Pizza Today - March 2016 - 20

with TONY GEMIGNANI

respecting the craft

Brewed to Perfection
Hopping up your dough adds color and flavor

or years I have experimented
with beer in my dough. A
pioneer in this style is a
long-time friend from Canada, and
amazing pizzaiolo, Diana Cline.
Sometime around 2006 I met her at a
show in Italy, and she was carrying a
six-pack of Moosehead beer. I asked
her what it was for and she said, "It's
for my dough." I was able to try it as

she competed and, boy, it was amazing. Through the years we competed
in Italy together and she always stuck
with her Moosehead beer dough for
her pizzas.
About three years ago I started really
experimenting with beer in my dough
because I wanted to add it to my
menu. Then I started using it in other
ingredients. I came out with a pizza

called The Sausage and Stout. The dough
at the time had Guinness beer in it, but
I also included the same beer in my
house-made cased link sausages. On top
of this I made a beer reduction and beer
salt. The incredible thing about beer is
that it can be so versatile, and all of these
ingredients can go on your pizza.
I prefer 20- to 25-percent beer in
my dough. And I look for a darker beer
like an IPA or stout. Beer can give your
dough an amazing flavor and change the
color. I typically lower my yeast, mostly
because the flavor of the beer can conflict with the yeast, making it too strong.
Also remember to back off on your
hydration because the beer replaces that.
Currently I am working with several
local beer companies or small breweries at my restaurant locations. For me it
has been much better for sales and has
created customer loyalty. For example,
Holycraft is a brewery that was at Pizza
Expo two years ago. Since they were
from San Francisco I decided to work
with them for Beer Week in late January
2016, right before Super Bowl. I incorporated their Magnum Opus beer for
about two weeks. I called the pizza "The
Magnum PI" and it was delicious. I had
Magnum PI holding a beer in the marketing posters, table tents and on social
media. We had one of our biggest weeks
in sales ever during beer week. In fact
we attracted hundreds of new customers.
What a huge success.
I feel like this type of local collaboration is much better than using a national
brand unless that national brand will
kick in some marketing dollars, promotions and strategies. Working with a
local brewery will get you much stronger
customer satisfaction returns. ■

RESPECTING THE CRAFT features World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani, owner of Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco and Pizza Rock in Sacramento. Tony compiles the column with the help of his trusty assistants, Laura Meyer and Thiago Vasconcelos. If you have questions on any kitchen topic ranging from prep to finish, Tony's your guy. Send questions
via Twitter @PizzaToday, Facebook (search: Pizza Today) or e-mail jwhite@pizzatoday.com and we'll pass the best ones on to Tony.

2 0 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / M A R C H 2 0 1 6

By JOSH KEOWN

http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM

Pizza Today - March 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pizza Today - March 2016