Throwing Choclate Cake into The Abyss

As any beer geek knows... when presented with even the most simple of questions pertaining to beer, it's easy to start spouting off fact after opinion, often straying so far from the question initially posed to you, it's hard to find your way back. We begin talking about breweries we've visited, brewers we've talked to, the place in town to find the best selection of beer and absolutely everything in between...

I found myself in one such conversation last December while attending my company's holiday party. After being introduced by one of my co-workers to his wife as "the musician and beer guy" (two titles I could never even CONSIDER contesting), I found myself wrapped up in a half hour long conversation focused solely on beer... actually, there was a little bit of music talk peppered in there, but that's for another blog. Nancy was fully content asking a question and then listening to me ramble on about all of my favorite beers and why I loved them so much for what seemed like increments far too long for anyone to tolerate, let alone actually process and be even further curious. After our conversation, we parted ways, headed to our respective tables and enjoyed our respective libations.

Fast forward about a month to when I receive an email in my inbox, simply titled "beer". BOOM!... if there's anything that can pull me out of the painfully mundane droll of administration, it's an email entitled "beer". Nancy went into detail on envisioning hosting a beer party of sorts. My enthusiasm about beer at the holiday party had apparently piqued her interest so much so that she wanted to hold a full 4 course meal with pairings and education all the way trough!

Now, I have no prior experience with hosting any type of beer party, let alone putting together a full dinner pairing, but I was absolutely up to the challenge... provided I could get a little bit of help from a couple of friends.

Over the course of the next month and a half, a menu was nailed down and Jay, Craig and myself were left to do the rest. We did our research and delved into the annals of our beer knowledge to come up with some spectacular pairings for the night. We really wanted to make sure that while we were pouring a few beers that people had likely never heard of or tried before, we were also presenting some solid standbys in order to show everyone there that really, really good beer is easily accessible just about anywhere.

After a brief trip up to bottle barn and a stop off at Russian River Brewing Company, we found ourselves with the following lineup:

Fresh vegetable platter - The Bruery "Orchard White" Belgian style wit beer
Fried Mozzarella and Marinara / Pita & Spicy Hummus - Deschutes "Mirror Pond" Pale Ale
Hearts of romaine salad with pear, candied walnuts and blue cheese dressing - Russian River Brewing Company "Russian River IPA"
Blackened Mediterranean flank steak / Felafel w/ yogurt sauce - Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. "Bigfoot" American Style Barleywine '10 release
Decadent Chocolate Cake - Deschutes "The Abyss" Russian Imperial Stout '09 release

Bonus - Russian River Brewing Company "Consecration" American Wild Ale

All of our pairings worked out from top to bottom... but I have to say that the no brainer of the evening was chocolate cake and "The Abyss". Both offerings that we poured from Deschutes were eye opening beers for me when I first started really getting into craft beer. "Mirror Pond" was the craft beer that introduced me to craft beer and "The Abyss" was my first true beer revelation... the type of beer that starts making you think that you'd really like to earn a living in the craft beer industry. It was wonderful to have finished up the pairings with what was widely considered the best of the night.

Not only did we pair all of the beer with all of the food, but we were there to speak, educate and answer any questions that anyone may have had about beer... and there were plenty of questions. The most exciting observation of the night was not that so many wine drinkers were as excited by and enjoying beer as much as they were, but the simple fact that they were so very interested... though it was also really exciting hearing so many people say "you guys should do this for a living".

There is a true shift coming down the pipe for craft beer. More and more people are interested in what the craft beer world has to offer and events such as this one are the perfect avenue to advocating that which is great beer. I don't know that we stepped away from this dinner with 20 new converts on our hands, but I do know that 20 people came away from a beer dinner that they will be talking with their friends about, telling them what an experience it was. Next time they walk through the beer aisle at Safeway or Raleys, they may grab a case of Mirror Pond... or even ask the gentleman stocking the aisle if they carry Bigfoot or The Abyss... and that makes me feel good.

-Eliott

PS favorite part of the night #2 was seeing everyone's reaction to consecration... As a disclaimer, we made sure to let people know what they were in for and that it was only a demonstration of what beer could be... something to turn their expectations upside down... and it was a success. I liked it with the chocolate cake ;)