 Cleveland Beer Week - Grains vs. Grapes: The Kickoff (& A BREWzilla Winner!)
Oct 16, 2011 | dtrivisonno | Return
First off I want to give a quick Congrats to Renee C who will be attending BREWzilla courtesy of ClevelandBeerWeek. For all of those who entered; thank you for reading, and staying in touch with us. Undoubtedly there will be more events and more chances to win your way in.
Cleveland BeerWeek is now well underway, and The Art Of Brew was at the opening event, Grains vs. Grapes. Last years event was amazing, but this year? This year trumped it. The crowd was larger, seemed to be more into it. There was a great hors d'oeuvres selection paired with Brooklyn 'Cuvee De La Crochet Rouge' beer, and Cava 'Freixenet Elyssia'. There was also four beautiful, small plate courses provided by Michael Symon Restaurant Group, that paired ideally with the beers and wines. The first course was a mixed green salad w/ pears, candied walnuts, bleu cheese, & maple vinaigrette.
. It was paired with Brooklyn 'Brooklyner Weisse' on the beer side, and Prinz Von Hessen 'Kabinett Riesling' as the wine. Sidebar: from here out beer is first, wine is second. Just saying. OK, I'm not even going to TOUCH the wine, but the beer! The Weisse was a contrast to the acidity of the vinaigrette, and were very much in chorus with the pears in the dish. Both the wine, and beer, were a great pair.
So, on to course two. Tuna crudo w/ kalamata remulade, haricot vert, orange, & fried capers.
This course was paired with Brooklyn 'Sorachi Ace' beer and Sokol Blosser 'Pinot Gris' wine. Again, I will leave the wine alone. Not to mention that Pinot Gris is the bane of my wine existence. That said, I could've drank the entire 750ml Sorachi, and been happy. The sweet of the tuna, and orange was amazing with the fresh hoppy flavor of the Sorachi Ace. The lemony/lemon grass notes of the hop were a great friend to the tuna, and the dish in general.
Course three was a course after my heart, and one that it doesn't surprise me would come from the Michael Symon Group. Three was a crispy pork belly w/ rosemary ginger sweet potato, almonds, & cider reduction.
Let me start by saying that Michael had me at 'pork fat'. The pork belly was a beautiful, fatty, pork, piece of love! I love me some fatty pork. That said this is about beer... and pork fat. Er, beer. This was paired with Spaten 'Optimator' and Crozes-Hermitage 'La Petite Ruche'. For this course, I thought, the food was the highlight. I DID like the Spaten better with the course, but I thought the beer was a bit flat compared to the other three. I like 'Optimator', maybe just not in the context.
Finally was chocolate cake w/ a sour cherry sauce.
The dessert course was paired with Great Lakes 'Barrel Aged Blackout Stout' and Meeker Frozin wine. This was a dilemma for me. I absolutely abhor a sweet wine of any kind. In this case, not so much. I liked the wine, but fell in love with it when paired with the course. On the other hand, I thought it was so much sweet it became cloying. After trying the BA Blackout Stout with the cake, I immediately fell in love. I love BA Blackout, and the subtle contrast with the cake was just spot on.
All in all, this was the perfect start to, what is sure to be, a busy Cleveland BeerWeek. I hope you have a chance to enjoy some of the week yourself, and congrats again to all of our winners! CHEERS!
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