This beer dinner was truly one of the highlights of my career. It deserves to be mentioned and described based on how great it turned out. Sadly for being such an amazing dinner, I didn't manage to get one single picture of the food and the courses we served. I remember everything in perfect detail. Enough to talk about and discuss some of the amazing concepts an ideas that you can do when it comes to beer and food pairings.
This idea came to me randomly. I was at a wonderful restaurant in North Hampton, Mass. called The Sierra Grill. The owner, O'Brien Tomalin and I were talking about all of the amazing dinners he has hosted there before. One of the dinners he mentioned is a staple dinner that he does annually called the Big Beer and Big Game dinner. This is all about big game meats like elk and venison. Thinking about the venison, I told O'Brien about a dinner I had recently done called the Beer and Chocolate dinner. I paired every single course with chocolate, cheese, and beer. Our main course was grilled venison with a cocoa Madeira glaze and blue cheese foam. Absolutely incredible. We talked about doing something fun like that together.
The idea of doing an Aztec beer dinner popped up in my head. Thinking about the chocolates, and recent threads on Beer Advocate in the food forums asking what pairs well with spices and chilies, it was only natural that my focus immediately went towards Latin American cultures.
The dinner never progressed with The Sierra Grill. I was pretty bummed about it too. The restaurant is very good and they take proper care of their beers and give you incredible pairings and portions. I still had the idea on my head though. I mentioned it to a few friends. The reaction was pretty much, "Aztec Beer dinner? What's that going to be like?" I had no idea just yet. I just knew spices and chocolates and one beer called Southern Tier Choklat. But I had to make it different from the beer and chocolate dinner.
The place I normally host my beer dinners at Upstairs On The Square, came to me and said we need to do another beer dinner. I told them the timing was perfect because I had been sitting on this idea about the Aztec culture, but I wasn't sure where to go with it yet.
When I plan a beer dinner, unless I am so sure of what the menu should be or has to have on it, I bring in a selection of beers with Head Chef Steve Brand and Wine Director Matt Reiser of UOTS, to sit down and formally taste them. From the beers, we construct a menu. For this dinner particularly I knew I had to use Negra Modelo, and Southern Tier Choklat (Mayan influence chocolate). Negra Modelo was the most important to me. One because beer snobs need to know that you can drink Macro beers and pair them just as well as you can with any craft beer. And two because Negra Modelo stands alone when it comes to typical Mexican beers. It's the only choice when the other options are Tecate, Sol, or Corona. It's also part of the culture and I will explain later on in this post. Negra Modelo is an underrated beer when it comes to Mexican and Latin American cultures. It works so well with a lot of the foods.
I brought the Negra Modelo, and the Southern Tier Choklat, as well as a few German selections. This tasting was right after I came back from a Tour of Southern Bavaria. I selected Ayinger Dunkel and in a last minute panic not sure if I should or not I grabbed a bottle of Schlenkerla Urbock (Rauchbier). I was thinking about the smoked flavors and smoked meats. I knew smoking meats and jerky was big in the culture. I also did light research before this pre-tasting and found out that there was a fermented honey drink that the priests would drink. So I had a vintage bottle of Brother Adams Bragget from Atlantic Brewing Company. I don't honestly remember the rest of the beers I brought to taste out. I knew we would be using 3 of the beers aforementioned. I was curious about the Negra Modelo vs. the Ayinger Dunkel. Both similar in styles, steely and coppery malt flavors. Ayinger is a far superior beer, but in the end it had to be highlighted that Negra Modelo can be treated to a proper pairing. The Schlenkerla Urbock was chosen by the chef on sight. He snatched the bottle up and said "I know this beer, I love this beer, we have to use it in some way." I was grateful for that. It's not something everyone is in love with based on it's huge smokey flavors, but I personally love it.
So with the beers selected, Negra Modelo, Brother Adams Bragget, Schlenkerla Urbock, and Southern Tier's Choklat, this is what we came up with. This was a fusion dinner with traditional ingredients. These beers chosen in a slight random nature, have an awesome correlation to the time period of the Aztecs which I will explain with each course.
It's important to note that while the Aztec empire no longer remains intact, a lot of their culture, agriculture, and what they ate is still reflected in Latin American culture today.
The Aztecs believing that one of their gods would come back in the form of a pale man, were met with the Spanish Conquistadors. Pale men with blond hair and beards. The Aztecs offered them their gold and foods. The Conquistadors in turn brought the Aztecs small pox and other diseases. They then conquered them with the help of surrounding tribes who didn't want to be under the Aztec rule anymore.
What the Aztecs gave back to the Conquistadors among a serious amount of gold and riches were beans, squash, tomatoes, chills, corn, avocados, sweet potatoes, vanilla, peanuts, pineapples, and the papaya.
Seems like a fair trade. (Sarcastic.)
First Course: Market Ceviche with Lime and Avocado paired with Negra Modelo
Beer: Negra Modelo
Style: Vienna Lager
ABV: 5.4%
Negra Modelo has a long history with Latin America. It was first brewed in 1925. It's is a Vienna Lager style although Beer Advocate has it listed as a Munich Dunkel. That was the reason why I selected the Ayinger Dunkel as a back up in case the Negro Modelo did not go over well because they are both so similar in styles. Everyone agreed that we had to highlight the Negra Modelo. Both have the same characteristics. Dark in color, coppery or steel-y malts, and sweet biscuit flavors. The origins for Mexico were Austrian Brewers who came to Latin American and started brewing their styles of beer in the late 19th century.
Seafood was a big part of daily life for many Aztecs. For this course we paired Negra Modello with a ceviche that included large pieces of scallops and shrimps dressed in lime and cilantro, on a bed of avocado.
The seafood was lush and fresh and served in huge portions. Not minced but in whole pieces. It was lightly dressed in lime and cilantro. The lime tied in the flavors of the beer. The steel-y malt flavors and the citric acid cut into each other and allowed the raw flavors of the beer and seafood to be met with balance. You normally add a lime to your Negra Modelo so the lime dressing acted as the lime for the beer. One of the few times fruit in beer is acceptable is in Mexican beers. The avocado was more of a puree that the seafood sat on.
Delicious course over all. Simple preparation and yet packed full of flavors. A most excellent start to the dinner.
Second Course: White Bean Puree with Duck Prosciutto and Honey Drizzled Squash paired with Brother Adam's Bragget
Beer: Atlantic Brewing Company 2006 Brother Adam's Bragget
Style: Braggot
ABV: 11.8%
The style of beer known as Braggot has it's orgins from around the time period of the Aztec culture. Between the 1200's and 1400's. Early Aztec origins on the timeline. Braggot is, in rough terms, a supped up mead. Mead is fermented honey and water, while braggot has the addition of grains and spices. Brother Adam's Bragget uses 2000 lbs. of honey and cellars it for a year before bottling. It is best served about 2 years after the year it was bottled. And note that the style of beer is braggot, but Atlantic Brewing Company purposely named their beer Bragget.
The Aztec priests used to drink a kind of fermented honey drink. Not to be confused with chica. It was coincidental that the time period of the Aztec and the time period of braggot correlates together. The Braggot simulating the fermented honey drink. I read about the priests and instantly thought of braggots.
This course truly encompasses a lot of the ingredients native to the Aztec culture. The Muscovy duck was a big part of their diet. As well as beans and squash, and honey.
For this course we had originally intended for the duck to be more like a prosciutto chip to dip into the white bean puree, but instead we had it thinly sliced and draped on top. It was presented as white bean puree in a small cup draped with the duck prosciutto with a salad of squash drizzled in honey and topped with toasted pepitas.
The honey flavors married perfectly with the sweet squash. The duck prosciutto added the right amount of fatty flavors to cut through the heavy honey sweetness and bring out the wildflower flavors in the honey used in the braggot. The white bean puree added the perfect texture to balance out the dish. Even the toasted pepitas added just enough flavor to enhance the braggot.
A truly playful dish that worked in so many different ways. From the historical aspect to the flavor explosions from all of the different elements coming together. Nothing in the flavors over powered one and other, and the beer, despite it's strength in alcohol did not trump the food flavors. It is a very delicate tasting beer despite the ABV.
Third Course: Spiced Chicken with Mole, Corn Spaetzel paired with Schlenkerla Urbock
Beer: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Urbock
Style: Rauchbier
ABV: 6.6%
Another happy accident of history when it comes to the time period of this beer and the Aztec culture. Originally we had planned for this beer because of the smoking and drying of meats frequently used by the Aztecs. We wanted the smokiness of the beer to highlight that. But upon research of the brewery, it began in 1405. Right smack in the middle of the Aztec timeline. So while the smoke is represented, the brewery itself has it's place with the timeline.
Rauchbiers are heavily smoked beers. Opening this beer and immediately you think of bacon and eggs. The way they taste, is the way nearly all beers once upon a time tasted like. When drying the grains or Kilning, they placed them under wood burning fires. This would in turn leave a smoked flavor on the grains and the outcome would be smokey flavored beers. It wasn't until the addition of modern tools for kilning that the beer lost it's smokey flavors.
Schlenkerla has mastered this tradition of smoked beers and continues the tradition on today. They smoke their beers with beechwood. They have a small fire where you can pitch some wood into to simulate what the brewing process is like, but the true methods are a tightly kept secret. The original brew pub is still in existence in Bamberg, Germany. And the brewery had been handed down from the same family generation after generation.
The dish itself however, is not exactly true to form for the Aztec culture. While chocolates and chilies in the mole sauce were very prevalent, as well as corn, one of the biggest and key ingredients in Latin America, the chicken was not native. Chickens were brought over by Europeans. The Aztecs ate venison, dog, iguana, duck, seafood, geese and other wild foul. Since I had already used venison for a previous beer dinner, I thought it best that we skip the venison. We settled on chicken, only because we knew that it would be the best thing for the mole.
Steve Brand the head chef was so in love with the Urbock, he wanted to go all out and honor this beer. So he made a corn spaetzel to accompany the meal and keep some German flair in this dish as well as keep it primarily Aztec with it's ingredients.
The Mole was perfect. Just the right amount of chocolate and chilies with not a lot of heat from the chilies. The chicken was cooked to perfection. It was spiced and then pan seared leaving a crispy skin and perfectly juicy meat inside. Everyone grilled the chef after the dinner about how he prepared the chicken. It laid on a bed of mole sauce. The flavors were rich and paired amazingly with the beer. The Urbock is a deep, dark ale with heavy smoked flavors. It has big smoke flavor but actually finishes sweet. The spiced chicken was enhanced by the smoked flavors and the mole and chilies played with the complex flavors of the malts from the beer. The corn spaetzel also brought out the sweet flavors on the beer.
This was almost the "piece de resistance" course. Even some friends of mine who were fiercely against the beer due to the heavy smoked flavors, loved this course. But we haven't talked about the dessert course yet.
Fourth Course: Ancho Chili Chocolate Bread Pudding with Southern Tier Choklat
Beer: Southen Tier Choklat
Style: Imperial Stout
ABV: 11%
This beer was the very first thing thought of when considering doing the Aztec Beer dinner. Most people are familiar with chocolate and Latin American cultures. It's all over the place and it's origins are old. But the interesting part about the Aztecs, was that they used to drink their chocolate cold and usually it was served or poured for the rulers and gods. So we used this beer to represent that aspect. The brewery itself goes into the Mayan aspect of chocolate. But most cultures of this region respected and cultivated chocolate.
Making sure that we used chilies properly for this dinner, we used ancho chilies in the bread pudding. It turned out perfectly. It had the slightest hint of heat from the spices. It also sat on a bed of vanilla cream sauce. Vanilla is very big in Latin America.
Normally I don't like to pair similar flavors on top of one and other. Chocolate on chocolate. It can be over kill. But the chocolate in the beer was very bitter. And being a stout it was very thick. So adding the sweet chocolate bread pudding brought out the raw chocolate flavors on both. The sweet and the bitter combining to tame each other and marry at the same time. The vanilla also helped tame the bitterness on the beer and make for a much smoother finish. Sometimes beers like this are so big and hard to drink. When you add something so sweet to it, it tones it down and makes for a more drinkable beer. The chilies added that slight bit of heat to make the course absolutely fun.
All in all this beer dinner was simply amazing. Chef Steve Brand really knocked this one out of the park. And the beers held their own to such marvelous pairings. This kind of dinner is something that I personally love because it shows you how creative you can be when it comes to pairings and how far you can go. Beer can be paired with anything and almost always pairs better with food.
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