I just got back on Sunday from an amazing trip to Belgium. It was a quick trip all about beer and business. My husband Todd and his brother Jason were knighted by the Knighthood of the Brewers' Mash Staff (Belgian Brewers' Guild) and kicked off the Belgian Beer Weekend.
These are just some random iPhone images snapped through out the weekend.
Chocolate shops were everywhere in Belgium. Not all of them were great and most were very touristy. But still chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, everywhere you look a chocolate shop. This place was right next to my hotel in the Center of Brussels. Also, some random mural. Seemed interesting amidst all the classic and old buildings.
Then we went over to the Grand Place where the festival was being held over the weekend. We just got into Brussels and were hungry and needed a beer. We went to a tourist restaurant called La Roy. It was a good choice. Fresh Duvel's with beautiful pours, rabbit in kriek sauce with cherries on the side and frites, and yes even pig bladder balloons everywhere for some weird tradition.
Beers at Moeder Lambic. Best beer bar in Brussels hands down we went back several times over the course of a few days. Val-Dieu Tripel, Cantillon Kriek, Val-Dieu Grand Cru, De Ranke XX. Grand plat de fruits de mer. Jean Hummler sent over massive plates of seafood.
Jean is also the kindest man in Belgium. Not only was he incredibly generous, but he recommended an amazing chocolate maker in Belgium named Laurent Gerbaud. He even scored some of that chocolate for me when I had no time to get over to the shop myself.
Beers at A La Mort Sabite. Jason got a Rochefort, and I got a large Duvel. Basically two Duvel's in one big glass. Super delicious.
After many beers, a trip back to Moeder Lambic, and a few whiskey-cola's, we then went to a bar called Cafe Bizon on Tom Peters of Monk's Cafe's advice.
After Todd and Jason were Knighted, the next day, we spent a glorious afternoon at Comme Chez Soi with Michel Moortgat of Duvel. We were seated in the kitchen for a private lunch cooked just for use using beer. Those pictures are for another blog post.
We then said our good-byes as the business part of the trip was over. We headed back to the Moeder Lambic for a few beers. Jean kindly treated me to a delicious cup of hot chocolate where he uses a light raw cows milk and 45% cocoa for a super rich and fantastic cup of hot chocolate.
Jean was a little mad at me for not being able to finish it all, but if he had seen the 6 course meal we had just had for lunch, then he would understand.
Some lame couple then ordered a Lou Pepe from Cantillon and decided after two sips they didn't like it. Jean brought the bottle to us. Plus he brought us an Oud Bruin made with chocolate malts and aged in apricot schnapps barrels. Too sour for me to appreciate, but Todd and Jason loved it.
And one last quick snap from my iPhone in Germany at the Frankfurt airport. Frankfurters and potato salad. A delicious snack with whiskey-colas to wash it all down.
This was actually the first Todd's Taco night to feature a brewer with a special taco paired with a rare beer or newly released beer. We featured Rob Tod of Allagash Brewing Co.
Previously, I did a quick write up about Todd's Taco Night Feat. Fluffy White Rabbits from Pretty Things. But that was actually our second adventure with Todd's Taco night at Green Street.
[Fried oyster taco]
The feature for Allagash was Bi-Curieux paired with a fried oyster taco with a remoulade. You got a 6oz pour of the beer plus a fried oyster taco for $3.99. That's the way Todd's Taco night works. A generous pour of the beer and a taco for a low, low price.
Bi-Curieux is a super rare beer that was made by barrel-aging Curieux, a Belgian-style tripel with local hops for a year and half. This was one of the last barrels around.
Chef Greg Reeves really out did himself with this taco pairing. He hadn't even had the Bi-Curiuex, but was able to really nail it by pairing it with a fried oyster taco. The sweet oysters and sweet malts played around while the hops cut through the remoulade. It was very fresh tasting and delicious for being one of the last kegs floating around.
Also on hand was Vagabond, 2008 Interlude, and Allagash White.
Supporting friends of Allagash and BeerAdvocate.
Adam Fisher, BA Festival Captain and dan Kaldak, BA Festival Volunteer. Will Meyers Brewmaster Cambridge Brewing Co., Matt McGrath, BA Festival Captain. I don't know the person in the green shirt.
Trevor Kliner
BA Festival Volunteer. Rob Tod, Allagash Brewing. Co. Aaron Mateychuk, Brew Master Watch City Brewing Co. and some punk ass photo bombers in the background.
JC Tetreault, BA Festival volunteer and long time BA member. Danny V. of VeeVee in Jamaica Plain.
Shawn Dunn, Global Brewers Guild and Dan Kochakian, Ale Street News. Marc Leuchner, BA Festival Captain.
Angelo Scarnera looking quite happy being surrounded by sour and wild ales. Jason Alström, Todd Alström, Co-Founders of BeerAdvocate.com with Ken Pajak of Cafe Amsterdam in Anchorage, Alaska and Angelo Scarena, good personal friend to BeerAdvocate and myself.
And this was my happy little collection of Bi-Curieux, Interlude, Vagabond, and a Stone Fence (Bourbon, bitters, and apple cider).
Taking time out from beer and food to talk about Team BeerAdvocate for the MSPCA Walk For Animals.
BeerAdvocate.com and now my newest adventure 20°N & 20°S, generally focuses charity efforts towards one cause, animals. We are animals lovers and we care deeply about what happens to them. This is the focus we want to aim our efforts towards. It doesn't mean we do not support other causes. It just means that our general focus is towards animal charities.
For the past two years, Team BeerAdvocate has been the number one team donating in all of the Boston area. We keep getting better and better thanks to die hard beer lovers, friends and families, and animal lovers in general.
In our first walk, I only found out about it with one month before the walk. We managed to bring in about $1500. The next year we set the goal at $3,000. We ended up with just over $6,000. And then there was last year's effort. We set the bar at $6,000 and ended up with over $9,000. And of all things, we managed to raise that monster number during an economic crisis.
We had a lot of help from our friends who joined the team and businesses who contributed to our efforts. It has been truly unbelievable for to be able to manage this kind of fundraising. The folks at the MSPCA have said no one has rocked it like that before. The usual top teams before us managed around $3,000. Granted they don't have access to our huge network around New England or the country for that matter. But I am egotistical and want nothing more than to win and generate money for animals, so I feel no shame about my connections to a vast number of people.
This year we decided that if we could raise as much money as we did last year in an economic crisis, then we should be able to go even bigger this year. We set the goal at $15,000.
This means we are going to need all the help we can get. Small or large donations, we don't care as long as you can help in some way. I am asking that all my readers pitch in and help out to donate to Team BeerAdvocate. You can join our team or just make a donation to our teams effort.
The walk will take place on Sunday, Sept. 12th on the Boston Commons.
For businesses, breweries, restaurants, stores, chocolate makers, or any other business who wishes to contribute to our team, we are offering a deal for your company's name to be on our team shirts. For donations of $150 dollars or more, you will get your company name printed on the back of our shirts as supporters.
[Click to enlarge images.]
Our team shirts are donated by qrsts.com, the wonderful people who print all of our BeerAdvocate shirts. Whatever extra shirts we have left over from the walk, we take to the next beer festival we throw, and sell them to add to the next years walk team total. Last year we sold $200 worth of extra shirts. We will be adding that total to the team this year. Every single dime we raise in effort to the MSPCA, goes directly to the MSPCA.
To join our team follow this link and the password is beerlovers. Make a donation of $25 dollars and you will be apart of our team. You can also help us fundraise by getting your own friends and family to donate to your efforts and you customize your own donation page with images of your pets. I have Miss Chicken Von Waffles and Pork Chops Applesauce on my individual page.
Or you can simply send a donation to benefit the team effort without actually having to join the team.
If you care about animals as much as we do, please help us reach our massive goal and help us be the number one team donating for a 3rd year in a row. Do it because you love beer, do it because you love animals.
I went to Las Vegas for my 30th birthday last October. While visiting and imbibing on food, gambling, and copious amounts of booze, I had an ultimate Las Vegas experience that ended with me seeing Alice Cooper playing live for a packed bar called Aces & Ales.
I must preface this and say it was an epic day, but it certainly didn't end up like The Hangover. And it didn't up like the last time I was in Las Vegas and got married completely shit faced. Yes, that is a true story. I was married in Las Vegas 5 years ago. I am living proof that if you get married the way you want to, doing it for fun and happiness and not doing it for all the bullshit, other people, and all the planning, it will last much longer than the $20k to 100K weddings.
It went down like this. My birthday was on a Friday and I got the fuck out of dodge (Boston), to celebrate such a landmark birthday and headed to Las Vegas. I had fun, I ate filet mignon and drank wine for breakfast in bed on my actual birthday, drank a lot of booze and beer, won $400 bucks gambling, and went to Hubert Keller's restaurant for a fabulous, but bank breaking dinner at Fleur de Lys in Mandalay Bay.
The Saturday after my birthday, we decided to hold a pub crawl with the local BeerAdvocates. Before we headed out to Vegas, the bar owner of Aces & Ales Keri Kelli, sent us a beermail (email via BeerAdvocate) telling us he owned this great new craft beer bar off the Vegas strip and that we had to come visit. He said he loved BeerAdvocate and would love it if we came and saw his place. He added that he was the guitar player for Alice Cooper, and that Alice was playing in Las Vegas while we were visiting. He mentioned that Alice Cooper might come in and visit the bar. It turns out that rockers are big fans of craft beer. The hangers on and the groupies still latch on to the PBR and Bud Light, but Alice Cooper and his band drink good craft beer.
Only after I got back from Las Vegas, did local brewer Will Meyers of Cambridge Brewing Co., tell me that Alice Cooper had been into CBC and sat down and had his beers. He said they were great. The whole crew came in and sat down and asked a lot of questions and drank good local American craft beer.
I don't care if you like Alice Cooper or not, the fact that he is a craft beer drinker and that one of his band mates owns a craft beer bar is unbelievable.
So we started on the Las Vegas strip because there is really fuck all for craft beer on the Vegas strip. A few places and then we went outside of the strip. We wanted to get it over with.
We started at The Pub in the Monte Carlo where we were staying. I started knocking back cocktails because I am not a full day beer drinker. I can't or I will get too bloated to continue on. It's unpleasant to talk about but it's the truth of the matter. Mixing it up can be a bad thing, but in my case it keeps me on the same page as every one else and allows me to continue on all day.
The Pub was cool because we met a few BeerAdvocates from the area and one of our long time friends named Uncle Jimbo from Boston, whom happens to love Las Vegas, randomly flew out just to party with us.
We then made our way over to Mandalay Bay where The Burger Bar is located. That is one of the only places on the Vegas strip where craft beer can be located. Lots of the casinos have one or two imports like Duvel, but the strip is a craft beer wasteland.
Not only did The Burger Bar have Stone Ruination and DFH 90 Minute IPA, which despite being able to get almost anywhere, was truly a godsend on the Strip, but they also had a collection of the Firestone Walker series. Only true beer geeks can appreciate how rare and awesome tasting 10, 11, and 12 at the same time really is. They also offered an array of beer floats with different beers. I appreciated this because beer floats are great.
After treating ourselves right to a good base of grease and meat, we then headed off the strip over to the Freakin' Frog. This is a total craft beer oasis in the middle of the barren dessert.
And before I
forget, there was a pit stop before the Freakin' Frog at the Crown and Anchor
British pub. Interesting place. Crappy beers, football (soccer) scores, and video
poker machines. I kind of enjoyed it because I took time out to drink a
glass of red wine to settle my stomach after those burgers and play
some rounds on the video poker which it turns out I am pretty good at.
The Freakin' Frog also has a special room upstairs of the owners Adam Carmer's, private collection of tequila's, scotch whiskeys, bourbons, and other rare offerings which Adam generously offered us tastings of. I think my taste of the Rey Sol tequila, 100% pure blue agave, was like a $50 taster. Very generous indeed!
This part of the post will be a little bit tedious, but I urge you to click and enlarge each picture to see this rare collection.
The Monk.
The Tequila's. Some of the images came out a bit blurry, but you get the idea just by looking at them.
The Scotches.
The Bourbons and Rye's.
At this point it's fair to say we were all pretty well lit. Now we make our move to Aces & Ales.
We knew we were in the right place with a huge Deschutes barrel sitting outside.
So here is how this all went down. We show up and the bar is packed yet closed for a private event. We called the owners of the bar and they met us outside and ushered us into the packed bar. They took us off to the side in the VIP area for the night. They said "have whatever you want we'll be running around all night."
The next think you know, we got Stone Ruination's slammed in front of us with some Valley Brewing Co. beers, and bombers of Stone Smoked Porters. The place is completely mad and jam packed. All rocker types and they are looking at us like "who the fuck are you and why you are so special to sit in the VIP area?" So many groupie hoes around too, it was hilarious. We did meet some cool rocker guys who knew who we were and told us about how they will be opening a brew pub in L.A. soon. Good news for the L.A. area.
Bands are playing, Keri is on stage rocking out with some other groups. Next thing you know we were all kicked out of the VIP area because Alice Cooper was coming and he was going to make his entrance through that area. So we moved off to the side to the less crowded side of the bar. Sure enough, in walks Alice Cooper and he plays a few of his hit songs. It was incredible. He sounded so good live. He truly is a legend. And how awesome is it to be seeing a rock god playing live with a Stone Ruination in your hand? Life was good at that moment.
We went back to the hotel after this quick performance. We were going to hang out for a bit because Alice Copper left and the VIP room was opened to us once again. But then we heard it would be emptied out again because The Steve Miller Band was heading over. I would have liked to have seen that too, but we were all smashed and exhausted from a long day of drinking. Not that many stops, but some serious drinking.
A great time with great BeerAdvocates in Las Vegas. And the generosity from the Adam at the Freakin' Frog and Keri from Aces & Ales was unbelievable.
The next day was Sunday, which meant huge Las Vegas buffets to look forward to. Nothing better than being hungover and having booze to wake up to and a huge buffet. I love Las Vegas!
My husband Todd, loves tacos. So much in fact he has invaded Green Street with very own special taco night which features beer he loves, maybe a new beer release, or a rare beer offering paired with a special taco of the evening.
Every Wednesday, Green Street features Taco night. $4 gourmet tacos of shredded duck, carnitas, and sometimes fried oyster tacos or braised oxtail tacos.
Last night our good friends Dann and Martha Paquette of Pretty Things released their newest beer, Fluffy White Rabbits. A spring offering of a hoppy Belgian-style tripel.
That last image was taken by Jim Kowalczyk (Uncle Jimbo).
This was paired with a braised rabbit taco with a carrot slaw and toasted pine nuts by Chef Greg Reeves.
Also on hand was the über sought after Feburary 27, 1832 Mild Ale. An historical recreation of a British recipe of an English Mild relived through Dann Paquette.
And this is what happens when good times are being had and good friends are together. Dann Paquette of Pretty Things, David Ciccolo of The Publick House & Monk's Cell and American Craft, and Todd Alström of BeerAdvocate.
That would be me that Todd is giving the stink eye to in the last picture.
Just thought I would highlight my annual Winter Warmer Pub Crawl from last Dec. This was our third year hosting it, always held on the first Saturday of Dec. I realize it's now March, but I was scrolling through pictures and found these and decided to blog about it.
What we do is not technically a pub crawl, but more like a 3 stop journey in self destruction. Deep Ellum, Sunset Grill, and what as formerly called the Roadhouse and now called American Craft.
It's a hardcore crawl to drink big winter warming beers. Barleywine's, DIPA's, Imperial Stouts, and anything else that is not considered sessionable. We drink them in abundance and there is no crying about it. There is no wusses allowed either. Anyone who would make the day about themselves and whine that they need to take it easy if they are going to make it all day.
That's another thing, it is only 3 stops, but it goes on all day. Only the strong survive a day like this. Only the awesome show up from start to finish and don't meet us in between the crawl.
Marc Kadish of the Sunset Grill, printed the actual rules I posted on BA about the event.
I had to start my crawl off with some actual shots of liquor. Yes it's a day about big beers, but our dumb ass cab driver took us all the way to Newton, and then back all the way in to Boston and ignoring the exit for Cambridge on the way back like we told him. I nearly cut a bitches face open that's how stupid this fucking guy was. He made us a full hour late to my own pub crawl and I only live 10 minutes away from where we started.
So you see, a couple of shots of bourbon were more than necessary. Not to mention they tasted amazing with Pretty Thing Babayaga. Also a few tastes of some barleywine's I haven't had before.
After chilling for a bit and relaxing with some liquid love, we headed over to the Sunset Grill. Southern Tier's Chokolat Stout was on hand. So was some chocolate ice cream to drop into the beer!!
It was a stout kind of a day. Normally it's DIPA's for me and American-style bitter, super hoppy barleywine's. Not this day. I have to stick with what works, and that happened to be stouts.
Happy Sunset Grill staff being festive.
Mark, Todd and Marc Kadish.
These English gentlemen wanted me to snap a pic of the ginormous plate of nachos some of our crew ordered.
BA fanboys. LOL!
I don't know who these people were. They were part of the pub crawl but not really apart of the crawl. This cool guy on the left with the tattoos was adamant that he got his picture taken while sipping his beer.
Max Toste of Deep Ellum pictured on the right, joined us for one more at Sunset.
The raffle tickets for some Allagash Gear that Marc Kadish was nice enough to hand out to my pub crawl loving heroes.
I didn't end up getting pictures at the Roadhouse, but huge plates of nachos, wings, and other goodies were set up for us. Chris Sheridan had his line up of beers all sorted out for us. They have always taken good care of us.
Good times. Deep Ellum, Sunset Grill, and The Roadhouse, now American Craft, always take good care of us. They always have special beers on for our crawl. Something to think about for the Dec. 2010 crawl.
Back from a five day trip to Anchorage, Alaska. We were invited up for The Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival. Todd and Jason Alström were asked to be judges for the Barleywine competition. They were also invited to speak at The Great Northern Brewers Club. A massive group of homebrewers from the great state of Alaska.
There is a lot to say about Alaska. I really enjoyed visiting Anchorage even in January. It was pretty chilly outside but we missed the worst of it before we arrived and after we left.
Alaskans love their beer. They love big, bold flavors in their beers and they are not scared one bit of experimentation with their beers or styles be it professionally brewed, or concocted in their kitchens. Alaska has an an amazing beer culture. Everyone knows each other, everyone homebrews, and everyone supports their local beer scene with a protected pride in their home grown offerings.
They should be proud of what they have going on up there. I have never seen such a tight knit community of beer lovers. The people of Alaska are also some of the most generous, friendly, welcoming group of people I have ever met in my life. We were welcomed into their fold and treated like family members. I will forever be grateful for the way we were looked after and treated by the good people of Alaska.
The first thing we did when we landed in Alaska was attend a beer dinner at Sub Zero owned by Billy Opinsky. I am holding off on posting about that here in this post because it deserves it's own post.
The next morning we woke up refreshed and I, myself was finally free from a terrible jet lag induced headache, we decided we need a big hearty breakfast to set the mood right for our beer trek through Anchorage. I heard about this place down the road from where were staying called Snow City Cafe. I saw their menu online before we came up to visit. I had completely forgotten that Alaska is all about halibut, king crab, and salmon. When I saw that they have king crab cake eggs benedict, I would not stop until I tried them.
I had an excellent Almond Joy Mocha to wake myself up. And then I ordered the King Crab Cake Eggs Benedict. Picture came out a little dark, but it gets the message across.
These were awesome except for one thing. The poached eggs were hard boiled. I hate that. I want runny yolks with poached eggs. The king crab cakes made up for it. They were meaty with real king crab. That might sound strange to an Alaskan to say real bits of crab. Everywhere else you go it's faux crab meat. Or real crab meat that's mostly filled with more breading than actual crab meat.
Jason ordered an omelet and got a side of reindeer sausage. This is a very popular side dish for most breakfast joints in Anchorage. It tasted like smoked sausage but spicier and more rich in flavor. I haven't had reindeer meat before, but this was tasty.
We left this place very full and happy. It was snowing and the sun light doesn't come out until 10 or 11 am. It begins to set again around 2 or 3 pm. The best thing you can do for yourself if you are used to sunny situations is eat and drink yourself silly. It's a lot like Las Vegas. You never know what time it is, but who cares as long as there is beer?
We walked back to our hotel to get some last minute BA Magazine work done. While Todd and Jason were sorting that stuff out, I noticed that the hotel we were staying in was mentioned in some articles that it's haunted. Oh goody! Historic Anchorage Hotel.
The bottom picture are actual accounts that some of the guests have made about encounters with so-called spirits. One story reports that a couple came back to their room on the second floor and their door was blocked by a little kid sitting in the doorway. It turns out that there were no kids registered in the hotel at the time. Other stories say that the guests reported kids playing in the hotel when there were no kids registered. Apparently a little girl was shot in the hotel way back in the day and later died of a mysterious illness. Another little boy had drowned in a bathtub in the hotel.
Guest reports of seeing a man in a police uniform walking the hallways. The first police chief of Anchorage was murdered near the hotel in the 20's with his own gun and he refused to say who shot him in the back before he died.
The best story comes from the ghost hunters who came to the hotel armed with a tape recorder. The two ladies were talking in the recording, when you could hear loud breathing in the background. Then
a creepy voice said "don't move that." Then it said "chocolate"
and you could hear a chocolate bar wrapper being opened. Then the voice
said "do her!"
Yeah, I am not quite sure what "do her!" meant either but it's pretty damn hilarious. Hilarious in the sense that it happened to them and not me. I did have a sheer moment of panic however, leaving my room when I saw two little boys in their pj's just staring me from the other end of the hallway. I found their parents down stairs in their pj's too eating a quiet breakfast. The boys came and joined them. I relaxed after that.
This is from the hotel's website:
Our Haunted Hotel – Where Ghosts Are More than Just Stories
Curtains rumbling, shower curtains swaying, pictures flying . . . it’s
all par for the course at the Historic Anchorage Hotel. Stories of
ghostly happenings have been circulating at the hotel for many years,
all thought to be related to the death of the first Chief of Police,
Jack Sturgus. On February 20, 1921 at 9:15 p.m., Anchorage's first
Police Chief John J. "Black Jack" Sturgus was found shot in the back
with a bullet from his own gun, steps away from the Historic Anchorage
Hotel. It is rumored that his ghost returns to the scene of the crime
each year, haunting the location of his untimely death, seeking justice
for a crime still unsolved to this day.
Sightings
are so frequent that we keep a ghost log in which a number of our
guests have shared their encounters. In addition to the ghost of Jack
Sturgus, there are several different specters that past guests have
seen make their way through our halls and facilities. A more detailed
account of some of these ghosts were featured on Today MSNBC.com.
While
an abundance of paranormal activity may scare some, we can assure you
that the rich and interesting history of the Historic Anchorage Hotel
will make for an unforgettable stay.
Awesome, but kind of not. Good thing the people who were working in the hotel were once again some of the kindest and friendliest people. If I had seen a ghost, I don't think they would have minded if I sat in their laps curled up in a ball, sucking my thumb and crying for my mommy.
We tried a ton of good beers here. I found and fell in love with Specialty XXX. A Black Double IPA brewed for their distributors 30th anniversary. It was so hoppy and good. Dry finish, roasted malts still fighting to hang on amidst the onslaught of big hops. The perfect beer for me. I took a couple of the bottles home with me, but the bottles are barrel-aged.
We also tried Gluttony, a triple IPA and theoretical 200 IBU beer. Theoretical in the fact that the human palate can't really taste more than 100 IBU's. But supposedly this beer is about 200 IBU's. I tried the Kodiak Brown Ale as well and many other beers that afternoon.
*For the Midnight Sun crew: Hot Peach Cobbler is the winner for a food pairing with this beer. Peaches braised in tons of butter and brown sugar, a nice crumble on top of the peaches.... Pure vanilla ice cream with it. There is more that can be done. We came up with a few combinations, but I thought I would elaborate on the "I am thinking peaches" comment. I had it in the bottle after we got back and roasted malts were more apparent. Much bigger flavors than when I tasted Kodiak with a shot palate after drinking Specialty XXX.
Visit Midnight Sun's website and scroll through their profile of beers. It's a pretty stunning line up and some of the most creative beers from any brewery I have seen in a long time. Their beers are not just a couple of one off's that don't fit a certain mold. Their whole profile is off the chains.
One of the highlights was Bathtub Gin. A gruit style ale with juniper berries, grains of paradise, and other herbs. This beer was made by lead brewer Ben Johnson in honor of the Phish song Bathtub GIn.
Ben, I didn't know you were such a dirty hippy! That changes everything about our friendship.
If you haven't guessed, that's Ben on the label. Bathtub Gin was very cool. Crisp, dry finish, and big spicy nose and flavor. Again, very Alaskan with big, full flavor and a complete distortion of what is considered to be classic styles. I love it. They do what they want, make whatever beer they want, they don't give a shit about traditionalism because they don't have too.
Alaskans are living in their own quiet little world up there... Only it's not so quiet. They are making some noise up there and when you come into town, you either get on board or get out of town. It isn't hard to get on board with the delicious beers being produced up there. I love that kind of mentality. Who says you have to play by the same old boring rules? Midnight Sun is a perfect example of do what you want. Make the beer you intended to make no matter how big, or obscure, or undefined and the masses will follow you. It's so American, and I love it.
Later that day we made our way back to Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse. Owned by Billy Opinsky and shares the same kitchen with Sub Zero. Billy O had taken such good care of us during the whole time we were there. Taxiing us around, piling good food unto us to try. Like the amazing halibut fish and chips appetizer at Humpy's, and later treating us to sushi where we experienced White King salmon for the first time.
When we got to Humpy's we were in the mood for some beers we have never tried before and appetizers. Smoked Salmon spread, Alaskan oysters, and King Crab bites.
All of these choices were great choices for an afternoon snack. I will say that the salmon spread needed more salmon chunks in it to balance out the cream cheese, but it was very smokey and tasty. And Hallelujah they give you a good amount of bread to go with it. I can't stand places that give you dips or pate and only two pieces of bread or toast points.
The crab bites had good pieces of crab in it. Served piping hot and great with some squeezed lemon. Perfect Alaskan bar food.
Upon further inspection of their menu, we saw this little note on it.
I would like to see someone take this challenge on up close. You can see the challenge on Man v. Food here.
Later that night we went over to the Sleeping Lady Brewery for the Great Northern Homebrewers meeting. Todd and Jason were invited to be guest speakers at their meeting. Todd thought it would be around 40 people. More like 120 people were there. Armed with their homebrews, and fresh imperial stouts pouring from Sleeping lady Brewery, we had a good old drunken night.
Getting a little Double Wit Bier from the tanks at Sleeping Lady. Dennis Sessler, President of the Great Northern Homebrewers Club kicking things off with Dr. Fermento ("Dr. Fermento is the alter ego of Anchorage Press and The Celebrator Beer News beer columnist James Roberts.")
What are those two weirdos doing? Jason and Todd Alström.
That was our downfall right there. Jason and his multiple trips to get the Sleeping Lady Imperial Stout and Smoked Porter from Alaskan Brewing Co. The homemade meads certainly contributed a fair amount to our downfall as well.
Jamie Floyd from Ninkasi Brewing Co. in Eugene, Oregon with his geek tattoo of a D&D dice. You had to be there and hear Jason's reaction when Jamie mentioned his geek passion for D&D.
Uh oh. Here comes trouble. I am just kidding that is Barb Miller of Midnight Sun. She is the main reason we came to Alaska in the first place.
People were getting down to Tom Dalldorf's band the Rolling Boil Blues Band. The older gentleman in the picture was having himself a good old time. He was fun to watch.
There were a lot of homemade meads being tasted out and many homebrews being passed around. All I can say is that it is probably good for everyone including myself that I didn't take anymore pictures after this point. Alaskans throw down. We'll just leave it at that.
Here are a few pictures of the judging for the first round of the Barleywine Competition and the Winter Seasonal category.
Day one, first round Barleywines and Winter Seasonals.
Second day, round two, two tables one for Winter Seasonals and one for Barleywines.
The winner for Winter Seasonals: Glacier Brewhouse, Eisbock
The Winners for the Barleywine: 1st Place Lagunitas, Gnarleywine
2nd Place Midnight Sun, Arctic Devil
3rd Place Pizza Port, Blonde Bombshell Barleywine.
I did not take pictures of the festival itself for the two sessions I attended. It was quite a good time. A bit too crowded (much more room in the connoisseur session) and a bit too much puke on the sidewalks after the fact. But still a good a time. As I said, Alaskans like big, full beers. These people like to get crunked. It's my kind of town.
I also didn't get pictures of the incredible sushi we had at Sushi & Sushi or the tasting of all 18 beers at Moose's Tooth Pizza. That was certainly a good moment. Enjoying 18 different beers with Thai pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, and a McKinley meat pizza. That was heaven.
We ended our 5 day excursion back at Midnight Sun for a relaxing afternoon that spanned into the evening. We drank Good Mojo, Specialty XXX, more Gluttony, and Earth. We drank awesome beers, had good food, and said good-bye to our new found friends of Alaska.
I didn't get pictures with some of my new good friends in Alaska. Julie and Tim McDonald, Billy Opinsky (Humpy's, Sub Zero), Dena and Dennis Sessler, Ken and Shauna Pajak (Cafe Amsterdam), Barb, Mark, Ben, Gabe, Jeremiah, Gary, and Seth (Midnight Sun). All of these people made our trip to Alaska fantastic. The Generosity, the laid back and cool attitudes, the welcoming nature into their worlds. I have said it over and over again, I will forever be grateful for their tremendous hospitality.
Edit: I don't want to forget what a gem Tom Dalldorf is and what a terrific sense of humor he has. I knew we would get along good when he brought up the idea of prank calling Lisa Morrison!
This is my second ever published article. A full feature for the #35 issue of the BeerAdvocate Magazine. The topic is snobbery in the craft beer community with a closing word by Max Toste of Deep Ellum in Allston, Ma.
This has been long overdue for a write up. Thankfully I took mad notes during this dinner that even though it's a little over a month after the fact, I still feel like I just came back from this dinner.
It's taken me a little over a month to get this written for a couple of reasons. This beer dinner took place the week of our Belgian Beer Festival. So during the week I had zero time to sit down and write this out. The next week I was off to Las Vegas to celebrate my 30th Birthday. And right after that I was right back out to the west coast to San Francisco for the FoodBuzz Blogger Festival.
Now that I have settled down a bit, I can give this post it's proper dues.
Why was this beer dinner called Gallia Belgica (Gal-ee-ah Bel-gee-ka)?
I had a brave idea to ask one of our favorite restaurants Eastern Standard, to a beer dinner. Word on the street was, it would never happen. But I couldn't imagine why they wouldn't. They feature good beers for a high end restaurant. A slow moving trend for fine dinning is to serve good craft beer. Not only does Eastern Standard serve good beer, but also make mind blowing beer cocktails. Yes actual cocktails with beer as the base and high end bitters and liquors to enhance them. You have to be there to see it and try it.
I ran into a former waiter from Eastern Standard who overheard me talking about this grand plan for a dinner at Eastern Standard. I asked him if it could be done since there hadn't been beer dinner there before. He said "Yes Garrett will do it.... But only if the concept is so HOT." Oh great. The only super awesome concept I had come up with recently was for The American Psycho beer dinner. Yes, based on the movie. "It's a laugh riot." And totally would be a "laugh riot" with all the ideas we came up with for it. But I knew I couldn't bring the "laugh riot" to one of the hottest restaurants in Boston and expect this to fly. And then relaxed knowing that the Belgian Beer Fest was soon upon us and all the amazing brewers that would be in town to woo ES with.
When I approached Garrett Harker and Jackson Cannon of Eastern Standard (the owner and bar manager extraordinaire) to do a beer dinner with BeerAdvocate.com, I needed to make sure I had a good strong concept for the dinner. I almost always do a themed beer dinner or have a main concept that the dinner is following. Since we were going to have a big collection of brewers in town for the BBF, I decided a Belgian theme would be perfect. I did not however, want to do a traditional Belgian beer dinner. No Belgian waffles, or Moules et frites. I know how good they are, but it's so typical that the last thing I wanted for the first beer dinner Eastern Standard has ever had, was to be typical.
Garrett said yes and showed us a new private dining room they had acquired for the restaurant capable of seating up to 75 people. Perfect timing for us.
I came across the name Gallia Belgica while searching for traditional Belgian food. Looking for anything not mussels and waffles. I found a Wikipedia page talking about old Roman history and provinces. A quick passage from Wikipedia:
Gallia Belgica (sometimes given as Belgica Prima[1]) was a Roman province located in what is now the southern part of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northeastern France, and western Germany. The indigenous population of southern Gallia Belgica consisted of a mixture of Celtic and Germanic tribes, often described as the Belgae as well. According to Julius Caesar, the border between Gallia and Belgica was formed by the Marne and the Seine[2] and that with Germania by the Rhine[3] The area is the historical heart of the Low Countries, a region corresponding roughly to the current Benelux group of states, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg as well as the French Flanders and some part of the Rhineland.
I loved the name and thought it sounded cool for this kind of format. It also freed us from rigid borders. We could go an old, rustic route with the food and and add some modern twists. This concept is exactly reflected in our menu for this dinner.
As for the beers, well that was easy. I immediately called Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey after Garrett said yes to the dinner. Then I called Patrick Rue from the Bruery, Will Meyers of Cambridge Brewing Company, Rob Tod of Allagash, Duvel, and Dann Paquette of Pretty Things.
Picking Dann Paquette was an easy choice but I had to go back in and meet with Jackson and Garrett to discuss the beers and we had everyone on board but were still down one beer. Garrett had told me to run with the beer, and I had to call people ASAP to make sure they hadn't booked other dinners for the BBF. When I told the guys that we would have two locals, with Will and Rob Tod, and two well respected Cali brewers who specialize in Belgian beers, plus Duvel we had a well shaped dinner a head of us. But then I said I wanted to talk about bringing in a good friend of mine (Dann) who just came out with a new beer project called Pretty Things. Jackson immediately said "yes!" It was exactly what he was thinking and hoping we could bring to the table. I was very happy and exited that Dann's beers would be part of the dinner. The other brewers are some heavyweights in the industry and Dann deserved some credit for his long standing history. And for how amazing in such a short period of time his new beer project has received good word and accolades all over Boston and the New England area. Now we were ready to go.
Jackson and I hand picked the beers for the dinner. We carefully made sure that each beer was different in style from one and other but was a good representation of classic Belgian styles.
Duvel, Brouwerji Duvel Moortgat (Belgian Strong Pale) Baby Tree, Pretty Things (Belgian Style Quad) Curieux, Allagash (Bourbon Barrel-aged Tripel) Sgt. Pepper, Cambridge Brewing Co. (Saison/ Farmhouse Ale) Red Poppy, Lost Abbey (Flanders Oud Bruin) Barrel-Aged Autumn Maple, The Bruery (Belgian Strong Dark Ale)
*Click on images to enlarge.
Opening Reception:
Duvel with passed appetizers of smoked trout and fried Island Creek oysters.
Perfect bite size appetizers that worked really well with the Duvel. The light sweet taste, the sweet steel-y malts of the beer work well with fish and other sea food. The crisp, cold carbonation cut through the oils of the fried oysters, and the oils in the trout to let the sweet malts and hops play with the flavors of the oyster and trout.
At our tables, Duvel presented with Duvel bottle openers.
A quick look at the menu.
First Course:
Jackson Cannon opened the dinner and welcomed out guests and brewers to the event. Then introduced Dann and Martha Paquette of Pretty Things.
Olive oil poached Arctic Char with Alyson's Apples and Curry Purée paired with Pretty Things Baby Tree.
Jackson enjoying the Baby Tree.
This was a delicate pairing. The beer is a 8.7% abv Belgian style Quad made with dried plums. It's very fresh tasting and crisp for a quad. Most Belgian Quad's are big, alcoholic, and cloying on the palate with big malts. This beer does none of those things. It's one of the most enjoyable quads out there. The plums or prunes are present in the beer to add nice flavor without overpowering and making the beer a fruit beer.
It worked well with the pairing despite being a big quad with a fish pairing. However, it was a bit borderline. The beer was almost too big. But with this pairing, the apples, trout, and the curry purée all needed to be on the fork in one bite. You needed all the flavors to pull this pairing together. The only qualm was that there wasn't enough curry purée on the plate. As someone who isn't a fan of curry, this is one variation of it that I could handle. It was very delicate and light.
Second Course:
Berkshire Pork and Lamb Terrine paired with Allagash Curieux.
The terrine was served with pickled onions, whole grain mustard and sliced of a French baguette. Allagash Curieux is a 11% abv Bourbon Barrel-Aged Tripel.
This was an excellent contrast pairing. The beer is soft around the edges from being aged in Jim Beam bourbon barrels. It has big wood notes on the nose and heavy vanilla. The pickled onions on the plate added a brillaint sharp contrast to the beer. This helped keep the beer at bay from dominating the palate with all the bourbon and vanilla flavors. The salty meats and tartness from the mustard also had this same effect of contrasting with the beer allowing all individual flavors to present themselves.
Third Course:
Hudson Valley Foie Gras Stuffed Vermont Rabbit paired with Cambridge Brewing Company's Sgt. Pepper.
Jackson introducing Will Meyers, Brewmaster of Cambridge Brewing Co.
Hudson Valley Foie Gras stuffed Vermont rabbit with wild mushroom ragout and sparrow arc potatoes paired with Sgt. Pepper. A 6% abv Saison-Style farmhouse ale with peppercorns.
Sgt. Pepper is quite a unique beer. I have had some beers made with pepper and it can be good or it can be bad. Pepper is hard to get right in beer because it has a tendency to completely overwhelm the beer and all other flavors it may have. This was not the case with the beer. The pepper was upfront in the nose and definitely present in as the first thing you taste, but not dominating. It has four different peppercorns in it. Pink, white, green, and black. It had a little bit of a heat kick to it from the peppercorns. It was lightly sweet an delicate underneath the peppercorns.
The rabbit was fantastic. To me this was one of the best pairings of the night. The salty meat and rich fatty foie gras was amazing. The meat was nice and soft. It was as though Sgt. Pepper was made for the meal. Instead adding pepper to season your food, the beer did that for you. The rabbit helped enunciate the sweet characters the beer had. The rich mushrooms and potatoes was more like a stew adding more depth for the plate. There was a lot of flavor going on for this course but mainly it was the game flavors of the rabbit highlighting he sweet flavors of the beer and being rounded out by the big pepper taste. Wonderful pairing!
Fourth Course:
Smoked Venison Saddle paired with Lost Abbey Red Poppy.
Jackson handing the room over to Tomme Arthur, Brewmaster of Lost Abbey.
When we first approached Eastern Standard with doing this beer dinner, I immediately went outside of the restaurant to call Tomme and ask him if he would be apart of the dinner. I had one thing on my mind, Red Poppy! I am not a huge fan of sour beers, but between Supplication from Russian River and Red Poppy from Lost Abbey, they are total conversion beers.
Smoked Venison Saddle with mustard spaetzel and winter greens paired with Red Poppy, a 5.5% Flanders Oud Bruin, a sour brown ale aged in barrels.
The venison was gorgeously smoked. The aroma dominated the table. Big smoke flavor and game taste from the venison. Nice and juicy portions of meat. The greens were earthy and vaguely tasted like beets. Their salty, buttery taste worked well with the beer. Again contrasting with the beer to bring out it's sweetness.
The beer had a big red cherry nose, and sour aroma. The metallic flavors of the meat allowed those big cherry notes to pop rather than subdue them. Soft wood flavors on the beer also help round out a sweet flavor on the beer. The sour character was very palate cleansing instead of cloying. Even for a sour brown ale, that's quite unique.
Another winning course, but very filling. This course nearly sent me over the edge and we still had dessert on the way
Fifth Course:
Pan Perdue paired with Barrel-Aged Autumn Maple.
That's my homie Patrick Rue, Brewmaster of The Bruery. He is fairly new to the world of brewing, but he has already made such a tremendous impact by way of American-Style Belgian beers.
French toast with pears and cinnamon-maple cream paired with Barrel-Aged Autumn Maple. A 10% abv fall seasonal brewed with yams, maple, autumnal spices.
Barrel-Aged Autumn Maple was brought out specially for this event. The only place you can regularly have this beer is at the brewery itself in California. The regular Autumn Maple is bottled and distributed during the time of it's release.
So we had a small emergency for this pairing. Initially it was going to be a waffle course. But 75 waffles without 75 waffle irons is a bit tricky. I am glad that it never happened that way either. Part of the reason for this dinner and it's name was for it not to be typical and what we know of today as traditional Belgian cuisine. Though no one probably would have cared if we did serve waffles, I am still glad it didn't end up being Belgian waffles.
The dessert sounds fairly delicate for this big 10% monster beer. This dessert was like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Look's pretty, and delicate, but wound up holding it's own next to this big beer.
The beer was aged for one year in rye barrels. The yams gave off big sweet, buttery and baked yam flavors including a burnt sugar taste. Big vanilla flavors giving a butterscotch like taste. The bread and pears acted like a cleanser for the palate leaving the cinnamon and maple to play with the maple and vanilla flavors of the beer, but wasn't overkill on those specific flavors. Warming esters from the beer were balanced by the cool whipped cream. This dessert and beer worked extremely well together.
Simple and delicious and the perfect way to end the meal. After that venison course, if we have presented a big chocolate dessert or anything like that, we would have all needed dolly's to wheel us out of the place.
For my first beer dinner with Eastern Standard, they really did an amazing job. Anyone who has been to Eastern Standard, knew that they would nail it. Garrett and Jackson get huge praise for my demanding emails, and anxious nature in making sure we were all on the same page. Though I slightly blame Garrett for putting the fear of god into me and making sure I could sell out their new 75 seat private dining room. As if that would be hard with their reputation.
Executive Chef Jeremy Sewall.
Garrett Harker.
Tomme Arthur, Will Meyers, Dann Paquette, Patrick Rue, and Rob Tod.
For a while now I have been hanging out at Green Street with the owner and good personal friend, Dylan Black. It's become our local go to place with amazing food and drinks.
Dylan opened Green Street around three and half years ago and has transformed it from the Caribbean themed menu and sometimes salsa dancing, to a slow food movement restaurant. They have a short and sweet seasonal menu, a tight bottled beer list and good rotating draft list with a possible addition of 3 more taps, an amazing wine list with the price range between $32 and $58 dollars (no wallet busting offerings), and last but not least cocktails galore. The cocktail list is on a multi-page menu listed from A-Z. With cocktails being all the rage these days, Green Street has a strong footing in the Boston market for mixed drinks.
But this isn't about the cocktails, this is about the beer. Dylan would ask us from time to time, "What's hot right now for beer, and what would be a good fit for my restaurant?" After taking a few of our suggestions and having them work out well with Green Flash and Sixpoint, we decided the next step was to host a beer dinner at Green Street. Dylan Black has an amazing excitement and enthusiasm for learning about craft beers and working them in his restaurant.
After the American Craft Beer Festival we threw in June, I got to catch up with Eric VanZile the rep. for Ithaca Beer Co., I was reflecting on a great beer dinner they had at Cambridge Common which I was present for a few years ago. Eric had mentioned to me that that was the last time they had a beer dinner in the Boston area.
Perfect timing to welcome Ithaca back to the area and get Green Street's legs wet a bit with beer dinners. After playing around with a few concepts, this is what we came up with.
Chef Greg Reeves created the menu, while Dylan and myself hand selected the beers. A few special offerings thrown in by Jeff O'Neil "The Chief" and Brewmaster of Ithaca Beer Co.
Welcome to BeerAdvocate on Green Street Featuring Ithaca Beer Co. Some beer descriptions are via BeerAdvocate.com.
We welcomed everyone with a nice house made charcuterie set up with cornichons and pickled onions, fresh breads and butter and paired the welcoming course with Outdoor Harvest Ale. A pale ale that is about 5.9 to 6% abv.
The Outdoor Harvest ale was a bit cloudy and hazy, but had a nice fruity nose. It was lightly sweet, with big honey notes. The beer was also made with locally grown hops around Ithaca, New York. It complimented the charcuterie plate with the steel-y tastes from the meats. Salty notes mingling with sweet, honey notes from the beer. The pickled veg added a nice little pop of tart vinegar that the sweet malts immediately reacted to it and gave a nice little contrast at the right amount.
Definitely a great way to kick things off. Meat and beer.
[Eric VanZile tapping the cask of Flower Power IPA.]
Our second course was a passed course Tartare of Beef with capers and cornichons paired with Ithaca's Flower Power IPA on cask. An American IPA with a fairly robust hop character and 8% abv. This was one of the special offerings brought up by Jeff O'Neil. More amazing was that this cask got to us about 15 minutes before the doors opened up all the way from Ithaca, and had zero cloudiness or sediments floating around.
To me this was the most underrated pairing of the evening. Pairing food with hops can be a tricky business. Usually hoppy beers get paired with hot, spicy foods. It was definitely nice to see this paired with beef tartare. There were a little bit of pickled onions on these as well which added that same effect of a pop of tartness. The tartare was set in a gougère, a light and airy cheese puff. Together the beef and tangy capers allowed the malts of the beer to come through. The cheese gougère gave way for some of the spiciness from the hops to come out. As well as the steel-y, iron taste from the rare tartare played around with the hops like sweet malts do with hops. Good balance all around. This was what I called in my notes a "More and more" pairing because I wanted more and more. This was a near perfect pairing and again totally underrated as it was a small, amuse bouche and the cask was getting all the attention.
A slight snob moment for me is that I generally do not prefer hoppy beers on cask. I feel that the bitterness gets completely toned down and in some cases flattened or watered down. That didn't happen with this cask, but the hops were toned down a slight bit. The carbonation held up but was not as effervescent as it normally is on bottle or draft. Usually with casks they are meant to be served at around 50 degrees. At that temperature hops and malts are already opened up for you. This is an effect I do not like with hops on cask. I prefer my hoppy beers to be super cold to watch them open and blossom in my own hands. This cask was certainly cold enough, and hoppy enough, but in my perfect world no hoppy beers would ever be put on cask. Let me rephrase that, no Americanized version of hoppy or super hoppy beers would ever be put on cask. Ice cold draft and bottles only.
For the beer geeks who live and die for cask however, this was a real treat. And despite my thoughts on hoppy beers on cask, I actually did find the beer quite enjoyable. Flower Power has changed over the years. It wasn't always as hoppy or refreshing. Recently they upped the ante with this beer and kicked up the hops. It's a borderline IPA. Borderline by almost being a double IPA and having an 8% abv. My kind of IPA.
And we continue on with a second passed course.
Island Creek Oysters Rockefeller with creamed spinach and caraway bread crumbs paired with Gorges Smoked Porter. An American porter, 6.30% abv.
Porters and oysters are a no-brainer pairing for a lot of people into beer and food pairings. It's the salty, sea taste oysters have coupled with the robust flavors of toasted or smoked malts. It's also typically light enough to be paired with sea food offerings. But the rich flavors of the oysters and beer tend to work marvelously together.
In this case, the wonderful smoked flavors worked well the the caraway rye seeds from the bread crumbs giving off a slight anise flavor. Gorges is also light enough to be a session beer despite its huge smoked flavors. It's a misconception beer by its aroma and color. Looks heavy and smells heavy, but drinks fairly easily. Which is why it works well with something like oysters. Oysers with their big sea flavor, but light and meaty texture. Both the beer and oysters are a bit of a paradox, but in a good way. These particular oysters were extremely fresh and meaty. Island Creek happens to be one of the best names in the Boston area for amazing oysters.
Also the folks of Island Creek were in attendance and were very happy with the pairing. Nothing better than making the producers happy.
This was arguably the best course of the night. A wild mushroom and bone marrow bread pudding with a sherry, foie gras emulsification paired with the Excelsior Brute. An American wild/ sour ale made withvintage (aged) local hops, barley, wheat, corn, aged in oak with Brett and finished with three types of champagne yeast. 6.5% abv.
The bread pudding was a little more cake-y than pudding like but that didn't matter based on it's taste. It was super rich and had a good texture. Kind of like a cake-y corn bread but rich, buttery, and good herb flavor to it. The bone marrow added a unique depth to it with big flavor but wasn't the overall flavor of the bread pudding. The wild mushrooms were set on top. The sherry, foie gras emulsification was the most rich and decadent sauce I have ever had. It was delicious, fatty, and rich. Just perfect. The Brute was a sour with champagne yeast that gave it a good carbonation that helped cut right through the rich fats. This was a perfect pairing. The wheat and corn flavors could actually be tasted without the sour dominating the palate as the sour and carbonation worked on the fats. This allowed the sweet sherry flavors to come out and allowed the rich grains in the beer to come out. The hops were a vintage or aged hop varietal locally grown in Ithaca but we're lightly present in the beer. The frisee added a nice tough of freshness and a touch of a crunchy texture. Added a little bitterness and earthiness to over all rich pairing. Helped add some balance to the dish.
For me this was a brett beer I could deal with. Brettanomyces beers usually do not sit well with me. Brett also has the propensity to be the dominate flavor in most beers it's in. With this beer, the brett was present, but was delicate enough to allow the other flavors to come out. Normally that is not the case. this is a sign of a good brewer. One who can balance the right amount.
And our last course served family style. Suckling pig porchetta with honey crisp apples, horseradish, and alyssa craig onions paired with Excelsior Eleven. A sweet, milk/lacto stout brewed with British, German, and French malts, American hops, and milk
sugar, then aged for weeks on locally roasted Sumatra coffee beans. 7.5% abv.
Pay attention to that last bit. This is a beer aged on coffee beans not brewed coffee in it. Interesting twist.
Porchetta is a traditional Italian style way of serving pork. Here is a quick description from Wikipedia that pretty much says it all.
Porchetta /por'ket:a/ is a savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast Italian culinary tradition. The body of the pig is gutted, deboned, arranged
carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled,
spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood. Porchetta is usually
heavily salted in addition to being stuffed with garlic, rosemary, fennel, or other herbs, often wild. Porchetta has been selected by the Italian Ministero delle Politiche Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali as a "prodotto agroalimentare tradizinale" ("traditional agricultural-alimentary product", one of a list of traditional Italian foods held to have cultural relevance).
This was stuffed with a sausage made from the pig, stuffed, rolled with the tenderloin, covered in the pork fat, and roasted. Then smothered with the apple, onion, and horseradish sauce.
[The only shot of the beer I got for this course. I didn't realize that until I began to blog. The beer was served in a small snifter glass, and had a deep chocolate color.]
The meat was perfectly cooked. Nice and moist and the flavors of the onions, horseradish, and apples were perfect for the pork. The horseradish was a great addition as it gave a good pop to the already sweet apples and onions. This was a contrasting course with the coffee milk stout. The coffee flavors were bold and robust, and worked well with the apples and onions. The lactobacillus in the beer added a nice tangy touch to the beer which helped out with the fat on the pork. The beer itself was sweet and malty, with fruits and a dry finish. Dylan said it was like a burgundy wine with all the notes and flavors coming off of it. The dry finish seems to be a signature on a lot of Ithaca's beers. Nothing they make is cloying or lingers on the palate in an unpleasant way.
This was the course I thought the Brute would work best with. I had enough of the Brute left to try both the Eleven and the Brute together and the Brute was way off. The pork made the Brute soapy and gave it a weird creamy texture. I thought the Brute would work based on the apples, but it was the fat, that ruined them from being perfect. So despite the strange elements of coffee notes, Eleven ended up the much better pairing. Again a contrasting pairing with a lot of flavor coming at you. But with such large portions you had enough time to figure it out and let it sink in.
And last but not least a small bite of the tres leche cake for Jason Alström as he was in the house and celebrated his birthday a few days early with us.
And later that night The Chief brought one of my favorites that I was really torn about using, Excelsior White Gold and Old Habit. You don't need me to describe the beers, as you can see the description clearly on the bottles.
For Green Street's first beer dinner, they really nailed it. The flavors of the food really complimented the beers. There were no wrong pairings or "close we'll let this one slide" pairings. At least according to me. And despite being the one who set this event up, I tend to be more critical of my own events. And not being the chef for the event, I can be more objective about it. All of the courses worked, and the food was incredible.
I was extremely grateful to Eric VanZile and Jeff O'Neil for making the huge trek out and then back to NY again. Eric was off to Philly after this event. Jeff brought some nice treats for us including the Cask Flower Power, White Gold, and Old Habit.
I will look forward to working with Dylan Black and Greg Reeves again for another beer dinner.
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