Chew N’ Brew

September 29, 2008 in Brooklyn, Events

The ticketI attended a fantastic beer event at The Diamond yesterday!  Chew N’ Brew, dreamed up by owner Dave Pollack, pitted six teams against each other in a homebrew and food pairing competition.  Each team brought a homebrew and a “snack” to go with it.  A donation of $20 to East Village Farms bought you a ticket worth one each of the six pairings plus two repeats of your choice.  Everyone put a lot of thought and work into their pairings and it showed.

Vices & VirtuesEsoteric Order of H.P.D.Dirty Hands, Clean ConscienceThe Missing Smiths & Drunken ButchersBockstars

  • Team Vices & Virtues paired pan-fried butternut squash and goat cheese ravioli with a Belgian saison.
  • Esoteric Order of H.P.D. assembled sopes with pork, Anasazi bean puree, pickled radish, crema and cilantro with their spicy Black Saison.
  • Dirty Hands, Clean Conscience cooked up a lamb shepherd’s stew with Asiago croutons, paired with a classic porter
  • The Missings Smiths featured cheese ravioli with pumpkin-sage cream sauce and a French oak-aged European Bock.
  • Drunken Butchers brought shrimp and crab end-of-summer rolls with an IPA
  • Bockstars served up home-smoked ribs with their Bock Fiddy

butternut squash ravioli & saisonsope with black saisonlamb stew and porterCheese ravioli & oak-aged Bockshrimp & crab roll with IPArib & Bock Fiddy

Everyone who attended voted for a favorite.  Esoteric Order came in first, winning a trip to Stoudt’s Oktoberfest Festival.  Second place went to Bockstars and third was Vices & Virtues.  I was blown away by the quality and variety of both the food and the beer, kudos to all of the teams!

This was one of my favorite beer events this year and I truly hope Dave repeats it in the future.