Ryan made up two different versions of the third course which both included squab, a domestic pigeon.  One version had a mushroom risotto and the other, English peas.  They were both amazing and the squab was prepared perfectly.  We ended up changing the menu and going with the Grand Cru paired up with the risotto version of the dish.  Here are some photos to enjoy.

The men behind the knives

I brought 3 different beers to try in our sweet new 32oz growlers

Trying the beer and food

Just for the fun of it, how about some pickled shiitake mushrooms?

More to come with a recap of the dinner -

Cheers!

-Dave Adams

The tables are set and ready for the guests…

The menu and some flower hops

“Welcome to the feast, folks!”

Pat Korn and Gaby Hill enjoying the Supper Club

Sean ready to serve the first course

First course is about to arrive

Here’s Hanis saying something so funny it made me blurry

Plating up the first course

First Course- Bay Scallops, Ham Hash and Chimichurri with Rayon Vert

Hop Head Red in the queue

Second Course- Pork Cheek Ravioli, Tomato Jam with Hop Head Red

Third Course- Forage Mushroom Risotto, Garam Masala with 2009 Grand Cru.  I was especially excited about this course as Chuck Silva, our Brewmaster, let me dip into the archive for some 2009 Grand Cru.  A lovely pairing all around.

Fourth Course- Double Stout Braised Pork Shank, Sweet Potato Puree, Spring Veg with Double Stout

Last but not least was a Shortbread, Lemon Curd and Nasturium Marmalade with Trippel.  I absolutely loved how the sweetness of the Trippel cut through the tartness of the lemon curd.  Delicious!

Thanks to everyone that came out to the dinner and a big thank you to all the guests that joined our Supper Club.  We’ll see you in June for the next one.  Cheers!

Our first class in the series was with Rob Graff from Venissimo Cheese (http://www.venissimo.com).  Rob brought by about 15 different cheeses a couple of months before the event where we nailed down the curriculum and pairings.  The event turned out great with 50 guests learning all about cheese, beer and why they go so well together.

Here’s Rob bringing in the cheese

Prepping the cheese

Mmmm…Red Hawk

The plates hanging out with some kegged beer

Tables all ready for the students

The Wall O’ Beer surrounding the class

The students ready to learn

Rob talking about where cheese comes from

A Captivated Audience

Cheers!

And then there’s me – preaching about beer – (as usual)!

Thanks for coming everyone!

Check our website for future classes – we will definitely be doing more of these!

-Dave Adams

This is one hip pack of smokes

At least he has a beer

Traveling with Nick proved beneficial.  He lived in the area for a long time and knew lots of cool spots including this awesome crepes place for lunch.  Check these bad boys out!

On to Bar Crudo for our beer dinner.  Some shots of the venue and all the cool nautical themed artwork.

Here I am, meeting with Executive Chef Mike Selvera to go over all the dishes and grab some talking points.

The notepad is ready

The handles are up and beer ready to pour

The guests arriving

The upstairs area getting ready for their first course

The Menu

First Course- Shikogu Oysters with a Cucumber, Celery and Pink Peppercorn sauce with Rayon Vert

Second Course- Hawaiian Walu with some blood orange and a rosemary, anchovy and Italian olive tapenade. Paired with Ceader Plank Pale Ale.

Third Course- Black cod with flageolet beans, mustard greens and bay shrimp in a lobster jus. Paired with Trippel.

Four Course (had a tough time getting a photo of this before I ate it haha)- Soup de Poisson with an uni, saffron butter on the crostini. Paired with Candela.

Fifth Course- Bitter-Sweet Chocolate shortbread with a lavender whip and sauce. Paired with Double Stout.

Cheers!

Thanks to Tim, Mike and the rest of the staff at Bar Crudo for making this one of the best beer dinners I’ve ever had the pleasure to be a part of.

-Dave Adams

Our fifth and final day was free of any Green Flash events but that doesn’t mean we were planning on sitting around the hotel room all day.  It also happened to be Chuck’s birthday so I suggested we head over to Magnolia for their annual oyster festival.

Just hopped off the bus and arrived at Magnolia

It also happened to be Strong Beer Month!

Now we’re talking

Excellent slogan

“Can we have 2 orders of each oyster please?”

Chuck seems happy

Ben Spencer, head brewer at Magnolia, joins us for lunch

How about some cured meats, fine cheeses and pickled what-nots?

Fried Chicken Sandwich

Then we decided to strong arm Ben into showing us the brewery.  Here he is showing us that the brewery is downstairs.

Safety First

Ahhhhhh!!!!

Tight squeeze in the cellar

Growlers galore!

Some barrel aging going on in the boiler room

Living Hand to Mouth

Ben and Chuck – Bonding

The whole crew

Arnie and Betts from Marin Brewing Co. join us

The End!

-Dave Adams

I met with Chef Hanis Cavin of Carnitas’ Snack Shack to try the food and beer we had verbally agreed upon for our upcoming Supper Club on March 11th in the Tasting Room at the brewery.  He had just finished building their back bar where they’ll have some draft beer and a small cooking station.  It seemed like a great place to hangout and chat about our event.

We went over our notes and started with the first course.  He fired up a couple of butane single burners and started the first course, a peppercorn encrusted scallop with a ham hash and chimichurri sauce.  This was paired up with Rayon Vert.

Yummy Ham Hash

So he plated one up for me and we busted out some Rayon Vert.  The course was a beautiful pairing!  The scallop was light and cooked perfectly.  He sourced the scallops from Catalina Offshore, a local and very popular fish house. The ham hash added and nice salty component with the fresh burst of parsley going magically with the citrus component of Rayon Vert.  We smiled and moved on to the next course.

I don’t want to ruin the whole dinner so here’s a small teaser of the second course.  A pork cheek ravioli with a tomato jam.  This dish is something to write home about; the way the caramelized malts play off of the sweetness from the jam and pork is just nuts.  Check out this jam.

It takes a lot of Green Flash beer to make these parings possible.

We made some changes for the better and this is why great beer and food pairings include several meetings worth of notes and collaboration. We look forward to hanging out and feasting with all of you on the 11th.

This picture of Chef Hanis sums up how proud we both are of what we have assembled for the March Supper Club event at the brewery.   Cheers to a cool collaboration!   Get your tickets on Event Brite today – http://greenflashsupperclub.eventbrite.com/

We had some with mighty fine weather, so fine we had to take advantage of it.  We decided to head over to Golden Gate Park for a little disc golf before our event later that night.

Walking up to the first hole

This was my disc.   Although the name of this disc was “Birdie”…  my disc saw a total of NO ”Birdies”!

Nick with his pregame ritual…

Now i’m getting serious…ok not really

That’s some form there, folks

One more beauty shot before we move on

We arrive at Churchill (www.churchillsf.com) for our tap takeover

Green Flash stickers about to adorn some lucky tap handles

Cool rope ceiling…

THE VERY first time our Black IPA, the first beer in our new Hop Odyssey series, was ever served on tap!

Nice lineup!

That’s a whole lot of Green Flash

Chicken and waffles FTW!

Chuck and Nick enjoying a pint

Some guests enjoying a Green Flash pint

Thought I’d finish it off  with the coolest crab in town

Day 2 of SFBW brings me to our first Green Flash event.  My colleague, Nick Flood and I headed down to Steep Brew, part of Whole Foods, to do their  very first Beer Week event ever…

Hey Nick, glad you could make it!

We’re here.

One of the staff members creating the sign for our event

It’s a pretty sight, isn’t it?

Nice sign, Nick!

Cheese – preparing to pair it up!

Six Green Flash beers and six perfectly paried cheeses

We invited some guests to the table for an impromptu class on beer and cheese

Here’s Nick explaining why he likes the Padres more than the Giants.  Just kidding, Nick!

Here’s Wes making sure the guests are enjoying themselves

Busy – Beer and Cheese is a draw…

Rocking a Rayon Vert shirt – CHEERS!

Thanks, Whole Foods!  Until Next Time!…

-Dave Adams

*Dave Adams is the Tasting Room Manager and Certified Cicerone for Green Flash Brewing Co.   He specializes in beer education and beer and food pairings.  He is going to be a key contributor to the Behind the Flash blog, telling tales from his travels and adventures in beerland!

by Dave Adams*

I’ve always enjoyed coming to San Francisco be it for work or vacation.  This year I am in San Francisco for the city’s Beer Week (www.sfbeerweek.org).   As a Green Flash go-to on the subject of beer and food,  I’m busy with events, beer pairing dinners, various beer & cheese 101s and so on.  While here, I am also exploring the city and its surrounding areas…  AND luckily, I brought the trusty point-and-shoot along to capture all the awesome culture that abounds. I hope you enjoy this collection of snapshots – and look forward to sharing more in the coming days.

STOP 1 - The Peoples Barbershop for a trim before hitting the town…

NEXT UP -

Stopped into Amsterdam Cafe for a pint….

I spy … Green Flash Imperial on tap!

Hey - SEE IT?  A Double Stout hiding among the bottles -

I’m here for 7 days so I plan to get more shots from my adventures in San Fran.  Cheers!

-Dave Adams

*Dave Adams is the Tasting Room Manager and Certified Cicerone for Green Flash Brewing Co.   He specializes in beer education and beer and food pairings.  He is going to be a key contributor to the Behind the Flash blog, telling tales from his travels and adventures in beerland!

by Dave Adams*

While planning the food pairings featured at the latest Green Flash beer release of Sleepin’ with Shaggy and Silva Stout, Chef Gregory (Leroy’s Kitchen+Lounge) had an idea to make some ice cream using Sleepin’ with Shaggy as a key ingredient.  Sounded good to me! So, I suggested we make a caramel reduction and use it to drizzle over the ice cream…  Then, we fused our ideas- and decided to put the Sleepin’ With Shaggy caramel sauce IN the ice cream. Little did I know at the time, Greg had access to a full-on ice cream making facility.  After pleading for an invite to assist in the ice cream making process, I was granted an invitation to join in.  On January 25th I headed down to Barrio Logan to make some beer caramel ice cream.

Let’s start with a snapshot of the man who’s been making ice cream in this joint for 13 years.  He’s 1 of 2 people with the knowledge of their top secret recipes.

First we take the cream mixture:

Then mix in the ingredients.  The typical process begins with a base of cream, and add-ins to this batch include vanilla beans and eggs (or they add other ingredients – like chocolate etc. to create the basic flavor for the ice cream).

Then, they add the mixture into a sweet Italian gelato machine.  This machine churns the cream and freezes it in roughly 7 minutes!

Gelato usually has less air than American ice cream, provides a completely different (in my opinion, better) mouthfeel.   So imagine: less air with a little more butterfat and you end up with some pretty yummy ice cream.

NOW -  it is time to break out the decadent caramel reduction sauce that Gregory (Executive Chef at Leroy’s Kitchen+Lounge) made out of our Sleepin’ with Shaggy, a brandy barrel aged barleywine.

The master ice cream maker  “ribbons” the caramel sauce through the waterfall of ice cream to add layers of flavor.

Let’s try some!  I had no idea how noticable the flavor and texture difference would be between freshly made and frozen ice cream.

Here is Greg, proudly holding the final product that was served to the 200 ppl who attended the January 28th bottle release in the Green Flash tasting room:

Thanks to everyone for the experience.  Cheers! Until next time -

-Dave Adams*

*Dave Adams is the Tasting Room Manager and Certified Cicerone for Green Flash Brewing Co.   He specializes in beer education and beer and food pairings.  He is going to be a key contributor to the Behind the Flash blog, telling tales from his travels and adventures in beerland!