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| World Beer Cup |
 Saturday night, April 10th was the world’s largest beer dinner, with the greatest collection of brewing industry people to gather in one place. They were there for a great meal, but it was the post dinner presentations that really drew them in. The bi-annual World Beer Cup was held that night in the ballroom of the Chicago Sheraton. It is always a special event, and this time the organizers made doubly certain of it. Starting with a specially designed and prepared dinner created by Hombrew Chef Sean Paxton, the meal itself was spectacular. To really understand how a beer dinner is put together, the meal is the perfect guide book. To prepare a proper beer dinner for 2,000 people takes: * 600 gallons pairing beer * 200 gallons cooking beer * 400 pounds butter * 300 loaves of bread * 500 pounds onions * 600 pounds pork belly * 12 gallons demi-glace * 160 pounds mushrooms * 275 dozen eggs * 100 pounds sugar * 160 pounds malt * 6 gallons honey On to the courses… The first course consisted of local cheeses and meats including Bellavitano washed with New Glarus Raspberry Tart Ale, Blue Paradise, Mont St. Francis, Brigid’s Abbey, duck loaf, Hungarian Salami and Coppa, all served with Amarillo hop encrusted nuts, Cascade hop infused local honey, spent grain crackers & breads with rhuburb Rodenbach Grand Cru beer jam and New Belgium Eric’s Ale beer jelly. This was paired with a rye beer from Piece Brewery. The second course was Cream of Pearl Barley Soutp…pearl barley cooked in vegetable stock and amber wort, topped with herb infused wild mushrooms, black truffled creme fraiche and drizzled with a Saaz hop seeped olive oil. This was matched with Bell’s Porter. After the soup, came a salad aptly named, The Bitterness of Us All. It contained elgian endive, escarole, arugula, frisee, radicchio greens mixed with hop scented hard boild eggs, roasted cherry tomatoes, spent grain croutons, dressed with a Three Floyd’s Dread Nought Double IPA vinaigrette made with malt vinegar, a grassy extra virgin oil and dusted with cracked grains of paradise. The beer pairing was Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA The fourth course featured Chef Paxton’s homage to Chicago’s meat packing history and included all things swine. Pork belly brined in Upland Brewing’s Winter Warmer and stuffed with fennel, caramelized onions and a custom Alaskan Smoked Porter sausage atop a pretzel spatzle simmered in stout wort and splashed with an Oskar Blues Gordon and Sierra Nevada Stout Grain Mustard sauce and herb Stryrian Golding hop pesto BSG/Homebrewerchef Hop Salt. The beer pairings for this were Allagash Curieux and a locally produced stout. Desert was just a little sweet with malted TCHO chocolate bread, caramel malt, TCHO cocoa nibs, Left Hand Brewing Milk Stout, cream and vanilla bean infused bread pudding topped with a butter Shoreline Brewery Beltaine Scotch Ale hard sauce and a Fuggles hop infused mascarpone Chantilly cream. This was served with another locally brewed bourbon barrel stout. All in all quite a meal, and a prime example of how to throw a real party. But that was not the reason for the gathering, although it would be sufficient for most. Up next came the presentation of the World Beer Cup Awards. The World Beer Cup is a whole different animal. Over 3,300 beers from 44 different countries were entered and awards were given in 90 different style categories. It took almost as much time to judge the different categories as it took to plan the beer dinner. 179 judges spent three days going through the beers to determine the winners (yes, that is, on average, over eighteen beers judged by each member of the panel) The complete list of winners can be found at www.worldbeercup. org, but let’s look at some highlights of beers available in Arizona. Alaskan Brewing took home a gold and a bronze for their aged Smoked Porter and their Barleywine. Alesmith also had a gold and bronze for Wee Heavy and their annual release of Decadence. Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout from Anderson Valley won a bronze medal as did Great Divide for Hoss Rye Lager. Brugse Zot, produced by de Haalve Maan in Brugge won a silver medal; so did Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter and Rodenbach. Former World Champion Tomme Arthur was awarded a silver medal for Hot Rocks Lager, a unique beer brewed very traditionally, with heated rocks. The Bruery took two golds home, one for a wild yeast aged version of their popular Autumn Maple and the other for Oude Tart, an Flemish Red style. There were many other winners and some categories that did not produce a gold medal winner as judges felt that no beer was worthy of the gold. One of the big winners of the evening was Ballast Point Brewing. In addition to three gold medals for their India Pale Lager, Bourbon Barrel Aged Scottish Ale and Sculpin IPA, the boys from San Diego took home a bigger prize. They were named World Champion Brewery in the small brewery category. Their beers are locally available at most places carrying fine craft beers. .jpg) The World Beer Cup was the culminating event of the Craft Brewers Conference, an annual event held in a rotating location that provides an opportunity for craft brewers and craft wholesalers from across the country to get together and attend seminars on topics of interest, make and renew business relationships, and maybe drink a few really good beers as well.
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