BetterBeerBlog

Maybe it’s because I follow the craft beer industry but it seems like beer dinners are popping up all over the place nowadays. Is this the year beer & food dinners go “mainstream” or will they continue to be a niche event where the industry continues to “preach to the choir”? This week on Hopinions, Mario and I discuss what makes for a good, dare I even say “great”, beer & food pairing dinner. As always feel free to add your own two cents to the conversation in the comments section after the post.

From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog

In the culinary world, a Michelin star is a big deal. Despite some controvery regarding the rating system, it’s a huge feather to be stuck in one’s cap and is an accomplishment to be genuinely proud of. It’s something to be said when the tiny South Bay town of Los Gatos sports two Michelin star rated restaurants. One of which, Trevese, will be pairing up with Devils Canyon Brewing Company to put on a Brewer’s Dinner and Beer Pairing event.

Beer & Food pairing events are not a new phenomena for either of us but they seem to be finally catching on in the mainstream. Here in the Bay Area we have a pair of chefs who are veterans in the Beer & Food pairing arena: the Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton and the Beer Chef Bruce Paton. Dinners from Bruce Paton will command upwards of $100 while Sean Paxton’s Belgian Beer Dinner at the Toronado sold seats for $150. The event at Trevese next week is $100 per person. On the other side of the spectrum, BJs hosted a Belgian Beer Dinner for $30 a head.

Sammy and I have attended many Beer & Food Pairing Events that range in price from $30 - $100/person. While we’ve yet to be disappointed by any of the dinners we’ve attended, we marvel at the range of prices from one event to another. Hell, we’ve even hosted a couple of our own priced at the lower range of the spectrum. Since you seem to have an aversion to spending a lot of money on beer, my question to you is, what makes for a great Beer & Food dinner? What is the criteria for dishing out $100 as opposed to $30? Is it the beer? The food? The ambiance? Are you looking at quality or quantity? If you saw the price tag of $100/person for a Wine & Food Pairing Event, would you even be surprised? If not, why the discrepancy between beer and wine? Lots of questions to start off.

From: Mario at Brewed For Thought

I don’t think it’s fair to say I have an aversion to spending a lot of money on beer.  We disagreed on the value of a particular bottle of beer.  I’m willing to spend money, and have, on special beers. I just won’t be spending money on that specific beer.

As far as what makes the difference between a $30 and $100 dinner, I think it should be the quality of the meal and beverages served. From what I gathered, the BJ’s dinners featured standard BJ’s menu items along with beers taken from their regular Belgian beer offerings.  As nothing was offered that would be out of the ordinary, I wouldn’t expect to pay a premium just because it is a paired dinner.  This isn’t implying that the dinner was bad by any means.

When Sean and Bruce prepare a dinner, they usually use rare beer in their pairings and cook with it as well.  They also use the finest ingredients in their meals. To compare this to a wine paired dinner, look at some of the tasting menus at the better restaurants in the Bay Area.  It’s not uncommon to see $100 per person rates and $130-$150 when you add in the wine pairings. If you want to eat at French Laundry (assuming you can get a table), don’t even ask for the price, because if you have to ask, it’s too expensive.

Personally, when picking a beer paired dinner, it has to be appropriate for the occasion.  While I would love the ability for my wife and I to spend $200 or more on a meal once a month, I just don’t have that kind of money.  I also don’t have a wife as enamored with beer as you do, so it makes for a harder sell.  Dinners of that sort in the Rubio household are usually reserved for anniversaries and birthdays, and sometimes, indulging my beer-tooth might not be the best idea.

I’m not really sure there is a discrepancy between beer and wine paired dinners at this point.  Each are aimed at a conossieur market.  Those that might think a $150 beer dinner to be too expensive would probably scoff at the idea of a wine dinner of the same price.

I guess the questions should be bounced back at you.  What do you say?

From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog

While it’s great to be able to try a limited run beer or a rare, hard to find import but I don’t think that makes the meal. What I’m really looking for in a great beer & food dinner is the food. I’m looking for food that looks as good as it tastes. I’m looking for flavors I’ve never experienced before as well as surprising flavor combinations I would’ve never dreamed up of. I want to be wowed by the meal. It goes without saying but all these have to work in conjunction with the beer, that is the point, after all.

I would think the most glamorous and expensive beer & food dinner I’ve been to was the Gold Medal Dinner held at the Kitchen in Boulder, Colorado. Sammy and I were in Colorado for the Great American Beer Fest and we reserved a couple of spots for the dinner. I reviewed the dinner on my website but I as I reread what I wrote, I must say that everything that night tasted good. The foie gras was one of the most flavorful things I have ever tasted and the follow up scallop was just as good. This dinner was the first time I’ve ever had rabbit before and it was a positive experience. The venison was also full-flavored.

As a nod to your point, the breweries featured that night all brought in their special beers and what made the experience worthwhile was that the brewers were actually there. This is a huge sticking point for me: at a beer & food pairing event, the brewer has to be there to explain their beers. Having a backstory to go along with the beer makes it that much more memorable. Plus you get to meet the man (or woman) behind the beer. At the very least, you need someone knowledgeable about beers to talk about them. Part of a good beer & food dinner experience is the education portion. While I like to think I know a lot about beer, I always find myself learning something new at every dinner. I’ve actually cancelled a Beer & Food dinner reservation I’ve made because it wasn’t hosted. Having a hosted event shows me that the brewer, and the chef for that matter, actually care about the beer and food, respectively.

The last thing I think that makes for a great beer & food dinner is having good people to share it with. The last thing you want at a beer & food pairing event is to be sitting with an arguing couple or worse, disinterested people. I know a lot of that is out of your control but if you are able to get a small group of people to go, it can be really fun. Lucky for me Sammy is disarmingly friendly and is able to make friends out of strangers quite easily.

What are your thoughts regarding hosted vs. unhosted dinners? Have you noticed an uptick in beer & food dinners becoming available? In your opinion, are beer & food dinners becoming a mainstream event or are they a flash in the pan, an event du jour?

From: Mario at Brewed For Thought

I wasn’t trying to say every beer dinner needs to have a beer you’ve never had, but those that are in the $100 per plate range, I’d hope to have something more than a trip to BevMo would provide.

For me, I would want a hosted event.  It’s always nice to fully understand the meal being presented to you.  I also think this is where the premium price comes in as well, you’re paying for more than the food and beverage, it’s an experience.

While I don’t see beer dinners going mainstream, I don’t see them going away either.  When I think mainstream, I get an image of Chili’s pairing their menu with the selections of beer they have.  “The double bacon cheeseburger goes wonderfully with the Budweiser.  Would you like to add a dessert and Guinness for $5 more?”  I just don’t see it.

I think we will see a lot more beer dinners in the coming years as the public realizes there’s more to beer than fizzy yellow beers.  You could probably walk the streets of San Francisco and ask people if they’ll be attending Chef Bruce’s next dinner and the most common response will probably be something like, “They have beer dinners?”

You and I are obsessive when it comes to news and events regarding beer and it may seem like these dinners are popping up everywhere, but they are relatively small and you’ll see many of the same faces if you go regularly. Until a beer chef ends up on a show like Top Chef, I would guess the general population won’t quite understand the beer dinner.  In the meantime, I’m enjoying the variety of options we’re seeing regarding events.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 11:22 pm and is filed under Hopinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.