Metro Roundup: The making of Helen’s Haze

Collaborations are a fun way for creative people to get together and create something new and exciting.

This happened last fall when some leading figures in Birmingham’s vibrant food and beverage scene got together to create a special craft beer.

Rob McDaniel is co-owner and executive chef of Helen, a restaurant that opened in August at 2013 Second Ave. N. downtown.

His grandmother, Helen Frutiger, is the eatery’s namesake, and the chef seeks to pay homage to his childhood memories of cooking over the hardwood coals on the indoor grill in Helen’s kitchen.

McDaniel recently collaborated with Back Forty Birmingham, a craft brewer located at Sloss Docks, to create another homage to his grandmother: a citrus-forward, hazy India pale ale called Helen’s Haze.

Like McDaniel, Doug Brown — the owner and CEO of Back Forty Birmingham— has childhood memories of growing up in his grandmother’s kitchen.

The men joined forces to create a beer as a nod to those fond memories.

“Rob is an artist with food, and I’m pleased that we found an opportunity for him to work with our master brewer, Tosh Brown, to bring that art to the beer world,” Brown said.

Helen’s Haze is double dry-hopped with Mosaic and Citra and fermented with a special combination of yeast, producing tropical fruit flavors and pronounced notes of mango and pineapple. The heavy oat grain bill provides a light, fluffy and smooth body.

Both McDaniel and Brown are pleased with the result of their work with Tosh Brown.

“I think that it’s a nice, easy-drinking IPA,” McDaniel said. “It’s very versatile when it comes to food. It pairs great with the burger at lunch, then smoked chicken, steak and even our fish offerings at dinner.”

“I believe that we achieved a nice balance of soft, dry mouthfeel and subtle citrusy flavor notes,” Brown said.

The original idea for the beer came to McDaniel in a conversation about beer with his friends, Sam Fonte and Will Abner.

“Sam suggested that I try to have a local brewery make a Hazy IPA and call it Helen’s Haze,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel already had a long relationship with Back Forty.

“Rob has been a friend of Back Forty’s for over a decade, so it was only natural that we got together to create a beer for his new restaurant,” Brown said. “Since Back Forty Birmingham has limited distribution, it allows us to do a great deal of experimentation with recipes focused on our local market.”

“It was a perfect fit,” McDaniel said.

Tosh Brown has brewed a lot of hazy IPAs and “has learned a lot about the impact that certain hop and yeast combinations have on the beer’s aroma, flavor and mouthfeel,” Doug Brown said.

“After an initial discussion about Rob’s preferences, Tosh created the recipe and brewed a 3.5 barrel batch,” Brown said.

The process to get that batch was ‘pretty quick,’” McDaniel said. “I went down and chatted with Tosh about what we wanted it to be, and a few weeks later we were sipping beer.”

The collaborators were pleased with the outcome of the first recipe, Brown said.

“But we fully expect to tweak it over time based upon feedback from Rob and his customers,” he said.

In craft beer lingo, “hazy” refers to the opaque appearance of a non-filtered beer as seen in the glass, Brown said.

“This is primarily the result of yeast particles that ‘flocculate’ — suspend — in the beer, and create a soft body and smooth mouthfeel,” he said. “Depending upon the selection and timing of your hop additions, these hazy-looking beers — often referred to as New England IPAs — can produce a wide variety of aroma and flavor profiles.”

McDaniel grew up in Haleyville, earned a degree in hotel and restaurant management at Auburn University and worked under such prestigious chefs as Chris Hastings at Hot Hot Fish Club.

In 2009, McDaniel became executive chef at the new Spring House restaurant at Lake Martin.

He is a five-time James Beard Foundation Best Chef: South semifinalist.

His wife, Emily, is co-owner and hospitality director at Helen.

Helen serves prime meats — beef, lamb, pork, poultry and seafood — cooked on an open grill and served with seasonal vegetables and non-traditional sides from local purveyors.

McDaniel is “very excited to be open downtown,” he said. “There are so many cool things happening to the area, and we are very blessed to be part of the growth.”

“Helen wouldn’t have the same feel or the vibe that it does if it was anywhere else, especially in this historic building,” McDaniel said, adding that downtown has a “great energy.”

McDaniel also remains optimistic about downtown despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Things are happening downtown that I have been looking forward to for 15 years, and we remain happy to be doing what we are doing when we are doing it,” he said.

Helen’s Haze is currently available on draft at Back Forty Birmingham and exclusively at Helen.

For more information, go to helenbham.com or backfortybeer.com/birmingham.