Berkshire Brewing Co. Beer Dinner

Beer dinners are the best - in general, and especially when they’re held at Cambridge Common Restaurant in Porter Square, my favorite and arguably THE BEST craft beer and food joint this side of New York City. The two women who run the Common and put on the dinners, Suzanne Schalow and Kate Baker, are phenomenal: extremely knowledgeable, personable, and, most exciting for me, great role models and representatives of all the fantastic women who so often get forgotten in the beer world. Sadly (for us beer-diners at least), they are leaving the restaurant this winter to open their own beer store. They’re putting on several more beer dinners before they depart to make it on their own, however, and I plan on attending as many as possible. Here’s what I thought of the most recent one:

Tuesday’s beer dinner featured Berkshire Brewing Company, located somewhat in my neck of the woods in South Deerfield, MA. Like the majority of the beer dinners at Cambridge Common, this one featured 4 courses, 5 beers and was absolutely delicious. The email confirmation I received told me to show up between 6:30 and 7, and when I ran in from work around 6:50, it was bumpin’ already. When you order your ticket you can specify who you would like to sit with, so, upon entering and picking my jaw up off the floor, I found my placemat and my friends sitting in a nice cozy corner booth, my first beer poured and all ready for me. If this isn’t heaven, I don’t know what is.

Steel Rail 

The first beer, which was served in the interim period before the first course came out, was Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale. I had never tried this particular brew before, but man, am I glad I did Tuesday night. This beer was excellent and will definitely be making its way into my go-to beer lineup. Yellowish-gold in color with a thin foamy white head, Steel Rail smelled like citrus rind, piney hops and toasted golden malts. It felt light, yet creamy and smooth in the mouth, and tasted like sweet, toasted malts and slightly floral hops, with a barely noticeable hint of strawberry and apricot. I truly could not get enough of it and may have to limit the quantity in which I start buying it…. If I don’t watch myself I could be drinking this for breakfast – it is THAT good.

Gold Spike

Right around 7 o’clock, the first course was served as punctually as promised. Placed in front of me were two potato pancakes with peach rosemary chutney and a glass of Gold Spike Ale. Not being a huge fan of potatoes, I was a little wary, but boy, was I surprised by how much I loved these delicious little cakes. The starchiness of the potatoes and the fruity, herbiness of the chutney really worked so well with the beer, which is brewed in style of the German specialty, Kolsch, and as such is extremely light and somewhat fruity. This beer is so light, in fact, that I had a hard time detecting any aroma from it at all. Though it wasn’t my particular favorite, the other attendees at my table really enjoyed it, commenting particularly on the slight cherry and pleasantly medicinal notes in the brew.

Lost Sailor IPA

Next came cups of sweet potato corn chowder served with Lost Sailor India Pale Ale. I, personally, as you can probably tell from some of my other posts, love IPAs, but for whatever reason, I just cannot make myself enjoy this beer – and trust me, I’ve tried. As you can see from the picture, it is coppery in color, signifying the presence of lots of malts. That, combined with the fact that it is only very slightly hopped, just doesn’t do it for me. My friend Lindsey in San Francisco loves it however (I just sent 2 bottles out to her last week), and the other people at the beer dinner seemed to as well, so possibly….probably… it’s just me. At any rate, the beer did pair extremely well with the chowder, which, though yummy, was very thick and sweet. The Lost Sailor cut though the heaviness of it very well, resulting in a nicely balanced beer/food combo.

Oktoberfest

After a brief interlude in which we heard from Gary Bogoff, one of BBC’s owners and founder, we were served the main course. Listed on the menu were two options to choose between: Marzen Mac and Cheese with Buttered Bread Crumbs behind door number one, and Black Bean Ravioli with Corn, Red Peppers, Baby Spinach and Spicy Cream Sauce behind door number two. To keep things interesting, and thus try both beers and meals being offered, my companions and I decided to order two of each. The mac and cheese came out steaming hot, creamy and full of cheesy deliciousness, paired with the seasonally appropriate Oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest, we were told, was brewed in April using Bavarian Lager yeast and aged until just now. It was reddish brown and clear with a toppling, foamy white head and smelled slightly sweet and very roasted. It tasted like fall spices, malty sweetness and rich fullness, if you can consider that a flavor, and felt nice and smooth in the mouth. The ravioli, on the other hand, came out with the Double Nickel Ale, an IPA brewed solely with Amarillo hops. This beer had a nice tropical and sweet hoppy aroma but the aftertaste was too bitter and linger too long for me to really enjoy it. Luckily for me, the mac and cheese and  Oktoberfest were placed directly in front of me and I made quick work of both.

Rum Aged Shabadoo

Finally, dessert came out: Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Rum Sauce and Rum-Aged Shabadoo Black and Tan. This chocolate cake was honestly one of the biggest and richest slices of anything I’ve ever experienced, and I could only get down a couple bites before my stomach forced me to put the fork down and focus on the beer. This beer was actually a one-off, brewed and served only at this one event. In my opinion, that’s all right. If you like rum, maybe you would have been more inclined than I was to put down a full pint of this brew, but for a non-hard alcohol drinking girl, this stuff was just way too liquory for me to wrap my head around. The rum taste, which was imparted by aging the Shabadoo in barrels contributed by Berkshire Mountain Distributors for 6-8 months, was overpowering to me – I literally could not get past it to taste or smell anything else. The non-aged Shabadoo, on the other hand, which is a mix of BBC’s porter and stout, is supposed to be really good, and I plan on picking up a bottle to try this afternoon.

Overall, the Berkshire Brewing Co. beer dinner at the Cambridge Common was fantastic, really a smashing good time, and I encourage you to check out the Common’s website and sign yourself up for one of their many dinners this fall. As I said, Suzanne and Kate are departing this winter….better hurry up and attend one of these awesome events before it’s too late!

The Beer Chix!