Ahhh, two of my favorite things!
On Tuesday, Jeff and I attended a beer & food dinner at Aubree's Tavern in Ypsilanti Township. (Note: This is about a mile from where we used to live. Of course, when we lived out there, the shopping center was a field.) The featured beers were from Great Lakes Brewery in Cleveland. I went in thinking that I had tasted a lot of their beer...uh, no. PWNED. Wrong again--to my delight!!!
We started with general beer tasting. That is, there were tasting glasses on the table and the waitress gave us tastes. One of the GL brewers gave a talk about the brewpub and the beer. I had no idea that they were so environmentally friendly, but they are. For example, they are an $18,000,000 per year company, but their refuse bill is only $1,500 annually. !!!!! Bonus. And we got swag (environmentally friendly GL lip balm and a bottle opener). Double Bonus.
The meal was AWESOME! We started with cheddar soup, paired with Nosferatu red ale. This beer is what we call a "strong ale", at 8% alcohol. It's slogan was "the beer with the bite" (get it?!?!?!) and that it does have. Lots of malt, lots of hops = lots of good beer. Its flavor kinda hits you like a wave...the piney smell, the citrusey taste and then the hops come a knockin'.
Next we had spinach and arugula salad with strawberry vinaigrette and Burning River Pale Ale. I am always skeptical of salad and beer, but this was paired well. Burning River uses Cascade hops, which kinda give it a piney taste. You get a hit of sweet and then out come the hops. Somehow, this worked well with the strawberry dressing.
Next, we had sausage and pierogies. This worked out well since I gave Jeff my pork and took his pierogi (despite being Polish, he doesn't care for potato pierogies although rumor has it that he will eat beef ones). This course was paired with Dortmunder Gold lager. The brewer described this beer as a good "gateway" beer for folks who usually don't drink brewpub beer. It is a German style lager with a sweet malt taste and a bit of hops. Since it's a lager, it has that "crisp" taste that I can't define, but I know it when I taste it.
The main course was white fish with spinach and parmesan cheese, rice and carrots. This was paired with their Holy Moses White Ale, which is a Belgian Wit. I normally do not like wheat beers, but I love Moses. (I also am quite fond of the biblical Moses, who I'm sure is delighted with this turn of events. One the bottle, he is wearing a cute little pants outfit and is parting the Cuyahoga River into Cleveland.) Holy Moses is about 60% wheat, 40% malt with no real hops to speak of. It has a slight chamomile and coriander taste to it. I am not really sure what chamomile tastes like, but I definitely picked up the coriander. The white ale and the white fish...man, they just complimented each other like peanut butter and jelly.
Dessert scared me when I read the menu. I am not a huge chocolate fan, and I saw that the dessert was something called chocolate lava cake paired with the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. This sounded too rich and just...not something I'd like. Once again, Aubree's PWNED me. OMIGOD!!! OMG!! It was awesome. The beer and the chocolate literally melded together in my mouth, producing a cacophony of awesomeness. The beer itself is excellent. It has Cascade hops, is not terribly bitter, and has a lovely chocolate-coffee taste. It is, you could say, smoov. The cake was dark and white chocolate and everything just...melded. A wonderful ending to a wonderful meal.
I should add that Aubree's had a magician there and he rocked. I never know how they do those things and I don't know how he made the card that I signed come out of the box that had been locked, or the quarter come out of nowhere, but man...it was sweet.
All in all, it was a great night! I came home too, uh, tired to make snacks for the special education meeting that we had in my room yesterday though. And I was so, uh, tired that I forgot to take the dog outside (he left me a little prize to show his love), but all in all--great night!! :)
Labels: Beer Dinner
