Mission Gastroclub

Tag Archive: Mission Gastroclub

Mission Gastroclub meets femALEist and Women who like Beer

Filed Under: Beer Meetup Events, Beer Reviews, Beer Scores, Beer Tasting Events, Women who like Beer Meetup Events, women would enjoy this beer

Jan.23, 2011

Being a vegetarian, it is always hard to go to beer pairing dinners. I can not justify spending $80 and up for a great beer dinner, but not being able to eat half of it or having my ‘vegetarian’ option be some sort of pasta. That just doesn’t cut it for me. It is hard to understand living in San Francisco where vegetarian beer connoisseurs get the short end of the stick the majority of the time.

The last time I spoke with Eric and Neil from Mission Gastroclub, we talked about my frustrations and joining forces to offer a vegetarian craft beer dinner for the Women who like Beer meetup group. Even though on their website it states: We are omnivores: the menu will rarely be vegetarian/vegan friendly. Emphasis is placed on in-season and sustainably produced foods whenever possible. I appreciate their willingness to venture out into vegetarian territory…even though they did have a pig breakdown on Saturday (in which my husband was a happy participant).

The menu was a 4 course meal paired with 2 of Eric’s homebrews and 2 were commercial craft beers.

1st Course: Maldon faltbread, red beets and olivade pairied with Eric’s Belgian Single. This beer is 4.7% abv, 32 IBU’s and is done as a second runnings beer (partigyle) from when Eric brewed a triple IPA. The sweetness from the beets, accompanied by the creaminess of the olivade and the crunchiness/saltiness of the flatbread worked well with the light, hoppiness of the Belgian Single.

2nd Course: Vaquero heirloom beans, cold smoked cauliflower, crispy garbanzos paired with Drake’s Rey Eye Ale (6.5% abv). The starchiness of the beans, crispiness of the lightly fried chickpeas and the chilled smokiness of the cauliflower helped to compliment the hoppy and caramel balance from the Red Eye Ale.

3rd Course: Braised leeks, king oyster mushrooms, barley, beer blanc served with Anchor’s Bock (5.5% abv). The beer blanc really helped to pull this dish together. The butteriness and the nuttiness of the barley, the umaminess of the flash fried mushrooms and the semi-sweet and savory beer blanc helped to compliment the flavors of the Bock: sweetness, caramel, cereal, stewed fruit and touch of hops.

4th Course: Beer poached Asian pears, macaroons paired with Eric’s Tripel (8.9% abv, 25 IBU’s). The caramel, slight funk, cereal and carmelized banana flavors out of Eric’s Tripel really emphasized the slightly sweet caramel of the poached pears and the nuttiness of the coconut.

I always ask the ladies to write their top 3 favorite beers and favorite pairings at each event…and the results are in:

Favorite Beer: 1-Eric’s Triple 2- Drake’s Red Eye 3-Eric’s Belgian Single

The top 3 favorite pairings were:
1- Beer poached Asian pears, Macaroons with Eric’s Tripel
2- Braised leeks, oyster mushrooms, barley, beer blanc with Anchor’s Bock
3-Vaquero beans, smoked cauliflower, crispy garbanzos and Drake’s Red Eye

Kass said: This was a very enjoyable event. A special treat to sample the interesting and tasty small dishes and beers presented by the guys at Gastroclub. Kudos for lining up a vegetarian pairing. Tiila, you do a good job organizing events like this. Thanks to all!

Rebecca said: Loved everything about this meetup – great food, great beers (including a really awesome home brewed triple from our hosts)! Thanks Tiila for another great event.

Thanks again Eric and Neil! You guys rock…

Tags: Mission Gastroclub, Women who like beer

Gastroclub: the Beer Pairing Dinner Club you don’t know about

Filed Under: Beer Pairings, Beer Reviews, Beer Scores, Beer Tasting Events

Aug.29, 2010

There has been an underground Beer Dinner Club going on in the Mission for exactly a year now. Dave and I were lucky to become friends with Eric, the beer home-brewer, who hosts each event. Neil is his counter-part: the chef that creates and cooks for all 14 diners each evening. This time the theme happened to be tomatoes, since it’s that time of year and because it was their 1 year anniversary of the Mission Gastroclub and their first dinner was tomato themed as well.

The food menu:

Beer flatbread with tomato olive tapenade, peppered goat cheese, heirloom tomato fritters with smoked trout and buttermilk dressing, scallops with pappardelle, wild mushrooms and oven dried tomatoes, tomato sorbet with corn pudding and candied bacon.

The beer menu:
English Mild, Extra Pale Ale, Funky Belgian Single and a Quad to finish.

Sounds tasty, right? Dave and I arrived and found ourselves with a beer in our hands within the first minute. We sat down at the large table (there are only 2 tables to choose from) in the kitchen and easily started talking to the people who were already there and had apparently been coming to their dinners for a few months now.

The first beer we were given was the English Mild made from the second runnings of a barleywine. 3.8% abv. It pours a murky orange teak. No head. It smells like sweet prunes, dates, vanilla and very slight bourbon notes. It tastes mildly malty, slightly sweet and light. A nice easy start.

It is paired with: tomato-olive tapenade, peppered goat cheese served with beer flatbread. The sweetness from the tomato, creaminess from the goat cheese and butteriness from the flatbread combines with the dates and prunes of the mild to create a sweet, salty and nutty goodness. The goat cheese is just amazing- melt in your mouth. It was a good first start.

For the second course we had his Extra Pale Ale- It pours a slightly cloudy tangerine brown with a touch of foam. It smells like sweet tangerine, mango and a touch of pine. Really pretty nose. It tastes just like pine forest, slightly bitter grapefruit skin and just a nicely balanced bitter ending.

The Extra Pale Ale was paired with: Heirloom tomato fritters, smoked trout salad on frisee with buttermilk dressing .The sweet smokiness and creaminess of the trout combined with the crunch of the fritters adds to the pine bitterness to create a nice balance between the cream and the bitter.

For the third course we had Eric’s Funky Belgian Single. This pours a dark red mahogany- slightly cloudy. It smells like raisins, bananas, cereal, date bread and all together good funk. It tastes like light raisins, malt, slightly funky, touch of bitterness and a dry malty ending. The nose on this one was just fantastic!

It is paired with: Pappardelle, wild mushrooms, oven dried tomatoes and seared scallops. The mildness of the pasta paired with the slight mildness of the beer. The meatiness of the mushrooms brings out the caramel of the scallops and funkiness of the Funky Belgian Single. The bitter touch of tanginess from the oven dried tomatoes really compliments the date and raisin in the beer. My favorite pairing if the evening.

The fourth pairing was Eric’s Quad-11% abv. Made from Rochfort 10. It pours a dark chocolate. It smells like bourbon, vanilla, roasted malt, raisins and stewed fruit. It tastes like freaking raisin brand and vanilla bourbon. Amazing.

Paired with: Corn pudding, tomato sorbet and carmelized peanuts that were then deep fried and bacon (-except for us vegetarians!). The flavors together: sweet corn pudding, tangy tomato and salty sweet peanuts with the sweet bourbony raisins of the Quad= happy Tiila and happy everyone else (especially those with the added bacon bits).

How much would you pay for this delicious 4 course meal complete with a beer pairing? $100? $80? $60? Try just a $28 donation for this particular dinner! (they are all around a suggested $25-$30 donation).Personally, I think they are asking too little but at the end of the meal is when they have a jar on the table for everyone to contribute. So you can donate more if you want to (and I think you all should!!)