Five courses with 4 Hands

Now that the World Series is over (I'm starting this in the top of the 7th, so if the Cardinals come back and win then you can blame this one on me, Boston), why not look back to a night we spent with our friends a few blocks away from the new Busch Stadium - the beer dinner with 4 Hands Brewing. (Quick order of business - 4 Hands will be bringing one of their research and development beers to the Strong Ale Festival on November 16h! Get details at http://beerkc.com/beerfest/strong-ale/ and tickets now on sale at http://www.etix.com/ticket/online/performanceSearch.jsp?performance_id=1760233)

The evening started with a lump crab agnolotti with chard, pear, and peppered mozzarella and the Pyrus saison. My first experience with agnolotti was in last summer's Kurlbaum Heirloom Tomato dinner. I liked it then, and may have liked it even more this time. Pyrus is brewed with pear juice and white peppercorns (in addition to orange zest), so it was a natural pair for this course. Good synergy here. (Top of the 7th just ended. Cardinals got one run and threatened more, but left the bases loaded. Everyone stand up for the 7th inning stretch.)

Agnolotti is kinda like ravioli. Filled with delicious crab next to some pear and mozzarella. Yes.

The second course featured a beer that first appeared at (I believe) the Summer Beer Fest - Resurrection IPA. This was served with a stewed tomato custard, jerky, and bread. Whoa. This was awesome. AWESOME. The tomato custard was smooth, sweet, and creamy. Spread on the bread and jerky, it was magical. When the bread and jerky was gone and I was left with some custard still in its little jar and I ate it off a butter knife, it was still kinda magical. Paired with the beer, it was magical. A balanced IPA with great malt and big hops, the bitterness played off the sweetness.

I'm amazed I waited long enough to take a picture of this. SO GOOD.

As the bottom of the 7th ends and we head towards the 8th, it's time for me to admit that I might like fish. At least very well-prepared fish. I can't hide behind saying I normally don't like it, because me liking fish at these dinners has become the norm. This continued here with seared American red snapper served on risotto and apple butter, and Morning Glory in the glass. Incredible dish. There wasn't much of a fishy flavor, especially in a bite that had risotto and apple butter. And Oh, the apple butter. It might have been the single greatest item served this night. Not overpoweringly sweet. And Morning Glory was the perfect beer to go with it - brewed with sweet potatoes, all spice, nutmeg, whole vanilla beans, and aged on Pecan Wood (top of the 8th just ended, quickly. So much for me getting through a course per half inning). Think of your usual pumpkin beer, and then imagine it being really super good without being that "pumpkin-y." Yeah, good, right? Right.

Alright, I may need to invest in a better camera. That is to say, a camera not on my phone.

Moving along to the fourth course, I KNOW I like beignets, and kielbasa, and poutine. So yeah, I was looking forward to this one. And it was another case of a perfectly-selected beer (bottom of the 8th just starting. I can do this). The Smoked Pigasus is a big robust porter with maple syrup and smoked malts. What was great with this course is that each of the food offerings brought out something different in the beer. The "bk bacon" beignet had smoky bacon and synced up well with the smokiness in the beer, while also pulling out some of the maltiness with the beignet (my fingers want there to be an h in beighnet). The kielbasa was more on the smoky side, not as much on the sweet malt side. And the caramel poutine, besides being FANTASTIC MMMMM made you remember there's maple syrup in the beer.

More. I want more of all of these.

WOO! Made it to dessert before the end of the 8th. And that's good, because this dessert deserves like four innings. (Whoa, a balk! That was weird.) Dessert was chocolate three ways - in the beer, in a mousse, and in a pie. This was good. The mousse was light and fluffy. The pie was rich, with a berry schmear below it to give more variety in the flavor. And the Chocolate Milk Stout was big, rich, and velvety. This is one of the better desserts I've had at a beer dinner (I think the best is still the bread pudding from the Alex Pope-prepared dinner. I still have dreams about that. And now the 8th just ended. Three outs from the end of the season). Also, I discovered the cup holding the mousse was held to the plate by peanut butter. And then I combined peanut butter with the chocolate and whoa. Yeah, that was good.

It may look small, but it was rich enough to pack a big punch

This might have been the best all-around beer dinner yet. It seems Michael Peterson keeps finding ways to top himself, so I'm looking forward to the next one. I'll show up hungry. Keep an eye here and on the Beer Kitchen Facebook page for details on that one when they're announced.

Now we're one out away from the end of the baseball season, so I'm going to sit and take it all in. Hurry back baseball. I love you.

Don't be afraid to say FOEDER

Important stuff!!

Boulevard's Foeder Projekt #1 has been tapped at Beer Kitchen! If you haven't had a chance to try this delicious sour beer, get there NOW. It won't last long. Here, check out Boulevard's brewmaster Steven Pauwels talk about it

Want to know another cool thing Boulevard is doing? Tomorrow, they're having a pet adoption day. Head to the brewery, grab some delicious beers, and meet some new adoptable friends

And while we're on cool news, 2013 Strong Ale Fest tickets are now on sale!!! Get the details at http://beerkc.com/beerfest/strong-ale/, or go ahead and buy your tickets at http://www.etix.com/ticket/online/performanceSearch.jsp?performance_id=1760233. It's going to be a dang fun time.

Be a part of Lance's Brewery Tour

If you're looking for something to do tonight, come out to McCoy's for a wonderful experience for a great cause -

Check out https://www.facebook.com/lancesbrewerytour for more information about Lance's tour across the country, then come out to meet him tonight from 6-8pm!

4 Hands, 5 Courses

If you're not out at GABF, you can come to McCoy's to have some award-winning beer. And the Sinister Rye was tapped recently, and me oh my it's good. The rye adds some spice to a smooth beer. Dangerously delicious.

If you subscribe to BeerAdvocate magazine, check out this month's article on The Foundry! They have some quotes from incredibly good looking people in it.

Coming up in a little more than a week is our next beer dinner! And this one looks great - we're welcoming 4 Hands Brewing into Beer Kitchen on Monday, October 21st for 4 Hands, 5 Courses -

This looks fantastic. Each course... mmm... And the beers. Double mmm. As usual, this isn't one you'll want to miss. $50 per person reserves your spot and includes the price of the meal, tax, and gratuity. Call Beer Kitchen at 816-389-4180 now!

A few weeks after that, we'll be celebrating the third annual Strong Ale Festival! 25 breweries bringing beers 8% and up. Check out the event's Facebook page for a list of breweries. Tickets will go on sale on October 20th, so check back here for a link.

GABF is almost here!

The weather's starting to feel a little more like fall, which means that the Great American Beer Festival is right around the corner! The 32nd annual GABF starts next week, on October 10th, and McCoy's will be looking to add a few more medals to the collection.

Beers sent for judging include Public House favorites across the board: Ginger Shandy, Blackberry Tart, Pilsner, Gose, Malabar Brown, Lunch Box Pale, Oktoberfest, Brite Lager, and Good Farmhouse. And if you haven't tried this year's Oktoberfest, 1) You missed out on drinking it by the liter at the first McCoy's Oktoberfest; and 2) It's freaking fantastic. Look at this majestic beer - 

mmmm

If you're heading out to GABF, McCoy's will be pouring Ginger Shandy, Blackberry Tart, Pilsner, and the Gose. So you'll have a chance to taste some beers that haven't been around for a little bit. And if you're not heading to Denver, well then you might as well go to McCoy's have have these beers from the source!

We don't need no stinkin' meat

Last week's beer dinner welcomed a little bit of a different crowd, as Beer Kitchen hosted the Vegetarian Beer Dinner. Even better than the food was the cause the meal benefited. New Roots for Refugees is a wonderful organization that helps refugees start new lives in the Kansas City area. Really, click on that link and read about them, because they're doing fantastic work.

People love the veggie food!

Last year's vegetarian beer dinner was excellent, and I knew that I probably wouldn't be missing the meat. It started with a nice chilled spinach soup with water spinach salad and lemon creme. This small reception dish was a perfectly light start for the dinner, setting us up for a lovely dinner.

The first pairing for the night was miso marinated heirloom tomatoes with red chili mozzarella and Thai basil pesto focaccia with Brouwerij van Steenberge Piraat. The miso added a savory component to a sweet tomato, and the Belgian IPA is just a dang good beer. I like dang good beers. There wasn't a lot of chili spice in the mozzarella, but the classic pairing of tomato and fresh mozzarella is magic.

Up next was a golden and red beet napoleon with feta and Burmese sorrel paired with Contact High from the St. Louis brewers at 4 Hands. I rarely eat beets, but when I do I wonder why I don't eat them more often. They've got a sweet earthy flavor, cut here by a little bit of an acidity in the sorrel and balanced in creamy feta. Contact High is a hoppy, hoppy wheat, so a hint a sweet with bitterness. It all worked so well.

As odd as this may be, I think this next course might have been the first time I've had ratatouille. Accompanying the ratatouille terrine was crispy black truffle polenta and micro greens with a white balsamic gastrique, and another beer from Brouwerij van Steenberge. This time the beer was a favorite, Monk's Cafe. A Flemish sour ale that's on the sweet side, it went wonderfully with the bitterness from the dish. I would eat ratatouille again. In terrine form or otherwise.

The next dish was probably the one that most resembled meat with a portabella-seitan wellington served alongside roasted fingerlings, oyster mushrooms, and a rosemary pan jus. The picture below doesn't do the dish justice... you can't see the portabella seitan inside of the puff pastry. But trust me, it's in there. And it was fantastic. And you can't go wrong with potatoes and mushrooms. Again, trust me. The beer was another from St. Louis, this time Civil Life's American Brown Ale. I'm a big fan of Civil Life, and especially of this beer. It's a great example of a brown ale, and a great choice to compliment the food.

Before the dessert was a nice palate cleanser, watermelon sorbet and marinated melon. Mint and vinegar flavors, very cleansing.

Dessert was a combination of sweet and savory in with kale zeppoli with Calabrian chili honey, and Bell's Oarsman brought a light tartness. A zeppole is kind of like an Italian doughnut. So, this was kind of like a kale doughnut. I'm not big on kale by itself, but I am big on doughnuts covered in powdered sugar. And honey. The Berliner Weisse was light and kept the dessert from beginning too heavy.

Another successful dinner! One of the great things about going to the beer dinners is getting to try a wide variety of foods with first class beer, and this was no exception. The chefs showed meat is optional!

The First Annual McCoy's Oktoberfest

Tomorrow the mayor of Munich will be tapping the first barrel and starting the 180th annual Oktoberfest! Now, if you weren't able to book that last-minute flight to join the celebration, have no fear. McCoy's is bringing Bavaria to you.

In exactly 24 hours, McCoy's will kick off their 2013 Oktoberfest! In addition to McCoy's own Oktoberfest brew, there will five other Oktoberfest biers, German music, bier garden, and traditional & contemporary German food from 1pm - 5pm in the parking lot. Oh, did I mention for $15 you get this -

Your very own liter bier stein! The $15 gets you the glass filled with McCoy's Oktoberfest, and then you keep the stein.

The weather looks like it's going to be absolutely gorgeous. What better way to spend it drinking delicious beers and honoring a great beer tradition! Get your lederhosen or dirndl from the dry cleaner and get ready to party in Westport. (Also, bring cash for all of the beer and food in the bier garden. There are some ATMs around, but come prepared and save time!)

Get your cask on

It's starting to feel a little more like September, which means absolutely beautiful patio weather. And right now McCoy's has two cask beers that are perfect for sipping on their patio!

First up is the Chai Tea Brown ale. The always popular Hog Pound Brown with chai spices. Mmm. Kind of warming for nights that are getting cooler. Or, just delicious on days that are not 100 degrees (it'd probably be delicious on days that are 100 degrees too. From the comfort of air conditioning).

Cherry Stout Cask. Yeah, I was sitting at the bar, but come on,
there were important baseball and football games on!

Then there's a Cherry Stout cask. McCoy's Oatmeal Stout primed with a kriek lambic. Oooooh so good. It's not overly sweet, only a hint of cherry. The combination works well, giving a smooth and tasty treat. Again, dang fine on an autumn-like night.

What are your plans for the weekend? Stop into McCoy's for one of the casks, or any of the other fine crafted beers on tap (fresh Pilsner and Lunch Box Pale Ale, too!).