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FULL SAIL BRINGS IACP FOOD LOVERS TO
HARBORSIDE FOR A TASTE OF OREGON
Most beer lovers now regard the brewmaster dinner as
almost quotidian, ho-hum in its sheer ordinariness. However, for the
majority of attendees of the International Association of Culinary
Professionals (IACP), a brewmaster's dinner with Full Sail and the
Oregon Brewers' Guild was "a wonderful surprise."
"I'm
amazed at the variety in flavors," said Anne Mason, co-owner of the
Ketchum Grill, Idaho. Her small restaurant features wine dinners almost
monthly. Until now, "the idea of pairing a beer with a dessert had
never occurred to me," said Mason, "and I'm a professional pastry
chef."
Spreading
the gospel on good beer and good food is one of the missions that
drives Full Sail's consumer marketing. "We've been doing recipe cards
and food promotions for years," says John Harris, one of the Full
Sail brewmasters who hosted the dinner, with the Oregon Brewers Guild
(OBG).
 When
the IACP chose Portland as its host city in 1998, local planners tapped
the OBG for its assistance.
The elegant
Harborside/Pilsner Room along the banks of the Willamette served as
the site for a luscious five-course meal, featuring a range of brews
from across the state.
Harborside
Chef Billy Hahn designed the pairings to start with a virtual flavor
explosion: the powerful Adam barleywine from Hair of the Dog led the
pack of pairings with the appetizer, Dutch Gouda and Apple Tartlette
on a Spiced Barley Sauce.
"Almost
overwhelming in its depth," was how attendee Arch Corriher described
the Adam beer with the tartlette. "What made the dish so interesting
was the malted flavor of the wort reduction sauce." Other courses
that the Atlanta-based food consultant recalled as exceptional included
the creamy Dungeness Crab and Roasted Corn Chowder (paired with the
Bridgeport IPA) and the salad of blue cheese, pears and caramel-glazed
walnuts (with Widmer Hefeweizen).
"We really
enjoyed the hefeweizen, because so many of the wheat beers we get
on tap in the South are already filtered," added Corriher.
The fresh
flavor of the wild Chinook salmon with a Full Sail amber ale and butter
sauce would be hard for most home chefs to duplicate, but the sauce
was incredibly simple. Sous chef Marcel Lahsene folded some syrupy
reduced wort from the Full Sail Amber into a creamy white sauce--and
served it with the same ale. 
Still,
for many guests, the favorite course was the dessert of roasted hazelnut
truffles, plated with tropical fruits such as kiwi and papaya, paired
with the Deschutes Black Butte Porter. "The porter tasted so complex
and interesting, with some coffee notes and spiciness from the ale
yeast, kind of like a molasses steamed Christmas pudding," said pastry
chef Mason.
It's
refreshing to see a sold-out beer dinner that ended with attendees
asking for more!
RECIPE:
Dungeness Crab & Corn Chowder
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