Regional Craft Beer Dinner = Good Food, Drinks and Company

Let me start off by saying I am a connoisseur of neither beer or gourmet food.  But Jason (my husband) is good friends with Mike who is a manager at Jubans.  Mike emailed Jason about this dinner and sounded like an experience in which we could not resist.  I am so glad we decided to go!

The dinner was set up in one of Jubans private rooms and it was banquet style, 8 to a table.  I kind of felt like our table was the "kids" table since all of us were probably about 20 years + younger than the rest of the diners.  We lucked out with good conversation and lots of laughs...

The dinner started with a reception at 6:15pm with two beer choices (hubby and I chose to try both) and a passed appetizer.  The first beer was from Tin Roof Brooming Co. located right here in Baton Rouge.  Each batch of beer there is made by hand, 30 barrels at a time.  At first I thought it was a bit bitter for my taste but it certainly grew on me.  I am so proud to know that a beer of this caliber is brewed in the city in which I live!  What great Christmas gifts it will make....I I preferred this beer over the other served during the reception, which was Covington Brewhouse's Bayou Bock.  My husband preferred the bock and put it on the list of beers to buy in the future.  I just thought it tasted like a typical bock.  Okay, now to what I have been dying to share, the appetizer.  We started this night full of delicious food with a smoked three cheese fondue, with bayou bock-battered popcorn shrimp and grilled sourdough bread.  Now, I am not much into seafood and would normally have given my shrimp to Jason without even trying it. But it was covered in cheese so I decided to give it a go.  You can imagine my surprise when I realized how yummy it was - the shrimp was perfectly cooked, crispy on the outside and almost like melt-in-your-mouth butter on the inside.  The bread was cubed and perfectly grilled and the fondue had a perfect smokiness that paired well with each of the beers selected for this course.  In fact, Jason and I realized that fondue brought out the complexity of the beers so much, that I ended up liking both of them.  We both ended up eating four or five of the shrimp skewers, with each one being as perfect as the first.

Okay, on to the next course.  Bayou Teche Brewing Co.'s LA 31 Pale Ale was paired with grilled quail, green tomato jam, and an smoked bacon hollandaise.  Personally, I am not a fan of pale ales, but I can say that many at my table raved about this beer.  It is from  Arnaudville, LA and their goal is to create beers to compliment cajun cuisine.  The glasses the beers were served in rocked and I tried to get Jason to put his under the table so we could bring it home but he wouldn't do it.  On the front they had a map of Louisiana and on the back it said, "Rt 31 Beer Drinkers Paradise."  LOVE IT! Okay, on to the food....I have never had quail before and was afraid it would be too gamey...I was wrong!  It was really delicious and meaty and moist.  Jason and I joked about making teeny tiny buffalo wings but don't think it would be worth the trouble.  The hollaindaise sauce was also delicious, I just wish there was more of it.  That is sometimes the problem with "gourmet."  The sauces look beautiful and the presentation is like a work of art but it is just a tease for my taste buds.  Surprising to me, the green tomato jam was the highlight of this dish.  It had the perfect sweetness and texture and it made me wish the quail had a little more spice to it.

Okay, the next course was my favorite of the evening.  The beer was Heiner Brau Marzen.  It was everything I hoped it would be...smooth, slightly nutty with a little spice, which was a perfect accompaniment for the cumin spiced roasted carrot soup with chilled duck confit and spicy duck cracklins.  The beer was so good that when I got home, I immediately went to their website to find out when the offered tours of their brewery and was disappointed to read that they have been temporarily suspended.  Okay...on to the food...the carrot soup was thick and comforting with the perfect spice.  The soup itself is something I will crave again.  It was smooth, hearty and absolute perfection.  I can still close my eyes and taste it.  The duck confit was chilled, which I did not love.  Of course anything cooked in it's own fat has to be good and this was no exception.  I was scared of the cracklins and actually tempted to avoid them all together.  But Mike convinced me to give them a go and I am glad he did.  They were crispy, tasty and had a deep, rich  flavor that complimented the spicy soup.  To be honest, I would have been happy with the carrot soup served solo and that is what I will want again.  This afternoon I plan on researching roasted carrot soup recipes to see if I can replicate this unbelievable dish.

i knew going into the dinner that the next course would not be a favorite of mine.  I was surprised, however, to find out it was not a favor of Jason's either.  Blue cornmeal fried oysters were served over spicy mirliton coleslaw.  Your first question (if you are not from southern la) will probably be, what is a mirliton?  It is a small, green squash that doesn't have much flavor.  More often than not, they are served stuffed with a spicy mixture of crawfish and/or tasso.  I thought this coleslaw was okay, at best.  It was really spicy and had an overpowering onion flavor.  Since I am not into seafood so much, Jason ate my oysters.  He, along with others at the table, thought they were over-salted and over-cooked.  To me, this course felt like an afterthought that was sandwiched between two unbelievable dishes.  The beer with this course was also from Heiner Brau - their Kolsh.  It was tied for second with the next dish's beer. It wasn't spicy or nutty like Marzen...it was smoother and went really well with the spice of the coleslaw. 

Finally, the course Jason and I had been waiting for - a bison prime rib with sweet potato souffle, praline crumbles, and steen's cane syrup horseradish glaze paired with Lazy Magnolia's Southern Pecan Beer.  The prime rib was perfectly cooked for Jason and I although I heard others complain that it was too rare.  We never had bison before and weren't sure if it would be too gamey.  It was not gamey at all and had a mild flavor that went really well with the glaze.  I felt like the sweet potatoes were not much of souffle.  Rather they were mashed and served in a halved orange.  They were really sweet and yummy and, as one of the diners at my table said "makes me feel like it's Thanksgiving."  This dish did feel very Fall and was a treat after our hot summer.  There was bartering at our table so we could get a few more bites of our favorites.  One diner offered to trade her bison fat for some sweet potatoes......  the beer was really, really amazing.  I have had pecan beers before and find that they usually focus on the bitterness of the nut.  However, the pecan flavor in this beer caused an unbelievable depth in each sip.  When I got home I went to this website too and learned that the pecans are actually used like a grain to make this beer and it is evident in it's nutty characteristic.  In all, this course did not disappoint and came in a close second for me.

Finally, it was time for dessert.  I am usually pretty partial to chocolate desserts so, if I was ordering from the menu, I would not have chosen the key lime cheesecake with lemon creme anglaise and candied blood orange.  To me, this cheesecake may have been the best I ever had.  It was more tart than sweet, which turned off some of the diners.  I, on the other hand, thought it was a dish I wish I could eat in private so my moaning during each bite would not be frowned upon.  Other diners thought it was too rich but, to me, "too rich" does not exist.  I don't understand how people can say that.  It's like saying something has too much butter or frosting.  There is no truth to it.  The lemon creme anglaise added a sweetness that offset the tartness of the key limes.  And the candied blood orange was really a tiny dessert in itself.  It was pure heaven - sweet, tart, with a perfect smooth texture.  The beer served with dessert was another from Covington Brewery - their Pontchartrain Pilsner.  To me, it was a typical pilsner and, because of it's lightness and smoothness,  it paired perfectly with this decadent dessert.

In all, this was a dinner that I will not forget for a long, long time.  I am so thrilled to learn that there are numerous breweries in the area to visit and sample.  These beers are just another way my family can support the local economy.  I have already decided to hold my own local brewery tasting when my family is in Louisiana for Thanksgiving.  I can't wait to introduce them to all of these tasty local brews!

I am sad to be missing the Abita Beer Dinner that is scheduled at Jubans in September because of the family vacation we already have planned.  Check out the menu for that dinner on Juban's website.  If you go, I can't wait to hear the play by play, including photos of course.