This month’s beer dinner at Pizzeria Paradiso centered around beers from the Stone Brewery (we are not worthy). Ever since I saw the owner of Stone, Greg, at The Lupulin Reunulin I’ve had a fondness for the brewery but haven’t had much experience with the beer. I have bought and do enjoy the Vertical Epic and Cali-Belgique. This one sold out both the 6:30 and 9:00 sessions a good 3 or 4 weeks before the event. I was on the wait list and got the call on Saturday. The regional rep from Stone was there to talk about the brews; all on draft. And there were some good ones.
The dinner menu (click to view):

The evening started off with the Levitation Ale and it was mmmmm good. Definitely something I could drink on a regular basis. The goat cheese was damn good as well.
The Early Spring Salad had dressing made with the Cali-Belgique. They must have just released this again because I saw it in the stores recently and picked it up. This beer is the exact same recipe as their IPA but with a Belgian yeast strain. It’s a great example of how the yeast can influence the beer. I’m a fan of this brew and it was a yummy course number two.
The third course is called IRSalmon served with the Imperial Russian Stout. I guess it was an imperial Russian salmon. Not only was this one of the highest rated beers in the world it was an aged ’08 version. Again they used the beer in the food. The salmon, crab, avocado, and beer were excellent.
The first of two pizzas came out next. The pesto pizza was good. I even ate the cherry tomatoes (they were super small). The Sublimely Self Righteous was a beer I was interesting in trying. This is their 11th Anniversary Ale brewed back in 2007 and people liked it so much they forced them to brew it annually. It is described as a dark strong ale. It is black, hoppy, and sweet all in one. It is strong at 8.7% but you can’t taste the alcohol. Apparently this is another top rated beer in the world.
The last main course was the heaviest and that probably wasn’t the best idea. Everyone digs in on the first pizza and can only manage one piece of the second pizza. The fennel, mozzarella, sausage, mushrooms, and eggplant (all roasted in the Smoked Porter) were quite good. I wish I could have ate more than one. The smoked beer went well with the smoke flavored pizza.
As usual the memory of the last course gets a little fuzzy. All three cheeses were good. One came with some fine dark chocolate. The Old Guardian Barley Wine was probably really good. Especially the ’07 vintage. The big alcohol taste might have matured a bit. This is not a year round brew and to tap a keg that is two years old was something special. Yeah I’m sure it was real good.
It was a nice warm up for the semi-annual World Beer Festival this weekend.
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