So, August the 4th took us to the Dean Swift, London, in our capacity as the European host brewers of International IPA Day. Planned over the previous few weeks, Max Chater (Manager & Host of the Dean Swift) Momo Medi (Head Chef) & Rick Furzer (Food & Drink Blogger) got together to plan a stunning evening of IPA & food matching.
Before I go into some detail about this truly memorable evening I'd ask you to watch this two minute video montage so you can get a feel for the spirit of the evening & gauge what dizzy heights food & beer matching CAN reach.
The Dean Swift International IPA Day Feast Menu
Type: Black IPA
Food: Toulouse sausage scotch egg
Beer: The Kernel India Pale Ale Black (keg), BrewDog Abstrakt AB:06
2nd Course
Type: Canned IPA
Food: Calamari with sweet chilli sauce, timbale of avocado and crayfish
Beer: BrewDog Punk IPA, Maui Big Swell
Type: Canned IPA
Food: Calamari with sweet chilli sauce, timbale of avocado and crayfish
Beer: BrewDog Punk IPA, Maui Big Swell
3rd Course
Type: Centennial IIPA Resurrection
Food: Grilled goats cheese and roasted peppers
Beer: Kernel Centennial #100, Centennial 2010
Type: Centennial IIPA Resurrection
Food: Grilled goats cheese and roasted peppers
Beer: Kernel Centennial #100, Centennial 2010
4th Course
Type: IPA and Spice?
Food: Tandoori Chicken with Cauliflower Velouté
Beer: Stone Brewing Co. Ruination
Type: IPA and Spice?
Food: Tandoori Chicken with Cauliflower Velouté
Beer: Stone Brewing Co. Ruination
5th Course
Type: Draught IPA: UK vs. US
Food: Lamb Mechoui
Beer: Summer Wine Brewery Kahuna, Stone Brewing Co. IPA, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Great Divide Titan
Type: Draught IPA: UK vs. US
Food: Lamb Mechoui
Beer: Summer Wine Brewery Kahuna, Stone Brewing Co. IPA, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Great Divide Titan
Type: Dessert IPA
Food: Raspberry and limoncello jelly tartlet
Beer: Mikkeller Sorachi Ace
7th Course
Type: Quadruple IPA, Freeze Distilled.
Food: Aged goats cheese, Vintage Gouda, Monastery Cheddar
Beer: Sink The Bismarck!
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| The Fresh fruity IPA's were perfect with Seafood. |
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| You simply haven't had a Scotch Egg until you've had Momo's Toulouse Scotch Egg. |
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| Toby & James discuss the subtleties of the canned IPA's. |
The most amazing thing about the night was that the beers & food courses were matched supremely well by Max, Momo & Rick & it was clear a lot of thought & time went into developing the menu.
Max Chater is a natural host, Momo is an incredibly talented Chef & Rick is a pure glutton with an amazing palette, marrying their skills together produced an amazing menu.
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| Andy & James talk about the British Brewing Scene. |
If we are to establish beer as a legitimate beverage to match with food then these guys have a the recipe sown up. I believe we will see more events like this in particular at Dean Swift as I know Max has plans to do much more around this fascinating concept.
I'd like to extend our gratitude to Phil Strongman, Max Chater & James Watt for their incredible generosity on this truly memorable evening, also the guys from The Kernel, Toby & Nate. Rick Furzer, Peter Millar, James Bendall & Patrik Strandberg for making it such a pleasure.
Haven't visited the Dean Swift? You really must as this place has an extremely bright future & a crucial role to play in establishing food & beer matching in the UK.
Now if you'd like to read the detail of how each course married up get over to Rick Furzers fantastic new blog 'Gastroturf' Rick is very talented & without a doubt has a great future in this area.
This was just one highlight of our trip to London, I'll be blogging about the other delights in due course.
1 comment:
Brother Logic - I think the day was a HUGE success across the UK, look at the bars that were involved, mainly free of tie they had the ability to innovate away from what the more tied estates can offer.
But granted there is a long way to go in the UK, but we have to start somewhere, right?
With regards innovation I think the UK brewing scene is more innovative than it's EVER been, & you are seeing styles such as Mild regenergised, Redemption Trinity is a great example of a low abv, pale mild packed with flavour.
We produce pale specials at 3.5% packed with flavour & that's beside our Dark Mild which is brewed with 8 malts giving huge depth & complexity for 3.7% abv.
In the last 12 months we have brewed cask lager, horpy mild's, black ipa's, saison, red hop ales, rye IPA, west Coast IPA, hoppy dark mild styles such as 'The Benz'& a plethora of IPA's & pale ales. They are there, its just a case of seeking them out & trying to find opportunities in the market to make these beers more widely available.
I do think International IPA day will go from strength to strength every year & this year has been a bloody good start in my honest opinion.
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