Beer dinners- past, and future!

Dessert- Caramel mouse, eeer...mousse, with chocolate pot au creme & hazelnut ice cream. Paired with Sam Adams Cream Stout.

We attended a spectacular Sam Adams beer dinner at Wolfgang Puck Grille last week. Chef Marc did another incredible job pairing five beers with 5 mouth-watering courses. Miss Jessica, the Sam Adams rep, did a wonderful job presenting the dinner, and talking about the company and the beers.
APPETIZERS- Shrimp tempura, crab cakes, tuna tartare- all paired with the lovely lemony Coastal Wheat.
TWO- Sauteed red snapper, mussels, caramelized cauliflower, pepperoni & saffron beurre blanc- paired with Sam Adams Imperial White Ale  ( delicious malty, spicy wheat wine). This was Chef Marc's homage to paella!
THREE - Roasted pork tenderloin with cabbage, confit of bacon, cider glaze & mustard sauce-paired with Sam Adams Oktoberfest marzen. Mmm, Mmm.
FOUR - Beef tenderloin with cipollini onion, blue cheese, cabernet reduction & fingerling potato, paired with Sam Adams Boston Lager. A rich, intensely flavoured dish on many levels that may have been a little better matched with a slightly stronger flavoured beer (Black lager or Boston ale would be my first pick from their portfolio), but the Boston Lager was pretty close to matching the intensity. Boston Lager is a delicious, flavourful, and often overlooked beer....
DESSERT- delicious on all accounts. A great match.
Thanks once again to Jessica, Chef Marc, and the entire team at Wolfgang Puck Grille for their exceptional service.

UPCOMING BEER DINNERS....
Detroit Beer Week is upon us again. Apart from a bunch of beery events, there's a slew of beer dinners that are not to be missed!
Monday October 17- details not finalised yet, but Slows are having a Dogfish Head beer dinner.
Tuesday October 18 - Cliff Bell's Dragonmead/Kuhnhenn beer dinner, AND Foran's Grand Trunk Pub Saugatuck Brewing Beer Dinner, which I think is sold out.
Wednesday October 19 - Andiamo Dearborn's Short's beer dinner
Thursday October 20 - Rattlesnake Club Bell's beer dinner

Get ready to loosen your belts!

Beer Camp #2: Porter

Recently, another group of folks from Slows BarBQ came over to talk beer, drink beer, and make beer. Chef Mike, Gregg, Kyle, and Slows Official Beer Mom*, Tara, spent an afternoon and evening in the brewery bunker under Chez Cicerone, crafting a batch of porter.Chef Mike Metevia is a big fan of stouts and porters, and this one is slated to be served up at a party celebrating his recent nuptials. We used my standard porter recipe, which includes crystal 40, crystal 80, chocolate, and black patent malts, as well as a wee touch of home smoked malt, on top of a Marris Otter pale ale malt base. 30 BUs from Northern Brewer and Willamette hops balance out the malt side nicely. Since this beer is going to be drunk up in the course of a couple of hours, we are dry hopping, priming, and packaging it as cask ale. Should be nice....

Chef Mike and Mr. C prepare to dough in.

An ancillary chore performed by the campers was to apply labels to the couple of cases of bombers from Beer Camp #1.

* That's like a Den Mom, only cooler. At the first Beer Camp, Tara declared that she would be attending every subsequent one. OK by us!

Beer Camp

I know posting has been light lately around here, owing to real life's intruding ways, but we have been still living what my buddy Ray calls "the beer life." One item, documented by my li'l bro, was an educational program we've started at the instigation of our friends at Slows BarBQ: Beer Camp! Once we've put everyone at Slows through this brewer's boot camp, we'll start on the rest of the beer-slingin' population of Detroit....

Slows To Go Is A Go!

The long awaited Slows to Go is officially open in the Wayne State area at Cass and Alexandrine. The building is basically a giant kitchen, with a small front room where customers place and pick up orders. (I wasn't smart enough to realize that my fancy new all-fangled phone is capable of taking pictures of these things for you, sorry!) There is a shelf/counter around the perimeter of the room, so you *could* stand right there and scarf up your food, if you can't wait.


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We're not worthy!

Chefs Brian Perrone & Mike Metevia of Slows. Having dinner and beers, at OUR house last night, along with Slows manager Terry Perrone. And spouses. And baby Emmet.

On the menu- bacon fat popcorn (of course!), seafood gumbo,  grilled jerked leg o' lamb, roasted brussels, dirty rice, and the devil's ice cream (deep dark chocolate, cinnamon and chili pepper). And, lots o' beer.

The Second Week of Beer Week

Sorta. Monday was sort of the extra doughnut in a baker's dozen, as applied to Detroit Beer Week. The good folks at Slows BBQ had a Founders Brewing happy hour out on their patio, with a selection of new and cellared beers, including a cask of this year's Harvest Ale, 1/6 barrels of this year's Nemesis (sharply black and roasty,) and 8 month old draft Kentucky Breakfast Stout, and other delights. The weather was unseasonably warm, the crowd convivial, and (surprise!) there was some decent food to eat, as well. Mr. Cicerone had a bit too much beer, and stayed up a bit too late on a school night, but was kindly looked after by Mrs. Cicerone. (Whooo!!)

Slows 5th anniversary party...

...a few weeks back in Roosevelt Park. 'Twas a cold day, but I kept warm with lots and lots of great beers pouring from this portable dispensing truck. The $5 pints of La Chouffe really helped! As did a wonderfully strange pointy hat.

It was a great party! Beer, food, music, and lots of "bean bag tossing" shenanigans.....(Big party. Big abandoned building in background. Only in Detroit.)

Upcoming Cool Stuff in the Great Beer State

Our home state may have more than its share of problems, but if you like beer, it's one of the best places to be. Here's a quick rundown of some of the reasons why for October:

Harvest Festival at Fort Street Brewery

Wednesday, September 29th - Saturday October 2nd
Saith Doug:

We'll have a special menu of Michigan grown foods and Michigan inspired recipes all week, and a new beer will be released each night as well!

Slows BBQ 5th Anniversary Party

Roosevelt Park | Michigan Ave + 14th Street, Detroit
Sunday October 3 | 12-8pm
Bands, Beer (24+ Taps), Reasons and Mac from SLOWS, Grub from Mind Body Spirit, Cornhole Tournament (sign-up info below), and an Art Opening at the Imagination Station. Admission is free. Food and Beer for sale $5 cash. All proceeds from the event go to the redevelopment of Roosevelt Park. The party is on, rain or shine. We have tents.

Detroit Beer Week

Friday, October 15 – Saturday, October 23, 2010

My day job forced me to be out of town for the inaugural DBW, but this year I'm going at it with guns blazin'! The organizers have some info here on
Facebook
PDF of Press Release here.

2nd Annual Michigan Brewers Guild Fall Beer Festival

October 23rd, 1-6PM

Last year's festival was great, and those of us in the near suburbs appreciate having an MBG festival so close to home.

Aussies love Two Hearted Ale....

See?
Our friends Miro and Barney, the Beer Ambassadors from Melbourne (Australia) spent the day (yesterday) having beery adventures in Michigan. After picking them up at the Amtrak station in Detroit (where they'd arrived from Utica, NY) we went on a wee tour of downtown Detroit, and then headed home for a brief stop so they could have a nice fresh homebrewed Kolsch, made by Mr Cicerone. Then- on to Merchant's for some beer shopping, and then to Ann Arbor where we lunched at the Jolly Pumpkin Cafe. I enjoyed the smoked tofu salad with some Luciernaga (on tap). The guys drank Bam & Bam Noire, and had the magnificent truffled fries, and a pizza each, which they proclaimed to be quite delicious. Ron & Laurie Jeffries chatted to us at the cafe, and then the affable Mr Turriff, AKA The Big Banana, took us on a tour of the brewery- a must for any out-of-town beer nerd.A stop at home to scoop up Mr Cicerone, and then on to Slows BarBQ for beers and dinner. Lots of meat and beers later - Dogfish Festina Peche, Liberty Street Clementine Lemon Thyme (exactly as it sounds, and delicious!), Rochester Mills Cornerstone IPA, Arcadia Angler's Ale, Celis White & Pandemonium Pale Ale- we headed home to taste the wares at Chez Cicerone and howl at the moon. This included Mr Cicerone's Rye Peppercorn Pale Ale, Batch 300 Rye Barley Wine, "Buster" Helles Doppelbock, and some Short's Anniversary Wheat Wine, Bahnhoff Berliner Weisse & Leipziger Gose that Barney & Miro had purchased at Merchant's. At this point I cried "Uncle", we abandoned the Brooklyn Black OPS that was supposed to have been a part of the evening's offerings, and we retired for the evening.

This morning, after a breakfast of Mr Cicerone's IPA, I dropped the guys at the Amtrak station, (along with the aformentioned Brooklyn Black OPS and a couple of cups) where they headed for Chicago. As I write, they are sitting at Hopleaf with Mr Daniels himself, enjoying the beers, food and hospitality of that wonderful establishment.

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Tonight at Slows BarBQ

NEW HOLLAND PATIO PARTY at Slows, June 23rd, 2010, 6PM - 11PM

JOIN NEW HOLLAND & SLOWS FOR AN EARLY SUMMER PATIO PARTY.
New Holland will be pouring some of their Hatter-Day Specialties as well as beers from their High Gravity Series.

SLOWS will lay out a sneak-preview buffet of Slows To Go menu items.

Cost $25/person (at the door)
First Come, First Serve (no RSVP needed)

Back In The Groove

Sorta. Jet lag has proven to be persistent here at Chez Cicerone, but I think we're on top of it now. Last night, we stopped my Slows withdrawal symptoms with a bbq sandwich, Schlenkerla Fastenbier, Dogfish Pangaea, Victory Yakima Twilight, and Bell's Oatmeal Stout.

Oak Cafe, & Slows recap

A nice beery evening at The Oak Cafe, Wyandotte, one night last week, where we enjoyed Sam Adams Noble Pils, Celebrator Doppelbock and Sierra Nevada Bigfoot '09, ALL on draft. Speaking of The Oak, head over next Saturday, March 6th, for the 4th annual Stout Fest & mustache competition (guess who always wins!). Mr Cicerone decided to give someone else a chance to win the mustache comp this year, so we are headed to Chicago instead for 2010 Day & Night of the Living Ales, which is sold out, but we have our tix. We're deciding where to stop on Friday night on the way....Bell's, The Livery, Founders, Three Floyds. Choices, choices, choices.

The other memorable bar night was at Slows BarBQ, last night. Slows have done it again with their current tap line-up, and a quiet evening at home was abandoned in pursuit of some of these fine beers. We started out with a pint each of Arcadia's cask-conditioned Cereal City Bitter, followed by a pint each of Victory's Uncle Teddy's Bitter. It's rare, but wonderful, to find English-style session beers on tap, let alone two! Both were delicious. Next- La Trappe Isid'or, a Belgian pale ale tasting of brown sugar and licorice. Next- Arcadia Sky High Rye. Mmmm. Always good with Slows food ("The Reason" for Mr Cicerone, and those superb sticky smoky chicken wings for me.) Next- Goose Island Bourbon County Stout. Sweet, a little roasty and bourbony, and delicious with a huge slab of cream cheese frosted carrot cake, a new dessert menu item. Next- Bell's Consecrator Doppelbock & Dogfish Head Fort...well, the last two were "in our dreams" so to speak. We really couldn't manage another beer after downing a whole pint of Bourbon County, but Consecrator and Fort would have been next if we'd been able....

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Expedition Stout, on cask, at Slows!

It's been over a month since we've been to Slows BarBQ, our favourite food & beer hangout, and after checking out the current draft list over the weekend, we put all other plans aside and headed over last night.
The tap list is fantastic right now, and I started with Atwater Block's pale ale (a draft product only), dry-hopped and aromatic, lightly malty with a good hoppy finish. Mr Cicerone went straight for Original Gravity's "440 Pepper Smoker", an amber/brownish ale with smoked malt (including a hint of chocolate), infused with jalapenos. A great beer for the Slows food menu. After this- sharing of Arcadia's Cannonball Gold wet-hopped IPA, and He'brew Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A., Cannonball is just great, and the R.I.P.A was as you'd expect from Shmaltz Brewing- strong, hoppy, excellently balanced & delicious, as well as really heavy-bodied from the rye. A great match with Mr Cicerone's "The Reason" sandwich. Next- the piece-de-resistance- Bell's Expedition Stout on cask! Oh, wondrous libation! It was served at a perfect temperature (about 55deg F) and was rich, fruity (prunes/grapes), with notes of coffee as it opened up, and hops, hops, hops. And, it was perfectly conditioned. Mr Cicerone snuck in a pint of Arcadia Starboard Stout before he had his dessert (beer), and then we shared one more.
Wish we could have tried a few more (Great Divide Yeti, Southern Tier Choklat, Dark Horse Too Stout, Founders Double Trouble....), but our livers cried "enough!"

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December Beer Dinner At Slows BBQ: Blow by Blow

Oof. I would say we were stuffed like the proverbial Christmas goose Monday night at the Slows Beer Club Dinner for December. (And partly stuffed with said goose.)

Butter Poached King Crab Leg, Spaghetti Squash, and Asian Pear
with
Seriously Bad Elf

This beer is Ridgeway's decidedly British take on a Belgian Tripel. It's estery (pear,) with a whiff of higher alcohols. The rough edges were smoothed away by the food.


Turkey and Coconut Milk Soup
with
Bad Elf

Awesome pairing. The soup had lemongrass in it, which really clicked with the beer, a strong bitter made with UK grown Cascade hops.

Foie Gras and Golden Raisin Risotto with Goose Cracklings
with
Great Lakes Christmas Ale

The luscious rich ale, with caramel, ginger, and cinnamon, was perfect with the foie gras.

Pan Roasted Pork Tenderloin, Pink Lady Apple, and Beet
with
Anchor Our Special Ale

Spicy, herbal Anchor Christmas was especially good with the pork and the beet. As a bonus, there were smoky beet greens with bacon.

Cassoulet with Goose Leg Confit, Sausage, and Goose Pastrami
with
Scaldis Noel

It takes a beer with backbone to stand with the hearty bean and meat stew. No problem here. The peppery pastrami, smoky kielbasa, and savory confit played nicely against the 'big wall of malt.'

Tourtiere
with
(Mr. Cicerone's) Winter Warmer

Tourtiere is a meat pie with ground pork, beef, onions, and other vegetables. Kind of like a Quebecois version of a pasty, only it gets a dose of clove or allspice. The beer is similar to a strong Scottish Ale, with a threshold level whiff of smoked malt, so this worked well.

Plum Pudding with Egg Nog Ice Cream
with
He'brew Jewbelation 13

This beer goes to 13! Wheeze, gurgle, gurgle, gasp, thud.



The pudding. That's brandy in Chef Brian's hand, at left. Unfortunately, the flames from brandy don't photograph well, so you'll just have to imagine them....

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Some Slows Holiday Dinner menu details

Just in, from Tara....
"Found out a little more exciting yummy news for the Slows beer dinner-- foie gras-- yes foie gras-Yummy!!!,
--Venison paired with Anchor Steam Christmas Ale
--House Smoked Pastrami
Annette's Family recipe for Plum Pudding- Dessert of course
So with all of these fun yummy one of a kind items on the menu for Monday and the exclusive beer offerings we have had to make an adjustment to the price and it will be $60 a head-- but I can guarantee that IT WILL be worth it!!!!
So Hope You can make it on Monday but Please RSVP cause seats are limited and filling up!!! Remember it is the best way to kick off the Holidays!!!!
Take Care and have a great weekend!!!-Tara"

More about Slows Holiday Dinner

(Mr Cicerone didn't mention the possibility of Fois Gras, probably paired with Great Lakes Christmas Ale.....)

Just in from Tara....

"Hello Everyone!!! Christmas is upon us!!! And that being said, So is our fantastic beer dinner!!!

A couple of things to mention first- Mike and Annette will be our hosts/ beer experts to talk us through this yummy experience and Chef Brian and Michael are planning an amazing menu to pair, but secondly this our last scheduled beer dinner!!!! Next year the beer dinner/ club will take a different shape, due to Brian and Michael having to focus on the new Slows to go. So that being said, please come in and celebrate a wonderful year of great beer, amazing food and good times!!! There will be at least 8 Christmas Beers (Holiday Ales) on hand.

So please RSVP with Terry, Myself or any other manager (313)-962-9828
Also, if there is anything that you are looking for or want us to try to pull off in the New Year please let us know!!!

Have a great night take care and hope to see you Monday December 7th at 6:30pm.

Happy Holidays!!!!"

December Beer Dinner At Slows BBQ Monday, December 7

This one will be the last one for a while, as the Slows team focuses on opening their new take-out facility. It's Christmas/Winter beers; moderately to very strong beers brewed to help fortify us during the cold months. While the menu and beer list are still in flux, it can be said with some confidence that this will be a beer and food blowout. Blow. Out. 'Twill be more expensive than the typical Slows dinner, owing to some very fancy food, which may include venison, goose, lobster, and the like. Plus some commensurately fancy beers, some of which have varying degrees of bad elvishness. One might even find the hand of Mr. Cicerone behind one of the offerings... for reservations or more information contact Slows at 313.962.9828... hope to see you there!

Opa!

(You can't see the flames.)
The plum pudding, in all its glory, unveiled, flamed, topped with rum-laden hard sauce, and devoured at Slows last night amongst a crowd of us hanging at the bar. We were there discussing the upcoming "Holiday Beer Dinner" ( we are hosting the dinner at Slows on Monday Dec 7th) with Tara and Chef Brian, and in a previous brief meeting about this event Chef Brian mentioned he had not tried this dish. (So I made one). We tried many beers with it. The beers that could match the intensity of this incredibly rich and heavy pudding best were Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA and He'Brew Jewbelation Barmitzvah. Mr Cicerone's Winter Warmer, and Anchor's Our Special Ale 2009 were *almost* there.

Jolly Pumpkin Beer Dinner at Slows

Jolly Pumpkin Beer Dinner at Slows
This past Monday.....

EGGPLANT CAPONATA ON CROSTINI
BAM NOIRE
A Sicilian dish consisting of a cooked vegetable salad made from chopped fried eggplant and celery seasoned with sweetened vinegar, and capers in a sweet and sour sauce with variation according to local tradition. This one had raisins.
Great pairing. Rich eggplant and sweet raisins tied in with fruity black malts.


SEARED SCALLOP WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH IN TOMATILLO SAUCE.
BAM BIERE
Boy, do Chef Brian and Chef Mike know how to cook superb scallops. They are always perfect; nicely seared on the outside, and perfectly soft and creamy within.
Great pairing. Tart Bam, creamy scallop. Simple but grand. My favourite pairing.

BEETS, RADDICHIO, PUMPKIN, PUMPKIN SEEDS, CASHEW VINAIGRETTE.
LA PARCELA (Pumpkin ale).
Another winner. The beets were simply cooked, and were sweet/sour and crunchy. The cashew vinaigrette was plate-licking good. The pumpkin seeds were spicy and delicious. This one was many people's favourite pairing. It all just worked with the beer which has a slight pumpkin flavour with hints of pumpkin pie spice, and a touch of cacao to add some depth and richness. In the words of weekend-guy Kevin "I don't even like beets, but this was fantastic."

TALLEGIO, GRANNY APPLE & FINOCHIONNA CALZONE WITH ROASTED CAULIFLOWER
(Tallegio is an Italian cheese, Finochionna is a pork sausage made with fennel.)
ORO DE CALABAZA
Another winner. Creamy cheese, slivers of porky sausage, roasty cauliflower, malty/spicy notes in the beer finishing with woodiness, tartness, and a little bitterness. This batch of Oro was just superb. I guess I should have remembered the batch number.

SPARERIB, COLLARDS, SWEET POTATO FRITTER
LA ROJA (Blend #8 2009, large portion of the blend was aged in recycled Founders "Hand of Doom" bourbon barrels.)
An obvious, but very good pairing. This blend of La Roja was indeed a little "bourbony", and was excellent.
The sweet potato fritters were amazing. They were coated with sugar mixed with ground bacon!!

ZUCCHINI CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
CALABAZA BLANCA
It just worked. Especially the frosting with the beer. Cheey creaminess, spicy tartness.

A fantastic dinner. Ron & Laurie Jeffries were there, and it was a pleasure to hear Ron present each course and talk about his beers and the brewing process. Slows were, as usual, very generous with the beer pourings, and I, amongst others I know, were "none too well" the next day.....

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"So the joke was...."

....that Jolly Pumpkin does not brew a pumpkin beer. Well, now we do. Just this one, packed with real pumpkins, hints of spice and a gentle kiss of cacao to liven the soul."

It's called La Parcela, and has just arrived at Merchant's in very limited quantities.
Slows BarBQ will have it on draft for their Jolly Pumpkin beer dinner next Monday. Call for details and to reserve a place as the dinner is limited to 30 people.