The Big Beers Friday Dinner - Odell's and the Lost Abbey

Friday's Brewmaster's Dinner at the Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival invoked excellent pairings of wonderful beers with inspired cuisine. The audience at the Friday dinner was conspicuously different than the night before. Thursday night was a almost entirely professional brewers and their significant others. Friday brought many of the same along with a healthy mix of beer appreciating festival goers.

The evening was hosted by the Ocotillo restaurant located in the Vail Marriot. The participating breweries were Odell’s of Fort Collins, Colorado and Lost Abbey of San Marcos, California. Appetizers consisted of a ridiculous variety of caviar (truffle, ginger, black tobiko, beet-saffron, wasabe and brandied trout flavours) along with three soups (Normandie brie with black truffles, vanilla scented lobster bisque and roasted red pepper bisque with roma tomato and aged balsamic vinager). Still in the appetizer course were carolina pulled pork sliders (tasty mini-barbeque sandwiches marketed for the extreme fajita crowd) and Rocky Mountain oysters (fried to order and served with chipotle aioli or yellow tomato vinaigrette). They're still Rocky Mountain oysters. All of the above were paired with Odell's Imperial Pilsner and Lost Abbey Lost & Found. Odell's seems to go all out with the Imperial pils, using expensive European barleys and hops to create a hoppy, nicely balance, almost (based on gravity, not esters) Belgian blonde like beer. The Lost Abbey was dark-ish, in the vein of a Scottish ale rather than a porter, wonderfully Belgian-esque with a hint of it's American micro pedigree only in it's uniqueness. It was a fine lead in for the next 24 hours.

The first sit-down course presented Odell’s India Pale Ale and Lost Abbey Ten Commandments. My preference typically is for a Belgian ale over a west coast style pale ale. Odell's IPA is inspired by the west coast pale ale but its perfect. A beautiful orangey hue, nearly to match it's label, strong at 7%, aggressive bitterness with a powerful citrusy hob aroma well balanced with a judicious quantity of malt attenuated down and brought to effervescence to present a nearly perfect hoppy American beer. The Lost Abbey Ten Commandments, and I wish I was drinking one now, was simply lost in the beauty of Odell's IPA. The food presented at this first sit down course was a Baja shrimp gazpacho with spicy tortilla sticks. The shrimp were flavorful and the gazpacho wonderfully and aggressively spicy.

The third course was where Lost Abbey really struck me as being something special. It was the entree course, tenderloin wrapped with pancetta bacon served along with quail breast with parsnip puree and a chocolate port wine reduction. Ample but not excessive portions (leaves room for beer) and delicious. Odell's presented their Imperial Stout. Lost Abbey served Veritas 002, a sour ale blended with raspberry mead from the Redstone Meadery in Colorado. After a sip of the Veritas I started re-arranging the table setting of the empty place to my right so the waiter would bring an extra pour to the table. It's a fantastic classically sour ale, more in the Flanders than lambic fashion, blended with Raspberry's, and the honey note from the mead comes through in a distinct fashion yet blends to perfection. I did get an extra glass.

The fourth course was warm cambazola cheese in filo with lavender honey and poached pear. The offering from Odell's was their Extra Special Red. Something of an ESB, which are never particularly bitter, and a higher gravity brew in the Flanders red color (no flavor similarities whatsoever to what the Flemish do with their reds). Lost Abbey served their Veritas 001, lighter in color than the 002 and again with a nod toward a Flanders red, blended with cherries and if I'd tasted it before the 002 would have declared it amazing. Was it Tim Webb a few years ago who was mentioning the Americans were starting to brew sour beers but were years away from producing something of the quality of a true lambic ? The 001 is one of those intermediate beers. Solid, inspired, and wonderful in its own right but holding fewer dimensions than 002. Webb would do well to track down a Veritas 002. The Americans, more with innovation than tradition but with an extremely respectful nod to Belgium for inspiration, are now doing amazing things with sour beers.

The fifth course was a dessert station. The people who run things in Vail are masters of subtle crowd control. Desserts were set in the hallway outside the dining area to get people out of their chairs and on their feet with a tasty pause before heading out the door into the cold. Desserts this good will start bringing women to beer dinners. I'm not a tiramisu fan, something about how it's always different wherever you go is unsettling . Here, round and wrapped in chocolate it was the choice of the evening. Other options were a warm chocolate cake, something called paradiso, a chocolate opera torte, white passion, chocolate marquie and ice cream chocolate truffles. The beers paired with the final course were Odell's dopplebock and Lost Abbey Angel's share. The Angel's share was at this moment similar to the Lost & found. It's obvious they're doing wonderful things at the brewery, but not quite as distinctive as the Veritas. The Odell's I will need to try later--next time I'll save more room.

Big Beers, Belgians and Barelywines 2008 Opening Dinner

The New Year in beer starts with Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines in Vail, Colorado, USA. Held this past weekend, Jan 10 - 12 2008,This consistently great festival is typically comprised of a brewmasters dinner on Friday night, a long Saturday afternoon tasting and homebrew competition. This year began a day early, on Thursday, with a second brewmasters dinner that was an onslaught of high gravity beer. There were 8 courses of food each with a two beer pairing; one from Avery and one from Dogfish Head. Food portions were small and beer portions, not always the pour but always the ABV, where huge. The evening began with calamari, sushi and bruschetta appetizers, Dogfish Head Immort Ale (according to their marketing materials at 11.0% but according to the evening 16.0%). Avery rode shotgun with The Reverend at 10.0%. The first sit down course was a wonderful spinach salad with steak, chevre and a white balsamic vinaigrette paired with Avery's The Beast at 14-18% and Dogfish Head Raison D'Extra at 18+%.

By about the third course, proscuitto wrapped scallops with pomegranate molasses, the pairing of disproportionately large beers with modest to meager food somewhat derailed the food / beer pairing idea. An example, Dogfish Head Burton Baton at 10.0+% and Avery's Samael's Ale at 14-16% together were paired with literally two ravioli—one for each glass of beer. The mismatch was repeated eight times over. The best round was Avery's Salvation Golden Ale coupled with Dogfish Head Black & Blue. Salvation is inspired by Duvel, but far enough to be it's own clear and noble effort -- far from a copy. The Black & Blue is tasty, infused with blackberries and blueberries, and powerful dark and delicious in a strong Belgian like fashion. Think Kasteel Bruin or MacChouffe ramped up a bit. You're friends won't mistake this for a fruit beer. Another notable brew, Dogfish Head Fort, had a huge aroma of fingernail polish remover -- quintessentially acetone. After you waded through it to steal a taste the beer, paired with a poached pear and blue cheese as well as Avery's the Czar, presented a lovely flavor of raspberries.

It was an impressive event. The food was delicious. The challenge of a massive beer dinner has been met. However, massive beers do not balance well with delicate foods. The serious table lasted until 1:00 in the morning and more than one hearty taster had several full pours lined in front of their empty plates. Heaps of barbeque, loaves of bread, bowls of soup, piles of pasta, even pizza would have helped all the beers enjoy a fair shake. The evening emphasizes the first rule of beer which is especially important with big beers and most Belgians. Don’t go near strong beer on an empty stomach. Bring along a baguette, some cheese, EAT!