Tracy, Joe, Judy and I met at The Lake Flying Saucer in Garland (overlooking Lake Ray Hubbard) for the Dogfish Head Beer Dinner tonight. It was a six course dinner. The "social" beer was Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA. 60 Minute is brewed with a slew of great Northwest hops. A powerful but balanced East Coast IPA with a lot of citrusy hop character, it's the session beer for hardcore enthusiasts! You would expect this to be a terribly bitter beer since it is hopped for 60 minutes during brewing. But, surprisingly, it is not.The second course was Midas Touch. This sweet yet dry beer is made with ingredients found in 2,700-year-old drinking vessels from the tomb of King Midas. Somewhere between wine and mead, Midas will please the chardonnay and beer drinker alike. It was served with champagne brie soup with sourdough rounds. We heard through the grapevine that there was 4 pounds of brie in the soup. I can only imagine as it was just a very nice cheesy, yet light soup that went well with the Midas Touch.
The third beer was Red & White. Red & White is a big, Belgian-style witbier brewed with coriander and orange peel and fermented with pinot noir juice. After fermentation, a fraction of the batch is aged in one of 10,000-gallon oak tanks. I accidentally caught some as I was breathing and had a mild coughing fit. The upside was how I got a great sense of the pinot noir juice. This was served with a cherry tomato and basil tart with gruyere crust. The tart was so fantastic. Tracy noted that while it was a nice pairing with the tart, it would also go well with something dark. I broke off some of the edge crust of the tart and tried it with the beer and you know what? Tracy was right! (don't let her know or it will go to her head)
The fourth beer was Indian Brown. This is a hybrid style. It is a cross between a Scotch Ale, an India Pale Ale and an American Brown, Indian Brown Ale is well-hopped and malty at the same time. Seriously, each beer was better than the first and we started out on a HIGH plane! The paring was a beef and vegetable pot pie with cheddar biscuit topping. This complex beer went well with the beef and veggies and cheese crust.
The fifth beer was Immort Ale. This beer is brewed with maple syrup, juniper berries and vanilla. Immort is fermented with a blend of English and Belgian yeasts, then aged in the big oak tanks at the brewery. The food pairing was brown sugared pork spheres. Judy said they were pork balls. Rebecca Keiffer said in her house they were called Ham Balls, but she didn't want to call it balls on the menu. No matter what you call them, they were pretty danged tasty and then served on a little bed of mashed potatoes.
The sixth and final beer was Palo Santo. An unfiltered, unfettered, unprecedented brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing vessels. The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this beer comes from the exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood from which these tanks were crafted. Palo Santo means "holy tree," and its wood has been used in South American wine-making communities. A very unique beer that is fantastic and it was paired with bourbon pecan tart with bourbon whipped cream. This was your mamma's pecan pie just taken up to a new level. If you have ever had the commercial whipped cream with alcohol that almost burns your mouth from the alcohol, then you have NO idea how good this whipped cream was. She added some very nice smooth bourbon to a homemade whipped cream and it was AWESOME.
The manager at The Lake, Daniel, did the presentation of the beers at dinner. He was a reluctant, but excellent narrator for the dinner. The original Dogfish Head rep who was scheduled to come had turned in his resignation and was absent. Perhaps we would have had more insight into Dogfish Head with a rep, but Daniel did a fine job on his own.
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