As soon as I heard about this dinner, I had to sign up for it. This dinner was a pretty special occasion. Not only was it the very first day of our GABF experience but the breweries in attendance included Avery, Russian River, Port Brewing, Allagash and Dogfish Head; represented by Adam Avery, Vinnie Cilurzo, Tomme Arthur, Rob Tod and Sam Caligione respectively. This is pretty much the same line up from 5 Guys and a Barrel beer and food dinner hosted by the Beer Chef, Bruce Paton. I had missed that event because, at $95, I thought it was too expensive. Now, here in Boulder, I am at a very similar dinner spending even $5/person more that if I had attended the dinner in San Francisco.
Talk about brewing royalty. Known also as the Brett Pack through their use of brettanomyces in their beers, these five guys have helped to push the envelope of the American craft brewing scene. Their connection to each other was forged in an overseas trip together to the great beer countries of Europe. There, they learned directly from the masters themselves. They brought back what they learned and adopted it to their own ways while putting a distinctly American spin on the whole thing. This night, I was thankful to have had the opportunity to sample some of their work.
I had posted the tentative menu before I left. You’ll notice that my notes will be food-centric. Unless it was a beer I haven’t tried in the past, I didn’t review the beers. Here is the full menu from the Kitchen with my notes following:
1st Course
Beer: Russian River Supplication & Lost Abbey Devotion
Food: Foie Gras Terrine – roasted elephant heart plums & toast; Pan Seared Foie Gras – powdered honey, herb salad
Notes: Terrine seems to be a whipped foie gras on a tiny piece of toast with artfully applied drips of plum sauce. The pan seared foie gras was served with a few sprigs of herbs that served as the salad. Despite the distinctly French-sized portions of the food, the flavors were amazing. The terrine just melted in your mouth with such a light and creamy texture while the plum sauce served as a sharp and tart counterpoint. This went very well with the tart Russian River’s Supplication. The pan seared foie gras was absolutely amazing. It’s difficult to describe. There’s a slight liver flavor that is immediately overwhelmed by the caramelized flavors of the foie gras. There’s a complex, layered nuace to the flavor of foie gras that renders it almost indescribable, especially when cooked correctly. It’s something to definitely experience. Lost Abbey’s Devotion paired better with this beer.
2nd Course
Beer: Avery Bad Salley & Allagash White
Food: Coriander Crusted Scallop – carrot risotto & pomegranate
Notes: I must bring up before hand that all the food was served with French-sized portions. It’s another way of saying the portions were small. The normal American would be in an uproar if served these style portions regularly but when your meal is soo full of flavor, you don’t need as much to get your point across. This dinner is a dieter’s worst nightmare. Anyway, sitting on a bed of risotto was a lone, yet large, scallop. Its true color was still visible from the sides but both the top and bottom had changed color from a light amber to an almost stout like color; a result of the caramelization process. As good as I though the first course was, this was even better. The scallop was cooked to perfection; all the way though yet tender. The caramelization gave the scallop a sweet flavor not unlike candied sugar and butter. The risotto was equally impressive with a full-flavored mix of slight acidity and spicy heat. From this moment forward, Sammy and I realized that one beer seemed to pair better with the dish over the other. In this course, Allagash White fit the bill best.
3rd Course
Beer: Russian River Temptation & Dogfish Head Sahtea
Food: Colorado Rabbit – prosciutto, squash ravioli & bean ragout
Notes: I had my rabbit “cherry” popped tonight. Never before had I tried rabbit. I always saw rabbit being eaten on TV a few times and have wondered what it tastes like. Now I know. In this particular case, Colorado rabbit tastes like a cross between pork and chicken. This white meat has a crisp texture on the outside reminding me of pork while the moist, white meat inside tastes like chicken. The ravioli was also very good displaying both sweet and buttery flavors. This paragraph may not be as long as the previous two but this dish is by no means any less good. As a “closet” foodie, this meal is hitting me in all the right places: the tongue and the gut.
This dish paired better with the Dogfish Head Sahtea. Sahtea made it’s debut at this dinner. In the tradition of Chateau Jiahu and Midas Touch, Sahtea is based off a 9th century Finnish recipe that included rye, barley and juniper. Other spices included lemon grass, cumin and corriander. Hopefully Sam wasn’t yanking my chain but he said they tried to make this beer as “traditionally” as possible by using fireheated rocks dumped into the wort to bring it to a boil. WTF?! Serious brewing chops. This beer was sweet, yeasty and spicy. Wish I had taken better notes on the flavor.
Additionally, Vinnie was talking about how he has come full circle. He comes from a wine making family but decided to be the “black sheep” and brew beer. Now that he’s brewing beers, he’s come back to his wine making origins by aging his beers in used wine barrels. Interestingly, he just doesn’t pick any old available wine barrel. Vinnie will match his beers with a similar wine style. For example, batch #3 of his Temptation is a blonde ale aged in a French Oak barrel that was used to age Chardonnay before. Lighter beer, lighter wine.
4th Course
Beer: Isabelle Proximus & Allagash Interlude
Food: Wood Roasted Venison Chops – celeriac puree & brussels
Notes: I must’ve been well on my way to getting drunk because my notes on this course are sketchy at best. The venison tasted like lamb but was slightly more gamey. The texture was surprisingly tender, yet chewy. It went well with the puree, which I mistook for creamed or mashed potatoes. Maybe that’s what celeriac is, not sure. The puree was very tasty as well and provided a good contrast of flavor against the venison with a creamy, yet starchy flavor. I killed everything off my plate though. The real star of this course was her majesty Isabelle Proximus. Isabelle (yes, me and the beer are on a first name basis) pours a hazy gold color with a white head. Noticeable tartness in the aroma with a spicy, phenolic, Belgian yeast character. This beer is mouthpuckeringly tart upfront with brettanomyces character in the finish. Little to no hops or malt. As good as this beer was, the backstory is better. Isabelle Proximus is the result of the Brett Pack’s trip to Belgium, and Europe by extension. Once they all got back stateside, they met up again at Port Brewing (aka Lost Abbey) to brew this beer. As Tomme Arthur tells the story, some strippers were involved but because they left it up to accounting to find the strippers, they weren’t… of the greatest quality.
At this point, everyone in the place has has a fairly good amount of alcohol and we are all pretty much talking freely with each other. Vinnie, Sam, Tomme, Rod and Adam are all busting each other’s nuts and little stories are coming out here in there in an attempt to “one-up” each other. You could tell by the way they banter with each other that despite the distance between each of their respective breweries, these five guys are really good friends. There’s a comraderie and comfortability between them that only good and close friends have. If I were to quickly give each brewer attributes, Vinnie would be the mellow, even keel one. Sam would be the “loud” one, while Adam would be the “ladies man”. Tomme looked like the “enforcer” and Rob was the “quiet” one. Like I said, very quick and completely unfounded attributes. Still, can you imagine if they were all type-A alpha males? In a way, I guess they are but there’s enough difference in their personalities that allows them to co-exist.
5th Course
Beer: Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA & Avery Mephistopheles Stout
Food: Mission Fig Tartlet – dulce de leche & mascarpone ice cream
Notes: I am not a huge fan of desserts but I killed this one too. What I enjoyed abut the fig tartlet was that it was pretty well balanced. It wasn’t overly sweet and even then, a lot of the sweetness came directly from the fruit itself. The marscarpone is sweet, light and creamy. The chocolate is bittersweet. Avery’s Mephistopheles pours an opaque black, like motor oil. It is thick and viscous with a brown head. Rich and complex roasty, coffee and toffee malt aromas. At 16% ABV (seriously, WTF?!) the alcohol is easily noticed. Just like the aroma, the flavors feature roasted malt flavors with coffee and toffee notes. Wow. The Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA is just as big, bold as Mephistopheles. 120 Minute IPA is the world’s strongest IPA clocking in at 17.8% ABV (huuuuuuuge by beer standards, fairly big and robust by wine standards as well. Holy crap, what am I getting into?). 120 pours a caramel color with an off-white head and amber highlights. Woodsy, earthy hop notes. I’m even picking up chocolate notes… in an IPA? Wow. How… uncharacteristic yet inviting. You’d have to be a raging alcoholic not to have noticed the alcohol in this beer’s aroma. 120 Minute IPA is sweet upfront with slight bittersweet chocolate notes. Despite the IPA designation, the hop bitterness is surprisingly mild but present throughout the beer in all phases. 120 Minute IPA paired the best with the dessert.
As a very pleasant surprise, I got to meet a James and Andy from the Basic Brewing Radio pod/video cast. I have been listening to them for as long as I’ve owned an iPod. I had ceased homebrewing for a number of years and decided to pick it back up after listening to their podcast. Whether or not I realized it, Basic Brewing Radio has been influencing my brewing practices as of late. It was because of them that I started having an interest in meads. It was also because of them that I started to grow hops in my backyard. James does a very good job covering the many topics that arise from homebrewing that I decided not to cover it too much here on BetterBeerBlog. I could go on about how cool they are, how cool and informative their website is but I don’t want to seem like one of those girls I knew in the 8th grade who couldn’t stop gushing about NKOTB. So I’ll stop. Just subscribe to their podcast and find out for yourselves.
Lastly, I’d just like to say that overall, this was an excellent event. Ray Decker, the owner of the Kitchen, did an awesome job putting this even together and keeping things running smoothly. He was a pleasure to chat with via email and even more so in person.
In today’s recession (it’s a recession whether or not you believe it), $100/person is a steep price to pay to attend a beer dinner. It’s not like Sammy and I are made of money, we do have to budget to adhere to every month to get by, especially living in California. But, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash. Sign. Me. Up. Totally worth the price of admission. Yet, if you break it all down, you’re actually saving money. Each of the beers we had tonight could easily sell for at least $5 each. In some instances, big beers like Mephistopheles and 120 Minute IPA could easily sell for $8-9. You could make a similar case for rare beers such as Sahtea and Isabelle Proximus. At the very least, it would be $50 just for the beers but probably more. Then if you factor in the cost of the food, a 5-course meal at the Kitchen would easily run you upwards of $75/person. That’s a savings of $25/person, $50 combined. That’s not too shabby considering the quality of things.
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