MxMo LVI: Your Best - Lumber Jill

We seem to have all skipped the Mixology Monday for March, but April is upon us and Chris aka DJ HawaiianShirt at Spirited Remix is wasting no time getting April's going. This month's theme is "Your Best", as Chris explains in his announcement post:

The theme is quite simple: your best. Give me the best drink recipe you've ever created...I'm talking about that one drink that you've worked on for quite a while. The one that you've carefully tweaked over time until you found that perfect recipe. The one you've made tons of times: sometimes alone in contemplation, sometimes for a guest so that you could get their opinion.
If you don't have a drink that fits the above mold, then perhaps this is your excuse to revisit your old "original remixes", as I call them, and decide or even tweak one to be your best. If you've never made such a drink before, then begin experimenting right now! I want to see what makes your taste buds tick. Use your favorite spirits or flavors. Show me what your "drink of the house" would be.
Maybe you have a blog and you've already posted it before; I don't care. Give it to me again. Let us have this MxMo be a review of greatness, a bass-thumping medley of original remixes.

Thus, with the requisite permission (Chris even made a remixed MxMo logo), I'm using a drink I previously blogged about. But damnit if it's not a fine crowd pleasing drink. In choosing the Lumber Jill for MxMo, I perused my past cocktail posts and made a short list of contenders. Even with a short list, I didn't have time to try them all, and retrying them is necessary because the concoctions do not always live up to their representation in memory. In fact the first contender I re-tried was good, but not nearly as great as in my mind, so he got bumped off. The Lumber Jill's virtues, however, remained true to memory. This drink also had two other things going for it: the fact that I half-assed my first post about it, lacking even a picture, and the fact that it was a bit incomplete, lacking a garnish. This gives me a chance to correct those oversights.
She was originally created for a Thursday Drink Night, specifically TDN:Bubbles, back in Feb 2010. (Anyone else have trouble hearing "Bubbles" without thinking of The Wire?) I quite enjoy the TDN and MxMo themes because they get me out of my comfort zone and allow me to try new ingredients or styles; I'd otherwise be likely to restrict my drinks to either up sours or brown, bittered, and stirred variations.
The inspiration for this drink was the trinity of Chartreuse, maple, and ginger I initially fell in love with in the Lumber Jacques cocktail I had on a visit to Montreal; this is a theme I've riffed on multiple times. While the Lumber Jacques uses Rye and muddled fresh ginger, I opted for Ginger Beer to provide the required bubbles and swapped out Rye for my newly acquired bottle of Smith&Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum. The Navy Strength funky beast of a rum quickly became one of my very favorite spirits too boot. Without further ado, here she is:

Lumber Jill

• 1½ oz Smith&Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum
• ¾ oz Green Chartreuse
• ¼ oz Grade B maple syrup
• ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
• ½ oz fresh orange juice
• 2 dashes angostura
• touch salt
• ~3 oz ginger beer to top (Reed's Extra Ginger Brew is an excellent choice here)

shake and strain over fresh ice, top with ginger beer; garnish with a slice of orange and crystallized ginger skewered with a rosemary sprig.

The derivation of the name remains as before:

The name is an obvious derivation of Lumber Jacques, but figured it was a bit less burly both with rum instead of rye and the fizzy ginger beer lightening it up a bit.  Not that a man should be ashamed to drink it, the drink proved reasonably popular at TDN and I very much enjoy and am proud to drink it.

Even though referring to anything swapping in Smith&Cross for Rye as "less burly" amused Frederic from cocktail virgin slut, girls do seem to prefer Jill to Jacques in this instance.
I'm very happy with the addition of the garnish, although I can not take much credit. The lack of garnish and the specific suggestion of a rosemary speared orange came from other TDN participants, although I don't remember who; sorry I can not give proper thanks, but thank you nonetheless. I just added the ginger. I find the ginger-maple-chartreuse to really play well with each other; the spice of the ginger is leavened by the richness of the maple with the chorus of herbal flavors filling out the band, all keeping the heat of the over-proof rum in check while still letting everyone play their part in perfect harmony. Upon taking a sip, the aroma of the rosemary really ties the tree-sourced maple to the chartreuse herbs while driving home the forestry theme. Adding just a touch of salt is a trick I learned from Dave Arnold from Cooking Issues; a little bit rounds out drinks with citrus while both amplifying and tying together the flavors.
So there you have it, enjoy, and treat 'er well.

Empellón - Alex Stupak's satisfying West Village tacos

Alex Stupak had enjoyed success as a pasty chef at groundbreaking haunts such as Alinea and, more recently, WD-50, so his announcement that he would open a Mexican joint was understandably met with great buzz around these parts. Last night was the official opening night of his new place, dubbed Empellón, so I wandered over tonight to try it out.

I had been craving good tacos for a while, as they are woefully underrepresented in NY, at least at places easy to find out about, or just plain find you way to anyway. (Excellent burritos and New Orleans fare are the only things I know of that just can't be found in New York, I know not why.) Tonight, anyway, Stupak was able to give me my fix, specifically with his beer braised tongue tacos.

The charming space was booked when I walked in, but I was able to secure a spot at the bar where they serve the full menu. I chose to start with a cocktail after perusing the interesting list, choosing the "¿Por Que No?" cocktail with Espolón Silver tequila, Seranno, Cilantro, and Pineapple. As you can see, it came with a sidecar with the portion of the drink that did not fit in the glass. It was a well balanced drink with a hint of heat and herbal notes from the muddled pepper and cilantro; a nice start.

There are some fun cocktails on Empellón's list, I next tried the "Drunk Monk", an obvious choice since I'm a sucker for both Chartreuse and new-to-me ingredients, and I had never heard of Hoja Santa, which the menu accurately described as an aromatic herb reminiscent of anise and sassafras. The drink was shaken with the herb and then garnished with an additional crumble, and the hoja santa played very nicely with the vegetal chartreuse.

I had read that griddled head cheese tacos might be on offer, but they were not on the menu tonight. It's just as well, because I had my heart set on the lamb barbacoa tacos, as well as the beer braised tongue tacos. It was all I could do to not order the Chicharon plate, resisting the head cheese as well would have proved overpowering to my resolve I am sure. Those items will live until another day when I shall return to eat them. Tonight's menu had plenty of good looking items to choose from.
Mustering all my will power to avoid ordering the Chicharon plate (labeled "for the table", so it would be harder to justify), I ordered a plate of each of the barbacoa and tongue tacos. Despite an early indication that the tacos might be sold individually, for the time being at least the are sold by the plate with three tacos, no mixing and matching. This policy of course is perfectly understandable for a young restaurant still finding its footing, no need to overly complicate things. The barbacoa tacos arrived first, with green olives and I believe cotija cheese. While they lacked the visceral lusciousness I enjoyed in the Texas hill country gas station barbacoa, the flavor was good and the lamb was a nice twist. While I would have preferred a bit more fat and rendered connective tissue, these were enjoyable nonetheless. I'm not sure if one could even source enough lamb heads around here to get enough off cut meat for the number of tacos they will probably serve. I would be remiss if I did not mention the top notch tortillas here as well.

The real winner tonight though was the beer braised tongue tacos. Moist, tender, lucious, just a hint of sweetness but slightly more than a hint of heat. These were what I was hoping for.

I did try one additional item, which was sent out gratis due to a slight delay on my tacos plates. They sent out the cauliflower salad with spinach, almonds, and chorizo vinaigrette. I would not have ordered it, but I will next time; it was delicious. The cauliflower was expertly roasted and had a hearty richness.

All in all, I look forward to going back with a bigger party to try more items from the menu, and definitely to get more of that tongue. And I'm always glad to have a place I can pop in to dine at the bar and enjoy an interesting cocktail or two.

MxMo LV: Some Like it Hot - Caramel Apple Toddy #2

Time once again for Mixology Monday, brought to us this month by Nancy The Backyard Bartender. Nancy proffers "Some like it Hot" as our theme for this go 'round. She calls for one simple rule: "make anything you want to, as long as it's served hot." Simple enough. Like last month's "See You on the Flipside" MxMo, I initially had designs to finally try my hand at making a Yard of Flannel, or more likely including rum, but like last month time grew short and my resolve proved insufficient, so I'm going with a simple, but tasty, Toddy variation. To begin I began by rereading the relevant chapter on Toddies, Slings, etc in Dave Wondrich's tome Imbibe!, which proved just as enlightening as the first time I read it. I had some Caramel Syrup I had whipped up a while back in the fridge, so set upon that to make a toddy using it and Laird's Straight Apple Brandy. I threw some Bénédictine in there as well just to add a little spice to the mix.

Caramel Apple Toddy #2

• 2 oz Laird's Straight Apple Brandy
• ¼ oz Bénédictine
• ½ oz Caramel Syrup*
• 3½ oz hot water
• cinnamon stick to stir and garnish

*For the Caramel Syrup, make a caramel by constantly stirring sugar in a heavy bottomed pot over med-high heat until it melts and then turns a deep caramel color. I like to add a dash of corn syrup as a cheat because I find the slightly different sugar molecule helps keep the sugar from crystallizing or otherwise acting up. Some recipes call for adding water, but that just makes you stir longer until the water evaporates so I don't do that. Once you get to the caramel stage add an equal volume (as the original sugar) of water and dissolve, the bottle and store in fridge.

I added the #2 because I noted "Caramel Apple Toddy" had been used in a previous MxMo back in 2007, and really didn't have a better idea for a name for mine. Despite the high water content, it's rich from the caramelized sugar and Bénédictine, reminiscent of a light mulled apple cider in some ways; it should do the trick to warm you up.

Even though I did not get around to fashioning a loggerhead with which to flash heat some ale for my drink, I find this a good opportunity to belatedly tell you who to look to to see how it should be done, for I witnessed the method back in 2009. I told you about and mentioned I would be attending the FCI Holiday Cocktail Course, but ashamedly neglected to blog about the excellent event. In any case, look no further than Dave Arnold and his Red Hot Poker(s) for the one true way. Read the articles at those links, and this is what I would have done had I the time:

Look at the fire:

UPDATE: Nancy has put up the roundup post, head over there to check out all the drinks while they're hot.

Compose NYC: Exciting intimate chef's tasting

Last Wednesday I walked a whole five blocks North from our apartment to try out Nick Curtin's tasting menu at the couple month old restaurant Compose. I was instantly intrigued when I first read about the new establishment, but was not able to secure a reservation until last week. This was due in no small part to the fact that for the tasting menu, only ten diners a night are served at the intimate restaurant, although they do offer cocktail and a bar menu in dozen or so additional seats in the small venue. I opted for the wine pairings to accompany my meal, which were well chosen by the affable Eamon Rockey, erstwhile captain at Eleven Madison Park, but after seeing some of the cocktails being crafted I'll be back erelong in one of the other seats to try the cocktails. Chef Curtain recently staged at Noma in Copenhagen, and is making great use of inspiration from there in his new menu for Compose.

Only ten lucky diners a night are served the tasting menu, all in one 7pm seating, and the ten courses plus several additional bites are served to each diner and described by one of the three chefs. As you can see in the picture, you sit right at the horseshoe shaped bar, with the semi-open kitchen at the open end of the 'U'.  The setting is intimate, and fosters interaction and dialogue with the staff. I was tempted to start out with a cocktail, but wisely opted to stick with only the wine pairing, which, I just now realize as I type, was not only the ten pours for each course which I had thought, but in fact there were at least two additional ones to pair with the amuses! On top of that, the bartender gave me a taste of some roasted chestnut-infused bourbon they had behind the bar, yikes!

I've got a feeling this is going to be another long one, so I best get started. They started us off with a glass a Champagne and duck fat popcorn sprayed with rosemary oil, which proved a nice little snack to start the evening off.

Next up was a bite of "Kir Royale" - Champagne Gelee and Cassis Aspic with galangal petal, which had a surprising carbonation effect captured in the gelee, which I suspect were pop rocks of some sort. In any case is was a nice amuse.




Following the Kir Royale we received a Mini baked potato Crème fraiche, American hackleback caviar, and chive.

Mini baked potato?  How mini you ask?  Here's some scale:

The potato was a playful and tasty bite. I perhaps could have used a tad more seasoning in addition to the caviar, but I'm a salt fiend.
The last amuse was perhaps the highlight of the night for me, and with an excellent drink pairing to boot. We were served there "Ocean Sphere" - spherified oyster emulsion with pickled shallots and seaweed dust, which we were instructed to shoot like and oyster, which was mild but briny and quite aptly named. This amuse was beautifully paired with a junmai sake, both had very clean flavors and some umami that played off each other well. This is a relatively new dish to the restaurant I believe; previously they were serving a warm sphere of mozzarella. Here's a review from a dinner a month or so before mine.

Only now do we reach the main meal, for which we were given a handsomely printed menu in a wax sealed envelope on our way out, complete with wine pairing information; quite a nice touch. You can click on the menu below for details on the components and wine pairings I may not touch on later. Regarding the wine pairings, they were very well done across the board, and had some interesting choices, but my comments about them will be sparse; do not mistake that for disapproval, just lack of memory.

 The main menu began with an earthy plate of  roasted baby beets with charred onions and a beet vinaigrette. It was a simple preparation which allowed the ingredients to express themselves.





The second course was new to the menu, and a welcome addition. The supremely fresh and clean tasting Crudo of Fluke was given an additional textural component by virtue of the puffed wild rice hidden in the rolls of fish, and a hint of sweetness from the smoked grapes nicely offset the herbal notes from the fresh herbs, basil oil, and ethereal anise water. The fino sherry was again an excellently chosen foil for this dish.

The butternut squash soup that followed was perhaps a tad sweeter than I prefer, but it was quite smooth and I really enjoyed the maple-sherry vinaigrette and chestnut foam floating atop the soup. It was quite a large serving of rich soup, maybe a little too generous, not that I didn't finish. For me I think it would have been better were it a smaller serving with higher chestnut foam to soup ratio, but that's a minor quibble; the diners on either side of me loved it as is.
The poached diver scallop was the one dish of the night that fell a bit flat for me. It's a shame, because the scallop itself was a thing of beauty, harvested the previous day from the waters of Maine, and scallops are one of my very favorite things. This one was carefully poached at 104° and served warm. I adore raw scallops. I can't get enough seared scallops.  This middle ground just didn't do it for me. It was by no means bad, it was quite tasty in fact, but it was just a little disappointing. It lacked the caramelized crust and melting flesh of a nice seared scallop as well as missing the pure freshness and creamy mouthfeel of raw scallop. The taste was nice, I just felt like it was missing something. A contributing factor I'm sure was that I saw several of the same beautiful scallops go out as a seared version from the bar menu which I thought we'd get before discovering that I was destined for this version. Which I'm glad I tried, but perhaps next time I'll see if they can sneak me the seared one instead. But that's just my preference talking.

The "Rock" Shrimp with smoked paprika oil and baby (beet?) greens was next up, and it came with a whimsical presentation (which I believe was borrowed from Noma). First a bowl containing a very hot rock sitting atop some pine was placed in front of each diner, the heat from the rock excited the oils in the pine and aromatizing the room. All diners being served this course at the same time only added to the effect. Then a single raw shrimp was placed on each rock to briefly cook on the hot stone. After a brief time, the chef came to flip each shrimp and adorn them with the paprika oil and greens, then they were ready to be eaten. The shrimp was just barley cooked through, still tender and juicy; an elevated take on the classic tapas dish. The Oloroso Sherry brought led my mind back to Spain even more. As an aside, Chef Curtin told me that they had once used eucalyptus in lieu of the pine, and although the diners that night loved it, the chefs thought it smelled awful as they smoldered for the remainder of the night in the kitchen trash bin.

The shrimp was followed by an expertly cooked butter poached lobster, the sweet tender meat inventively sauced with lemon cream, cocoa butter, and caviar. If I were to nitpick I would have dialed back the cocoa slightly, but judging from the exclamations of the other diners no one else shared this thought. Nonetheless, a delicious dish. Eamon Rockey poured an interesting white from Slovenia whose acid and fruit did well by the rich lobster and its sauce. Another solo diner nearby astutely surmised that the Slovenia vineyard must have been close to the Friuli region of Italy; in a discussion after dinner with Eamon he confirmed that at one point the vineyard had in fact been in Italy proper until the border was slightly redrawn after the war, so indeed it was close to Italy.

Not that we were hurting for amount of food, but while the next course was being prepped they presented us each a Potato chip roll with Crème fraiche butter; I have to say it was quite good.
The next course was the poached egg, silky and barely poached and accented with a a heavily roasted cauliflower puree, oyster mushrooms, cocoa nibs, and some fried shaved artichoke for texture. This was a very earthy dish, more so than the more common light and herbaceous poached egg dishes usually found on menus, but tasty and appropriate for the cold winter's night.

While the earlier "Ocean Sphere" was probably the most notable dish of the night for its ingenuity and uniqueness, the meat course up next was my favorite of the night, simply because the protein itself was so magical and rare in the US. Compose has sourced cuts of fresh Ibérico de Bellota, the fabled pork from the acorn fed Spanish 'pata negra', or black footed pigs. They have served different cuts at the restaurant, but on this night they offered Paleta, a cut from the shoulder. I've previously written about the wonderful secreto, and this cut measures right up. It's important to show restraint and not do to much to such a pristine ingredient, and Chef Curtin shows his deftness in this regard. On the side is some charred red cabbage and mint puree just to add a hint of sweetness and acidity to the rich meat if desired. This dish alone is worth the trip. (Despite menu indicating an Italian wine, I'm pretty sure they poured us a very good Rioja, which I thought was an excellent choice given the Ibérico. Don't want to overthink this one with such a simple classic.)

We were given a pleasing palate cleansing sorbet for pre-dessert whose details escape me. The Apple & Pine dessert with wood, hay, and juniper was a marvel, possibly the most innovative course of the whole night. I wish I had notes on this course, for it was really something, and thankfully not too sweet. Rest assured the "wood" and the "hay" were quite apparent flavors and aromas in the dish, and surprisingly delightful. The dessert really made me think, but at the same time was wonderfully familiar and comforting. I'm not a dessert guy but I really loved this one. If desserts are your thing, just last week Compose started offering a 4 or 5 course dessert tasting you can book separately from dinner; were I a dessert guy I'd definitely try it out, however I have no idea if this dish is offered in that format. I enjoyed the wood and hay in this so much I'm actually tempted to find out.

The second dessert, Oatmeal and Citrus, was also tasty and comforting, but nothing nearly as special as the previous course. It also was not overly sweet which I appreciated.

Lastly, we were left with one last bite, Iced Honey-Lavender Crème Brulée.  This one was sweet, but for just a bite it was an appropriate amount of sweetness to end on.



This is the aforementioned wax sealed envelope containing the menu for the night, which was an excellent ending touch capping off an entire night of excellent and thoughtful service.

Hobo Hogo

For TDN two weeks ago the theme was "Free Form", aka no holds barred, the old school way back in the day when Thursday Drink Night was just getting started. As David Wondrich reported a while back, there are some rums out there now that embrace, rather than shy away from, the funkiness that once marked rums of old. The particular funk that rum can have is known as "Hogo." The brawniest of the bunch, both in terms of Hogo and proof, is my favorite rum, Smith&Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum, in all it's pure pot stilled 114 proof glory. My favorite mixing rum anyway, for this one is not a sipper. Often the magic of sugar and lime is used to try to tame the Hogo in such spirits, but I wanted to embrace the funk so I chose to see what happens when the Smith&Cross is paired with the most funky of liqueurs, Luxardo Maraschino. I went with Meyer lemons mostly because they were in season and I was curious to try my hand with them, but I suspect either lime or regular lemons would work as well. I added some tiki bitters just for good measure, and the drink ended up with some rough edges which I enjoyed, much like I prefer the character in single malt scotches to blends.

Hobo Hogo

• 1½ oz Smith&Cross Rum
• ¾ oz maraschino
• ¾ oz Meyer lemon
• 2 dashes Bittermans 'Elemakule Tiki Bitters

shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass

Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster Dinner at Colicchio & Sons

Last week a few friends and I headed over to Colicchio&Sons for their inaugural Brewmaster Dinner of 2011, featuring Garrett Oliver and his Brooklyn Brewery beer pairings. Special diners like these can be hit and miss, and this one was a hit, a home run in fact. Considering the bargain price of $95 for 7 great courses each paired with a generous pour of some delicious difficult to impossible to get beers, I'd probably call it a grand slam.

Garrett Oliver set the tone for the evening by playfully scolding the servers for neglecting to bring him a beer as he was standing at the end of our table giving an introductory speech (Apparently they always forget the speaker's pours.) Garrett Oliver proved most affable once again, just as he did when we chatted with him about brewing at last fall's Brewer's Bash at Eleven Madison Park.
(I forgot my real camera, so you'll have to make do with my iPhone shots, and it was pretty dark in C&S's private dining room. Here are someone else's much nicer pics, including some of the beers which I didn't shoot.)
Not only was the food and beer excellent, but Oliver bestowed upon us copious knowledge both about brewing beer in general and concerning the particulars of each paired beer, eg did you know that Champagne bottles were actually originally used for beer and then the Champagne producer borrowed the form? We were having too good a time for me to take proper notes, but I'll leave you with a tidbit here and there. You can click on the top image for the menu, or here is one already parsed into text:

Nantucket Bay Scallop, Asian Pear, Black Truffle, Pumpkin Broth
Sorachi Ace
Butter Poached Lobster,Grapefruit, Cardoons, Long Pepper
Blast!
Roasted Turbot, Seabeans, Coquillage, Vin Juane Sauce
Wild One
Scottish Partridge, Turnip Sauerkraut, Caramelized Chestnuts, Smoked Bacon
Local 2
Cervena Venison, Black Trompettes, Brussels Sprouts, Black Grapes
Black Ops
Forsterkase, Roasted Dates, Pine Nuts
Detonation Ale
Passion Fruit Tart, Hibiscus & Coconut Sorbet
Cuvee de la Crochet Rouge

Our first course was the Nantucket Bay Scallop paired with Sorachi Ace, a lemony saison, or farmhouse ale. The beer is named after the singular variety of hops used in its production, a strain invented in Japan by Sapporo I believe, although they never found use for it. The rare hops used by Brooklyn Brewery are sourced from a single farm in Oregon, and the beer is fermented with a Belgian yeast. It went quite nicely with the lovely scallop. (This pic is kinda a mess, but you can make out the scallop and the truffle if you look hard enough; the others turned out better.)
Next up was the lobster paired with Brooklyn's Blast! IPA. They don't make much Blast!, but unlike most of the upcoming beers, you can actually find it in a few places. The close to the brewery Brooklyn Bowl gets about half of it, check Beermenus for others. I often find lobster a bit boring, but this was among the better preparations I've had in a while. Its sweet meat was meltingly tender and the rich butter sauce played off the hoppy bitterness of the beer very well.

It was hard to pick a favorite dish because they were all so good; most of them garnered a vote of favorite of the night from someone at the table. The Turbot was no exception. Moist flesh, crispy skin, and additional teture from the shellfish in the exquisite vin juane sauce were beautiful. The buttery sauce made from oxidized wine reminded me of Jean Georges' signature Turbot in Chateau Chalon Sauce, one of my favorite dishes of last year which I still dream about. Jean Georges' version is slightly better, but it lacks the crispy skin so C&S's this night could contend.

And just because I never blogged about it last year, here's my pic of JG's:

Back to the near present. Paired with the turbot was Brooklyn Wild One (here's a rave review), which starts out life like the Belgian strong golden ale Brooklyn Local 1, but then is aged 9 months in Woodford Reserve barrels, and then undergoes bottle refermentation with Brettanomyces, aka Brett. This imparts a complexity and mellow tang to the beer and adornes it with layers of flavor. This is a special beer that you can not generally get except at special events; they just can't make enough of it. As Garrett Oliver told us, if you release such small production beers commercially, you make a lucky few people really happy, and a whole lot of people really mad.
Man, this is going to be a long post, I'm only on course 4 of 7. Next was the partridge, paired with Brooklyn Local 2, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale made with local honey. It clocks in at 9% alcohol (most of the beers tonight were quite strong) and if I'm not mixing up my sparse notes with another course the beer we were served was aged for 2 years, which causes the bitter components to fade somewhat. The esters and high alcohol content also makes this beer taste sweet, even though the sugar content is very low. The alcohol also helped cut through some of the rich and gamey flavor in the components of this dish. The partridge was fork tender, and the bacon an explosion of smoke.

None of the three final beer pairings are commercially available, for some of these Garrett Oliver dug into his personal stash to bust out for us. To go with the venison they poured Black Ops, a stout aged in bourbon barrels and then refermented in the bottle with champagne yeast. It was dubbed Black Ops because it was brewed in secret, it existence known to only 5 people at the brewery, and given away as gifts to employees for the holidays; that way no one could complain about the subterfuge. It clocks in at 11.6% abv, and its chocolate and coffe notes were excellent foils for the venison.

Even the cheese course got votes as favorite of the night. The forsterkase, or lumberjack cheese, is bound in pine bark for aging and captures some evergreen aromas, as well as a fine crystaline, sapps, crunch residue on the rind. Funky and delicious. Even the simple roasted dates were sublime. The Detonation Ale is the Blast! IPA's big brother. Not only is it brewed using seven varieties of hops, a nearly all American line up with the exception of the lone East Kent Golding from UK, which they refer to in this beer as ‘The English Aristocrat’, but it also is a hefty 10.2 % abv. Boom!

For the final beer, we got Cuvée de la Crochet Rouge, which is the most rare beer they make, having produced only a single barrel. This beer is another version of Local 1, aged in the barrel for 7 months on botrytized Riesling lees (leftover grape skins after wine making). Botrytis is a fungus that under certain conditions infects grapes (or other fruits) on the vine, but in wine making it is prized for making possible certain desert wines, eg Sauternes. The fungus plays a similar role as freezing grape in the production of ice wine, ie it draws out moisture from the grapes and concentrates the remaining sugars and other compounds in the shriveled grape, allowing intense and sweet wines to be produced. This was the one pairing that didn't quite work for me, however both the beer and the tart were excellent on their own. So I simply enjoyed the dessert, and then savored the beer separately. The beer was delicious, although I would be hard pressed to identify it as beer and not a wine, so profound were the effect of the lees on the beer. It retained very little carbonation, and the Botrytis imbued the beer with complexity and many flavors not normally found in beer. Excellent indeed.

Colicchio&Sons plan to do similar Brewmaster dinners monthly, the next one is Feb 20th with Ommegang. I'd be there,but I'll be in Vegas. Hopefully I can make March's. Brooklyn Brewery does similar events fairly often, consult their events page for details. Here is another review of our dinner, from a blogger who didn't pocrastinate quite as long as I did on the post.