Celebrity sighting for beer nerds

Erin and I had a nice surprise a few weeks ago. We were at Whole Foods beer school, which has kind of become a regular thing for us, when happened to notice that Garrett Oliver was going to be in town for the Craft Brewers Conference and he was hosting a dinner in the Whole Foods kitchen. In case you don't know, Mr. Oliver is the brewmaster at the Brooklyn Brewery and the author of a pretty amazing book entitled The Brewmaster's Table. Obviously once we were done peeing our collective pants due to the excitement we immediately signed up.

This dinner absolutely blew away any and all expectations. First of all, there were only about thirty people there, so it was a really small, intimate crowd. Also, not only did Garrett drop some knowledge on us about beer/food pairings, but he actually did the cooking himself. We were treated to a three course meal consisting of crab cakes, deliciously juicy hamburgers (to which he added an absurd amount of butter), and lamb chops. Each course was paired with a unique Brooklyn Brew.

The first beer was Local 1, a Belgian style ale. We both agreed this was our favorite brew of the night. Then we had their IPA, which was balanced with great spice flavor. Their Lager was our third offering, and it is the beer they are best known for. Finally, their Brown Ale tasted good... from what I can remember!

This picture is pretty significant. Erin decided in 8th grade that she was done eating red meat, and hadn't ever looked back. Yet when we gave up meat for Lent this year, she started feeling the urge to try beef again. This dinner was about a week after Easter, and was the perfect opportunity to get back on the bandwagon. She ate the entire (well done) burger, and was surprisingly delighted!

After the dinner, Brooklyn Brewery treated us to more of their offerings at the bar downstairs. It was a fun chance to chat with other beer geeks, and we even got to spend a few minutes talking to Garrett!