New Belgium Beer Dinner

Even though I wasn’t so happy with my first beer dinner at Birch & Barley I kept this second reservation to hear the New Belgium brewer and take Rachel to her first beer dinner. I wasn’t surprised to see the menu set up in the same manner with a few small dishes, then the three cheese dish main course, followed by dessert. I’m not a big fan of a cheese main course but the food is excellent and they do put a lot of thought in the pairings.

Today was the first day New Belgium beers are distributed to the DC, VA, and MD markets so this was their coming put party and long time brewer Peter Boukaert was here to talk about the company and their beers. He has been with the brewery since 1996. He is originally from Belgium and has a lot of interesting stories about brewing at New Belgium in Colorado. He definitely has a passion for beer. As he said he could talk about it all night after he has a few drinks. I can relate when he says it is a big decision for him to pick out a beer when he opens his fridge. And then decide which glass to pour it in. It was nice to chat with him for a bit when he came by our table.

The menu:

apéritif

Hoptober

Toasted Farro Salad

Grilled Cucumbers, Chilled Baby Shrimp, Malt Vinaigrette

Fat Tire

Handmade Potato Gnocchi

Salt Cod, Parsley, Pecorino

1554 Enlightened Black Ale

Prosciutto-wrapped Veal Loin

Heirloom Red Potatoes, Swiss Chard, Sage

Trippel

Pleasant Ridge Reserve

Honeyed Walnuts & Micro Arugula

Ranger IPA

Grayson

Dried Sour Cherries & Almonds

Lips of Faith: La Folie

Cave Aged Marisa

Peach Chutney & Micro Celery

Lips of Faith: Clutch

Almond Pound Cake

Nectarines, Sour Cream Ice Cream

Lips of Faith: Super Cru

digestif

Lips of Faith: Kick

I’ve had their Hoptober beer a few times and it is a favorite of mine. Peter said it has 4 malts and 5 hops.

The Fat Tire, their flagship beer of course, tasted much more malty relative to the Hoptober. This was New Belgium’s first beer.

Peter gave a bit of a story on the 1554 Enlightened Black Ale which was a favorite of mine until all these other black ales sprung up. I believe he said that he found an old 1901 book about beer in Belgium in the 1800’s and there was a recipe for a black beer. No one knew that they did a black beer in Belgium in the 1800’s. I looked it up to see if I could find when New Belgium first started brewing the beer and I found this on their web site:

Born of a flood and centuries-old Belgian text, 1554 Enlightened Black Ale uses a lager yeast strain and dark chocolaty malts to redefine what dark beer can be. In 1997, a Fort Collins flood destroyed the original recipe our researcher, Phil Benstein, found in the library. So Phil and brewmaster, Peter Bouckaert, traveled to Belgium to retrieve this unique style lost to the ages. Their first challenge was deciphering antiquated script and outdated units of measurement, but trial and error (and many months of in-house sampling) culminated in 1554, a highly quaffable dark beer with a moderate body and mouthfeel.

The prosciutto wrapped veal lion was good with the Trippel (7.8%). Peter said only New Belgium spells it that way. The heirloom red potatoes were from a local farm.

The Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese was an American cow’s milk from WI. The Grayson was a soft American wild cheese. And I think the Cave Aged Marisa was from WI and smoked. The Ranger IPA is a year round beer for them but the other two from the Lips of Faith series are more limited beers. The La Folie is a sour brown ale and went with the cheese quite well. Similar with the Clutch which is an 80% stout and 20% dark sour wood beer.

The Almond Pound Cake and Super Cru was a great pairing. I scraped off the almonds of course. Peter talked a lot about enjoying American beer culture when talking about this 20th anniversary beer. It is based on Fat Tire but with a saison yeast.

The last beer was the Lips of Faith: Kick. It is described as a “a rich and tart pumpkin cranberry ale blended with wood-aged beer”. As usual I can’t say much about the last beer. Rachel and I enjoyed it and had fun listening to Peter’s stories. Not sure I’ll be back too soon for a Birch & Barley beer dinner even though I really like the place.