DC Beer Week: Founders Brewery dinner

Birch & Barley scheduled a Founders beer dinner this week and a New Belgium beer dinner next week. I preferred the Founders dinner because the founder of Founders was to be there but unfortunately it was sold out when I tried to make reservations. I put my name on the waiting list and didn’t expect much. Sure enough the night before I got a call from a last minute cancellation. After a crazy day at work Teri and I headed over for the 7:00 dinner.

When we arrived 10 minutes before 7:00 they weren’t letting people in the restaurant area downstairs so we hung outside for 15 minutes. The dinner started a little late and went slowly but it was very well put together and I’m sure it took lots of time to prepare each course. It was a great beer line up with beers formally only available at the brewery. It turned out to be an excellent dinner overall although on the light side. The menu:

Apéritif

All Day IPA

Crudo Of Spanish Mackerel

Heirloom Tomatoes & Gooseberries

Cerise

Torchon Of Foie Gras

Spiced Almond Purée, Frisee, Mâche

Blushing Monk 2011

Grilled Skirt Steak

Toasted Farro, Mustard Greens, Roasted Cauliflower

Cashew Mountain Brown

Quicke’s Cheddar

Pinenut Butter & Micro Arugula

10K IPA

Ossau-Iraty Vieille

Dried Currants & Candied Almonds

Founders Imperial Stout

Roquefort D’Argental

Port Wine-Glazed Figs & Micro Celery

Nemesis 2010

Classic Peach Shortcake

Creme Fraiche Biscuit, Bourbon Caramel, Virginia Peaches

KBS 2011

Digestif

Devil Dancer 2011

The co-founder of Founders Brewery, Dave Engbers, was in DC for his first time and on hand to talk about the brewery and beers. He was a pretty cool and straight forward guy. The dinner consisted of nine beers and five “courses”. The main course combined three of the cheese pairings which is how they came up with five. Greg Engert, the Birch & Barley beer director, first talked about how they put the dinner together and then introduced Dave from Founders. Dave talked about All Day IPA a little and gave a quick background of the brewery. Founders seemed to have a similar story to other breweries from the 1990’s that are still around. Investors thought they were crazy and it took many years of hard work to convince distributors and bar owners. Craft beer finally came around and in the last five years they have had trouble meeting capacity and have been growing tremendously each year.

The All Day IPA was an excellent beer. As the name implies it is a session beer at only 4.5%. And as Dave from Founders said they don’t do small beers. It had a great grapefruit smell and taste. A wonderful beer. A little light bodied but with all the aroma and taste. Something you could drink all day. Dave said this was going to be a regular Founders beer and should be available in March.

The mackerel, tomatoes and gooseberries were good. The mackerel was served basically uncooked. Teri is not a fan of sushi but she liked it. Of course I didn’t eat the tomatoes. But tasting the Cerise I can see how it would be an excellent pairing with tomatoes. Dave said that they used to brew a raspberry beer and when the auto industry in Michigan took a dive they decided to use local cherries instead. He said 90% of the cherries in the country come from his area in Michigan. So they made this cherry beer to help the local farmers.

I’m not a fan of foie gras but I gave it a shot. It wasn’t too bad with the salad type stuff around it. I can enjoy a lot of things when they are paired with a Blushing Monk. I visited ChurchKey for this specific beer awhile ago. Dave said they use 33,000 lbs of fresh raspberries and they do not make any money on this beer.

They served their pretzel bread at one point between courses. All their breads are wonderful.

The grilled skirt steak was the heartiest of the courses. Everyone commented on how good the roasted cauliflower was. And it was pretty good. Not sure I’ve had roasted cauliflower before. This was paired with the Cashew Mountain Brown ale. This was a favorite beer among everyone. As Dave said “nothing we release is going to be schwag”. He also called is a “stupid good beer”. Apparently he likes his own beer. This is a bourbon barrel aged beer. Roasted cashews were used in the brewing process and the beer is usually only available at the brewery tap room.

Next came three cheese dishes all as one course. And three beers to go along with each one. Each cheese and beer had a unique character and the pairings worked well together. The cheddar and the hoppy 10K IPA were good. The 10K is supposed to be an imperial west coast IPA. I’m not much of a blue cheese fan so I didn’t eat the Roquefort D’Argental. It’s supposed to be one of the best blue cheeses in the world. I did drink the Imperial Stout and Nemesis though. The Nemesis is an annual beer but they do it differently each year. Apparently they had trademark issues with this beer.

The dessert dish was nice. The bourbon caramel went well with the KBS 2011 which is aged in bourbon barrels. It used to be called Kentucky Bourbon Stout but they had to change the name for legal reasons. Same with Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS).

We finished off the night with a Devil Dancer. A triple IPA. This beer is dry hopped with ten different types of hopes (can you taste each one?) and over 12% ABV. Dave said this was an example of “fuckery” where they take an existing style and fuck with it. He also said it smells like sweet bong water which I didn’t understand too well.

The dinner was excellent. Although for the price we felt sorta jipped that we were still hungry. It was great to hear from Dave and get a chance to talk to him. It is always nice to put a personality to a brewery.