatre, and therefore I couldn't actually contribute to the online conversation. My disappointment was mercifully short lived, as Dr Evans introduced the afternoon's invited speaker, Dr Rachael Dunlop. First, let me say, this woman is an inspiration. Tweeting as @DrRachie, Dr Dunlop won the 2010 Shortie award for Health, is a brilliant science communicator, who has spoken on panels all over the place (Including Dragoncon, EPIC!), teaches science to kids through the "Mystery Investigators" program, is an important part of Australian Skeptics (including their podcast), blogs wonderfully, is the Research & Communications Officer for HRI, and somehow still finds time to pursue research in the area of environmental triggers of motor-neuron disease. I'm sure I've left stuff out, but it give you an idea of how prolific Dr Dunlop is.


Science Under Siege
Anyone who essentially kicks off a seminar with a PhD Comic about the science news cycle is a legend. It is also quite fitting to what we see unfold as scientists. We discover a possible link between two things, publish a paper about it, and go back to the lab to do more research. Meanwhile, the uni's PR machine picks it up, tweeks it slightly for a press release, and sends it off to the media. The media, as we all know, loves a headline, and "A causes B" sounds much more impressive, and sells more copies, than "A may or may not cause B, holding C to be true". The little changes snowball, and eventually the scientist who wrote the original paper is left beating their head against the wall, wondering how their work came to be heralded by doomsayers as the final sign of the upcoming apocalypse.

There is no better example of this miscommunication or misuse of science than the recent GM wheat 'scandal', and subsequent raid of CSIRO Canberra's test crops by GreenPeace activists in July. I've no doubt several hearts jumped on seeing Tony Jones at the start of the news clip, only to be disappointed that it was from Lateline, and not QandA. The attitude of GreenPeace in the days after the attack can be summed up as "We don't understand it, so we'll destroy it". A very good point was raised by an audience member later that GreenPeace were very familiar with the techniques used, but as they don't agree with the use of the technology, they took the theatrical route.

So, in light of these glaring gaps between scientists and the public (or groups that claim to support the public's best interests), what are we up against? Several key factors were raised here. The first was public apathy and a lack of science literacy in Australia. This was quite obvious during the #protectresearch campaign, when threats were made by federal government to slash NHMRC funding. Some of the comments that came out said that we should have come up for a cure for cancer already, and as we hadn't, why keep pouring in funding? Another asked why scientists need so much public funding, as they're all driving around in fancy, expensive cars. This got a few giggles out of the crowd, as so many of us ride pushbikes rather than drive, and those that do have cars certainly don't have flash expensive ones. I blame CSI.

@dr_krystal Public misunderstanding of science: Scientists are all driving around in expensive cars...
@brainsmatter Do scientists all drive in expensive cars and are in cahoots? Umm ... No

Other problems are internal to science. The current academic system does not reward outreach or communication outside of of journals, as evidenced by immense pressure to publish, or as we call it in our lab "Publish or perish". Too much involvement in communication and outreach can be viewed with suspicion by our peers, who may perceive such behaviour as being "unable to handle 'real' science". Karl Saigon is a good example of this, when he was denied membership of National Academy of Sciences because his involvement in media made him unpopular with other scientists. Finally, we also have to contend with the "critics" of science, with their anti-science rhetoric - Alan Jones with his constant attacks on scientists, Lord Monckton of climate denying infamy, and even our elected representatives, such as Peter Phelps of the NSW Govt, who likened scientists to Nazis (Godwin's Law, DRINK!). Recent foibles by Tony Abbott and co were not mentioned, though serve to further highlight the issue. And that is to say nothing of the damage being perpetrated by the Australian Vaccination Network and Nimrod Weiner!

@brainsmatter Politicians continue 2 misuse data 2 suit political ends-ensure that the public has a reasonable understanding of the real facts

So how to we, as scientists, stand up for ourselves? How do we break the siege? Two recent campaigns have sprung from attacks on scientists. The first, and perhaps most interesting, as the quickly mobilised #protectresearch "Discoveries Need Dollars" campaign. In a matter of days, scientists had organised rallies across the country, were lobbying politicians, and were taking their work to the world. Public support was huge, but and ultimately the campaign was successful: the federal government backed down from cuts to funding for health research. More recently, the "Respect the Science" campaign has been started, largely in response to threats made against climate scientists in the lead-up and wake-of the carbon tax announcement. But why did we need these campaigns in the first place? The answer is some what simple to identify, but much harder to address: Scientists simply are not engaging in communication of their work to the general population. A personal observation, since these campaigns have started, I've noticed an increase in scientists online talking about their work and why it's important. It has been, in my opinion, the biggest success of either campaign: it has shaken the scientists up, and gotten us out and talking to the people.

And our best medium for this? The interwebz of course! Dr Rachael gave us a stack of stats, and they are awesome. Pay attention, cause these are the one's you'll want to take to your supervisor to get them to shift their butt online! Consider for a moment that Australia has a population of around 22,660,000. 12 million of us are on Facebook, with around 10 million checking their account daily (Matt was shocked by this stat when Dr Rachael was talking to him later that night, non-believer!). 9.8 million are on YouTube (Do a search for lab/science/nerd/geek remixes, gold!). 1.8 million are on twitter, with a similar number utilising WordPress as their blogging platform. Youtube and Facebook are amoung the most accessed pages in Australia. All these people already engage in social media, so why can't we engage them through it? At the moment, it is a captive audience of untapped potential! Interestingly, it was mentioned that twitter has a slightly older demographic compared to Facebook, and Google was our most used search engine by a ridiculously significant margin (86% market share!).

@dr_krystal Who's using social media in Aust? 1.8 million on Twitter, 10 million on Facebook - a captive audience for science?
@dr_krystal  Australian use of social media statistics from @DrRachie here http://t.co/wDXlucm

Also check out Hitwise Australia for great stats on which websites we browse

So, how are we using our time on the internet? Apparently, we're a tiny bit obsessed with our health, with 1 in 2 using the internet to self-diagnose medical conditions (We've come a long way since my great-grandmother pestering my doctor grandfather about the her latest self-diagnosis courtesy of General Hospital). Two thirds use the internet to investigate medications. However, most will only read the first page of search results (~10 entries), which are often inaccurate (they also change, based on profiling of your previous searches). Seriously, go check out Dr Google, type in a random symptom, and see how deadly your condition is. After playing with that for 5 mins, you won't be at all shocked by this next statistic...

@brainsmatter 71% of self diagnosis search results on google are wrong
@dr_krystal Australian use of internet for health info from @DrRachie talk here http://t.co/AukQoJI
@cpezaro I'd love to be able to receive credible medical advice by #SocMedSci!!
@dr_krystal Do scientists have a responsibility to shift the balance of information available on the internet? To counter-pseudoscience?
@_vTg_ On this point, I think any scientist complaining about errors in Wikipedia should make he effort to correct them.

This is all fine and well, but how can we harness this power for good, rather than evil? Enter Prof Simon Chapman (@simonchapman6), from University of Sydney, with some very wise words: "I just can't see the point of doing research if no one is going to read it". He tested the impact of social media on the dissemination of information based on downloads (not peer reviewed). He had previously sold 200 copies of a particular book. After tweeting about it, it was downloaded 7,000 times. A paper on competing interests? 242 hits. Paper on peer-review refusal? 800+ downloads. My blog gets <40 hits a week, I'm more than impressed by his numbers. Then there's Paul Knoepfler, a stem-cell biologist and prostate cancer survivor, who wrote for the Nature News blog (may require registration) earlier this year on the growing acceptance of blogging as a medium for science communication. I won't spoil the read for you, but his message can be boiled down by his final statement: "Even if you choose not to blog, you can certainly expect that your papers and ideas will increasingly be blogged about. So there it is — blog or be blogged."

@dr_krystal How to increase the readership of your research papers? Put them online & tweet about it. Start a blog and write about it.

Can one person's blog really be the game changer though? Yes, it can. A paper was released in the International Journal of Oncology claiming that homeopathy was an effective treatment for breast cancer. Have a read, and tell me what's wrong with that picture. Dr Rachael got hold of it, and effectively ripped it to pieces, exposing it for the terrible piece of science it was. One of the authors even distanced herself from the paper, saying she had requested not to be a listed author. The original article was tabled in the UK parliament in support of homeopathy funding, a call went out from another MP who thought it was suspicious, Dr Rachael's blogged criticism was provided, and the motion was subsequently rejected. Win for common sense!

@embws Sensational & bad science can slip thru peer review & get media attention. eg. Homeopathy study published in Int j oncology '10. Dr Rachie exposed lack of statistics & issue w toxic solvent in homeopathy study through twitter

Finally, Dr Rachael left us with an excerpt of an interview with Prof Peter Doherty, in which he reiterates the need for scientists to communicate with the community through any means available, and that social media like blogs and podcasts are important for this. We cannot rely on traditional media in Australia, especially when several providers have vested interest in seeing some ideas shot down (i.e. climate change). With advent of digital media, print media is becoming obsolete, and 'new' media, such as theconversation.edu.au. is the way forward. Advice from a Nobel Laureate? I'll take it!

@embws Prof Peter Doherty urges us to get involved in theconversation.edu.au because we can't rely on print media to get it right

Dr Rachael Dunlop was a wonderful speaker, beautifully engaging, and obviously passionate. Her contribution to science communication is inspiring, and her seminar was thought provoking in the extreme. If you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend listening to her speak, reading her blogs, and following her on Twitter. She's also fantastically approachable, and great for a chat. Legendary.

Coming Next: Social Media for Scientists Part II - The Panel Discussion.