Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Beer Dinner at Anchor Steam Recap

In an age where 8 out of 10 business fail, making it to year 3 is considered to be a success. Now, multiply that times 10 and what you get is Sierra Nevada Brewing Company - one of the pioneers of craft brewing - celebrating their 30th Anniversary.

Ken Grossman started off as a homebrew shop owner. He then decided to get out of the homebrewing business and make the jump to the brewing business. Grossman never looked back and 30 years later, Sierra Nevada is the ultimate amateur-going-pro story.

To celebrate 30 years in business, Sierra Nevada has decided to brew a series of 4 collaborative beers with other pioneers of the craft brewing industry. The first of these 30th Anniversary beers – Fritz and Ken’s Ale – was brewed in conjunction with Fritz Maytag of Anchor Brewing Company. The celebratory dinner was held at Anchor Brewing and here is my recap of the event.

First Course

Food: Crisp, poached farm egg, peppered salmon bacon, poached asparagus, Meyer lemon.
Beer: Sierra Nevada Weizenbock & Anchor freshly fermented beer (in between courses).

Food Tasting Notes: Poached egg is crispy, seemingly panko crusted. Despite this, the yolk is still gooey and runny. The asparagus were well done, soft yet still crunchy. The salmon bacon, slightly salty and fried, makes for a nice counterpoint to the soft, gooey egg and asparagus. I felt the dish paired well with the beer, the wheat character gave the course a little “breakfast” feel while the alcohol of the weizenbock helped to balance out the thickness and richness of the egg yolk.

Weizenbock, Sierra Nevada

Cloudy, gold color with white head. Lots of banana and lemony citrus esters in the aroma. Slight alcohol note but only after the beer warms up some. The flavor echos the aroma with a slant towards the lemony/citrus flavors. There is also a noticeable wheat malt flavor. Hop flavor is low, as is the hop bitterness. This is a full bodied beer with medium-low/medium level of carbonation.

The interesting thing about this beer, according to the distributors at our table anyway, is that you cannot get this anywhere. They pulled this out specifically for this event. I normally expect weizenbocks to be darker because I often think of their flavor profile as being a 50/50 split exhibiting nearly equal characteristics from both a traditional hefeweizen and a bock. But I remember that Maibocks and Helles bocks are lighter in color but still pack the punch of a regular bock. That’s what this beer is like.

Anchor Freshly Fermented Beer

Very hazy, nearly opaque burnt orange color. Aroma is wort-ish, slightly sweet, grainly malt & a little yeasty. Flavor has a muddled sweetness with medium hop bitterness, hop flavor is woody with an earthy/yeasty flavor throughout. The body is medium-high with no/low carbonation. This beer is 2-day old Anchor Steam pulled fresh from the fermentor.

I thought this was an interesting beer to try. It’s an unfinished beer and tastes as much. I often try my homebrews in various stages of completion and it’s cool to get a peek into the brewing process from the vantage point of my tastebuds.

Audio of Ken and Fritz from around the first course. Ken talks about the weizenbock while Fritz muses about the craft beer community. (2:18)

Second Course

Food: Malted Barley Cake, ragout of Sonoma duck and morels, pea puree
Beer: Anchor Humming Ale and Sierra Nevada Estate Ale 2009 (served in between courses)

Food Notes: Duck is lean yet tender; flavorful without being fatty. The barley cake is a little difficult for me to describe as there’s nothing in my regular diet that comes close. It’s like a thick, grainy/barley porridge that was made into a cake, breaded and then fried. I liked it a lot. The white morels have an earthen richness and melanoidic sweetness. The Humming Ale’s assertive hoppiness really cleansed the palette but may have dominated the pairing a bit.

Anchor Humming Ale

Slightly hazy, gold color with a sudsy white head that left good lacing on the glass. Aroma is pungent and earthy. Humming Ale’s flavor is hop forward with a medium-high hop bitterness while the bready malt flavor takes a secondary role in the beer. I had a bit of trouble trying to pull out the hop flavors though. This is a medium bodied beer with medium carbonation. It is dry with some of the astringency in the mouthfeel coming from the hops.

Brewed to commemorate 30 years of brewing at their current location (if you take a moment to think about it, Anchor has been brewing at the same location for as long as Sierra Nevada Brewing has been around), Humming Ale is a showcase of the little known New Zealand hop Nelson Sauvin. If I remember correctly, Fritz Maytag said they picked up these hops from a small, family run hopyard.

Sierra Nevada Estate Ale 2009

Clear, amber colored beer with a white/off-white head. Aroma is pungent with slight citrus an piney notes. Malt aroma is slightly sweet with caramel character. The hop flavor is similar to the aroma while the hop bitterness is medium. The malt flavor is toasty with caramel notes. This beer is medium bodied with medium/medium-high carbonation. Hop bitterness lasts into the finish.

While not really related to the dinner at hand, this beer makes me want to grow my own barley, reap it, malt and kiln it just so I can say I brewed my own “estate” ale.

Audio of Ken and Fritz talking during the second course. Ken and Fritz talk a little about their company’s respective histories, geek out about brewing science and give the details about the Estate Ale, freshly fermented Anchor Steam and Humming Ale. (16:42)

Third Course

Food: Beef Short Rib “Carbonnade”, cippolini onions, favas, spring carrots, smoked potato puree
Beer: Sierra Nevada Hoptimum Double IPA and Anchor Porter

Food Notes: Short rib was awesome; perfectly cooked, juicy, fall-apart tender and a nice balance between meaty and fatty flavors. Onions were a bit heavy handed with rosemary flavors while the spring carrots were a good balance between softness and crunch firmness. This dish went well with both beers for different reasons: the porter because the smoked potato puree and melanoidic quality of the rib echoed the flavors of the beer while double IPA’s bitterness really helped to cut through the fat of the dish to cleanse the palette.

Anchor Porter

Very dark brown, almost black with a tan/brown head. Aroma is slightly smokey with coffee undertones and a noticeable alcohol quality. Anchor Porter has a low/medium-low level of malt sweetness with an almost burnt malt flavor with a little bit of smoke and molasses character. Hop flavor and bitterness are both low. This is a medium bodied beer with medium carbonation and a slightly dry mouthfeel.

Hoptimum Double IPA

Clear, pale amber color with an off-white head. Hop aroma is pungent, citrusy, catty/garlicy with slight pine character. Malt aroma is sweet, almost syrupy. The flavor is similar to the aroma with a pungent and citrus note and fresh garlic character as it warms up. Hop bitterness is high. Malt flavor is sweet enough to be noticed but definitely takes a back seat to the hop character of the beer. This is a full bodied, medium carbonated beer with slight hop astringency in the mouthfeel.

You won’t find Hoptimum Double IPA in bottles or on tap. If you do, consider yourself lucky as this beer was the result of Sierra Nevada’s infamous Beer Camp.

Audio of Ken and Fritz talking during the third course. Ken talks about the Sierra Nevada Estate Ale, Hoptimum while Fritz talks about Anchor Porter, they both talk about the difficulties of selling a “new type” of beer in the early days and Fritz pokes fun at the English. (13:49)

Fourth Course

Food: Maytag Blue, panna cotta, walnut-pepper brittle, warm cornmeal maladeines
Beer: Our Special Ale (Anchor Christmas Ale) 2000 and Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine 2005

Food Notes: Maytag Blue was soft, creamy and salty. Caramel madeleines were good while the citrus pieces were intensely tart. Putting all the pieces together resulted in a rich, flavorful and layered dish with each flavor distinct yet balanced. While I felt that both beers worked with this dish, the Christmas Ale’s seemed to work a little better.

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2005

Clear amber color with no head. The aroma has sherry and almond notes indicative of oxidation as well as noticeable alcohol character. The flavor is similar to the aroma augmented with a surprisingly medium-high level of hop bitterness that lasts into the finish. This is a medium/medium-high bodied beer with medium-low carbonation and a slight warming sensation from the alcohol.

While I have often said that I like to drink beers when they’re fresh, as that’s the way most brewers intend you to drink their product, there’s something to be said about the flavors that develop from slight oxidation. Not enough oxidative character lets you know the beer has flaws while too much oxidative character will render a beer nearly undrinkable. This beer is right on the edge of having just the right amount of oxidation and too much with the balance leaning towards too much as the beer warmed up.

Christmas Ale 2000

Very dark brown with amber/ruby highlights and no head. Has a woody aroma and prominent spice character that reminded me of mulling spices. Woody/spiced note in aroma translates well into the flavor but the malt character of the beer is flat while the hop character is faded. The beer is medium bodied with medium-low carbonation and is slightly dry.

This was a weird beer. I was glad to have tried it but I’m even more glad that it was served in a smaller amount as I don’t think I could’ve finished off a pint of this stuff. I am not a huge fan of spiced beer, there’s something about mulling spices that I never really took a liking towards and after 10 years of aging, the mulled spice character really comes forth in this beer giving it a woody character and a spice note I can’t discern. I’m sure I’ll remember it once Christmas rolls around again and I’m at Michael’s shopping for ornaments and other decorations.

Anchor head brewer Mike Lee wasn’t particularly enamored with either of these beers as he’s an old school brewer who believes that a fresh product is the best product. He is not a fan of aging beer and he is especially not a fan of intentionally soured beers either. Unsurprisingly, he’s a man cut from the same cloth as Fritz Maytag as Maytag has the same opinions about beer.

Audio of Ken and Fritz talking during the fourth course. “Good publicity” from Fritz, aging of Bigfoot from Ken, the Christmas Ale characteristics from Fritz and many more stories. (23:07)

Fifth Course

Food: Warm TCHO Chocolate-Old Foghorn Cake, caramel, Old Foghorn ice cream, raisin compote
Beer: Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Ale – Fritz and Ken’s Ale

Food Notes: Raisin compote is cloyingly sweet for my tastes; there is a caramelization in the flavor that is reminiscent of Belgian Dark Strong Ales. The cake is moist and tastes like bittersweet chocolate. The ice cream provides a nice compliment to the chocolate cake. I think the beer overpowers the cake and ice cream a little but but if you add in the compote, it makes for a little better pairing.

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Ale – Fritz and Ken’s Ale

Very dark brown, nearly black with a brown head. The aroma has a deep roasted, nearly burnt quality with a moderate level of smokiness. The flavor is slightly sweet; the malt character is mellow with burnt and smoked malt character. Hop bitterness is a surprising medium-high/high level. This is a full bodied beer with medium-high carbonation.

I was pleasantly surprised by this beer. Knowing what I know about Fritz, I find him to be a man of tradition, especially when it comes to the beers he brews. That being said, I fully expected the stout to be strongly rooted in the Russian Imperial Stout style. I didn’t expect the smokey character of the beer at all but I like it’s inclusion. The beer changes character as it warms up and will change over the years, at least that’s what the majority of the brewers I’ve spoken with have said. Anchor head brewer Mike Lee told me that a couple of test batches were developed at Sierra Nevada’s pilot brewery and the 30th Anniversary Ale – Fritz and Ken’s Ale is the result of the tasting process. It’s a straight-up recipe, no blending with any of the other test batches.

Audio of Ken and Fritz talking during the fifth course. Both talk about the Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Ale and a final toast. (5:32)

Overall

For the most part, I felt that dinner was a success. There were some pairings that worked better than others but nothing really stood out as unsuccessful to me. I felt that the beers that were chosen for this evening were interesting, especially when it came to the older vintages of beer. What I really would’ve like to see, although it probably would’ve been a pain in the ass, would’ve been a side-by-side comparison of the vintage beers with their fresh counterparts. As anyone who’s aged beers knows, a beer’s character changes over time. With some of the night’s vintages hovering around the decade mark, juxtapositioning the vintage against a fresh pint would’ve been quite the treat.

The staff of the catering service was provided good service, in my opinion. They were all professional, helpful and accommodating. I’m not sure what kind of cooking set-up the catering company had but they did a bang-up job with the food.

Whether or not the actual cash value of the food and beers equaled that of the cost of dinner, $100 per person, remains to be seen. At that price point, I couldn’t afford to purchase another ticket for my wife to join me (which is too bad as I know she’d love a lot of the dishes served). Personally, the cost of the dinner is but a small price to pay to have two of the early pioneers of the craft brewing industry in one room at the same time talking about their past experiences. Ken Grossman has forgotten more about brewing than I might ever learn; this holds even more true for Fritz Maytag.

The two elder statesmen of craft brewing would come up between courses and talk about their experiences or answer questions. As respected as Grossman is within the industry, he readily deferred to Maytag in most instances. I don’t think Grossman had much of a choice as Maytag has this uncanny ability to just hold a room in the palm of his hand. The only person I know of today who has this same ability and charisma is Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head. More often than not, Maytag would finish telling one of his stories only for Grossman to stand there for a moment in contemplation before saying, “Yeah, I don’t have anything to top that”. Hilarious.

In any event, this was definitely one of those Once in a lifetime events I felt I needed to attend. I almost decided not to go because I’d be going by myself but in the end, I met up with many familiar faces so it didn’t seem like I was alone. Despite how I may have looked that night furiously scribbling away notes in my notepad, I had a wonderful time. In my haste to jot down my thoughts, I completely forgot to take photos with some of the people I met there. Thanks to Wes from @bjornidentity for keeping me company. Big thanks to Sierra Nevada’s Bill Manley for all his efforts in planning the menu and for putting on the event. Big thanks also to Mike Lee, Anchor’s headbrewer, who sat at our table and gave us insightful stories to add context to some of Maytag’s comments. There were a lot of other notable people there that night but I don’t want to seem like I’m just name dropping at this point.

There are some other photos I took that are at the end of this post. I hope you enjoy them and hopefully they’ll give a little more context into the evening. If I ever make enough money from my banner ads, the first thing I’ll do is upgrade my camera so that you won’t have to be subjected to crappy photography. In fact, head over here for some really good photos of the event.