Crane Alley International Rare Beer Dinner

Last night was Crane Alley's first International Rare Beer Dinner (also called the Beer Snob Dinner).

From the look of the menu, you may not recognize many of the beers. I don't know many of them. I've had the Rosee D'Hibiscus from Dieu du Ciel in bottles before, but according to the distributor... more on that later.

The first course was the Ichtegems Grand Cru Flemish Red Ale with Mangalitsa Ham, biscuits and pear. As I was eating the pears, it seemed almost as though the beer and the pear were made for each other. The pinkish thing running down the middle is the piece of Mangalitsa Ham. Mangalitsa pigs are woolly and curly haired. Their meat is claimed to be buttery and has better fat. Apparently the fat from Mangalitsa pigs is better for you than normal pig fat. It's really tasty.

The biscuits served with the pear and pork were a little spicy, but that's from the jalapeno jelly. The pears were great. Every now and then when you match food with beer/wine/something else, you come up with what seems like a perfect pairing. These pears with the Flemish Red Ale were that.

The second course to come out was endive with candied walnuts, orange supreme, Roquefort, Mangalitsa crisp, and a frisse. This was served with De Glazen Toren Saison D'Erpe-Mere. The beer was very light, and didn't have the herbs and spices that I normally associate with a saison. It was a clean, refreshing, easy drinking beer. It went well with the frisse. The endives had the rest of the filling. My first bite into it made me exclaim "Oh My God, these walnuts are overpowering". Which made me fearful of the next bite. But then I said "Oh My God, the Roquefort", then there was another OMG moment when i got to the orange supreme. Each bite was a totally different experience. After I finally finished my stuffed endives, I set about eating the frisse, with the things that fell out of the endive. That was a delicious salad. I don't normally like salad with citrus in it (or walnuts) but this was pretty darn good.

The third course was duck confit ravioli, fig-prosciutto compote and Prairie Fruits Farm Chevre. Last Wednesday, Crane Alley held a Beer and Cheese tasting featuring cheeses from Prairie Fruits Farm. The Chevre was one of my favorite cheeses that day. Then, it was served with beers from Merchant du Vin, now, it was served with La Rulles Cuvee Meilleurs Voeux. The beer was described as a Belgian brown. It seemed like one of the best English style brown ale's that I've ever had. The ravioli had a strong pepper smell to it. It wasn't unpleasant. The duck confit was amazing. The ravioli when eaten by itself didn't seem to have much flavor, but when eaten with anything else on the plate, it was awesome.

The next course was the beef filet medallion, shrimp tortillita and pasilla rouille, served with Hitachino Red Rice Ale. The beer was amazing. The beer reminded me of smoked string cheese from Kugel's Cheese Mart in Lena, Wisconsin. (They ship). I always enjoy going up to a Packer game, and before (or after) heading the 20 or so minutes north of Green Bay to go to Kugel's Cheese Mart. Then I get a couple of pounds of cheese and beef sticks. The cheese and sticks have never made the 6 hour trip back from Green Bay, regardless of how much I purchase.

The beef medallion was outstanding. We weren't served steak knives, but they weren't needed as we could cut it with our butter knife. The tortillita with the shrimp inside was amazing. I wasn't a big fan of the pasilla rouille. I may just not know how to appreciate it, but it seemed at first a little to peppery to me, and later it seemed like it had a heavy dose of paprika to it. Brad (head chef) said neither was used, and that it was saffron. Which I guess makes sense.

Next were the two deserts. The first was poached pears, with dried cherries and Madeira zabaglione (as a drizzle sauce). This was served with Birrificio Grado Plato Chocarrubica. The beer was an oatmeal stout with cocoa beans and carrubs from Sicily. It was a pretty good beer. I really liked the pears and the cherries. The pears had a slight almond flavor to it, which might have come from the sauce. There also seemed to be a bit of cinnamon somewhere on the dish (I dislike cinnamon) but it wasn't overpowering or totally unpleasant. Kridz didn't like the pears as she's a texture person, and doesn't like soft/mushy foods.

The final thing we were served was Dieu du Ciel Rosee D'Hibiscus with lemon snow gateau, basil custard, and tuile cookie. Kridz said the beer looks and smells like a flower. The gateau was very lemon flavored. It was very lemon flavored. The cookie was good. The basil custard was interesting, and the gateau was lemony.

Throughout the evening, the courses had a few common themes. You probably noticed a lot of them had pears. Also, the Mangalitsa ham was used a lot. Brad had the ham for a while and was really looking for something to use it with. Each time it was used in a dish, it was great. The pears were also a nice touch on most of the dishes.

The beer was on tap, and should still be available at Crane Alley for the next few days. I would definitely recommend going to have some of the beers. I'm sure Brad will be incorporating the ham and pears into this weeks specials as well.

Back to the beer, I was sitting across from the distributor who carried all these beers for the evening. He said he's never seen any of these in kegs before. Most of them, neither of us had heard of before. I believe these beers are carried by B. United. I don't think they'll be at any other place in town, and when they are empty, they are gone. Some of them you can probably find in bottles at Friar Tucks or at Piccadilly (Rosee d'Hibiscus for sure) but others you'll probably have to look hard to get. The beers are available on the sampler.

Crane Alley Founders Beer Dinner

Monday, July 5 was the Crane Alley and Founders Brewing Company Beer Dinner. I gotta say, I was a huge fan. I love Founders beers. There aren't many in their lineup that aren't awesome examples of their style. Brewers in the midwest can make some great beer, Bells, Great Lakes, Three Floyds, and Founders are all great breweries that make great beer. Founders everyday lineup (and things you can still find on shelves at stores and at bars, here in central Illinois) are some of the best beers you can have. If you don't get Founders in your area, chat me up, we might be able to work something out.

When I think of regional specialties, I think the west coast is probably best known for their work with hops. The southeast (below North Carolina) to me is an area that works well within their restrictions (ABV and other weird laws). To me, the beers that are done best in the midwest are stouts and other black beers. If you look at the Beer Advocate top 100 US beers, you'll see a lot of stouts (imperial stouts) from the midwest. Three Floyds Darklord, Founders Breakfast Stout, Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout, Surly Darkness, Great Lakes Blackout Stout, Bells Expedition... sure there are stouts on that list from other places in the US, but there seem (to me) to be more that are located in Big Ten Country: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota. We do stouts right.

So, going into the dinner, and just knowing what was on tap at the bar that night, got me real excited. Looking at the beer on the menu, there's probably things you've never heard of, there are things I've never heard of. I was joined for the evening, by Kridz and Kellz.

The first course was a butternut squash soup with pine nuts. It was served with the dry hopped pale ale. The soup was awesome. It seemed to have the consistency more of baby food, than of a soup. It wasn't a stew, and wasn't liquidy. It was great. Overheard outside was that the pine nuts added a nice crunch to go with the smooth texture of the soup. Some people thought it had some spice to it, which was cut nicely with the pale ale.

The second course was a scallop with citrus supreme, sriracha glace and leeks. It was served with Devil Dancer, which is a triple IPA. Kellz is relatively new to beer, and she doesn't seem to be too much of a hophead, so the triple IPA was probably overwhelming to her. Additionally, she didn't like the fishy taste to the scallop. (She's new-ish to being a foodie too). Kridz ate her scallop, I got to eat about 3/4 or more of Kellz. The scallop was fully cooked (at the last dinner with them, Kridz' was sort of pink/fleshy) but this time, it was white all the way through. I didn't expect that I'd like the citrus on it, but was pleasantly surprised. The leeks were awesome.

The next course was awesome, and worth the price of admission to me. (Also worth the price of Kridz ticket too). It was a Mishima Ranch Wagyu Tenderloin, with mussels, chantrelles, and madeira. This was served with Black Biscuit. Black Biscuit was an awesome beer, I figured it was a dark (black) Old ale. It's 10.5% ABV so it packed a punch. I believe it was aged in the same maple syrup bourbon barrels that Founders uses for the Canadian Breakfast Stout. It was a delicious beer. Brad (chef at Crane) actually used some of the Black Biscuit for the cooking of the mussels. According to the Founders sales rep, only one sixth barrel made it downstate, and Crane Alley used some of it for cooking!!! The beef was served rare. Yes, it looked pink and almost purple. You can see the marbling in the picture, even if you don't click on it. It was fatty and tender and delicious. Neither Kridz nor Kellz like rare meat (both would prefer it almost medium) so I got lucky and got to have most of their portions too. I don't think you can see it in the picture, but there are two pieces of the meat on the plate. Due to their not liking rare, I pretty much got to have almost 5 pieces of this awesome meat. You'll also notice on the plate that there were chantrelles mushrooms. These had a strong nutty flavor, and seemed to go well with the beer. Neither of the girls were big fans of the mushrooms, so I ate a couple, and then passed them to the wine guy from Piccadilly, who was more than happy to eat them.

The next course was an Ellensburg Farms lamb rack. This was served with a pear and chayote (like a pear) mix, along with red potato and lots of mint butter. It was paired with El Diablo Del Noche. The beer was a black double IPA. This was also served rare, so I pretty much got to eat three lamb racks. You can see the pear and chayote mix at the top of the plate. I thought that was rather good, and was surprised that I liked it. Why is lamb served with mint? It was too minty. Granted, that's just my tastes, but I didn't like the mint. All the other foods let the course be the star, but the lamb had a huge mint flavor. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but just wasn't for me.

The final course was a goat cheese cheesecake, with a brandied bing cherry, and a chocolate covered bacon. If you've never had chocolate covered bacon, you may think it sounds terrible, but I assure you, it's AWESOME! This was served with Cerise. To me, Cerise tastes like a tart cherry pie filling. It's not sweet like a maraschino cherry, it's got a slightly tart bite to it. It went really good with the cheese cake. You'll notice there's a chunk taken out of my slice, it looked so good when it came out, that I forgot to take a picture until after I tasted it. I love cheesecake. I love soft goat cheese. This was outstanding. Samantha Duce did this desert, and she's great with deserts. I could probably eat this all day, every day.

But, since Kellz gave me most of her main course foods, I took two bites of the cheesecake and gave the rest to her. Yes, I'm a nice guy. I bought Kridz ticket, so I figured if I ate most of Kellz food, she could eat the part she liked best from my plate. *edit; Kellz says Kridz ate my cheesecake... I did mention the beers were strong, didn't I?*

Upon completion of the dinner, the Founders rep had a quiz, if you got the question right, you won a Founders shirt. The first question was "where is Founders located?" I had my hand up at "where" so I won the first shirt... yay me. Kridz also won a shirt, and I think Kellz did too. Everyone got a Founders magnet and a bottle opener.

After the dinner, Aaron tapped Canadian Breakfast Stout. This beer was awesome. If you can find CBS, get CBS. It's the same beer as KBS (not breakfast stout though), but there's a little twist to the story. KBS is aged in oak Bourbon barrels. But Founders doesn't get all the barrels from that distillery, some travel up to Canada (eh) and are then used to hold maple syrup for a while. After that, Founders gets the barrels and then puts the beer into them. So you get a lot of maple flavor, oaken flavors, bourbon flavors, coffee... the flavors go on and on. It's an outstanding beer.

The meal was awesome. The beer was awesome. The company was awesome (we sat with Tom, Nancy, Eric, Ellen, and... um... that guy from Red Star). It was a good time.

If you are into food, you should try to get to a beer dinner, if you don't want to do a Crane Alley dinner, Radio Maria also has beer (and wine) dinners sporadically.

Some of the upcoming Crane Alley dinners sound spectacular. I have no idea what the food is going to be, but the breweries make it worth the while. An upcoming one will be with Brewdog, rumor is James Watt will be at the dinner. Another one that is about a year away is a Mikkeller dinner; where Mikkel himself is supposed to attend. If you are into beer, and want to eat great food, come to those, you will probably not get the opportunity to get that close to some of the best brewers in the world, without abducting them.

Now, to see if I can get them to come over and brew a batch on my stove.

Crane Alley Bell's Beer Dinner

On Monday, March 15, Crane Alley held a Bell's Brewery beer dinner.

Tickets were $65 each. It included almost all the beer you could drink, not that there was very much room for much beer.

Prior to the first course, Bell's Oarsman Ale was served. It's sort of a Berliner Weisse style beer. It's not high in alcohol, but it does have lots of flavor. Berliner Weisse normally is a very tart beer, but this one wasn't too bad on the tartness. The beer was served as a palate cleanser. Additionally, that glass was refilled as much as needed during the evening. Oarsman is currently on tap at Crane Alley.

The first course was a Monkfish Ceviche. It was served on a Belgian Endive. It was citrus cured, with scallion, red onion, oregano and cilantro. On top was some avocado and tomato. It was a pretty good ceviche. This was paired with Bell's Sparkling Ale. The beer was described as a Belgian Triple. It was a pretty good pairing with the ceviche.

The second course was a braised bison short rib. It was served with a mirepoix, oyster mushrooms brussel sprouts and Mangalitsa bacon with a walnut cream sauce. Several of the people at my table considered it to be the best course of the night. The meat was very tender and slide right off the bone. This was paired with Bell's Amber. Bell's Amber will always hold a soft spot in my heart, as it was my gateway beer.


The third course was roasted duck leg with pan seared foie gras. It was served in a prickly pear sauce, and was paired with Bells Two Hearted Ale. Someone at another table took offense to the beer being named an "ale" because it's listed as an "IPA". Well, what does the A in "IPA" stand for?

The main course was Snake River Farms Kurobuta pork tenderloin. This was served wrapped in the mangalitsa bacon. It was served with beet gnocchi, in a maple syrup reduction made with Bell's Consecrator Dopplebock, it was served on frisee. It was paired with Bell's Consecrator Dopplebock. This was my favorite meat of the night. The sauce was excellent, and the pork was delicious. Wrapped in the fancy bacon, it was outstanding.

The final course was a sweet potato doughnut. It was served with vanilla bean ice cream and topped with pralines and spun sugar, that looked like wheat. It was served with Bell's Java Stout. Several people would have claimed this was their favorite, if that honor didn't go to the short rib.

Upon completion of the dinner, Bell's Batch 9000 was tapped and served. This is a special beer commemorating the 9000th batch of beer made at the brewery. It's a really good beer. Crane Alley was serving it for $5 in a snifter (about 6-8 ounces). It's definitely been aged in barrels. It's listed as an imperial stout, but it seemed like an American strong ale, similar to Lost Abbey the Angel's Share. It was very rich and flavorful. It was almost hard to finish the snifter, even though there was only about 8 ounces.

It was a good dinner. I didn't leave hungry. I don't think anyone else did either. The meal wasn't rushed, giving you time to appreciate each dish. The beer was plentiful, even though only served in the sampler glasses, they kept the glasses full. They didn't take away any glasses that still had beer in them, allowing you to have an entire collection in front of you at the end of the night, if you really took your time. There wasn't too much time in between courses, which was nice. Sometimes there is a lag as the kitchen is trying to get caught up, but this time, there was just enough to take a quick break and then head back up.

I'm not sure what the next dinner will be, but if you hear about it (look at the "Beer Weekend" posts) you should consider going. At $65 it is a bit expensive, but there are quality ingredients going in to the food. At one of the dinners, I overheard one of the kitchen staff thanking Aaron (the Crane Alley GM) for letting him help on the dinner. He was happy that he got to work with some really good "product". So if people who work with the food are impressed with it, you probably might be too.

Beer Event Wrapup, Lefthand Beer Dinner

Last night was the Left Hand Brewing beer dinner at Crane Alley.

Each beer was presented by Mike Walters, the Midwest sales manager for the brewery.

The first course was the panko crusted salmon cake, stuffed with spiced cream cheese. This was paired with Ju Ju Ginger.

The salmon cake was awesome. It looked, and tasted kind of like a crab-cake, but it was better. The spiced cream cheese in the middle was outstanding. It went pretty good with the beer. The salmon cake might have been my favorite dish of the night.



The second course was served with Sawtooth Amber, and was a salad, served with jumbo lump crab. The salad wasn't really anything that looked like "salad". It looked more like a plate of clover, but it was really tasty. It was served with a remoulade and smoked sea salt. The smoked salt was great, I need to find some, or figure out how they made it.

The third course was a duck breast with wild rice, grilled zucchini and squash. It was served with the Snowbound Winter Ale. The duck was outstanding. I didn't think it went very well with the Snowbound. The beer was a little bit spiced, and reminded me of a darker version of the Ju Ju. When the beer was drank with the food, it completely changed the flavor of the beer, and cut the spices right out, making the beer go better with it. Looking through the Left Hand beer lineup, I thought the Deep Cover Brown or the Black Jack Porter, might have been a better choice to go with the darker duck, and the rice.

The fourth course was the Alligator on creole cous-cous, with a spicy trinity broth. It seemed that the alligator was what everyone was most interested in trying. I was a little disappointed in it. It was a little tough and stringy, but then what do you expect from a creature that is pure muscle. When it came out, it almost looked like boneless buffalo wings. The smaller pieces were ok, but the larger ones seemed to have a flavor and sort of wet/squishy texture that reminded me of deep fried catfish. The cous cous was good, and the trinity sauce was great. This was presented with Warrior IPA. The warrior did a good job of cutting the spice of the sauce.

The final presentation was a pistachio infused Tres Leches cake with a Milk Stout Reduction, served with Milk Stout. The cake itself was outstanding, the milk stout reduction worked like a chocolate syrup. It also came with some edible flower petals, that were pretty good in the sweet (i think it was cream) sauce that was also drizzled on the plate. The beer was a good compliment to the cake, washed it down nicely without upsetting the sweetness that was already quite present in the sauces.

Overall it was a good menu, with a good beer selection, there was only one of the beers that I would have tried to change, but it still worked well with the food. The food was all good, with the two cakes (first and last) being great. I asked Aaron if they would be putting the salmon cakes on the menu, and he said they probably wouldn't. If they put the Tres Leches cake on the menu, I wouldn't complain about that, and it might even turn me into a desert person.

Beer Events; Crane Alley Left Hand Beer Dinner

Just received the menu for the next Beer Dinner series to be held at Crane Alley, Dec. 8. This one is going to be built around Left Hand Brewing beers.

LEFT HAND BEER DINNER

Ju Ju Ginger

Panko crusted Salmon cake stuffed with spiced cream cheese with an Orange-Sesame vinaigrette

Sawtooth Amber Ale

Jumbo Lump Crabmeat tossed with micro greens drizzled with remoulade and smoked sea salt

Snowbound Winter Ale

Pan Roasted Duck Breast with wild rice pilaf, grilled zuchinni and squash, and a Blueberry demi-glace

Warrior IPA

Alligator Sirloin on top of creole cous-cous, with a spicy trinity broth

Milk Stout

Pistachio infused Tres Leches cake with a Left Hand Milk Stout reduction



That's right, alligator!

Left Hand Brewing is based out of Longmont, Colorado. The beer will be presented by Mike Walters the Midwest Sales Manager for Left Hand.


The dinner is $50 a person. Make reservations with Aaron before it fills up.

Aaron at crane-alley.com

Beer Events; Crane Alley Merchant du Vin Dinner wrapup

The dinner last night was great. Good food, good beer, good people.

The dinner started with a salad with Anchovy filets, Kalamata olives and fried capers. This was served with a Samuel Smiths Winter Welcome. While I don't normally like that beer, it seemed to go really good with the salty pieces in the salad. The beer also seemed to be a little less spiced than I remember it previously. I'll have to give it another try.

The second course was three different sushi's. The first was a white tuna, the second was a smoked roe, the third was a baked eel. This was served with ayinger Brau Weiss. This wound up being my least favorite pairing of the night. I thought the seafood might have gone better with a Gueuze, and I mentioned that to Aaron, and he said they also thought that, but didn't want to put two lambic's on the menu. Other people there, who were more familiar with sushi, thought this was the best pairing of the night. So, if I became more familiar with sushi, I might have liked it better.

The third course was oven roasted cornish game hen, over quinoa, with green, purple and white asparagus. This was served with Orval. Prior to the presentation of each beer, the Merchant du Vin distributor (Brian Van Zandbergen, I believe) spoke about each beer. For Orval, he gave a history of the beer, described it, and also told the romantic version of Dame Mathilda's ring (with the caveat, that it's most likely not true).

The hen with the beer was outstanding. The quinoa (that I've never had before, but read about from 3D) was great. The three asparagus, were really interesting to note the flavor differences in. The purple almost had a chlorine flavor to me, and reminded me of swimming. Kriddy's didn't have that same flavor, so I don't know why mine had that.

The fourth course was buffalo shank with wild mushroom risotto. This was served with both Rochefort 8 and 10. This was an outstanding course (sorry no picture). We got to try both side by side. The 8 was definitely sweeter than the 10, but the 10 seemed to go better with the meat, as it wasn't as sweet as the 8. Several other people in attendance agreed with me on that.

The next course was the first of the deserts. This wsa a pastry shell stuffed with jalapeno-marscapone, topped with honey pecan drizzle. It was served with Lindeman's Pomme. The marscapone was surprisingly spicy, and held the heat of the jalapeno well. The pomme cut right through that and was a nice compliment of apple to the desert. I don't think I've ever had a spicy desert before, other than maybe having a slice of cake on my plate where there was some residual tobasco sauce on it, but this was outstanding.

The final beer and food for the night was Sam Smiths Oatmeal Stout, served over Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. It was a Sam Smiths Oatmeal Stout float. Kriddy was in heaven, one of her favorite beers, served over ice cream. On the side were strawberries dipped in dark chocolate fondue. I only had one bite of the ice cream, then passed the rest on to Kriddy. I did drink all my beer though.

It was a good meal. I was thinking I would go away hungry after looking at the first two courses, that appeared tiny, but by the end of the hen, Kriddy was getting full, and I was starting to slow down as well. If the portions were much larger, it would have been almost too much food. (Although a good soup before or after the salad would have been a nice touch). If this becomes a once a month event, like Aaron expects it to be, it would make a pretty good "date night" for a couple. It was a little pricey at $60 a person, but the food was not your average bar food, and was darn good.

The next beer dinner will be with Lefthand Brewery. Upcoming beer dinners will be with Unibroue (makers of la fin du monde), Rogue (makers of Dead Guy) and Aaron claims the one "not to be missed" will be the Dogfish Head dinner.