May 20 2008
Back from savor, but the craft beer and food pairings are clogging my brain a little
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I’m still clearing out the cobwebs from Savor, and am in the process of taking my raw video footage and editing it. But here’s a quick rundown. Andy Crouch has a great writeup of this first-ever event, I’d recommend you read it.
The 75 year-old Mellon Auditorium was impressive, definitely the coolest location I’ve seen for a beer festival. The event was sold out (700 tickets for each session), and I enjoyed the relatively small size. The small number of attendees allowed us to talk a little bit with each consumer and I met some wonderful DC-area folks.
Flying Dog had our Kerberos Tripel paired with these Peking Duck purses and our Gonzo Imperial Porter paired with wonderful artisan chocolates with raspberry filling. The number of dishes that breweries were allowed to use was on the small side, which allowed for various beers to be paired with the same food. I thought it was nice that this was the case, because the fact is that many different styles of beer can be paired with similar foods.
Another cool thing about the festival is that the Brewer’s Association gave out these great tasting journals as part of your entry fee. Among the 100 or so pages for you to enter your tasting notes were some recipes and suggested pairings, along with a few pages showing pairing options for a wide variety of beer styles.
I’ll have some videos of the even coming up in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
What about you guys who also attended Savor? Any remarks?
So much beer! So many chocolates! I made a point of visiting breweries I had never tried and would likely never have the chance to (what are the chances I’ll be in Kansas?).
I wish that a) we’d had the tasting journals at the start, rather than the end; and 2) people would move out of the way once they got their shot and a nosh.