American Craft Beer Dinner, Farringtons Temple Bar

Premier International owner Dean McGuinness and NHC sponsor/facilitator held an American Craft beer evening with guest brewer Matt Licklider, who works for CBA.

Craft Brewer Alliance is the name of the group that owns Red Hook, Widmer and Kona.

Matt who is Director of Brewing operations at CBA and used to work for Anhauser-Busch, walked us through a range of beers and his passion for craft beers was evident.

The process for the evening was, as is becoming increasingly popular, to match food with beer, in this case 10 beers were on offer. Whilst this not normally the realms of the NHC it was a good opportunity to support our sponsor and an even better one to quiz Matt about direction of craft beer in both the US and the rest of the globe and there was also plenty of discussion about recipes and hop flavours.

First Course

Chopped Tomato and Basil Ciabatta, drizzled in Basil Oil;

Paired with  a Kona Longboard lager, which was an interesting blend of crisp lager and 4 hops, and Red Hook Wise Cracker Wit, a seasonal summer offering blended with ginger

Second Course

Quail Scotch Egg : Red Hook Copper Hook, a light crisp amber ale, with the mild caramel character

Streaky wrapped asparagus : One of the highlights of the evening for the writer, Red Hook Longhammer IPA, a classic IPA but with plenty of Cascade hop character.

Third Course 

Fermanagh Black Pudding and Ham Hock Bon Bon : On offer was and interesting Widmer Hefeweisen which didn’t have the classic traits (cloves and banana) we would expect from the style

Bruschetta with Wild Mushroom and Thyme: A Red Hook Winter Hook, which had a smoky malt character.

Main Course (3 choices with a choice of 2 beers to match)

Bacon and Colcannon and Honey Roast vegetables; Red Hook Audible Ale, a light to medium body with cascade hop flavour and clean finish or Kona Koko Brown Ale, which was a really desirable nutty, toasted coconut toffee flavour

Steak and Porter Pie: Kona Firerock Pale, a blend of pale, munich, honey and carapils with Warrior, Millenium and Cascade or Red Hook E.S.B., a balance of caramel malt finished with spicy citrusy hops.

Butternut squash and Sweet Tagine: Widmer Citra Blonde which was grapefruit and orange flavour with crisp hop aroma or a Kona Big wave Golden Ale which was also a light flavoured blonde with Galaxy and Citra hops

Desert (beer was used as their constituent ingredients)

Kona Pipeline Chocolate porter cake; smooth and dark from a complex malt bill, with Warrior, Millenium and Williamette balancing on the hop side.

Widmer Brrread and Butter Pudding , which is a 7.2% dark fruit flavoured malty warming winter ale with Red Hook Wisecracker, a Wit with a lighter body and a snap of ginger and cardamom maple syrup.

As if that wasn’t enough there was a flight of very interesting IPA’s from Widmer

Widmer Rotator I.P.A. (Hopside Down) ‑ The Rotator series is based on interpreting classic I.P.A.’s Every two to three months, the recipe for this unique beer changes. The current recipe — Hopside Down — turns the India Pale Ale style on its head. This beer is fermented using bottom fermenting yeast to give an ‘India-Style Pale Lager’

Widmer Pitch Black I.P.A. ‑ Widmer’s tribute to the Cascadian Dark Ale — a contradictory variation on I.P.A. that is all Pacific Northwest. With full hop character, this beer is brewed with dark malts to give a black India Pale Ale

Widmer Nelson Imperial I.P.A. ‑ Double I.P.A.’s (or Imperial Pale Ales) are I.P.A.’s brewed to a higher level of alcohol strength. Nelson Imperial I.P.A. is brewed with Nelson Sauvin hops — a big brew with sweet malty character that perfectly balances the intense hop aroma and flavour

We wish Dean success on his new offerings to the market.