Redcar Brewery » Beer Club http://redcar.druidhillroad.com nullius in verba Sun, 23 May 2010 14:43:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Relish 2009 http://redcar.druidhillroad.com/2010/05/relish-2009/ http://redcar.druidhillroad.com/2010/05/relish-2009/#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 14:19:20 +0000 npaci http://redcar.druidhillroad.com/?p=41 Vital Statistics:
Head Count: 19
Beer Count: 21
Food Count: 21
Beer Taster Count: 399
Total Entree Plates: 209

TotalF


lights

Inspired by the Beer/Food Pairing movement one of the beer clubs that I frequent NOVA Homebrew decided to put on a similar event with many commonalities and many twists in our own direction.

A couple of months back Aaron suggested something along this line at one of our meetings and as one that enjoys a challenge and a house full of people, I readily volunteered our house.  That set, the event seemed a bit like too big of an idea that had too much potential to flop…but I ignored that.  I figured others saw the vision, i would just trust them til I saw the path to make it work.  Fast forward to 3 weeks before the event, some family friends came over and I decided it was time to start thinking about this whole thing and how it was going to work.

Flight 1

Golden Ale / Mushroom & Cheese Hors D’Oeuvres

Belgian Strong Golden Ale / Beer-Steamed Mussels

Munich Helles / Quiche Lorraine

Berliner Weiss / Raspberry Cheesecake

Flight 2

IPA / Hot & Mild Wings

Scottish Export 80 / Chili

Hefeweizen /  Bananas Foster

Stout(Avery Out of Bounds) / Guinness Chocolate Cake

Flight 3

English Pale Ale / Indian Curry

Black IPA(Yakima Twilight) / Grillades and Grits

Bourbon Stout / Chocolate Cheesecake

Baltic Porter / Chocolate

Flight 4

Porter / Sauerkraut Balls

Flanders Red / Pot Roast

Imperial ESB / Ribs

Old Ale / Goat cheese, walnut and dried apricot

Sweet Mead / Creme Caramel

Flight 5

Wild Ale / Savory Cheesecake

Barleywine / Prosciutto, caramelized shallot & Blue cheese spoon

Stock Ale / Grilled Beef Bite

Creme Brulee Stout(Southern Tier) / Cheesecake

Imperial Stout / Ganache spoon

Dessert Plates: 133

Vital Statistics:
Head Count: 19
Beer Count: 21
Food Count: 21
Beer Taster Count: 399
Total Entree Plates: 209
Total Dessert Plates: 133
The experience was an experience in excess.  Something about 20+  beers with 20+ food accompaniments really made me long for the olden days of socially acceptable bulimia.  There were a number of lessons to be learned from the event, in no particular order:
- Beer is good, food is good, doesn’t always mean that beer & food is good together.
- Coordinating people is tricky, but with the right group of folks, even a bunch of home brewers can be coordinated into a well orchestrated and involved group activity.
- People like doing things, from washing over 400 beer glasses, to frying enough buffalo wings for a small army.
- If given enough food to make yourself want to cry, you will cry.  Especially if you have 4 cheesecakes to work through.
- Strong beer at the end of the night, is a hard sell.  At that point everyone wanted water and a nap.
- If left out, even people who are full, will continue to eat until almost all cheese and crackers are gone.
- 20 is too many items to drink/eat in a single evening.  The number should be closer to 10.
- You can get an awful lot of people in a small space if everyone is cozy.
Next time, less beer, less food, more time!  A hell of a good time, looking forward to doing something like this again, everyone learned a ton about eating to excess as well as pairing food and beer.
]]> http://redcar.druidhillroad.com/2010/05/relish-2009/feed/ 0 Innagural Beer Club Night (*Updated!!) http://redcar.druidhillroad.com/2008/06/innagural-beer-club-night/ http://redcar.druidhillroad.com/2008/06/innagural-beer-club-night/#comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:50:48 +0000 npaci http://www.redcar.druidhillroad.com/?p=4 First Night of beer club…start at 7:30(at least noah started around 7-7:15, folks started showing up around 8).

Beer of the evening is a Boddingtons Bitter.  This activity on a school night…not sure about it..ended up being a really late night.

Notes about the brew night: had a kink in the herms return hose, undershot the wort volumes by 1 gallon or so, had to use all the trub to get even within 1/2 gallon of the final 10 gallon full volume.

Beer after 12 hours…
The yeast after 12 hours in the carboy.


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