Wow.  Just… Wow. The dinner exceeded my wildest expectations.  The beer was plentiful, the food impeccably prepared, and the company was joyous and exuberant. The final menu really reflected the kind of beer dinner experience I hoped to craft. Let’s dive right in, shall we?

We started the evening off with pours of Sacramento Brewing’s Abby Single.  A crystal clear, lightly malted beer, it had a slight belgium twang, and a light toast flavor.  It really showcased the pilsner malt in the grain bill.  To pair it, we served it alongside house-made beer pretzels, which had been garnished with cracked pilsner malt and pretzel salt, and two different beer mustards.  This was the start of an ongoing pattern for the evening: Chef Jen really embraced the theme of the evening, and created whimsical dishes which dove into the deep end of the cooking-with-beer pool.  This was just the first of many dishes to include beer and raw beer ingredients on the plate. 

 

 

 

 

(This would be a good time to mention that since I was pretty busy running the event, I was unable to spend much time looking through my camera.  So, I got the very talented Shamptonian Institute to cover for me on shutterbug duty.) As everyone arrived they milled around in the atrium, the cooks in back hurried to get the last few details together for the first course. Once everyone had enjoyed the pretzels and first beer, we moved into the dining room, and started the proper meal. 

 

  

 

The first beer poured was Triple Rock‘s IPAX IPA.  It’s a great IPA, with tons of aromatic simcoe hops.  Roger was onhand to introduce his beer, and tell us a little bit about the profile.  I really like how floral this beer is, which makes it very good friendly for an IPA.  To pair it, Jen served a shrimp & scallop beignet, made with simcoe hops and ginger all atop a basil pesto.  Along side of it was a thin slice of deep fried lemon.  The batter for the beignet was made with Drake’s 1500, and the seafood inside had been lightly dressed with Simcoe hops, graciously provided by Rodger for the dinner.  Everyone loves something fried at the start of the meal, and this dish was both light and delicate enough to wake up the palate, but with enough backbone to compliment the beer’s citrusy hop bite. The fried lemon provided a great balance to the dish with a touch of acidity. 

 

 

 

Our next beer was Shmaltz Brewing’s Albino Python – a wheat lager, heavily spiced with ginger, coriander and fennel. The aggressive spices are very apparent in the finish, and it’s high wheat content makes for cloudy, full bodied lager. One thing that Jen immediately understood when planning this meal was that if we were serving big, flavorful beers like these, we needed big food to stand up to it. To that end, were we next served the star dish of the evening, which was universally praised and lauded as the favorite.

 

   

 

I’m hungry again just looking at it: Local squid stuffed with house-made chorizo, served over squid ink risotto, garnished with pickled Fresno chilies and wild arugula.  I’ve had Jen’s chorizo before, so I knew it was going to be good. The squid was cooked to perfection, without a hint of chewiness.  The chilies provided a great bit of spice, along with the chorizo, and gooey risotto underneath as rich as it’s black color suggested.   The flavors in the beer brought out the spices in the chorizo, and the whole thing was tied together by the thin slices of citrus zest across the top. 

 

 

 

 

How do you follow a dish like this?  With the top beer of the evening: Drake’s “It’s Fity” Barrel Blend, made up from 50% Merlot Barrel BrettAmber and 50% Grenache Barrel Belgium Triple.  You can read about the creation of this fine brew here, and see one of the barrels above - it really delivered on it’s promise with dinner. With carbonation, the aromatic qualities of the beer really emerged, and the vanilla and wine notes from the barrel took front and center stage. Even brewers Josh and Brian, who made the beer, were impressed with what emerged from the keg. It had a whiff of farmhouse, which made it perfect for the Duck & Pistachio Terrine with smoked raisin mustard, crystal malt crackers and fried pickles we served with it.

 

 

 

 

I know Benjamin Franklin said that “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,” but I think that’s just because he hadn’t had fried pickles.  Those little gherkins, with their light tempura batter were one of those little touches that really pulls the dish together.  The terrine was amazingly smooth, and had a richness that was needed against such a strong beer.  Scala’s bakery showed their stuff again with crackers made with crystal malt, which provided a needed crunch.  The smoked raisin mustard (the third homemade mustard of the night!) was smokey with a hint of sweetness that brought out the duck, and played well against the brew. There were many requests for more beer during this course – I was happy to oblige. 

 

 

 

Still hungry?  Good, cause you’ll need it for the Coffee & Malt Rubbed Beef Short Ribs with cocoa nib, meyer lemon & tangerine gremolata, atop sunchoke puree.  The ribs were braised in Firestone walker Reserve Porter along with their Coffe and Carafa malt rub for 36 hours at a very low temperature. The result is a very dense, but succulent texture that kept the fat suspended in the meat.  It almost reminded me of really good pastrami. The gremolata was my favorite textural surprise – they were crispy packets of zest, which seemed to have been fried together.  The beer in the dish melded into the beef, and bridged perfectly to the beer in the glass.  I love how Firestone’s union barrel brewing system leaves hints of vanilla and oak in every beer, making every one very food friendly. 

 

 

 

By now everyone was quite full, and really ready for a bit of a break.  A surprise guest was more than happy to provide the evening’s entertainment.  We poured his beer, and then Donnie, the Human Blockhead, got up for a show.  Look closely, that’s a nail all the way in his nose.  And yes.  That’s a power tool – in his face. 

 

 

   

 

Per my request, there was no food served or being eaten during his show, for everyone’s culinary protection.  Even the kitchen crew came out to see what was going on.  That’s about when Donnie started his sword swallowing routine. 

  

 It’s a good thing his beer is 11% ABV – we needed it.  When the show was over, out came the cheese course, which subscribed to the belief that with a barley-wine style beer, the stinkier the cheese, the better. We enjoyed Big Woods Blue Cheese, which is a sheep’s milk blue with asian pear, walnuts and saba.

 

 

And then finally, FINALLY, it was time for dessert.  To go with our Oskar Blues Ten Fidy, a big bad Imperial Stout, Scala’s Pastry Chef Tim Nugent went all out, and served Pale & Crystal Malt Gelato in a stout float with a carafa malt shortbread cookie.  (I don’t have a picture of this one, but want one.  If you’ve got a nice picture, please send it my way.) 

It was a fantastic evening.  The food and beer were great, and the service was exceptional as well.  Jen really embraced the theme of the evening, and it showed.  Best of all, we were able to raise money for a wonderful cause – the San Francisco Foodbank.  Thanks to ticket sales and a raffle – including the grand prize of a homebrew kit from SF Beer Craft – we raised over $1,500 for the foodbank. 

I want to say a special thanks to Jen and her staff at Scalas for helping coordinate this, especially Nick and Tim in the kitchen, to the wait staff for such great service, and  Vina and Jeremy for helping coordinate the logistics.  Of course huge thanks go to Eli for helping plan this thing, and graciously removing the sword from Donnie’s belly on cue. And finally to the brewers and breweries for donating the beer, and everyone who attended. 

If you were there, and are so inclined, please leave your feedback (and links to pictures!) in the comments below – I’d love to hear what you thought. 

Tags: Jen Biesty, Scalas, SF Beer Week

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 4:35 am and is filed under beer dinner, Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.