The Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food

Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, is a passionate advocate of  savouring ” the pleasures of real food with real beer.” To give people a sense of what that means, he was in Vancouver on August 14 to host a brewmaster’s dinner at The Granville Room. The following day, he led a tasting of his beer at the BCL 39th & Cambie Signature Store, paired with canapés provided by Chambar Restaurant.

For Oliver, his first travels throughout Europe were a transformative experience. Not only did he discover Real Ale in England, on the continent he learned that “[p]leasure was nothing less than the goal of a life well lived.” Where people were laughing, eating, and drinking, he often found “great beer and great food together” in cities, such as Paris, Bruges, and Amsterdam.

Just as he was getting accustomed to living life well, Oliver returned to the States to find stores stocked with identical mass-market lager, frozen vegetables, Wonder Bread, processed cheese, and freeze-dried coffee. The shock drove him to begin brewing his own beer, eventually becoming a commercial brewer.

As the advent of craft brewing and a growing availability of artisan foods transformed the American culinary scene over the last two decades, it has become increasingly possible to recreate the European experience here. However, few associate that with beer, seeing it as the exclusive domain of wine. It has been Oliver’s mission to dispel that myth, especially when it comes to cheese. His Brooklyn Brewmaster’s Dinner certainly accomplished that for those who attended.

^ Guests listen to Garrett Oliver talking about the pleasures of beer and food at The Granville Room.

^ Duck Terrine with local asparagus and mustard seed vinaigrette was paired with Brooklyn Brown Ale.

^ Garlic and Thyme Grilled Beef Tenderloin with duck fat confit potato, baby vegetables, and green peppercorn sauce were married with Brooklyn Local 2, a bottle-conditioned, Belgian-inspired dark abbey ale that is not yet available in Canada.

^ Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, a 10.6% ABV Imperial stout, accompanied a Mint White Chocolate Iced Parfait with Parisian fizzy fruit.

^ At the end of the meal, Garrett Oliver shared a Black Chocolate Stout with The Granville Room’s chef, Kye Agrios.

^ Maura Gudaitis was one of the winners in a draw for a copy of Garrett Oliver’s seminal beer pairing book, The Brewmaster’s Table.

Oliver’s next project is an audacious combination of beer and food. He’s creating a blend of bourbon-aged, bacon-fat-infused brown ale and barley wine made with bacon-smoked malt.

“One of two things will happen,” Oliver predicted. “Either this will be the most amazingly disgusting thing you’ve ever tasted in your life, or I shall rule the earth.”

~ RG

Tagged as: Beer, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn Brown Ale, Chambar, food pairing, Garrett Oliver, Kye Agrios, Local 1, Local 2, Maura Gudaitis, The Brewmaster's Table, The Granville Room