Thank God for Monk's
The Dogfish Head dinner took place last night at Monk's. Boy, if you ever get a chance to go to one of these dinners, consider yourself fortunate, change whatever plans you have and go. Tom Peters has connections with most of the great craft brewers in this country (and beyond) so he pulls out the big guns when he invites them to host a dinner. Dogfish Head was no exception.
I met Mike, Jill, Don, Jenny, and a handful of people from All Saints Church AKA Homebrewer United Church of Christ. They came down on a shortbus - literally and figuratively. One of the guys in the church works for Coatesville school district and recruited a bus driver to drive the whole crew down and back. So I turn the corner on 16th and Walnut and see a short yellow school bus with a bunch of tipsy church goers spilling out (there were rumors of numerous 90-minutes and 120-minutes consumed on the way down.)
The 6 course menu consisted of 1) Amuse Buche - Escargot, Fois Gras Touchon, Squash soup w/ Mussels, 2) Bacon-wrapped Bay Scallops w/ hot pepper lemon aoli, 3) Vegetable Purse (some high-end vegan thing that was really good), 4) Duck ragout and pasta, 5) Cocoa and Coffee-rubbed Lamb Loin, 6) Christmas Chocolate Cake.
Each dish was as good as it sounds, but the beer pairings stole the show. Each complimented the corresponding course perfectly. Kudos to Tom and his kitchen staff. 1) Chateau Jiahu, 2) Golden Shower Imperial Pilsner AND Golden Revolution Imperial Pilsner (more on that later), 3) Baltic de Belgian, 1999 bottling, 4) Raison d'etre AND Raison d'Extra, 5) World Wide Stout, 2005 bottling, 6) Big Brown Woody Ale.
Couple of comments: The Golden Revolution is a beer that's sold exclusively in Europe. Some Czech brewery tasted Golden Shower, liked what Dogfish did, contacted them, and asked Sam Calagione (Dogfish's owner) if they could work with Dogfish to brew a distinctive Pilsner. Czech Republic is, after all, the birthplace of the Pilsner. Revolution is like no other Pilsner I ever had before. It has the clarity and look of a pale rose wine. No head. The initial taste almost reminds me of a semi-sweet Riesling with a splash of honey. Hints of caramel and toffee create a secondary taste similar to Brandy without the burn. Very low IBUs - almost no taste of hops. I'm not sure if this should be classified as beer or mead, but it was crazy good.
Later on, Sam went into great detail of how the Baltic de Belgium came into existence. He wanted to incorporate wormwood into a beer. Wormwood, as I came to find out, is one of the most bitter herbs on earth. Now Sam is a pretty trippy guy so I wasn't able to follow his story in totality, but the basic premise was that he needed to get a specific type of wormwood from Europe. Apparently he couldn't have it shipped over so he employed some guy to smuggle it through customs. The guy got caught and detained but eventually Sam had his wormwood in hand. He was probably blowing smoke, but it funny nonetheless. The beer is fabulous and we felt fairly privileged to drink it as it was only served once before, in 1999. We drank the only remaining keg last night. Sam said he does not have plans to make another batch....too bad.
I got a chance to talk to Tom after dinner and found out that he and the three other 'Belgian Beer Knights' are traveling to Belgium on Thursday to take part in the annual Christmas Beer Festival outside of Antwerp. It sounds like it's a 24-hour festival that showcases every brewery in the country that produces Christmas Beer. EVERY SINGLE ONE! That guy has the life......
I met Mike, Jill, Don, Jenny, and a handful of people from All Saints Church AKA Homebrewer United Church of Christ. They came down on a shortbus - literally and figuratively. One of the guys in the church works for Coatesville school district and recruited a bus driver to drive the whole crew down and back. So I turn the corner on 16th and Walnut and see a short yellow school bus with a bunch of tipsy church goers spilling out (there were rumors of numerous 90-minutes and 120-minutes consumed on the way down.)
The 6 course menu consisted of 1) Amuse Buche - Escargot, Fois Gras Touchon, Squash soup w/ Mussels, 2) Bacon-wrapped Bay Scallops w/ hot pepper lemon aoli, 3) Vegetable Purse (some high-end vegan thing that was really good), 4) Duck ragout and pasta, 5) Cocoa and Coffee-rubbed Lamb Loin, 6) Christmas Chocolate Cake.
Each dish was as good as it sounds, but the beer pairings stole the show. Each complimented the corresponding course perfectly. Kudos to Tom and his kitchen staff. 1) Chateau Jiahu, 2) Golden Shower Imperial Pilsner AND Golden Revolution Imperial Pilsner (more on that later), 3) Baltic de Belgian, 1999 bottling, 4) Raison d'etre AND Raison d'Extra, 5) World Wide Stout, 2005 bottling, 6) Big Brown Woody Ale.
Couple of comments: The Golden Revolution is a beer that's sold exclusively in Europe. Some Czech brewery tasted Golden Shower, liked what Dogfish did, contacted them, and asked Sam Calagione (Dogfish's owner) if they could work with Dogfish to brew a distinctive Pilsner. Czech Republic is, after all, the birthplace of the Pilsner. Revolution is like no other Pilsner I ever had before. It has the clarity and look of a pale rose wine. No head. The initial taste almost reminds me of a semi-sweet Riesling with a splash of honey. Hints of caramel and toffee create a secondary taste similar to Brandy without the burn. Very low IBUs - almost no taste of hops. I'm not sure if this should be classified as beer or mead, but it was crazy good.
Later on, Sam went into great detail of how the Baltic de Belgium came into existence. He wanted to incorporate wormwood into a beer. Wormwood, as I came to find out, is one of the most bitter herbs on earth. Now Sam is a pretty trippy guy so I wasn't able to follow his story in totality, but the basic premise was that he needed to get a specific type of wormwood from Europe. Apparently he couldn't have it shipped over so he employed some guy to smuggle it through customs. The guy got caught and detained but eventually Sam had his wormwood in hand. He was probably blowing smoke, but it funny nonetheless. The beer is fabulous and we felt fairly privileged to drink it as it was only served once before, in 1999. We drank the only remaining keg last night. Sam said he does not have plans to make another batch....too bad.
I got a chance to talk to Tom after dinner and found out that he and the three other 'Belgian Beer Knights' are traveling to Belgium on Thursday to take part in the annual Christmas Beer Festival outside of Antwerp. It sounds like it's a 24-hour festival that showcases every brewery in the country that produces Christmas Beer. EVERY SINGLE ONE! That guy has the life......
posted by JP at 9:07 AM
1 Comments:
That was one of the best times of my life although this morning was not very pleasant. Drinking on the way down was a huge mistake.
Golden Revolution was my favorite with the Baltic de Belgian a very close second. All the beers were very exceptional. Beer wise it was better than the St. Bernardus dinner, but the food wasn't quiet as good. Looking forward to Saturday.
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