On August 21st, 2015 I attended a Steel & Oak Brewing Long Table Dinner at the Hop & Vine Tap house in Burnaby.

Steel & Oak Brewing sent two of their Sales guys to the dinner to discuss the beer that was being paired with each of the five courses.

Like every Long Table Dinner people straggled in late but once everyone had arrived the dinner got started.  Each course the guys from Steel & Oak Brewing would get up and talk about the beer and Scott from the Hop & Vine would talk on the course.

Course 1
Royal City Pale Ale
“Grilled Okanagan Peach Salad”
Fresh seasonal greens topped with grilled Okanagan peaches, baby arugula, danish blue cheese, candied pecans and a cracker pepper and citrus dressing.

This salad looked really good right off the bat.  I was not sure what to think when it came to the blue cheese as I have had some really great ones and ones that were destined for the garbage right away.  The vinaigrette and blue cheese cut through the sweetness of the peaches and the fruit flavours of the beer.  The salad also seemed to mask the mild bitterness of the beer also.  I would have no problem grabbing a glass of this beer to pair with a good blue cheese any day.  Add in the salad though and would have trouble saying no!

Course 2
Dry Hopped ESB
“Seared Scallops”
Seared local scallops topper with an orange zest and brown butter cream sauce served with housemade bread sticks.

I am not a seafood fan unless it is fish but I had not had a scallop in a long time so I decided to dive head first into the scallop.  I was not a big fan personally but I could see around me that people were really liking them and my second scallop was snagged without a second thought.  The citrus and semi sweet characteristics of the beer went well with the orange zest sauce on the scallop.  The malt notes also unsurprisingly went well with the bread stick.

Course 3
Dark lager
“Cucumber Gazpacho”
Cucumber gazpacho with cantaloupe and hand peeled baby shirmp, finished with a basil and garlic infused olive oil.

My shrimp from this dish went to a better home.  This course originally was to be paired with Project 0003 (Hull Melon Vs. Jarrylo) but for some reason or other it was changed to the Dark Lager.  The beer was quite roasty, earthy with caramel, chocolate and mild bitterness.  The gazpacho was of cucumber up front, with pepper and some fruitiness and was served cold.  I am not sure on this paring and I have a feeling that the original pairing would have gone better together.  Sorry Scott I know you really liked this pairing.

Course 4
Smoked Hefeweizen
“Chipotle Pork Tenderloin”
Chipotle dry rubbed pork tenderloin topped with warm pineapple salso served with creamy Kennebec mashed potatoes.

There was no question that this was my favourite pairing of the night as well as the favourite course overall.  The mild smoke of the beer and the pork are a match made in heaven (who doesn’t like smoked meats?).  The banana notes from the beer and the Pineapple accentuated each other very well and tasted great on top of the pork.  The mashed potatoes were very flavourful with notes of possibly cilantro and some pepper.

Course 5
Red Pilsner
“Sea Salt & Caramel Mousse”
Sea salt and caramel mousse with shaved dark chocolate.

The Red Pilsner had notes of caramel, earth and some bitterness.  The mousse had notes of chocolate, salt, butter, caramel and an overall sweetness.  This worked quite well together and everyone seemed to wish they could have anouther.

Like always this dinner was a ton of fun between the food, beer, bringing a good friend I don’t see enough and all the great people you meet.  Once again the people at Hop & Vine put on a great dinner with awesome food to go with a great local brewery!  Keep up the good work!

Full sized photos can be found here

Hop & Vine Tap House
http://www.hoptaphouse.ca/
1601 Burnwood Avenue
Burnaby, BC
(604)421-1092