Dogfish Head Beer Dinner

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.

And let me throw out another great shout out and huge kudos to Rebecca.  She is one of the managers, a chef and cicerone who does a fantastic job on these dinners.  I know she worries about the pairings, but seriously girl, just keep up the good work.  You make it look easy, but I know agonize over it.

Northern Beers

There was an article a few months back about the 8 top porter beers in the US.  Two of them I hadn't enjoyed yet were a Michigan brewer and a Ohio brewer.  The Michigan brewer was Founders and their beer is Founders Porter.  As luck would have it, my sister and brother-in-law's event center, Seven Steps Up, had Founders Porter on tap.  That beer was so awesome, so I wanted to find the other yankee beer, Great Lakes Brewing Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.  My brother-in-law suggested we try a place down the road in Spring Lake called The Corner Market & Spirits.  It looked like your regular liquor store and the beer selection was OK, but nothing exciting.  We looked around the corner and found a wall and cooler full of craft beers!

The really cool thing is that you can mix and match your beers in a 6 pack.  So, I was looking around and found many of the Great Lakes Brewing beers and voila, Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.  I picked up two of those.  I also found Dark Horse Brewing out of Marshall, Michigan.  The beer I picked up was Too Cream Stout.  I picked up two of those.  Lastly, to fill the last two remaining spots I found O'Fallon Brewing out of O'Fallon, Missouri.  I picked the Black Hemp Black Ale.  If I lived here, this would be a store I would visit often.  The guy working there was pretty knowledgeable about beers.  If I would have been alone with some time, I would like to have picked his brain for other Michigan craft beers.

On to tasting of the beers.

I have to say that I am totally unimpressed with the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.  Since this was on a list of top 8 porters, I am going to assume that there was a problem with this beer.  Something tasted off to me, but not in a skunked way.  My brother-in-law also was unimpressed, but he hasn't had many porters to compare with.  His comment was that is was bitter.

Next I tried the Dark Horse Too Cream Stout.  This was a nice stout.  Not one you take and say Dayum!, but a nice stout nonetheless.  Always happy to try new beers.

Lastly, I had the O'Fallon Black Hemp Black Ale.  Although it isn't highly carbonated, there was a fizzy sensation on the tip of my tongue as I drank it.  All in all, not a bad little beer.  I wish I had something more to say, but I would drink this one again for sure.

This means I will have to have another glass of the Founders Porter to finish off my trip here!

Jonathan's 4th Plate Party

I realized I have never posted about my 4th plate party! I claimed the date for my plate to be 2/29/2012, leap day! The party was on March 24th. In attendance were Joe, Tracy, Judy, Lisa, Kelly and Ashley. Lots of good beer and food was consumed. I left very happy!

Now on to my 5th plate so I can be an M.O.U. (Master of the Universe)

Addison Flying Saucer 16th Anniversary

Sunday, February 26th, the Flying Saucer in Addison celebrated their 16th anniversary. From 1 to 8 PM, they tapped two special beers each hour. They also were doing raffles. You received 1 raffle ticket 2 cans of food donated. There was also trivia and some special food. Joe, Tracy & I had our trivia team named, "We Sucked Last Year" (true statement). We also sucked this year too. Enough that we received a $10 bar tab certificate for last place. Oh well, we won something :) We will use this in conjunction with my 4th plate party that will be coming up soon!

The celebration was fun and the special philly cheese steak sandwich with coleslaw and sweet potato fries was awesome. The place wasn't as packed as it was last year, but there was a pretty good turnout nonetheless.

A good time was had by all!

Brooklyn The Companion

I am getting close to my 4th plate at the Flying Saucer, so I had to go this afternoon to get a few (read 3) more beers. One of the new beers on my daily email of new beers (go me) was Brooklyn The Companion. I was shocked and so very pleasantly surprised that this was the fire sale today. Since it is a wheat wine at 10% ABV, I never expected to see it discounted. I made it my last beer for the day. I started with Affligem Blonde (a nice Belgium Ale), then Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale (a Strong Ale) and then finished with Brooklyn The Companion. I didn't know or have any expectation for this beer, except that it was a wheat wine at 10% ABV. I was surprised that is was such a light color. Then even more surprised that it tasted sweet and just a little light. But not surprised at the buzz I had after those 3 beers!

The write up on the Addison beer list had:
This brew is a wheat based equivalent to a barley wine. With 55% malted wheat, this beer has a surprising;ly light and crisp affect on the palate, but don't let that fool you! At 10% ABV you should be able to taste plenty of heat.

I didn't taste the heat, but I sure feel it. I would LOVE to have this beer again.

Peticolas Velvet Hammer

There is another brewer in Dallas, Peticolas Brewery. As luck would have it, they are serving one of the beers at the Addison Flying Saucer. The beer is called "Velvet Hammer" and it is an Imperial Red Ale. They describe it as:

9% Alcohol by volume / 85 IBUsA tribute to our favorite Brewmaster, Greg Matthews, the Velvet Hammer appears as a dark, ruby reddish-brown ale beneath a sheath of protective off-white foam. It is malt-forward with elements of caramel and the sweetness of light brown sugar, balanced nicely by a combination of floral hops and a noticeable alcohol bite. It's a sturdy brew with a smooth character which belies both an inner strength and a slightly full body, along with a moderate bitterness to round out the taste.This beer pairs nicely with any and all spicy foods. The high hop character of this beer helps cut the spice in the food dish.

I was just surprised at the body of the beer and the huge caramel front end. I am also surprised at the IBU rating of 85. It didn't seem that high, but there is no doubt it is hoppy.

I can't wait to try some more of their beers. Get more information at:
http://peticolasbrewing.com/home.php

Deep Ellum Brewing Co. - Festivus Black IPA

The Deep Ellum Brewing Co. is the newest brewer in Dallas (as far as I know). They have been open for several months and I have been thinking about going to Deep Ellum just to try their beers. Finally, the Flying Saucer is serving some of their beers. The Lake Flying Saucer has Festivus, a black IPA. My server was interested in my opinion as they weren't sure it was a black IPA. Let me start off with, I like this beer. My first taste was more of a scotch ale. She said some thought it was more of a porter. So, my next beer was Avery New World Porter, so I did a side by side taste and I came to this conclusion: If a scotch ale and porter beer were to have a baby, this would be it!

Next to try is the Deep Ellum Double Brown Stout at the Addison Flying Saucer. Hint, it is classified as a brown ale. Hmmmm, will all the Deep Ellum Brewing beers be hard to classify?