Ted’s Butcherblock beer tasting with food pairing September 20

The wife and my 5th wedding anniversary is this weekend and we have all sorts of things planned including last night’s trip to Ted’s Butcherblock for the 4th installment of their Beer tasting and food pairing. As usual it was a wonderful evening with fantastic beers from all over the world (none of which I had had before) and great food from the head chef.

1st pairing

Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale paired with plumb glazed spareribs and a spicy zucchini, asparagus chutney

While I knew there are more beers that come out of Australia than the less than extraordinary macro style brews like Foster’s, I had never had any of them. The first pairing was going to introduce an English style Strong Ale from Coopers Brewery Unlimited of Regency Park. Coopers was founded in South Australia in 1862 by two English brothers, Thomas and John Cooper. The brewery is still family owned (the only large family owned Australian brewery) and produces some of the best ales and lagers in the country. The night’s selection was Coopers’ version of an English Strong Ale, the7.5% ABV Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale paired with plumb glazed pork spareribs and a spicy zucchini and asparagus chutney (I’ve got to bring my camera next time…). The beer is cloudy from the bottle conditioning and has a nice copper color. The aroma is fruity with a nice malt character with caramel and yeast. You can taste the malts up front with a slight bit of hoppyness in the finish. A little fruit is present and the caramel from the nose comes through. You can feel a bit of the alcohol heat with the medium body. The beer paired well with the ribs. The sticky sweetness of the plumb glaze was easily cut by the crispness of the beer. The slightly spicy chutney (my wife would tell you it was very spicy) fared well with the maltyness and caramel hints in the beer. Great start to the night.

2nd pairing

Jolly Pumpkin Artisnal ALes Oro De Calabaza paired with Beer Battered Cheddar and fresh ranch

The short story behind the owner of this brewery was enough to want to try the beer right away. First off, the owner calls himself Captain Spooky Ron J so you can probably guess at what type of operation this is. He owns Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales in Dexter Michigan which is named as such because, according to our host, it was the only name that made him smile.

Many great names came forth that afternoon, but as the weeks passed, and spring finally sprung, the name that always made us smile was Jolly Pumpkin. It encompassed everything we wanted to express about our brewery. Fun and quirky, all that needed adding were the last two words; “Artisan Ales”, the description of the brewery’s products and mission; The creation of fantastic beers of truly outstanding artisan quality. Maintaining traditional small scale production, keeping beer a beverage of both outstanding complexity and simplicity, this would be our laudable goal. Complexity of flavor, simplicity of ingredient and process. This duality was perfectly balanced in the name. Simple and complex. Complex yet simple.

To our delight with our wonderful new found name we were able to combine some very fun and exciting images:

Everyone’s favorite holiday; Halloween (Who doesn’t enjoy the grinning Jack O’ Lantern?)
Everyone’s favorite Halloween costume; the pirate!
Some of my favorite locations; the tropics!
And my two nicknames: Brewmaster Spooky, and Captain Ron

And hence was born the strange name by the brewer with the dedication to rustic county beers!

So needless to say, this is a pretty fun brewery. They use a number of traditional techniques including open fermentation and bottle conditioning to bring about very complex beers that tip a hat to the older ways of brewing. The selection for us was the Oro de Calabaza. A french farmhouse style ale called Biere de Garde similar to a saison but with more character. It is 8% ABV and comes in Champagne style 750 ml bottles. When they opened up the bottles to pour a thick column of foam immediately snaked out of the bottle hitting at the well structured brew contained within. It poured a nice golden color with a white head. The tasting cups we were given were pretty small (although they never stayed empty) so a true representation of the head was difficult. The nose contains strong citrus especially lemon, vinegar, funky somewhat musty hints, apple peel, and banana. Taste is fantastic, complex sweet and sour, lemon, lemon peel, spices, malty sweetness. The Belgian yeast is evident with the sour and funk. Very tasty. Even with the complex flavors and 8% ABV it has a very light mouth feel and is very drinkable. The chef paired this fine brew with a light beer battered cheddar and a fresh ranch sauce. Now don’t get me wrong, ranch is the retarded red-headed step child of sauces. It was the bane of my existence as a chef and still is as a foodie presently. Everything that is bad about mass produced food and quick trough feed restaurants is summed up with the fake flavors and sickly chemical fatty vehicle contained in Ranch Dressing. This was not “that” ranch. It was a well made creamy sauce with real herbs and flavors. The mild cheddar in a light crispy batter with the “real” ranch was actually pretty nice. It was not my favorite pairing of the night, but it was still quite good.

3rd pairing

Nøgne Ø American Style Porter with a Norwegian Codfish and potato cake

This was my favorite pairing of the night (the ribs and Coopers coming in a close second). I’m pretty much 100% sure that I’ve never had or even thought about Norwegian beer. This pairing is of the Norwegian Nøgne Ø (pronounced something close to Nugna-UH) Porter with the fittingly Scandinavian Codfish and potato cake with a freshly made tartar sauce. Porter with fish you ask? Well so did I. But damn if it didn’t work, and work well. Nøgone Ø was founded in 2002 by Gunnar Wiig and Kjetil Jikiun who while working as an airline pilot discovered that there were no Norwegian breweries that matched the complexity and variety found in other countries. So he started Nøgone Ø ( old Norwegian/Danish for “Naked Isle”). They make a number of styles and they seem to be doing just find considering that some of their beers are consistently the highest rated in Norway for their style. This porter is an American style porter. You first notice that this is a very dark porter totally black with just a bit of light on the edges. Coffee, dark roasted malt, chocolate, smoke and a slightly sweet fruity note on the nose. It pours with a nice tan head that leaves some traces on the glass as you drink. As expected you taste the roasted malt and smoke up front with some obvious sweetness. The hops and some slight leathery dryness come through at the end and linger for a bit. Medium to heavy slightly creamy body. Wonderful overall experience. Will be picking up this as I find it. Now the fish with this was an interesting choice but it worked well. The fishcake with a squeeze of lemon and the creamy tangy tartar sauce was easily cut with the creaminess and malt of the Porter. I was left wanting more and tried to steal my wife’s, but she is too quick. 5 years today? Feels like 50…. Just joking honey!!

4th pairing

Schneider Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock with a fresh Weißwurst containing duck liver, sauerkraut, spicy brown mustard and a fresh baked soft pretzel.

In yet another moment of education I learned what an Weizen-Eisbock style beer is. Literally translated is “wheat ice bock”. It is made by brewing a strong bock and then freezing it at the end of fermentation to crystallize a portion of the water. The remaining beer is then poured off resulting in a more concentrated brew in both alcohol and flavor. The original beer that is brewed is the Weisendopplebock with weighs in a8.2% ABV. The resulting Weizen-Eisbock is a crushing 12% ABV. The beer is dark and ruby colored with a light tan head. Smells include dried dark fruit, yeast, chocolate, caramel. Tastes include upfront banana followed by roasted malt, honey, coffee, toffee, some spice including slight cinnamon. The alcohol has an almost rum character and brings with it the expected warmth that comes with 12%. Has a medium to heavy body with a slight carbonation. Very tasty. The beer paired nicely with the Weißwurst, kraut, mustard and soft pretzel. The sausage was freshly made and had an extra richness due to the duck liver. This and the spices went well with the high octane brew we were drinking.

5th Pairing

Brasserie Dubuisson Scaldis Quadrupel paired with Belgian waffles with coffee and chocolate sauces.

Known else ware in the world as “Bush“, it had to change it’s name to Scaldis for distribution here in the states. The brewery was founded in 1769 and has been producing Belgian style ales for the past 230+ years. Scaldis is bottled in small 8.8 oz bottles at 12% ABV. Very clear amber color with a light head that wanted to hang around. The aroma is almost chemical with dark fruit, earthy, sweet and you can really smell the alcohol. The taste is upfront sweet malt with some earthy nuttiness, spice again some of the medicinal chemicals, flowers. Medium rich body. Strong alcohol. Not the best beer of the night. Still good but not great. Pairing with the waffles and sauces worked but I’d give this the lease favorite of the night overall.

Always fun at Ted’s for these types of events. Can’t wait until next month!