I spent a great evening last night with the fine ladies of Cambridge Common who threw a wonderful beer dinner featuring Stoudts Brewing Co. and special guest Carol Stoudt.
Carol Stoudt is an amazing lady with lot's of history that all in the beer industry are envious of. She was there before most of the craft brewers on the scene today. Not only was she brewing beer when there was hardly anyone else out there doing it, but she was woman brewing beer when there were virtually no women on the scene!
She is pretty much an icon and idol, and listening to her talk about beer and talk about the industry from where it was to where it is now, was definitely inspiring.
Kate Baker and Suzanne Schalow making the introductions.
Check out Carol, what a fox. She is just awesome!
The menu and welcoming beer. Stoudt's Gold, a Munich-style Helles, 5% abv.
I am not usually one to throw back a nice cold lager. I haven't really progressed to them yet. I know that sounds funny, but my palate started backwards. From big sweet Belgians, to super malty double IPA's. Now I want everything dry and crisp. So when I drank this beer last night it was a nice welcomed change to the normal range of beers I drink. It was fresh, clean and delicious. A great way to start this dinner.
First Course: Ploughman's Platter with Grafton aged cheddar, homemade pickles, peppadew peppers, peach chutney, and rustic bread.
Beer: American Pale Ale, 5%
This was a great pairing. The acidity on the pickles was tamed by the peach chutney, the peppers gave off a bit of heat, and the cheddar added a creamy texture and sharp taste. The beer with it's sweeter malts rounded everything out. A simple offering with a lot going on on the palate.
Second Course: Gorgonzola and chive deviled eggs.
Beer: Double IPA, 10%
Don't be fooled by this pairing. Sounds like a simple course, except this one really hit home for nearly everyone at this dinner. Double IPA's and creamy blue cheese such as gorgonzola work based on the alpha acids in the hops cutting through the creamy fatty texture. The steel-y malts interact with the taste of the blue cheese. Adding creamy whipped up yolks to the equation and now the malts of this beer made the offering more like a sweet nectar and not overly bitter.
Everyone pretty much said we should have been sat with a huge platters of these deviled eggs and started off with the DIPA. A little bit of a blurry beer pic, but then again I am not that great of a photographer.
The American Pale Ale also worked out well with these eggs. I still had some left over and tried it. The carbonation acts the same way as the acids in hops. Cuts right through and then the sweet malts do the rest.
Third Course: Choice of Half roasted chicken with white asparagus and warm German potato salad.
Beer: Heifer-in-Wheat, 5%
Or
Pork medallions with a mustard cream sauce and scalloped cauliflower and potato casserole.
Beer: Scarlet Lady ESB, 5%
I went with the Pork but I did get a picture of the chicken as well.
This was so good. The pork was juicy and rich with the mustard cream sauce. The scalloped potatoes and cauliflower were creamy and awesome. It worked out really well with the ESB. At first sip of the ESB it seemed pretty tame and mild. That's because the beer before was a big DIPA. But then with the food it really brought out the hop character and also nutty malts. This was comfort food and certainly was big, filling, and very tasty. I loved it.
Fourth Course: Chocolate bread pudding with vanilla bean sauce.
Beer: Fat Dog Stout, 9%
This was just too much!! The entree course had already sent quite a number of us over the edge, and then this thing came out. I was feeling okay after the entree, and when they sat this in front of me, without thinking I systematically ate it all. And then I hit the wall with food coma.
The sweet sauce was like a frosting you put on cinnamon rolls. It was sticky and delicious. The bread pudding was nice and soft and chocolate-y. Of course chocolate and vanilla are both made for stouts. The first sip of the stout was sweet and rich, and then with a bite of the very sweet bread pudding, the bitter qualities and rich roasted notes came through making it another amazingly delicious pairing.
Simple comfort foods and fantastic beers from Stoudt's really knocked this dinner out of the park. I live a good life where I am fortunate to be invited to events like this. Where I get to imbibe on great beer and delicious food and hang out with some amazing people in the beer industry. As Suzanne Schalow always says; "I am living the dream baby!"
I attended American Craft's very first beer dinner last night featuring rare beers from Rob Tod of Allagash Brewing Co. and American-style comfort food.
American Craft has been off to a really great start. Their focus is on local foods and ingredients, with American craft wines and beers. The food is really good and comforting, the beers are great, and this first beer dinner was spectacular.
You can see a couple of their menu items here. This was from their opening night.
I don't want to waste anytime here, so let's get right into it.
We were first welcomed with a glass of Interlude. An American-style wild ale with about 9.5% abv.
Allagash Interlude
(via Allagash's website)
The first release in our new experimental series, Allagash Interlude
pushes the limits of beer. An innovative brewing process, special
fermentations, and French oak barrel aging all contribute to a beer that
has remarkable wine-like qualities.
Two yeast strains were used to create this unique 9.5% ABV Belgian style
ale. The first, a Belgian farmhouse yeast, establishes the flavor
foundations of a classic Belgian-style ale. The second, a house strain
of Brettanomyces yeast, brings it to the next level contributing an
intriguing myriad of flavors including pear, apricot, graham cracker,
and bread crust. Finally, a portion of the Interlude is aged in French
Merlot and Sirah oak barrels, which impart a distinctive vinous plum
character and a drying, almost tannic finish. Try complementing its
audacious character with food pairings such as sausages, salami, smoked
meats, and bold cheeses.
True to traditional Belgian-style brewing, we bottle condition the
Interlude. Just prior to bottling, a fresh dose of sugar and yeast is
added to the ‘still beer’ (at this stage there is no carbonation
present). After bottling, the beer is aged in a warm room, where the
fresh dose of yeast ferments the sugar and naturally carbonates the
beer.
Available in: 750 ml bottles
Original Gravity: 1080
Recommended Serving Temp: 40-50°F
Recommended Cellaring Temp: 50-54°F
I am not a Brettanomyces fan in general, but I have been coming around to Interlude for a while now. It's a delicious beer. A little fruity and bread-y, and a hint of tartness.
First course: Confit Beef tongue with Foie Gras Mousse
Vagabond is the second offering in our limited 375 ml series. With only
500 bottles made, this beer is from one of the only barrels to move with
us into our new brewery three years ago. Aged four years in American
oak barrels, it boasts a complex aroma of maple syrup and port, with
background notes of marzipan, plum and dill. Flavors of tart, unripened
plum and caramel give way to a warming, toasted almond finish. As
always...an adventure.
Topped with micro greens and a hit of a sea salt. This course was decadently rich. The beef tongue was thin and rich. Sadly for me, I was only able to eat the beef tongue and greens and one or two small bites of the foie gras. It was so rich and fatty and I could feel my arteries clogging on the spot. This sort of indulgence shouldn't exist.
However, this pairing worked amazing with the beer. Vagabond has a deep rich dark fruit aroma and toasted almonds, a light carbonation, a bit of tartness with a nice oak flavor and a deep dried fruit taste like figs or dates.
The flavors just worked so well with the fatty foie gras. This pairing also worked with the Interlude. I still had my welcoming beer in front of me and the tartness helped cut through through the fats and allowed some of the grape-y flavors to present itself on the beer.
This is some of the last offerings of Vagabond. This super indulgent pairing was the right way to go with this beer.
Second Course: Braised pork belly with bacon vinaigrette.
Our interpretation of a traditional Belgian wheat beer, Allagash White
is unique and truly refreshing. Brewed with a generous portion of wheat
and our own special blend of spices, this beer is light and slightly
cloudy in appearance, with a spicy aroma. Overall, it is a beer that is
very drinkable and smooth any time of the year.
The menu description was a little deceptive here. It was braised pork belly, but breaded and deep fried and it had a dab of apple puree on top.
The transition of beers was a bit awkward at first. A sip of Vagabond and then a sip of a refreshingly light witbier flooded the palate with yeasty banana flavors. I wasn't sure at first how this pairing would work out.
But when the pork belly arrived, this pairing was fantastic together. Bright carbonation and spices from the beer helped cut through the fat, and add a delicious pop to the pork flavor. The apple puree added a nice balance of sweet to this course.
The pork belly was rich, meaty and fatty at the same time. Delicious and well executed. The Allagash White was a surprisingly good pairing for this course. Sometimes you are just not sure if a lighter beer will hold up to a heavier course, but the effervescent carbonation and spicy character held up well and took on the fatty pork to make a nice contrasting paring.
Third Course: Tuna with parsnip puree and black truffles.
Beer: Coolship Cerise
Cooled in a traditional Coolship and fermented in oak barrels w/ tart local cherries; 5.5%" I was at the inaugural brewday for this beer ... around 3 years ago.
The stainless steel coolship is in a shed off of the brewery w/ stainglass windows that open to allow wild bacteria and yeast to infect the beer.
Todd Alström
January 2008
Always an adventure… Allagash is taking experimentation to the next
level by brewing a 100% spontaneously fermented beer in the tradition of
the Belgian Lambics.
Last month we brewed the first two of our spontaneously fermented beers
at Allagash. In brewing these beers we are using an authentic,
traditional process honoring the classic Belgian Lambic tradition,
including the use of a cool ship, which we built specifically for these
spontaneous beers.
The process begins with a specialized decoction mash, which utilizes the
addition of both two row barley and raw, unmalted wheat. After the mash
and sparge, we add aged hops during the boil, which are
traditionally used because they impart many of the beer stabilizing
benefits of hops without contributing bitterness. The use of aged hops
(aged a minimum of three years) necessitates an unusually long boil of
over four hours.
After boiling, rather than cooling the beer in a sterile environment and
adding a brewer’s yeast culture, the hot wort is pumped to a cool ship
in a special room designed specifically to make these beers. The cool
ship is a commonly used tool in Belgium, but is rarely seen beyond
Belgium’s borders, if at all. It is a large, open tray that is 12 feet
long, 8 feet wide and 1 foot deep. Once in the cool ship the hot wort
spends the night cooling from near boiling temperatures to about 60
degrees Fahrenheit. To facilitate the cooling process, windows in the
cool ship room are left open overnight. The cool Maine air, containing
natural bacteria and wild yeast, drifts in and cools the wort. As soon
as the wort is cool enough, the natural airborne yeasts and bacteria are
able to survive in what will eventually be the spontaneously fermented
beer (it is these natural yeasts and bacteria which will ferment the
beer, rather than a yeast added by the brewer). Next, the wort is pumped
back into a brewery tank, where it will spend one further day before it
is pumped into special French oak barrels. Within one to three weeks,
spontaneous fermentation begins in the oak and will continue for over
one year. After the yearlong fermentation this traditional beer will age
in French oak for at least one more year, sometimes with the addition
of fruits, before it is finally bottled.
This was my favorite course. The tuna was cooked perfectly and the sweet parsnips added an unbelievably good balance to this dish. Everyone else was savoring this course, while I foolishly ate all of mine in about two minutes.
The beer was quite amazing. It had a very, very funky and robust nose. All the hallmarks of a dank and nasty sour beer. For sours heads, they will understand what all of this means. It doesn't sound very appetizing, but it the nature of sour beers. It smelled like a stank-ass barnyard, small hints of mint and medicinal notes, baby diapers, but underneath all of that, was a quite peculiar aroma of cinnamon.
The cherries presented themselves after it had warmed a bit. They added a lovely kick without being overpowering and did not make this a typical fruit beer. A tart beer but not overly sour. One thing I can't deal with when it comes to sour beers are the ones that are so acidic and sour they burn your throat. Some people love, that but I prefer to enjoy my beers without psychical pain. This funky beast was good for that. The nose is disarming as it is so funky on it's aroma, but almost delicate in it's taste.
This pairing was interesting. The parsnips added the sweet balance while the sour tartness on the beer mixed with the tuna giving the tuna an almost creamy texture. Sounds strange, but man oh man was it good!
This beer is not for sale any where and will be very different with each batch brewed. It's meant for special occasions at the breweries discretion.
Fourth Course: Duck breast with cider and peppercorns. Beer: Victoria, Belgian strong pale ale with 9% abv.
To create our unique, Belgian-style Victoria Ale, the brewers drew on
references to Bacchus, the Thracian god of wine, in the history and
artwork of the Victoria Mansion as inspiration for this new beer. One
hundred and fifty pounds of Chardonnay grapes were brought in, crushed
on site and added directly to the mash.
Victoria Ale's aroma is of fruity spice with a hint of the Chardonnay,
and the taste presents subtle notes of green banana, black pepper, and
fresh-crushed mint. With a focus on the subtle, wine-like character of
the grapes, the 9.0% ABV brew boasts a pale copper color, Belgian yeast
influence, and a medium body with a long candied fruit finish with hints
of honeydew melon, and, of course, Chardonnay.
Allagash Victoria Ale is a tribute to the historic Victoria Mansion here
in Portland, Maine. Also known as the Morse-Libby House, it is one of
the greatest 19th century houses in the United States. Designed by
architect Henry Austin, the mansion was built between 1858 and 1860 and
survives as a unique example of the princely palaces created for
America’s wealthiest citizens in the pre-Civil War era. With superb
architecture and well-preserved original interiors, the Victoria Mansion
is an unparalleled document of America’s highest aspirations in
architecture, interior design, and the decorative arts.
Perfectly cooked duck breast served nearly rare and incredibly juicy. This was one of those pairings where I wasn't sure how the beer would hold up to the rich gaminess of the duck. The sweet Belgian yeast profile worked well with the steel-y game taste of the duck.
The peppercorns added a nice spicy kick and flavor that played with the sweet beer. The cider added a nice sweet and tart balance while the puree gave it another added layer of depth with it's creaminess.
I wasn't a huge fan of the beer. Chardonnay's are not my style of wine and having the grapes in the beer didn't do anything for me. I also found the beer to be a little too sweet. But this is all personal preference because my palate only wants dry, bitter, and hoppy beers these days. Technically this is a very cool beer which did work wonderfully with the duck.
I was wrapped up in conversation, and managed to forget to take a picture of the beer for this course.
Fifth Course: Braised short rib with pickled ginger.
Gargamel, a Belgian Style sour ale, is the
first offering in our limited release 375 ml series. Our brewers used a
blend of American 2-row barley Malt, Raw and Malted wheat and selected
caramel malt to brew this beer. After primary fermentation the beer was
inoculated with our house Brettanomyces aged in French Oak wine barrels
with a generous amount of local raspberries for over 18 months.
Gargamel's aroma is full of un-ripened raspberry, vanilla and citrus
notes. This medium bodied beer has hints of biscuit and graham cracker
with a clean, fruity and refreshingly tart finish.
Gargamel is the first in the hand-filled, 375 ml series that Allagash
will release throughout the years. More exciting barrel-aged beer to
come!
This was one of the first entrees I had when American Craft first opened. They serve you a huge slab of short rib that is so tender it's a miracle it keeps it's shape.
This was served a bit differently with the pickled ginger on top. The pickled ginger really brought this pairing together. Again all the textures were present with a beautiful fatty and super tender short rib, creamy mashed potatoes and sweet and tart kick of the pickled ginger coupled with the tart beer. Slight fruity hints on the aroma with some fruity hint in the flavor. The slight fruit notes on the beer really worked with the rich beef flavor while the sourness on the beer helped cut right through those fats.
Once again I managed to not get a picture of the beer. But the short rib picture was enough for me. That thing was so tender and delicious.
Rob Tod discussing Gargamel. What's your buzz level Rob? On a scale of 1-10?
Allagash Confluence Ale is created with a mixed fermentation; utilizing
our house primary Belgian style yeast in combination with our
proprietary Brettanomyces strain. The two yeast strains work in tandem
creating a marriage between spice and fruit flavors that ultimately
leave a lingering silky mouth feel.
Confluence is brewed with a blend of both imported pilsner and domestic
pale malts as well as a portion of caramel malt, resulting in a complex
malty profile. Tettnang and East Kent Golding hops are added in the
brew process to balance the intricate malty profile while adding a sweet
and spicy citrus aroma.
After fermentation, Confluence undergoes a lengthy aging process in
stainless steel tanks to enhance the flavors. Prior to bottling, it is
dry hopped with a Glacier hops, providing a pleasant balance of aromas.
Confluence is then bottle conditioned and aged in our cellar prior to
release.
This seems like an odd choice to have served scallops last or after the braised short rib. But, these scallops were so fresh, soft, and flavorful. They really held their own after the deeply rich and fatty courses before it. And without a dessert course it was a nice softer way to end the meal.
The quintessential contrast pairing for the night. Sour, lightly fruity beer with big sweet scallops and a gorgeous creamy artichoke puree. The beers mild carbonation allowed for more of the sweet creamy texture of the scallops to come through. Just a fantastic and lovely way to end the dinner.
Sadly there wasn't a dessert for the dinner. The restaurant will be introducing them soon to the menu. This menu was so rich and to top it off with some more rich chocolate cake and some Allagash Odyssey could have pushed us all over the edge, but it was have been worth it. But I am not complaining about an amazing six course dinner. Those scallops were sweet and rich enough to have acted like a dessert. We had a conversation for a few hours after the fact about this dinner. Everyone was satisfied and everyone had good detailed thoughts about what they got out of the dinner.
Besides, we all took a walk down to the Publick House afterward to drink "Larry" from Wachusetts. Can't say there is anything wrong with ending the night with some DIPA's.
If you still think American Craft is like the former Roadhouse or possibly isn't any good after seeing this menu, you're a fool and the joke is on you if you avoid this place. Hears to many more wonderful beer dinners that are on the way from American Craft.
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