Dogfish Head Beer Dinner

About a month before the Dogfish Head beer dinner at Pizzeria Paradiso I called for a reservation and they were sold out. They have a 6:30 and a 9:00 seating and both were full. I heard they sold out in just a couple days. My swillin’ buds were either out of town or are vegetarian (or both) but as a single I was able to get in at the last minute today. Devin the local Dogfish Head rep was presenting along with Greg the beer guy at Pizzeria Paradiso. Greg has got it going on with quite a plethora of fine brews always on hand at my favorite place for zaaa.

It was a fine six course meal…

Bite:

Orange Balsamic Beef Skewer

Palo Santo Marron  (12% abv)

Appetizer:

Rogue River Blue, Roasted Onion & Mushroom Crostini

Olde School Barley Wine  (15% abv)

Salad:

Eggplant & Buffalo Mozzarella Salad

World Wide Stout  (20% abv)

Pizzas: 

Pizza Thai

Pangea  (7% abv)

Sun Dried Tomato Mustard Pesto Pie

120 Minute IPA  (21% abv)

Dessert:

Lemon Fort Trifle

Fort  (18% abv)

They were all special brews. Notice that the average ABV was 15.5%. Five of the six were draft.

The beef bite (it really was just a bite) was marinated in the Palo Santo Marron along with some hot peppers. Greg wanted something to balance out the dark carmel craziness coming from the thickest densest wood ever. It sinks in water. Devin passed around a long block of this stuff and it was heavy, I couldn’t pick up much of a smell though. 

The funky cheese with sautéed onion and mushroom was good. This was paired with the Olde School Barley Wine. I haven’t had this one. I avoid the barley wines usually because of the high alcohol content. If I wanted to taste some liquor I’d drink some liquor. This one was quite smooth. Was it the draft? The onions and mushrooms were sautéed in vintage 2007 Olde School Barley Wine courtesy of Greg from a case he had stashed.

Next was the eggplant and buffalo mozzarella salad. Why do they call it a salad when it is just a slice of mushroom and a piece of cheese? It did have some nice dressing and it was quite tasty but what is the definition of a salad?. The World Wide Stout is the other beer of the night I haven’t tried and for similar reasons. I’m not a huge fan of stouts and don’t seek them out unless they are something unique. This one is unique at 20% ABV. That is a crap load of malt and sugar. Devin claimed it had 660 calories but the website says 372. The 2003 vintage was 23% ABV. Sam Adams has the highest in the world at 25% and its not near a beer like this.

This place is known for its pizzas but those first two courses were excellent. So the next two pizza courses can only build on such a good start. The thai pizza was another unique offering. I think it had a bunch of onion, some ginger with chicken and shredded carrot topped with some green I can’t identify. It went well with the Pangea which has some ginger in it. The Pangea was the light-weight of the group weighing in at 7% ABV. 

We all stuffed ourselves with that pizza and then they brought out the second. This sun dried tomato mustard pesto pie was quite good as well. I was worried not being a mustard fan but it all blended perfectly. The 120 IPA was quite the capper as well. 21% ABV. I’ve had this a time or two and depending on my level of drunkenness the alcohol can be a bit pronounced. We all felt this was quite smooth. Like the Barley Wine was the draft the reason? Some didn’t think it paired well with the pizza but I thought it went well.

To finish the evening we had a delicious lemon fort trifle. It was topped with fresh raspberries. It was yummy. The Fort paired with it in a most excellent manner if I do say so myself. Having “ridiculous amount of pureed raspberries” and at 18% it was quite the finisher. And following a theme the Fort was used in the trifle.

Yum