A few weeks ago, the British Bankers Club (BBC) in Menlo Park had their very first beer dinner. I almost didn’t go because the beers featured were, to be frank, not too exciting. But to be fair, since I had never tried them before, how could I know they were “not too exciting”? I didn’t. I couldn’t.
It helped that Joey and Jen from Wet Your Whistles were there as well. In fact, they were the ones who sent us the invitation. Surrounded by good friends getting the chance to try new beers in a bar we haven’t been to before made the decision to go that much easier. I had never been to BBC before. I had heard a few good things about the bar from here and there but the opportunity to go never presented itself until now.
The BBC is an English gastropub. Gastropub is a portmanteau of the French gastronomique and pub (short for public house); the result is an establishment that serves “higher class food” to cater to upscale clientele. Uh… yeaaah (We’ll leave this discussion to another blog post entirely). The decor is English inspired; dark, ornate wood is used from the bar to the barstools, from the trim to the molding; stained glass windows echo the Tiffany lamps while bronze colored fixtures round the rest of the theme. Of course, no English pub would be worth their weight in fish and chips without the requisite English-style telephone booth. You can read more about the history and authenticity of the pieces here.
BBC not only sports a full bar, serving a variety of liquors and wines, but a decent selection of beers on tap and on bottle. While the beer list is decent, I have to think its expansion was either an afterthought or a recent addition. A couple of clues tell me this: first, if you look at the left-hand navigation on their website, “& Beer” is a distinctly different font from the rest of the navigation. Second, the actual page the link hyperlinks to is named “wines.html”. Lastly, beer is buried all the way at the bottom of the list. If you’re going to go through all the effort to bring in good craft beer, go the extra step and give craft beer its own section on the website or else it just continues to play second fiddle to everything else. I’m not really here to talk about the BBC’s website, I’m here to talk beer, beer and food.
Food & Beer
I will preface this section by saying that the dinner was a few weeks ago and I didn’t take any notes, at least not on the food. Not sure why. I guess I expected a menu of sorts to scribble my notes on but I’ll get to that later on in the blog. I’ve also paired the beer and food as they came out but I’m not 100% convinced this was the intent. Here it goes.
Tanner Jack, 4.4% ABV
Brilliantly clear, brown ale with no head. The color reminds me of whiskey. The beer is primarily malty; it is sweet, with caramel flavors and some toasted malt notes. The aroma is similar. Mrs. BetterBeerBlog says it reminds her of the caramel syrup you add to snow cones. The body is light, carbonation is medium-high and, despite the sweetness, the finish is slightly dry.
This is my first time trying all of these beers. I can see how Tanner Jack could be a nice, sessionable ale that Mrs. BetterBeerBlog would like to see more of. Personally, I think it’s a little too sweet for my own palette but I’d love to try and cook with this beer. This was our “reception” beer.
First Course – Shrimp Ceviche
Ceviche is a citrus marinated seafood, although in my own culture, we apply the same techniques to red meats as well. The acidity in the marinate denatures or “cooks” the food. Shrimp was used to make our ceviche and was prepared with mangoes, tomatoes, green onions and peppers. While I thought this was a tasty and refreshing dish, it was also unremarkable.
Hen’s Tooth, 6.5% ABV
Hen’s Tooth also pours out a very clear brown color with a thin, short-lasting white head. Similar to Tanner Jack, the beer’s flavor is composed of caramel and toasted malt flavors. The aroma is echoes the flavor. Unlike Tanner Jack, the hop bitterness is much more noticeable in this beer and comes in at about the medium/medium-high level. Even though the beer clocks in at 6.5% ABV, I’m not getting much heat in the aroma or warmth in the mouthfeel. Deceptive.
So far, Hen’s Tooth seems to be a stronger, hoppier Tanner Jack by several notches.If I were to order a second pint, it would be this beer.
Second Course – Fish and Chips
Fish and chips, would it really be an English pub without them? As much as I’d like to see something other than fish and chips at an English pub, it’s expected and it’s loss would be much more noticeable than a poor execution.
I remember the fish part of the equation being fairly good. The fish seemed to be beer battered and I remember the fish to be flaky. The chips, on the other hand, were shoe-string style and arranged on top of the fish. The dipping sauce seemed to be a little too mayo-ish for my tastes. While I think a more traditional approach to the chips would’ve been better, this was a 4-course dinner and getting full by the end of the second course would be a bad idea.
Abbot Ale, 5% ABV
This is a clear, brown colored ale with a creamy, white head. Served from the can, Abbot Ale has a lightly toasted malt aroma that is has a hint of sweetness on the nose, while the hop aroma is very low. The beer’s flavor has a toasted malt flavor with enough hop bitterness for balance. Abbot Ale is medium bodied with a medium-low/medium level of carbonation that gives the beer a creamy mouthfeel without the use of a widget. At least I didn’t hear one when I rattled the can about a bit.
This is the most balanced of the beers I’ve had so far. This is also the first time I’ve had these beers so this is an experience for me. John Bexon, head brewer at Greene King Brewing Company, says this is his favorite beer of the evening.
Third Course – Spicy Sausages
Normally it’s a bad sign when you look at a photo of something and you don’t remember how it went. I’m looking at the photo of the third course and I’m having trouble remembering how the accompaniments tasted like. I remember the meaty looking side with onions had a savory, meaty, gravy-like flavor to them but I draw blanks on what looks like corn and the purple sauce beneath the sausages.
I remember the sausages though. The sausages themselves were slightly salty but had a pleasant level of spice heat to them. The crust was flaky without being greasy. I had this dish for lunch the following day and while the crust had become soggy, the flavor of the sausages were still good.The thing about spicy food is they that they’re hot going in and hot coming out. What? Too much information?
Old Speckled Hen, 5.2% ABV
The flagship beer of Morland Brewing Company, this beer pours out a very clear brown with a white/off-white head. The aroma is primarily of toasted malt, slight caramel and with low hop character. The flavor is similar to the aroma, primarily malty with low hop bitterness. Old Speckled Hen is medium bodied with medium-low/medium carbonation and has a slight sour note in the finish.
To be perfectly frank, I had a hard time discerning the difference between Old Speckled Hen and Abbot Ale. The flavor profiles of both are very similar and they both had a slight creamy texture to them. Maybe the slight sourness in Old Speckled Hen would be the only tell of otherwise two, similar beers.
Fourth Course – Dessert
With the exception of the occasional doughnut, I am not a sweets person. I don’t remember when I lost my sweet tooth, probably sometime after high school. It usually takes an exceptionally good dessert to get me to wipe my plate clean, unfortunately, this dish wasn’t it.
I do remember the ice cream was made from Old Speckled Hen. It had a slightly spicy character that I wasn’t sure came from the beer or if they added crushed peppercorns. I’m not a big fan of ice cream but I thought the ice cream portion was the better part of the dessert. The cake itself was unmemorable but the part I felt that didn’t work the most was the sugary crust the cake was embedded. It was hard, crunchy and seemed as if it were made completely from heated sugar, then quickly cooled. I can appreciate a juxtaposition of textures but this dessert was all over the place; gooey, soft to crystalline crunchy.
Olde Suffolk Vintage Ale, ~9% ABV (fresh)
Olde Suffolk pours out a very dark brown color with amber colored hues and a tan head. I taste caramelized malt flavors, not unlike cola, along with bits of molasses. Oaky flavors round out the flavor profile and lend some astringency to the mouthfeel of the beer. The aroma is primarily sweet, low hopped, although my notes also indicate I experienced a little bit of metallic aromas. This beer has a medium-high body with a surprisingly high carbonation.
At this point, my notes are a bit suspect and I readily admit to having issues reading my own writing. This is definitely a beer that needs to warm up to be fully enjoyed. From my notes, John Bexon said this is a blended beer with one of the beers being a 12% “Old 5x” that is barrel aged for a minimum of 2 years and a smaller BPA. While the website lists this beer as being 6%, my notes have a “9% fresh” scribbled down. Pathetic, I know. I’ll need to find another bottle of this to have and properly enjoy.
John Bexon – Head Brewer, Greene King
Despite what I’ve written above, I had a great time at this dinner, absolutely fantastic. Some of this can be attributed to my table mates, all of them were great conversationalists and made for a very fun evening. The other, larger portion can be attributed to John Bexon, head brewer at Greene King, who unbeknown to me was in attendance.
Morland Brewery was the original company that brewed the beers above. John Morland, a farmer, started the brewery up in 1711. Morland Brewery ceased to exist as a separate entity when it was acquired by Greene King in 2000. While the company may not physically exist anymore, its beers are being brewed by Greene King.
John Bexon started off the evening by approaching our table and talking to us about briefly about the history or Morland and of Greene King before going into the basics of brewing. He never left. I found Bexon to be knowledgeable, entertaining and charming. He was a wealth of information and having him first talk and then dine at our table was nearly indescribable. While he carefully worded some of his answers, he was, for the most part, forward with his answers to our many questions.
Of all the brewers I’ve had the privilege to speak to, John Bexon represents more of the business side of the brewing industry. The beers Greene King produces are targeted for the widest possible acceptance and he is keenly aware of this. Many of the beers in the Greene King portfolio would be considered… boring… by many craft beer fans, especially those of us reared in the traditions of West Coast hoppy ales. That being said, Bexon told us that the Greene King portfolio we see is only a part of what they make. Greene King also brews up over 20 types of cask conditioned ales for the various brewpubs they supply. Because of the cask conditioning, very few if any of these beers actually make it to our shores, let alone our side of the country.
The only way to go is up
Despite all the fun I did have, this initial beer dinner had a lot of faults. First, there was no printed menu. I remember seeing something on Facebook but when I went back to Facebook to get a complete listing of the dinner’s dishes, the event listing was gone. I am going to go out on a limb and say that a printed menu is a must have for any beer dinner. It gives the people attending an idea of what’s coming down the pipe setting expectations as well as giving us someplace to scribble notes on (well, it gives me a place to scribble notes on).
Second, there was no sense any of the dishes and the beers were paired together. Food pretty much came out then it was ready/we were ready for it and the beers were out much sooner. For a beer dinner to be successful, especially a paired beer dinner, the food and the beers should come out nearly at nearly the same time. In many beer dinners I’ve been to, the beers were poured out a few minutes prior to the food being brought out but it was close enough to feel the two were connected.
Third, the pourings were generous, perhaps a little too much so. Having a full pour of Tanner Jack in the beginning as a reception beer is fine. We understand the food is still getting prepared and a full pour gives everyone something to handle while waiting for dinner to come around while also helping to relax as they arrive from work. Having full pours during the remainder of the dinner is borderline negligent on the part of the BBC. Yes, many of these beers are lower in alcohol; yes, I do have the option of not finishing everything. But can you really trust people not to do something the know is wrong? For this particular dinner, you’re talking about 5 full bottle per person with the last beer a not-to-be-taken-lightly 9% ABV. Many of the better beer dinners I’ve been do have limited the pours to about 4-6 ounces; just enough to get a taste of the beer and to wash down dinner with.
Fourth, this one isn’t necessarily a “must have” but I would like to see an equal emphasis on both the food and the beer, especially at a gastropub. Don’t get me wrong, having John Bexon at our table was a rare treat but it also would’ve been cool to see the BBC Chef out and about asking people about dinner and possibly explaining why they chose a specific dish to pair with a specific beer. I am curious as to the “why” of something as well as its execution. It also allows me to measure up the dish to the idea of the dish, if that makes any sense.
Overall
For their inaugural beer dinner, BBC has a bit of work ahead of them before they do another. Luckily many of the issues I outlined above I consider “low hanging fruit” and can easily resolved. If all the BBC did for their next beer dinner was resolve those issues, I think it’d be huge improvement and right step in providing a great experience for their customers.
I thought it was great of BBC, along with the help of distributors Wine Warehouse and Total Beverage Solutions, to bring in John Bexon of Greene King to talk about his beers. It’s not uncommon for the brewer to talk about their beers at a beer dinner at your local brewpub but when the brewery is located in another country, I think it’s pretty special.
At $30 per person, I thought this beer dinner was a great value for the money, quite possibly the cheapest I’ve ever paid for a beer dinner. Many other beer dinners feature an exceptional menu and/or rare beers but are also priced far beyond my means. There have already been a few dinners I’ve attended alone simply because Mrs. BetterBeerBlog and I couldn’t afford for both of us to go. As someone who’s planned and hosted a few beers dinners of my own, I know exactly what goes into planning and executing these types of events and know a good value when I see one. If BBC keeps to roughly the same price point, I think they will be filling a much needed segment of the beer dinner spectrum.
Despite some of the shortcomings of this inaugural beer dinner, I am looking forward to future events from the BBC. I give them a pass for a first attempt as no one ever gets it right the first time, or the second time, or even the third time. There is always room for improvement.
Oh, now that I’ve tried these beers, can I say with authority that they’re “not too exciting”? Yes and no. Some were interesting beers that I will probably pick up in the future while others I’ll just leave be.
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