Dogfish Head Beer Dinner at Backcountry Pizza and Tap House in Boulder

Last night I went to the Dogfish Head beer dinner at Backcountry Pizza and Tap House in Boulder, I don't usual drink Dogfish Head beer but tonight I became a convert. John, owner of Backcountry and Keith, head chef conspired in this endeavor to pair high quality beer for each course that were imaginative and new to my taste buds.

Amuse course was a tortilla crusted sweet breads with watercress, morels, and roasted jalapeno molasses demi-glace sauce. I had never eaten sweet breads before and at first the thought of eating a thymus gland had me kind of queasy, but it turned out very delicious almost like chicken, in fact the consistency was very much so. But to the beer, this was paired with Burton Baton which is a blend of two batches of beer, an English-style ale with an imperial IPA that is oak-aged. Burton Baton is 10% ABV but is mellowed by the wood so it can go down very smoothly. There was a definite hoppy aroma and you can also smell oakiness to the brew but it was too big in hops for me but it's my hubby's favorite.

The salad course was grilled baby vegetables top with a aged balsamic and extra virgin olive oil. The salad was paired with Saison Du Buff which is a collaboration between Dogfish Head, Stone Brewing, and Victory Brewing.  This beer was light, with the spiciness of the herbs that is brewed with; parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, it has 6.8 ABV so it is great choose for summer drinking.

Quail on Risotto

Pasta/Appetizer course was suppose to be a tea leaf smoked rabbit but due to circumstances that was not to be but instead was replaced by roasted quail with braised quail-date risotto, by this course I was getting full but quails are small so I plugged through.  This course was paired with two Dogfish Head beers, Red & White and Ta Henket, when drank in order the spices of the second brew pop. Red & White is a Belgian style wit bier that is brewed with coriander, orange peel, and fermented with Pinot Noir juice. This is a smooth, citric flavors but with that wine undertones and at 10% ABV quite potent. The Ta Henket recipe was straight from ancient hieroglyphics in Egypt. It is brewed with an ancient form of wheat, hearth baked loaves of bread, and flavored with chamomile, doum-palm
fruit and Mediterranean herbs. It is very spicy in aroma and flavor and only 4.5% ABV.

Red & White and Ta Henket

The main course was a five-spiced grouper on top of smashed plantains with fiddle head ferns topped with a apple-habanero salsa.  The grouper was a firm white flesh with a delicate flavor no unlike halibut but I was so full that I didn't eat as much so to keep room for dessert. Noble Rot was paired with this course, it gets it's name from the fungus that sucks the moisture out of grapes leaving a sweet wrinkled grape that is the bases for many of the dessert wines. Noble Rot gets it's sugars and complexities from two grape sources, Viognier and Pinot Gris which produces a wonder beer that has wine overtones with fruity tart finish. It is 9.0% ABV so less alcohol than wine.  

Five-Spiced Grouper

Dessert was "Fort" flavored white chocolate cheesecake with fresh raspberries, whipped cream, and Fort-raspberry coulis which is a thick sauce made with pureed fruit.  This lovely dessert was paired with '08 and '12 World Wide Stout that is rich, dark, and complex but very dangerous at 15-20% ABV.  The '08 was well balanced with a smokey, oak aroma and a smooth flavor but the '12 was so hot but there was a strong chocolate aroma but there was a very alcohol flavor.  World Wide Stout is made to sit in the cellar to age.

This proved to be a wonderful beer dinner where I found I do like Dogfish Head beers.