Sam Calagione, the genius behind the Dogfish Head Brewery, has written his second book, Extreme Brewing, with lots of info on over-the-top brewing and homebrew recipes.
Once again Tom Peters and Adam Glickman arranged an extraordinary gastronomic experience for the attendees to be accompanied by Sam's "off-centered beers". There were also a lot of "off-centered" people to enjoy those beers: the omnipresent George Hummel and Nancy Rigberg, Jack Curtin, Ed Friedland, Matt Guyer and Bryan Kolesar. They sold out the entire restaurant for the event.
Our first course was an Amuse Buche Trio with escargot, squash & mussel soup and foie gras torchon paired up with Chateau Jiahu, the recreation of an ancient Chinese recipe.
Next up were two beers of similar styles but different slants. Golden Showers and Golden Revolution are both Imperial Pilseners and brewed by Sam, the former brewed at the Milton, DE brewery and the latter, brewed in the Czech Republic at the Herold Brewery. Both were great with the Golden Showers having a little more hop flavor than the Czech version. One of my favorite dishes was served with these fine libations, Day Boat Scallops, bacon-wrapped topped with a spicy, meyer lemon aioli. The bacon was house-cured with ancho peppers to add to the complexity of flavors.
The next beer up was quite a treat. Tom dug into his stash and came up with a keg of '99 Baltic de Belgium, a Baltic Porter that I believe was fermented with a Belgian yeast. It had lost a lot of its original character, but being an aficionado of finely aged ales, it was magnificent. A Vegetable Beggars Purse was served next....a philo-wrapped mixture of smoked seitan and root veggies. The dry porter certainly brought out the flavors of the mixture.
A Duck Ragout and Pasta w/ raisins, pine nuts and and green apple came out of the kitchen next along with another 2 fine beers....an '06 Raison d'Etre and an '05 Raison d'Extra! The warmth of these two outstanding high gravity brews really cleansed the palate of the duck.
Here's where I started to feel the food and beers. I also consume a goodly amount of water to keep myself hydrated as pointed out by our server, Felicia, which tends to fill you up.
I love lamb and the entree was superb...a Cocoa and coffee rubbed lamb loin with Greek yogurt and minted fruit compote. Served alongside an '05 World Wide Stout, the coffee and chocolate flavors melded together perfectly.
For dessert we had the Buche de Noel, a chocolate Yule log which was rich and sweet. Alongside of it was a special creation by brewer/distiller Mike Gerhart, Big Brown Woody aka Palo Santo Marron. A wonderfully flavorful ale at 14% aged on the wood of the Palo Santo tree from Paraguay. It was another unexpected treat and added to the Holiday atmosphere.
After the dinner, Sam sold and signed copies of his book to an enthusiastic crowd. I got one of the last books available which I'm sure upset a few at the end of the line.
It was just another great event by the folks at Monk's. Tom, Fergie, Adam, Jody, Bernadette, Felicia and all the others whose names escape me, work against a small area to work in and large numbers of people but still get the job done efficiently. Hats off to these hard-working people who make our experience a pleasant one!
Check out the schedule of upcoming events at Monk's on the website. They sell out very quickly! Hope to see you there!