Not content with driving 2,000 kilometres across the province to bring back rare and interesting brews to showcase at his pubs during B.C. Craft Beer Month, Kooner Hospitality Group CEO Micah Noble decided to lay on a couple of banquets as well.
Designed as another salute to the brewers that give us wonderful beer, as well as another showcase for craft beer and its incredible pairing qualities, Noble’s first brewmasters dinner was held at Richmond’s Pumphouse Pub on Oct. 19.
Seeing the impressive menu and lineup of brewers at the Pumphouse ahead of the subsequent dinner at sister pub the Hop and Vine – and seeing as I’m only a five-minute Burnaby bus ride from the latter – it was a no-brainer for me to pop along to the Hop this past Friday to raise my own glass and tuck in to executive chef Daniela Iaci’s six courses.
Hop and Vine in full hop
Long tables had been set up to meander through the main room of the pub, and the Good Lady Wife and I were seated at one of the tables just off this row.
In attendance were the brewers of all six featured beers, only four of which were technically from B.C. (But when the beer is this good, you can let the odd detail slide.)
Each brewer was invited to say a few words about their beer being poured before each course was served, which was a really nice touch: Food and drink always tastes so much better when you understand it before you eat it.
As an added bonus, the team from The Peak FM radio station were in the house delivering tunes and providing a warmup for two acts in their Peak Performance Project. Tobacco Brown’s one-man-and-guitar act kept diners entertained during the dinner, while Gay Nineties provided a pleasing pop-rock digestif for afters.
Tobacco Brown
Somewhat bizarrely, the beer digestif came with the first course.
In a bold move, a 10.5% barrel-aged sour brown ale called Thor’s Oakuinox by Seattle’s Odin Brewing was paired with filo-wrapped camembert and a bacon/raisin relish to kick off the dinner.
If the idea was to loosen people’s jaws, it certainly worked. This is a beer worth talking about, and it’s easy to see why it ran dry within an hour at this summer’s Central City caskival. An uncarbonated ale, Oakuinox is incredibly smooth and almost absurdly easy to drink for its strength. It features massive dark fruit notes and a chocolatey depth that balance incredibly with the sour tang.
Most of the pairing magic here happened with the relish, the raisins finding a natural affinity with the beer’s plumminess, while the salty bacon was a wonderful foil for the sourness. The almost port-like bourbon richness of the beer, meanwhile, proved a natural match for the mild but rich cheese. A winner all round.
Next up was a B.C. classic, with Central City’s Gary Lohin stepping up to introduce his globe-straddling Red Racer ESB.
Lohin brought along a cask, God bless him, which only makes this beer more smooth, refined and beautiful.
With its lovely malty depth, it offered a great match for the tempura salmon with ponzu aioli in what was a different take on the classic pub pairing of fish n’ chips and pint of bitter. Interestingly, the bright hops flavours of the ESB found a magical match with the garlic of the aioli, as well as the citrus of the ponzu.
The next beer came from Ontario’s Double Trouble Brewing, namely the Hops and Robbers IPA (great name and great label, too).
It’s an easier-going IPA than most West Coast hop bombs and certainly seemed fragrant enough, but I can’t help feeling its subtleties got lost in the barrage of flavours that had come before. Also fragrant was the chicken tikka masala served with it, although there wasn’t quite enough depth to the sauce. Pleasant enough, and a good pairing, but this course didn’t quite hit the preceding heights.
Course 4 featured a beer I’ve long sought: Townsite Brewing’s Timewarp wet-hopped pale ale.
It’s a beautiful beer, full of bright citrus aromas and a hearty bitterness to balance the juicy-sweet malt. Brewmaster Cedric Dauchot later told me they’d used a lot of wild hops from gardens and fields around Powell River, making it quite the community beer.
Those sparkling hops flavours found a great match in the zingy Thai salad that came with the shrimp wontons. The meaty shrimp itself teamed really well with the malty depths of the ale, whose generous carbonation lifted the fattiness of the deep-fried dough.
I discovered the B.C. craft beer scene shortly after the legendary DIX BBQ and Brewery closed its doors, but it’s always been clear how much reverence is held for its former brewmasters. One of them, Tony Dewald, was at the Hop on Friday in his new role as brewmaster at Dead Frog, where he’s been given licence to tweak some of the brewery’s lineup.
As a result, Dead Frog’s classic Nut Brown now features a slight smokiness, which allowed it to meld with the smoked sausage in the infused risotto. The beer’s carbonation certainly helped brighten the rich creaminess of the dish, which was a little gritty, while there was a natural affinity in the nuttiness of both beer and asiago cheese. I didn’t think this pairing would work, but somehow it did.
As we stumbled into the final course, Chef Iaci made it easy for us with a straightforward pairing that was no less delicious: Roasted pumpkin bread pudding paired with Parallel 49’s imperial pumpkin ale. The pudding itself was light but found occasional explosions of sweetness in lovely nuggets of caramelized pecan, which teamed superbly with the deep, smooth, rich, chocolately notes and spices of the beer. Yum and yummier.
By this point, the pub was in something of a party atmosphere: much mingling, lively chatter and clinking of glasses. It seemed a fitting end to my Craft Beer Month this year, and I really hope Micah Noble and his team come up with some other crazy scheme for 2013 (or just repeat the 2,000-km road trip, which, let’s be fair, was crazy enough) to provide a backbone for the month of festivities.
A great effort by the Kooner team and, don’t forget, they’ve still got a lot of rare and delicious road-trip beer to get through at the Hop and Vine and Pumphouse. Bon voyage!
