Event: Cavalier Creation Degustation
Venue: Slowbeer
Date: May 21, 2013
Good Beer Week Stream: Foodie
The Event
Collaboration and craft beer are no strangers; whether it’s between two breweries or your favourite coffee roaster and brewer making a coffee porter, the craft beer industry just seems to play well with others. On Tuesday night another Good Beer Week event unfolded in the spirit of collaboration, bringing together Andrew, Steve and Hugh from Cavalier Brewing with chef Mat Beyer from Virginia Plain at Slowbeer in Richmond.
Over four courses in Slowbeer’s intimate but casual setting, Mat sent out dishes that had been designed to pair with each of the Cavalier beers on show. The beers themselves were a little experimental, new twists on their regular beers producing just a single keg of each especially for the event.
In putting the event together, Steve from Cavalier remarked that there was a fair amount of R&D involved; he says this with a big cheeky grin and you know that this man loves being a craft brewer. Fellow brewer Andrew recounted the process of experimenting with the beers and revealed some surprises in taking their ideas from paper to keg. The fiddly handling of over a kilo of figs stood out in Andrew’s mind but he was happy with the end results, whether he would play with figs again is perhaps another question!
Chris Menichelli from Slowbeer introduced each beer and food match to an attentive crowd of 30 or so who were a mix of both Richmond locals and out of state visitors. I’ve always loved the fact that every brewer I have met has been eager and happy to talk about beer. This event was no different and the casual format of the night let the brewers run loose in the crowd. Andrew and Steve were able to engage anyone who wanted to pick their brains, chat about their beers and the future of Cavalier or even simply to say hello.
Killer Beers
The Sorachi Courage, a version of their Cavalier Courage regular beer with Sorachi Ace hops, takes their sessionable craft beer and rounds it out with a great lemony citrus body. Liberally dosed with a heap of Sorachi Ace hops, more than Andrew had initially planned, it was a beer made especially for the event after some brainstorming with Slowbeer.
The Juniper Pale Ale, the one Andrew was most looking forward to, had unmistakeable upfront gin aromas. Of course since it was made with Juniper berries, the primary ingredient in gin, it was an unsurprising result. However the integration ather than domination of the juniper with the beer was what made it memorable.
Highlights
The first course of anchovies wrapped in sage leaves with the Cavalier Sorachi Courage. The first bite into a sage wrapped anchovy is not a subtle flavour by any stretch, more along the lines of an explosion of flavour, but the Sorachi Courage easily went toe to toe with the dish.
Listening to Andrew’s recount of dealing with figs for the Fig Brown Ale. When Andrew realised there’s not a lot of juice in figs it lead to the fiddly task of blending over a kilo of fresh figs to get them into a workable state. Then there was the curious nature of the fig mixture setting to a jelly like texture on route from home to the brewery. Andrew seemed very grateful that this was just a single keg batch.
The Wagu beef brisket slider on a brioche bun with pickle and truffle mayonnaise had myself and the people around me on the lookout for spare / unguarded sliders; they were delicious.
The boldness of flavours in both the food and the beers. The third dish was blue cheese crqouettes with both Gorgonzola and Rochfort blue cheese. The night ended with lasagne with three different types of meat and both peccarino and mozzarella cheese. These dishes were not trying to be subtle but then again neither were the beers. The final beer for the night boasted Equadorian coffee as an ingredient. The other beers individually featured Sorachi Ace hops, figs and Juniper berries. They were all bold flavours for an eager and thirsty crowd.
The event in three words
Cosy. Quirky. Flavour-bombs.
