One of the pitfalls of being a beer blogger is that I often blog when intoxicated. This poses a few challenges in that by the time I am ready to blog, I am tired and all I really want to do is sleep. Sometimes I give into this urge to sleep. As a result, my posts are delayed more than they should’ve been and they loose their relevance with each passing day. Short of not drinking, or cutting down my sleep to just 2 hours a night, I blog when I can.
Sammy and I found out about the BJs Belgian Beer dinner last week. We basically walked into the Cupertino BJs and happened to see a big poster near the front desk promoting the event. I wondered why they only promoted in this manner but they seemed to get a lot of people in and out of their doors that it works for them.
I don’t think you could’ve just walked into BJs that night and got a seat at the dinner, well, I suppose you could’ve but I was told it was by reservation. If you’ve been to the Cupertino BJs, they held the dinner in the semi-outdoor room. I call this room the semi-outdoor room because it has the comforts of the inside dining area except that you are able to open up these “garage” doors to let the outdoors in. It’s actually a pretty nice setup. I think the entire room was booked for the event but it was only half filled. At 50% capacity, there were about 40 people attending the dinner.
The apertif, or alcoholic beverage served to stimulate the digestive system, was Brugse Zot from Brouwerij de Halve Maan. Translated as Half Moon Brewery, Brouwerij de Halve Maan is the only brewery located in the picturesque Belgian city of Bruges. The legend of Brugse Zot according to their website:
To welcome Maximilian of Austria to their proud town, the people of Bruges organised a colourful parade of merrymakers and fools. When they asked him at the end of the day to provide money for a new madhouse he replied : ‘Today I have seen nothing but fools. Bruges is already one large madhouse !’ Since then the people of Bruges are called ‘Brugse Zotten’ (fools of Bruges).
Brugse Zot pours out a clear gold in color with an off-white head. Sweet pils malt aroma with slight spice and fruit notes. The flavor is very similar, pils malt sweetness, lots of fruity character with a slight, white peppery spiciness. The beer has a medium-low/medium hop bitterness. It is a medium-bodied beer with medium-high carbonation that dances on the palette. It’s a refreshing beer to start with that is reminiscent of Leffe Blonde.
First Course - BJs NitWit with Thai Shrimp Lettuce Wraps
BJs NitWit is their example of a Belgian style witbier. Nitwit pours our a cloudy, pale yellow beer with “whitish” hues to the yeast in suspension and is topped off by a pillowy white head. Noticeable spice note with a strong phenolic aroma that reminds me of ginger. I’m picking up hits of orange as well as the sweet, wheat malt notes. NitWit has a slight sweet wheat malt flavor with a soft spiciness. The corriander becomes more apparent as the beer warms up. The body is light and the carbonation effervescent.
This beer pairs well with the Thai Shrimp Lettuce Wraps on multiple levels. The ginger phenolic I picked up in the aroma echoes the ginger used in the dish and the slight spice character mimics the garlic and onions in the wrap, while the mango bits compliment the sweetness of the beer. Something that became more apparent as the beer warmed up was the coriander connection: NitWit is brewed with coriander seeds while the dish has cilantro (which is what coriander would be if it were allowed to grow up).
Second course - Monks Cafe Flemish Sour Ale. 5.5% ABV (Brouwerij Van Steenberge) with Sesame Chicken Salad
Brewed by Brouwerij Van SteenBerge exclusively for Monks Cafe beer bar in Philadelphia, this Flemish Sour Ale is quite a treat. This beer has an acetic sourness (similar to vinegar) indicative of the style that kept in check by a savory malt sweetness that has a caramelized raisin toast character. The beer pours out a reddish-brown in color with a white head. Monks Cafe has a malt flavor that is like toasted wheat bread with caramel flavors and hints of sweet, sweet raisins in the beginning, which is followed by a tart middle, and finished by an medium-low/medium intense acetic or vinegar-like sourness. This beer is medium-low in body with a spritzy level of carbnation.
I was surprised by how well this combination worked. Once of the things that can make Monks Cafe a difficult beer to pair with is its vinegarish sourness. The crunchy, sweet noodles of the salad, coupled with the savory, grilled flavors of the chicken and sweetness of the oranges serve as a compliment to the sweet malty flavors of the beer. There’s a slight vinegar sourness to the salad already because of the light dressing that is echod in the beer. If anything, the sourness of the beer lingers on the tongue that serves as a palette cleanser readying you for the next bite.
Interesting backstory on this beer. I first ordered this on a trip to The Trappist. I was amazed by the flavor (of which I’ll describe in a little bit) and was “nursing” this beer. I leave my beer with my wife for a moment, I think I’ve either gone to the restroom or I’m talking to someone there (I can’t really remember). When I return, my glass is completely empty… thanks to my wife. She thought I didn’t like the beer and decided to polish it off for me. Thanks babe!
Petrus Aged Pale pours out a clear, dark golden color with an off-white head. I can pick up some oak notes in the aroma along with a muted tartness. Unlike the aroma, the tartness is readily apparent in the flavor. While the Monks Cafe had an acetic sourness, the Petrus Aged Pale has a sourness that leans heavily more toward the tart side, similar to real, unsweetened yogurt. I’ve also heard it described as lemony. It’s quite a prominent feature of the flavor profile and I’m loving its enamel destoying tartness. With virtually no hops, this beer is balanced by a light malt sweetness.
This was an interesting beer that defied my ability to describe it. This was definitely the most hoppy beer of the evening. It wouldn’t be until I did some research for this blog post did I realize that this beer is a Belgian IPA. The hop bitterness was medium-high but unlike it’s American counterparts, the hop bitterness seemed supressed, almost earthy in nature. By comparison, American IPAs are big bright beers with bold flavors and an agressive bitterness. This beer was the opposite of that but could still be considered an IPA. Make much sense? There was an earthy, yeasty character that has some fruit notes and a balanced malt character that could almost be biscuity. When I first tried this beer, I immediately thought of Houblon Chouffe, which also happens to be a Belgian IPA.
This beer was paired with BJs Southwestern Pizza. Talk about an odd couple. The pizza had all these spices and flavors of a southwestern flair. I think they might’ve even used a barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce for the pizza. If I remember correctly, there may have been a little bit of heat (spice) as well. Surprisingly the Poperings Hommel paired pretty well with the pizza. I think the funkiness of the yeast complimented the cheese while the sweetness in the sauce spoke to the sweet in the malt. What really drove home the pairing was the interplay between the spice of the Southwestern flavors and the muted intensity of the hop bitterness. In my personal experience, you can treat spice heat with beer in two ways: match the intensity of the heat with sweet, or you can match the heat with the hop bitterness. I happen to prefer the latter method, there’s something to be said about fighting fire with bitterness.
Course 4 - Gulden Draak (Brouwerij de Van Steenberge), 10.5% ABV with Old-Fashioned Pot Roast
From the same brewery that brough us Monks Cafe earlier in the evening, we now have Gulden Draak, a Belgian Dark Strong Ale. Gulden Draak pours out a dark brown, almost caramel color, hazy with a beige colored head. This beer has a definite malty aroma that has some toasted bread notes, caramel, Munich malt qualities along with medium fruity esters that were reminiscent of dates and raisins. There was also a definitive alcohol presence in the nose. The flavor echos that of the aroma with the inclusion of toned down, spicy yeast notes. This is a medium-full bodied beer with medium-high carbonation that warms the throat as it goes down without any burning harshness.
When paired with the meatloaf, I felt this beer overpowered the meatloaf a bit. I can see how the intention was to compliment the savory, meaty flavors of the gravy with the sweet maltiness of the beer but the alcohol of the beer was present in the finish and I felt that was a distraction. While not very loaflike, the meatloaf was pretty good. The gravy was savory and rich while the potatoes balanced the richness of the meat and gravy. Not a bad pairing but it wasn’t my favorite.
Course 5 - Troubadour Obscura (Brouwerij de Musketiers), 8.5% ABV, with White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Pizookie
I was pretty excited to try this beer. I had never heard of it before and obviously never tasted it as well. I wish I could give you more information about this beer but we left the beer information sheets we had at dinner at the dinner. Troubadour pours out a hazy caramel color with tan head. Initial aromas are subtle. Slightly sweet, strong roasted malt character, not too hoppy. There was a slight spice character in this beer that I attribute to the alcohol. This was a medium bodied beer with medium carbonation with much less alcohol heat than the Gulden Draak. What surprised me the most was how this beer reminded of a classic German Rauchbier, the phenolic character I picked up in the aroma and flavor was almost smokelike.
As with the beer, I have never had a pizookie before. If you’ve never had a pizookie, it’s like a really big cookie cooked in a pan used to make personalized pan pizzas with a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream on top for good measure. This was another pairing that I feel didn’t quite hit the nail on the head. I felt the pizookie overwhelmed the Troubadour. Maybe it was the slight smoky phenolic character of the beer but I felt sweetness of the beer, when paired with just the cookie tip-toed the line between being balanced and overwhelmed. When you throw a bit of ice cream into the mix, the pizookie dominates the beer. We didn’t have enough Gulden Draak left but I would’ve wanted to try Gulden Draak with the dessert. I think Gulden Draak would’ve had the legs to stand up to the sweetness that was the White Chocolate Macadamia Pizooke. Likewise, it would’ve been interesting to see how the Troubadour stacked up against the meatloaf.
Verdict?
At the end of the night, Sammy and I both left feeling full and satisfied. For the most part, each of the pairings worked, event the dessert pairing to a certain extent. With beer and food pairing dinners suddenly becoming all the rage, it was refreshing to see a dinner that was both interesting and affordable. It’s not too often you can find a 5-course, 7-beer dinner for only $30. That’s a bargain.
I do have a few critiques. As much as I enjoyed the food, I think it would’ve been more interesting to have created a custom menu for this event. If you’re going to take the time to import all these good beers, take the time to create a custom menu along with it. I am willing to buy the argument that they paired the beers with food that was already on the menu as a way to keep costs down. I am also willing to accept that they wanted to show these beers can pair with “off the shelf” food as well. Just wishful thinking on my part. Then again, had they done that, I don’t think I’d be writing about how affordable this experience was.
At the end of dinner, after all of our fellow diners had left, Sammy and I had a chance to talk to Michael Krohmer, General Manager and shareholder of BJs. He said they had been doing these events for about two years now and that their first events had very low turnout. What impressed me most about these events was that Michael said they had distinguished brewers such as Vinnie Cilurzo come out and talk about their beers. Really?! Vinnie came out to talk about his beers at a BJs beer dinner? What? You only had 12 people show up? Huh. We’ve come a long way since then.
In any case, Sammy and I both left the dinner very satisfied and very full. So much so that I am only finishing this post today. Oh well, so much for relevancy! If you were there, I’d like to hear what you thought of the dinner.
A beer fest without T-shirts, lawns, tents, crazy beer glass holders or grilled processed meat products - doesn’t sound possible, does it? But on Saturday, May 30, 2009, the Brewers Association held its 2nd annual 
We started with 
When the Salon was finished, we walked down to the ground floor where 15 4-sided booths had been set up. This event was limited to 1800 tickets only. This is a beautiful grand room – high towering ceilings, massive columns and ornate decoration. It was wonderful to see craft beer showcased in such an elegant and upscale way. Unlike the previous year where is was done in 3 sessions, more like the 
The room was pretty easy to navigate for the first hour or so, but as the evening progressed, it began to get really crowded and hard to walk through. Honestly, if attendees would just learn to walk to the outside edges instead of grouping right next to the lines, every beer fest on the planet would be easier to attend. For the best take on this we’ve ever seen, Jay Brooks of 
We had one issue with placing dessert items, like this luscious Espresso Sambuca Parfait, at various booths (again, based on the food item the brewery had requested to be paired with); it just became hard to remember where you had seen them and trying to pull out the program and look through the listings to see who had a dessert item was just tough to do unless you were sitting down.
Savor - this was craft beer elevated to another level. There was no need to convince any of this crowd that beer and food can be paired well and with diversity; this was preaching to the choir. But what fun to bring dedicated brewers together with their fans who supported this effort to move forward the idea that craft beer deserves a enormous amount of respect, that it deserves an equal place beside wine, that there is more than one beer for any food and the joy is trying them out and finding what works for you. We would love to see this type of fest make its way to the west coast to allow a greater number of our fellow beer lovers to experience something so familiar but so new.
