Monday, February 7, 2011

Beer Tasting and Dinner Hosted by BJ's Restaurant, Featuring New Belgium Brewing

Let me begin this evening with a huge shout out to the folks at New Belgium Brewing and BJ’s Brewhouse and Restaurant in Tacoma for putting on an awesome beer tasting and dinner!! If you are looking to convert a friend to the world of better beer this is absolutely the way to do it, a night of good beer, good food and a lot of fun. Let me preface this entry by saying that I am slightly biased New Belgium is one of my favorite breweries and always has been, it’s the beer that is always in the fridge at home and the first micro brew I can remember drinking. My dream job is to work for New Belgium brewery. Okay, disclaimer out of the way…. moving on now…
The night began with BJ’s own Oasis Amber. A relatively non descript beer it was well balanced light amber in color, easy drinking, light carbonation, minimal lacing, a fine beer to be sure but nothing really remarkable or stand out about it.
On to the first course, we ate spinach stuffed mushrooms and drank Fat Tire Amber Ale. The flagship beer of New Belgium brewery this beer perfectly represents the balanced style of classic Belgian beers. It had a hoppy aroma and a clean balanced flavor palate, no one flavor really stood out because everything was working in such perfect harmony. Light in the mouth and easy drink it is clear why this is the beer that put New Belgium on the map.

Next up was an iceberg wedge salad with bleu cheese and bacon to be accompanied by the Ranger IPA (India Pale Ale). If you don’t know much (or anything) about the IPA I will write a brief history of the IPA style later for the moment I am just trying to get down all my notes from this evening before I forget something. One of the newest in the New Belgium line up “ranger” gets its name from the New Belgium “beer rangers” (aka salesmen) who travel the country making sure the wonderfully crafted beers reach their appreciative drinkers, like me. These “beer rangers” had to lay it on pretty thick to get the folks at New Belgium dedicated to the perfectly balanced Belgian style beer to give in and create such a hoppy concoction. This beer is brewed with 3 kinds of hops which create the strong aroma I first noticed when lifting my glass. It was more golden in color with a much stronger flavor than any of the other beers we had been served. The extra hopes and unique choice of hop blends left the beer with a distinctly citrusy, grapefruit-ish flavor that my friend Carol truly enjoyed, this was by far her favorite beer of the evening.

Following this was my favorite beer in the New Belgium line up, their Trippel which was served along a great white deep dish pizza. It had a strong aroma of bananas created by the characteristic Belgian yeast that is part of what makes a triple special. New Belgium uses 3 times the malt and even a little candied sugar and coriander to held hide the strength and high alcohol content of this beer and it works marvelously. This is the beer I like to always have stocked in my fridge, light enough to pair with summer bbq’s, strong enough to stand up to a winter stew, easy enough to drink on its own, this is one of my all time favorite beers.
Next up was a break from the delicious food and a chance to cleanse our palates with the Blue Paddle Pilsner. The rep from New Belgium (whose name was Sean) told us to expect an almost sulfur, match stick taste to this beer and he was absolutely right. This beer slips right in there as Carol said with a hoppy spice filled aroma and flavor. It was heavily carbonated and full bodied. It was a fine beer but certainly not my favorite of the evening

Then the food continued with the main course a wonderful balsamic glazed chicken which was paired with the 1554. This beer is technically called an ale but is really closer to a lager and is created using lager yeast but has too high and ABV to fall into the technical lager category. By far the darkest in the glass this beer pour a warm rich amber brown color dark enough to portray it’s full range of flavors but light enough to still see through the glass. It had a medium body and carbonation and a very pleasant rich. There were very faint chocolate undertones typical of a dark beer but over all despite the color this beer drank and felt more like the ale it is named for than the lagers that are typically produced from its yeast.

Last but not least was the Mothership Wit paired with BJ’s Baked Beignet and strawberries. While I enjoyed both the beer and the food this was the only beer/food pairing that I didn’t care for. The dessert was delicious and sweet and wonderful. The beer was full of citrus and spice flavor and smelled strongly of bananas as a result of the Belgian yeast and organic ingredients that go into this beer. The banana and citrus spice of the beer did not pair well with the sugar and strawberry cream of the dessert on my tongue. Individually both were wonderful and the unfiltered organic wheat beer was an excellent nod to the white beers of Belgium, but the combo definitely left something to be desired.


All in all this was a wonderful and enjoyable evening. Many a thanks to Sean at New Belgium and Tom at BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse for putting on such a stellar celebration of beer, I will certainly be back for the next beer tasting you host.

Here is tonights line up, minus the first two which were served on tap.


 
Enjoy better beer,

CHEERS!!

P.S. These are the pictures Carol took for me, I am still waiting for BJ's to send me the ones their photographer sent but as soon as I get them I will post them.

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