The 2nd Annual Brewers Festival was held in Forest Park, just east of the Missouri History Museum and lasted for three days (May 8-May 10); the 5-course gourmet dinner, titled as The Ultimate Beer Dinner and paired with St. Louis' finest brews, is considered the festival "kick-off" and was hosted by Food Network Chef Dave Lieberman. Apart from the fine food and beer, guests dined with local brewmasters and political personages. Some guests came armed with the determination to flash their beer cleaves for additional brewskies, but thankfully found such desperate measures to be completely unnecessary.
Brewers who provided the fine beverages we were fortunate enough to partake of included: Anheuser-Busch, Alandale Brewery, Augusta Brewing Company, Griesedieck Brothers Brewing Company, Morgan Street Brewery, O'Fallon Brewery, Schlafly Beer, and Square One Brewery.
I ordered tickets one week in advance of the dinner and had to take a picture when they showed up at the house. In retrospect I'm glad I did this because the event organizers didn't let us keep them as souvenirs.
Two Golden Tickets!!!
For those of you who have never been unfortunate enough to visit St. Louis in early May, let me give you some advice: don't deviate from that travel plan. The weather here this time of year can best be likened to a manic depressive who's gone off her meds - we never know if it's going to be hot, cold, sunny, gloomy, rainy, windy, or tornadic. This year the weather leading up to the dinner was so wet and so cold that the event planners moved it from a tent near the History Museum to an open-air pavilion adjacent to the Muny Theatre. This was a bold and much appreciated decision, making what could have been a muddy, miserable evening a highly enjoyable, if somewhat chilly, affair.
The following pictures give a glimpse into the pavilion where dinner was held, as well as our table, a place setting, and the program / menu.
The Pavilion
It's our table!
Look at the centerpiece - hops and barley and other good stuff.
My place setting ...
Beer Dinner Program
The tasty, tasty menu...
There were three beers being passed around during the reception prior to dinner: Vienna Lager, by Morgan Street Brewery; Fruit Beer (Wheach), by O'Fallon Brewery; and Belgian Spiced Beer (Lemon Grass & Ginger), by Square One Brewery. There were also two very tasty appetizer selections being offered: Asian Chicken Salad with Peanuts wrapped in Grape Leaf and Smoked Trout on a Potato / Cornbread Cake. We didn't take any pictures of either of these two snackers because I was shaking so badly from the cold that I could barely speak, let alone use a camera. However, once we were allowed entry into the pavilion and I began to thaw out, we did get ourselves some beer refills...just for the sake of making this review better for you, of course!
Belgian Spiced Beer
I'll start with the beer that I liked the least - the Belgian Spice. I had high hopes for this one when a server handed me a glass and told me what it was. It smelled strongly of lemon, which must have been the lemongrass, and it tasted like carbonated ginger. Blech! I don't care for ginger unless it's used sparingly and whoever brewed this beer had a very heavy hand with the ginger. It had an extremely pronounced taste and to quote the husband - if you don't like ginger you probably won't like this beer. He made a good point, worth noting here, that this beer probably would taste really good with Asian food.
Fruit Beer (Wheach)
The O'Fallon Brewery actually calls this Wheach; it's their Wheat Beer which is brewed with white wheat, two varieties of domestic barley, two kinds of hops, and the O'Fallon Brewery's Kolsch yeast with just a hint of peach added in. It's an unfiltered beer with a full-bodied texture and it was surprisingly refreshing. I'm not crazy about peach-flavored beverages because all I ever end up tasting is the peach, but this was very subtle and I can definitely understand how this beer would be a good choice during the hot, steamy Stinktown summertime months.
Vienna Lager
Mmmm, my favorite beer of the cocktail hour: Vienna Lager. Considered a "mild" lager, this had light toffee, caramel, and malt flavors with very little bitterness; in my opinion a very easy to drink beer. As an aside that no one here probably cares about, Jay and I held our rehearsal dinner back in May 1999 at the Morgan Street Brewery and it was a fine, beery pre-nuptial evening. Their beers are just as drinkable today as they were in the last century!
Before dinner was served one of the Festival big whigs from AB got up to speak half-a-million words. We didn't listen to everything that he had to say because, quite frankly, after five beers and only two appetizers Jay and I already had a pretty good buzz going. I also have a real problem with "authority" in that whenever someone gives a speech that's supposed to command my attention I automatically switch into irreverence mode. Things that aren't supposed to be funny strike me as hilarious and I usually end up with the giggles. At a beer dinner this is perhaps not such a bad thing, but let me tell you from personal experience ... when you're sitting in the middle of a boardroom it's considered bad form. And it's really bad form when someone comments that her department is a madhouse and you start cackling like a crazy-woman because all you can think of is Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes.
But I digress... as usual ... the AB guy did have one really cool point to make and that was this: the STL beer festival isn't about one brewing company showing up another, it's about celebrating the best and most unique beers that the city's brewers have to offer. Personally, we felt this "check your ego at the door" attitude was refreshing and welcome and thought that it set a great tone for the event. Then the mayor of Stinktown rose to say a few thousand words and to point out that the Chief of Police was also in the crowd, at which point Jay leaned over and whispered in his best Snake Jailbird imitation, "Alllllllriiiiiiight; time for a crime spree!"
By the time I managed to quell my giggle fit from Jay's incredibly accurate Snake imitation, Chef Dave Lieberman was addressing the crowd about the menu he'd prepared for the evening. As much as Jay and I like to watch the Food Network, neither one of us recognized this chef. I'll share his biography with you as it reads on the program: Dave Lieberman is a Yale graduate who worked as a private chef in New York for many years - he hosts the Food Network shows Good Deal with Dave Lieberman, Eat This, and Dave Does. He also hosts an interactive web-based beer school called The Beer Connoisseur which was created by Anheuser-Busch in a campaign that they sponsor to teach consumers about variety and complexity in beer. He seemed like a very personable guy and later in the evening actually autographed a menu for Jay and me - that's cool!
Now, there's a reason that I'm not a professional food critic / food reviewer and nothing proves it more than this: I didn't bring anything with me to facilitate note-taking during the dinner. I could try to distract you with all kinds of excuses, such as alleging that my handwriting would likely have degraded during the course of the evening to the point that I would need to hire a cryptologist to decipher my notes afterwards, or that once de-coded they would reveal nonsense fragments like "when I was seventeen I drank some very good beer..." and "beer, beer, it's great to slurp, the more you drink the more you burp." But the truth of the matter is that I forgot my journalistic training from decades ago and I forgot my notebook and I count us lucky that I didn't forget the tickets. So that means that a lot of really good, interesting information passed in one ear, through the vast, cavernous chamber that houses my little ol' brain, and right out the other ear without leaving any lasting impression.
Having said that, I actually do remember Chef Dave discussing our first course, and his decision to create a gazpacho variation because he thought the weather would be warm enough to warrant chilled soup. Once he arrived in the unpredictable, atmospheric pleasure-dome that is St. Louis, he decided to change cold to lukewarm and presented us with a white gazpacho made with almonds, garlic, vinegar, oil, and cucumber.
Course One: Smoked white almond "gazpacho" paired with American Lager (Anheuser-Busch).
I was skeptical when I saw this item on the menu, but the gazpacho was actually quite good and did not taste overpoweringly of almonds, as I had initially feared it would. The soup tasted primarily of cucumber and its texture was slightly lumpy but nowhere near as chunky as some gazpacho we've tried. The almond portion of this dish ended up being the garnish, which made it much easier for me to avoid them. Overall, Jay and I liked this very much and thought it a great beginning to the meal.
The American Lager served with the gazpacho was nothing special in our opinion; in fact, Jay and I thought it was the weakest entry of the entire evening. The best way to describe it is as a less harsh, less carbonated version of Bud Light. I suppose it's not fair to rag on AB too much, since they really don't do a lot in the way of specialty beer, but we just don't care much for AB products. I know, I know ... it's beer-sacrilege coming from people who grew up in St. Louis!! I should add, that despite the fact that this wasn't a very interesting or surprising offering from AB, we still drained our respective glasses. After all, it's a sin to waste fresh beer.
Gazpacho, View I
Gazpacho, View II
We managed to snap one "decent" picture of Chef Dave while he was speaking to the crowd of more than 300 beer-lovin' folks. I know the event was being filmed but I'm not sure by whom; it would be cool if the dinner showed up on Food Network some day but if it does don't look for your devoted author and her hungry hubba - we were nowhere near the camera.
Yoohoo, Chef Dave...I'm ready for my close up!
Prior to the appearance of each course, Chef Dave would come out and tell us all about his choice and why he felt it paired well with the beer that we'd be trying. Then a brewmaster from the brewery that had created the beverage would pop in and tell everyone a little bit about the beer in question. We were really amused to find that as the evening progressed the crowd grew more and more talkative and pretty much failed to notice when the chef and brewmasters were speaking. Oh well, I guess it's better that everyone was convivial and slightly rude rather than bloodthirsty and belligerent.
Course Two: Seared Tuna with Microgreen Mix and Citrus Vinaigrette served with Weissbier (Griesdieck Brothers Brewing Company).
For years I've eaten tuna fish out of cans and vacuum sealed pouches, but I've always resisted ordering "real" tuna as an appetizer or an entree. That is beginning to change, in part due to the tastiness of this offering. The seared tuna was flavorful and just a little peppery, while the citrus vinaigrette was tart without leaving diners with puckered fish-lips.
As for the Weissbier, this was my favorite of the five we tried during dinner and everyone else seemed to like it quite a bit as well. In fact, we all liked it so much that one of our table mates went in search of a refill pitcher and thanks to her we all enjoyed a second round. This beer is similar to a Hefeweizen but is brewed with significant amounts of malted barley rather than malted wheat. There are some specialized strains of yeast that are apparently used which can produce overtones of banana or cloves. For what it's worth, we smelled and tasted cloves, but it was subtle and we thought it really paired well with the tuna.
Mmmmmm, seared tuna.
Weissbier
By this point in the evening I think it's fair to say that everyone was feelin' fine. I don't even remember the rationale behind the next food and beer pairing. You know why? I was too busy drinking that second glass of Weissbier!!!
Course Three: Creamy Baked Gnocchi with Morels and Fava Beans paired with American IPA (Augusta Brewing Company).
I'm pretty sure I've never eaten gnocchi before and I was a little worried, especially when I saw the word "morels" in the description. Mushrooms?! Where's the little fainting emoticon when you need it? Luckily for me the 'shrooms were easily spotted and transferred to Jay's bowl. The gnocchi were tender and tasty and the fava beans were also surprisingly good. And of course, seeing that fava beans comprised a part of this dish, everyone had to do their best Hannibal Lecter impersonation: "A Census taker once tried to test me; I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."
If you think that's disturbing, just try to picture the entire table full of adults trying to mimic the slurping sound Dr. Lecter makes at the end of that statement. Such is the amazing, mystical power of beer.
Speaking of beer, the choice for this course was an American India Pale Ale. I don't care for IPAs - they are usually way too bitter for my taste, but this one was actually pretty good. It was still bitter, but had a nice flavor with some hints of citrus and just a whiff of herbiness...is that even a word?
Gnews Flash: Gnocchi = Good!
Next up, the "dinner" portion of the dinner.
Course Four: Herb Stuffed Leg of Lamb, Ale Pan Jus, New Potatoes, and Carrots served with Biere de Garde (Schlafly Beer).
I don't usually like lamb and I never order it. This likely stems from the time when as an impressionable teenager I was "forced" to eat spring lamb with mint jelly. I don't know what was worse ... the lamb, the jelly, or the feeling that I was eating a religious symbol for dinner. When it comes to lamb I've never really been able to move past that extended family food gathering from way back in the mid-1980s.
And it didn't help matters that this course started off on the wrong bronchial tube. My portion wasn't stuffed with herbs so much as it was covered with lots of very potent rosemary. I'm not aware of any food related allergies on my part, but I must have breathed funny because one whiff of that rosemary led to a 10-minute hack-and-wheeze-fest that had servers hovering around the table ready to pull a Heimlich at a second's notice. Thankfully I regained my breathing capacity without any outside assistance, picked up my utensils, and took a hesitant bite of the lamb.
And you know what? It wasn't bad. I think that the ale sauce and the herb mixture helped offset the taste of the meat, which quite frankly just isn't to my personal taste preference. The interesting thing about the ale juice is that my plate and Jay's were the only two that were served with it even though it was clearly referenced on the menu. This led to some consternation amongst our dining partners and resulted in a table-wide request for "gravy like those two got." This inititally confused our servers but eventually someone showed up with a monster gravy boat and proceeded to drown everyone else's lamb with ale flavored "gravy." The veggies were very good with this, too - the carrots were cooked just right and had great flavor and the potatoes were soft enough to "mush in the mouth" as soon as chewing commenced.
The beer we were served with this course was something I've never heard of before ... not that that means anything since I'm not a beer expert by any stretch of the imagination. Biere de Garde historically was brewed in the Pas-de-Calais region of France - it was a farmhouse-style ale that was typically brewed in the winter and spring to avoid unpredictable issues with the yeast during the summertime months. I really liked this beer a lot, it had an almost earthy kind of taste that played really well with the herbs and lamb without being too strong.
I'm beginning to think this is a Silence of the Lambs dinner ...
Biere de Garde
And then there was dessert. I can honestly say that we've never tried beer with dessert ... it's just never dawned on either one of us but we're not overly imaginative when it comes to pairing things on our own - we just steal the ideas from events that we attend! And let me say, we could all do a lot worse than to steal this idea and try it on our own as soon as possible!
Course Five: Chocolate Brownie Layer Cake, Hazelnut Cream, and Fresh Berries paired with Porter (Alandale Brewery).
Yum. Yummy. Yum-O. Yumptious. GIMME GIMME GIMME GOOD!!!
Oh yeah, this was the perefct end to a wonderful meal. A moist, dense, chocolatey offering with a creamy, mild hazlenut center. Many of you who have subjected yourselves to my senseless dribble on the DIS know that I don't like hazelnut because it seems to overpower everything else it's combined with. But this hazlenut cream was very subtle and oh-so-tasty and enhanced the dessert rather than usurping it. It was also served with fresh raspberries and strawberries on the side.
Our beer pairing was a porter, which swallowed all surrounding light sources like a black hole. Porter is a strong, dark beer generally brewed with dark malts ... like Guiness, I think this is a brew that eats like a meal. While it isn't something that I would ever order as a drink for the sake of drinking, the porter really tasted good with the chocolate brownie cake. The sweetness of the chocolate cut the bitterness of the beer and vice versa. All in all, an excellent combination!
Raspberries on one side...
Strawberries on the other side!
Porter...impervious to light.
And so ended the evening ... literally. People were jumping up from their tables and running for the exits at exactly 10PM. I like to eat a little more slowly and savor my food and booze, so Jay and I were the last two people at our table to leave. One thing that we had commented on earlier in the evening was that none of the servers were clearing the empty glasses from the table during the course of the meal. They cleared the plates but not the glasses. I'm not exactly sure why unless they were trying to cut down on the probability of broken glass during the meal. From where we were sitting, it didn't seem like this policy worked very well. One of the servers at our table broke at least five glasses; she may have destroyed more but we lost count after the third course when it became too difficult to laugh and count simultaneously.
Alright, who didn't finish their porter???
I still can't believe that no one else at the table brought a camera with them. I dunno, maybe this whole "review" thing is moving from the benign amusement of a tame hobby to the dark enslavement of obsession. I'll have to ponder this a bit more after I finish writing six or seven more reviews. ;-)
Look! Another self portrait ... everyone else was gone, what else could we do?
Self portrait #945 - we're buzzed and we're cute!
Despite the pictorial evidence, I was not solely responsible for the damage you see in the photo that follows. For one thing, Jay would have been peeling me off the floor. But more importantly is this: I would never have left unfinished beer in my glass!
Oh man, this is gonna hurt in the morning.
The final verdict is an enthusiastic and blurry four thumbs up! The entire evening was everything we hoped it might be and more: the menu was inventive and very tasty, there was a wide variety of beer from many different local brewers, and the event was relaxed and informative. It was a little on the pricey side at $100 per person, but a portion of the proceeds were donated to a local charity and considering the generosity of the pours, the unlimited refills, and the size of the food portions we really think this was money well spent. If we are in town next year during the Brewer's Festival and they offer another dinner like this one Jay and I will most likely be lining up to buy tickets. We're hopeful that we can convince some friends to come with us next time. Whaddya say... you wanna join us?
