AZ Beer Week 2016: Part the Second

In Part the First, we started out AZ Beer Week 2016 at Dubina Brewing and attended Strong Ale Fest, ending with some delicious homemade ravioli for Valentine’s Day.  On to the second part of the beer journey!

While Beer Weeks in the past have traditionally featured tap takeovers, rare offerings, and a sampling of beer dinners, this year, it seems like there was a much greater focus on educating aficionados about craft beer, which was cool.  For example, one day we headed to the Scottsdale location of O.H.S.O. (a series of three gastropubs that started out as a bunch of buddies who liked to homebrew – it stands for Our Homebrew Society), where they had what they were calling their “Yeastie Boys” series of beers.  Essentially, the brewers made one big batch of their standard pale ale, and then divided it into four tanks, adding a different yeast strain into each tank.

The Yeastie Boys

Whatcha, whatcha, whatcha want?

After having a sampler from each tank, you could clearly see the role that yeast plays in the taste of a beer, as the styles that emerged ranged from a saison to a California lager to a British ale to a traditional American ale.  They were each distinct, despite looking exactly the same.  I really hope that more breweries start offering flights like this, as it was a cool experience.

The bike chain chandelier at O.H.S.O.

We finished out our Beer Week exploits with a beer pairing dinner at Peoria Artisan Brewery’s Northern Peoria gastropub, only a few miles from our house.  We’ve been to the pub many times, and both beer and food have always been solid.  Coupled with the close proximity to our house, we were excited for a night of yumminess!

Our first course was a Guatemalan coffee cured salmon appetizer served with pickled chilis and lemon oil.  This was paired with the only guest beer served during the dinner, 8-Bit Aleworks’ Black Mage Coffee Stout.  Frequent readers to the blog may remember that we’ve visited 8-Bit a few times in the past, including their grand opening last summer, which was the first time we’d had the Black Mage.  We liked it then, and it was still delicious now, as this version was pumped up a bit more by the addition of the coffee.  The food was also great; while I like salmon as sushi, I don’t care for it cooked or smoked, as it tastes too “fishy” for me.  However, this preparation was super fresh, and I had no problem finishing my plate.  As far as pairing the items together, you’d think the coffee flavors would complement one another well, but it fell a bit flat for me; I think the coffee curing on the salmon was lost a bit, and since that flavor didn’t come through on a strong note, the pairing wasn’t quite as a successful as it could have been.  However, A+ for both the beer and the food on their own.

Course 1

This course was followed by our first meat course, a braised pork belly with caramelized bananas and a peanut butter mousse paired with the Peoria Artisan Peanut Butter Porter.  We’d tried small samples of this beer when we visited Peoria Artisan for their grand opening last November; it was quite good then, and the quality continued on this tasting.  The food was also pretty good; the pork belly was flavorful, although not as crisp as I prefer.  The part of the dish that I thought might be odd – the peanut butter mousse – was delicious, and although it was a bit sweet, it played off the pork well.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the bananas, but Chris polished off the rest of mine without issue; since I don’t truly care for them anyway, I would have preferred a deeper sear on them, almost like you’d get in a bananas foster, to make them really crunchy and sweet.  The pairing, however, was well done.  The peanut butter flavors in beer and food played well together, overall, and we enjoyed speaking with the brewer as to how he created the beer.

Course 2

Course 3 arrived and was another trip to Carnivore City – a short rib glazed in Rogue Brewery’s root beer with celery root mash and pickled apples.  This was paired with Peoria Artisan’s Imperial Savannah Marie IPA.  The food was great; the glaze on the ribs gave them a good flavor but didn’t taste too much like root beer, which isn’t my favorite.  The beer was also good; although IPA’s aren’t my jam, this one was well balanced and the floral nose on the front end was lovely to behold.  The pairing was also good; fatty meat with pickled components with a hoppy, floral IPA – a pretty standard matchup but one that is often used because it works well.  No complaints here!

Course 3

Our final course was dessert and thankfully, didn’t involve more meat (I mean, I love me the meats, but this was a bit much).  Instead, we had a yeast doughnut with raspberry coulis and pastry cream paired with Peoria Artisan’s Daddy Angus Strong Ale, a wee heavy/barleywine hybrid.  The doughnut and accoutrements were lovely, but fairly standard (I suppose there are only so many ways to make a doughnut, right); everything was cold on the dessert, and I think it might have been a bit better had the pastry been warm.  The beer was…a bit much.  Barleywines are some of Chris’ favorites and I like a good wee heavy, but combining the two just seemed to produce an alcohol bomb without much of a flavor profile other than just “sweet.”  As a pairing, it was probably fine – sweet on sweet – but as the finishing bite and sip for the entire dinner, it didn’t close things out on the highest of high notes.

Course 4

Overall, we enjoyed the food, drink, and the evening in general.  I guess this was the second Brewer’s Dinner held by Peoria Artisan, as the rest of our tablemates had attended previously, and we all planned to do so again, date and finances permitting.  The folks we sat with were all really great – funny and friendly – and well versed in the beer scene on our side of town.  Peoria Artisan also did a great job bringing out their manager, brewer, and chef to really explain the ins and outs of each course and beer to us as we tasted and ate.  After attending several beer dinners over the past few years, we’ve come to appreciate that this seems to be a fine line that the brewers/chefs have to walk; some stay on the too quiet side and don’t seem to give out any information (see: the guy from Left Hand who ignored the entire room one dinner to drink copious beers with his buddies at the bar), while some hover over you, smothering you with information when you’d rather just eat and drink in peace.  The Peoria Artisan approach seemed to be just right, and I applaud them for this. 

Later!

Amy