BetterBeerBlog

The Devil’s Canyon Brewery Dinner, held at the California Cafe in Palo Alto, ended up being one of the best beer dinners I have ever been to. It was the perfect storm of many things awesome. Having had a few days to digest the event, I can say this was definitely one of those instances where the totality of the event far exceeded the parts that went into it.

First Course

Food: Diabla battered crispy frog legs, fennel “brandade”, hints of citrus and spice
Beer: Lager Diabla, 5.4% ABV

Tasting Notes: Having only ever had frog legs at Chinese buffets, it was a very pleasant change to see a slightly different treatment to this protein. Frog is a subtle, neutrally flavored meat; in many ways, it is not unlike chicken, just more tender. The micro greens were slightly bitter but also had a little bit of heat from the chili peppers in the dish. These flavors were offset by the slightly sweet and starchy “brandade“.

Lager Diabla pours out a brilliantly clear, gold color with a thin, white head. There is a cracker, biscuity malt flavor that is only slightly sweet and has a matching hop bitterness. Lager Diabla is medium bodied with medium-high/high carbonation and finishes dry without being astringent. Unfortunately, I did detect a little bit if diacetyl in this beer which manifested as a slight buttery character. Lager Diabla is a lager I’d pick consistently over the American macro lagers but it’s also my least favorite beer of Devil’s Canyon.

That being said, I felt the pairing of the dish and the beer was highly successful. The slight sweetness of the “brandade” matched the malt flavors of the beer while the hop bitterness was echoed in the choice of micro greens used in the dish. Most importantly, and often overlooked, was that both the beer and the dish matched intensity; neither the beer or the dish overpowered the other.

Second Course

Food: Slow roasted amber braised pork belly, burnt orange glaze, petite greens, dadicated “head”
Beer: Deadicated Amber Ale, 5.4% ABV

Tasting Notes: Petite greens are a little bitter, orange glaze is a concentrated sweetness as well as slightly pithy bitterness to it while the Deadicated “head” (essentially a beer foam) tasted much like the beer it was made from, just exceptionally light on the palette. The pork belly was a rich course, it was fatty, savory, juicy, and had a slightly sweet (caramel-ish) “bark”. The meat was tender and fork-tender. Not sure if you (the readers) are aware but bacon is made from pork belly. This might come off as blasphemous but if I could have pork belly this good all the time, I’m not sure I would need bacon. There, I said it. You wanna fight?

Deadicated Amber, its name inspired by the Grateful Dead, pours out a clear, brown color with amber highlights and a thin, white/off-white head. Toasted and slightly roasted malt flavors with a slight caramel sweetness and medium-low/medium hop bitterness. This beer is medium bodied with medium-high carbonation, the finish is slightly astringent.

As with the previous course, this was a very successful pairing. The flavors of the beer were complimentary to that of the dish and while the pork was very rich and fatty, the beer’s hop bitterness, coupled with its medium-high level of carbonation, helped to wipe my palette clean with every bite. The general consensus at the table was that the pork was a fabulous dish, and served alone with the two beers we’ve already had, would be worth the price of admission. Other diners echoed our feelings with one diner suggesting the dish be added to California Cafe’s regular menu. I wholeheartedly agree.

Third Course

Food: Lightly smoked lamb chops, toasted apricot cous cous, coco nib mole
Beer: Full Boar Scotch Ale, 7.4% ABV

Tasting Notes: How do you follow up with the decadence that was pork belly? With the indulgence that is lamb chops. The lamb is tender and full flavored, rich but not fatty, and lightly seasoned. The apricot cous cous is on the sweet side, fruity, with the consistency reminiscent of tapioca balls. Lars, one of our fellow diners, used to be a sous chef. He said the cous cous was more in the Israeli-style; this was most apparent in the larger grain used to make it. Interestingly the mole had more middle Eastern flavors; corriander and other spices spices used in middle Eastern cooking were present, as well as a little bit of spice heat.

Full Boar Scotch Ale pours out a dark brown in color with ruby highlights and an off-white head. I taste a caramelized malt sweetness upfront with a smoky character in both the flavor and aroma. There is also a low, chocolate character to this beer as well. This is a low hopped beer with medium-full body and matching carbonation. The finish is slightly dry. Jim, from Devil’s Canyon, told us this beer is made using peat-smoked malt, which gives the beer is smoky flavors and aroma.

Once again, California Cafe’s Executive Chef Mark Pettyjohn hits the nail right on the head with this dish. The sweetness of the scotch ale is complimented by the sweetness of the cous cous while the smoke flavors of the lamb chop are echoed by the beer’s use of peat-smoked malts. The scotch ale’s higher ABV is balanced by the spicy heat of the mole as well.

Fourth Course (Surprise!!!)

Food: Beef ribs, root beer honcho chili glaze, caramelized onions, micro greens
Beer: Root Beer, 0% ABV

Tasting Notes: Quick! Count the number of times you’ve gone to a beer dinner (any dinner for that matter) and have been brought out a surprise dish that wasn’t on the original menu that was still paired with beverages at hand? Anyone? I can tell you this is the first time this has happened to me. And it wasn’t some little dish either like a palette cleanser, this was a full-on extra course.

The ribs were sticky, sweet and tender; they came off the bone fairly easily. The greens provided were neutral in flavor, and provided a little respite from all the rib goodness. The root beer glaze had intense flavor and a surprising heat from the honcho chillies it was made with.

Devil’s Canyon Root Beer is brewed entirely at Devil’s Canyon from a recipe developed by Devil’s Canyon owners Chris and Kristiann Garrett. Made from organic sugar cane, agave nectar and local Belmont honey, I found this root beer to be sweet, with caramel, vanilla and honey-like (most likely agave) flavors.

When placed in the hands of a capable, creative and talented chef, a successful beverage/food pairing is attainable and often surprising. Even though this was a “beer” dinner, I found the inclusion of Devil’s Canyon root beer is appropriate as the dinner is about brewery as it is about the food and beer. That being said, this was another successful pairing, although having to take a step back and enjoy root beer over “regular” beer was a little jarring. This course was the brainchild of Chef Pettyjohn’s sous chef Madison Montoto, who’s name I unfortunately forgot to write down. Paraphrasing what Chef Montoto said, the idea for this dish came from the root beer itself; she was inspired by her memories of what she used to eat with root beer and ribs came to mind. After all, not everyone drinks beer with their food.

This course was just another reminder on how just about any beverage/food can be paired together if given enough care and consideration.

Fifth Course

Food: Deuling floats - vanilla panna cotta with root beer jelly, root beer cake and ice cream
Beer: Root Beer, 0% ABV

Tasting Notes: Just as the American IPA style is a showcase of hops, this dessert was a show case for root beer. Instead of a singular dish served for dessert, we were presented with two desserts that “dueled” with each other.

To the left was the root beer jelly topped with vanilla panna cotta. If you were to take a photo of a freshly poured root beer in a glass and literally translated the photo into food, you would get this dish. The jelly had the consistency of Jell-O gelatin but featured the flavors of root beer, if not slightly less intense, while the vanilla panna cotta functioned as the “foam” of the soda. This dessert was a solid piece; at one point, I held the glass horizontally to see if anything would spill out but it didn’t. As rich as the panna cotta was, the dish as a whole wasn’t as sweet as the actual root beer was. I loved this dish for not only it’s creative use of root beer but for the imaginative presentation as well.

The right side dish was your typical root beer float except that everything, the cake and ice cream, were made from root beer. I thought the root beer mini-decanter was cute as well. I believe it was tablemate Lars who said the cake by itself was a little dry but when you poured added the root beer, the dish came together as a whole. While I can’t directly comment on the cake prior to adding the root beer, the dish really did shine when all the pieces were put together.

While this course wasn’t specifically paired with root beer, I didn’t think you needed to as root beer was prevalent in every aspect of this course. I keep saying that I don’t like desserts but when done well, I am a fan.

Keeping things local

Devil’s Canyon employees Jim Hansen (Draught specialist) and Daniel Curran (VP Sales & Marketing, IT, Web) helped raise this beer dinner from a dinner into an event. They spoke between courses explaining not only the beers we would be having but about what Devil’s Canyon is all about, as well getting a little “political” about the brewing industry. The danger of speaking about those topics is coming off as either “hard selling” the brewery or being seen as preachy.

Personally, I didn’t feel either. While I am already familiar with the Devil’s Canyon story, it is good to hear more. Devil’s Canyon is a self-distributed brewery. All their accounts have been earned by their sales team, all the beer is delivered by everyone from Jim all the way up through owner Christ Garrett. Dan says the brewery has been approached by distributors looking to sell their product but they refuse to “play that game”. The example cited was that in order to make space at a distributor’s account, they’d be willing to bump off one of the beers they carry to make room for Devil’s Canyon. While this may bode well for Devil’s Canyon, how long will it be before they’re the one’s getting bumped in favor of another brewery?

The company has strong ties to its local community and pleads for local business and people to buy local. The statistic given was that for every $1 spent on local businesss, $.70 cents stays within the community. Unbeknown to me, Devil’s Canyon hasn’t been pouring at many of the peninsula fairs because larger breweries have been purchasing exclusive rights to pour at these events. Unfortunately I’m not talking about Anheuser-Busch, Coors or Miller but Chico’s own Sierra Nevada. According to Dan, Sierra Nevada paid the San Mateo County Fair $30K for exclusive pouring rights. It’s disappointing to say the least. As Dan puts it, “We’re all on the same team. Why would they do that?”

Why, indeed?

Overall

As I mentioned in the beginning, this beer dinner was one of the best beer dinners I have ever attended. It was the perfect storm of many good things; the beer was good, the food was excellent, the pairings worked and most importantly, the price point was a “no-brainer”. We even got a surprise, extra course! The sentiment across the table was unanimous; we didn’t get our money’s worth, we got more! Some of us even expressed a little guilt and felt that a trip to Devil’s Canyon was in order to pay off the balance.

There were a few hiccups during the evening. The first occurred in the beginning as we were being seated. Joey from Wet Your Whistles had called in earlier in the day to ask if there was assigned seating. Having been told “no”, he didn’t mention to the staff that he preferred to be seated with with Mrs. BetterBeerBlog and I. It wasn’t until we arrived that we found out there was assigned seating and Joey wasn’t assigned to sit at our table. Politely ignoring the hostess, Joey sat with us anyway. The whole issue was rendered moot when there ended up being plenty of space for everyone but the point I’m trying to make is to make it clear if seating is assigned or not so that situations like this could be avoided in the future.

The second hiccup happened at the end of the evening when we received our bill. We were charged for items we thought were included in the dinner. For example, our waitress offered us water in the beginning of the dinner, which we accepted. She then brought back and poured water from an elegant container of “artisanal water” from Norway as opposed to iced water in a pitcher. She did ask Mrs. BetterBeerBlog if she wanted “tap” water or water; while the question seemed weird at the time, it made sense when the bill arrived, to our chagrin. Seeing as how the dinner was such a great value, I don’t have much issue with paying for the water and other contentious items; the real issue was that it wasn’t disclosed upfront. These issues were quickly resolved once we brought the up, kudos to California Cafe for understanding where we were coming from.

That being said, the service from California Cafe was excellent, their waitstaff was attentive in taking things away soon after we were finished and bringing in the next courses and beverages as they came in. They even bagged Mrs. BetterBeerBlog’s leftovers for us to take home. What really surprised me was the inclusion of hot towels in between courses to freshen up. Nice touch!

California Cafe’s General Manager André Hall talked about the dishes in lieu of Executive Chef Mark Pettyjohn. As much as I would’ve liked to hear Chef Pettyjohn talk about the dishes himself, André says Chef Pettyjohn is notoriously “camera shy”. Judging by the quality of the food we had that night, it’s not a bad idea to let Chef Pettyjohn do what he does best: cook.

The Devil’s Canyon Brewery Dinner was the first in a line of beer dinners André has planned for California Cafe. I am looking forward to all of them an hopefully I can get more people to join us in the future.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 11:31 pm and is filed under Beer and Food Pairings, Craft Beer, Reviews. 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.