Imagine a well prepared five course meal.
Now imagine a well prepared five course meal specifically created to pair with five different beers.
Recently I was privileged enough to be invited to a beer dinner at Rudyard's in Houston, TX. Five delectable brews from the Global Beer portfolio were selected including:
Wittekerke Double Wit
Biere Du Boucanier Red
Poperings Hommel
Piraat
Troubadour Imperial Stout
First pairing was the Wittekerke Double Wit, which was deliciously calm in flavor.
This was paired with mussels cooked in the beer itself, along with a tostada with classic ingredients plus fried clams.
Second the Biere Du Boucanier Red. This beer has high carbonation and distinct almost Smarties flavors. Quite the experience.
This home-grown dish was a spicy treat. An almost Thai-slaw with Texas grown shiitake mushrooms only touched by hand the day they were picked. This was one of the best pairings, being that both the beer and food accentuated each other.
Third, my favorite, was the Poperings Hommel. This beer embodies everything I desire in a beer (with a Belgian twist). As you may or may not know, my favorite beer style is the pilsner, but only when done well. A full flavored refreshing pilsner in my opinion displays the brewers skills far better than a gigantic full-o-ingredients beer. Either way, this is what I would consider a nice hoppy Belgian version of what a true beer should be. The hops are not intense like in American beers, but subtle and crisp making this (at 7.5% ABV) a great session-able brew.
Now that I have strayed off topic, the dish that was paired with the Poperings.
Eggs. I love eggs... deviled eggs to be exact, made with bleu cheese and prosciutto. The asparagus looking sprigs you see on top are actually HOP VINES! Pickled hop vines were ordered from afar to top this one off.
Next we consumed Piraat, historically an IPA, but more well known now as a tripel. At 10.5% ABV, this one will trick you into drinking far more than you should, plummeting you into an abyss of drunken dreams. Not really, because we are all of course responsible adults.
An almost Hawaiian/Southern fusion accompanied this one. Pork shoulder with a pineapple/passion fruit/mustard seed (and something else) relish, with cauliflower puree. I found that the puree paired very well with the Piraat, while the protein was mainly delicious filler.
And of course last but not least the dessert. Now either I was too consumed by the food (ironic?) or had slipped past the attention barrier, but I did not get the entire description of this one.
The beer that was paired with dessert was the Troubadour Imperial Stout. Sweet and distinctly Belgian in many of its characteristics, including mouthfeel and carbonation, this one is similar to the imperial stouts enjoyed in the USA but with such a great evolution.
The mystery pastry had a puree of what I believe was dates or figs and cherries. The cheese on top was Chimay cheese. Mmmmmm.
All in all I had the best time.
Check out Rudyard's Pub. Each month they have a different beer dinner focusing on a different collections of beers.
Op uw gezondheid!
