Avery Brewing beers paired with 4 courses at Choice Ciry Butcher and Deli

Last night we traveled through the snow to Fort Collins for an Avery beer and food pairing hosted by Choice City Butcher and Deli.  The participants along with Russ and his staff had to wait over a half an hour for the Avery Hops 1 bus to deliver beer and guests because of the snow.  I would like to thank them for patiently waiting for us.  My husband and I were privileged to be able to join Adam Avery, Ted, Robby, Lomi, and our driver Seth in the Hops 1 bus. We watch Caddy Shack on the way up to Fort Collins.

I thought there would be Avery's flagship beers paired with dinner but to my surprise the beers were the high end and all over 9% alcohol.  Each course was a full meal and just the food alone would have cost over $60 then add the beers it would have totaled over $100.  This dinner was a steal for just $60.  Russ the owner of Choice City Butcher is an Avery beer fan so we received more than a 8 ounce pour for each beer.  I felt pretty toasty by time we left for Boulder.

The first course was Avery's Holy Trinity series of Salvation, a Belgian style strong golden ale at 9% alcohol. I tend to like the Bad Sally and the Good Sally which have been soured with Brettanomyces.  Salvation was paired  with a crawfish cheesecake with a smelt roe sauce.  I never would have thought you could make a savory cheesecake that taste good with a creamy smelt roe sauce that didn't taste fishy.
 
Hog Heaven, a barleywine style ale at 9.2%  was paired with a pork loin rolled with goat cheese, pine nuts, and spinach.  The pork loin wasn't my favorite and I love pork but the goat cheese added a weird flavor.

crawfish cheesecake

sweet potato coconut curry soup

 Reverend, is a quadrupel ale at 10%, it  was paired in the next course with a sweet potato coconut curry soup. Very tasty but too spicy hot for my palate.

NY strip steak

The third course was a NY strip steak with a Cuban espresso sauce, zydeco beans, and braubant new potatoes.  This was paired with the Meph Addict, Mephistopheles is a 16% stout with coffee beans from the Blind Bean Coffee.

A salad course had mixed greens, walnuts, grapes, and a honey Depuceleuse dressing paired with Depuceleuse,  100%  brettanomyces  with sour cherries ale then aged in Zinfandel barrels for a year. This ale is 9.7% alcohol and doesn't taste overly alcoholic.  And this beer has been aged even more since it's release in April 2010.

smores pie with fired marshmallow

The dessert course was a smores pie with a fired marshmallow paired with Czar, a 11% alcohol imperial stout.  This imperial stout was a great beer to pair with the smores pie. The marshmallow was individually placed on the pie and then was set on fire.  A really cool dessert.  I really couldn't enjoy the dessert because of the large portions of each course was too filling.

I give the overall dinner and beer pairing thumbs up.  Russ and his staff did a wonderful job for this dinner.