Saturday, September 3, 2011

Rogue Chocolate Stout Gone Underground

Blog posts about beer & food can be entertaining. I feel like a fly on the wall looking at the photos and reading the menu and pairing notes, letting my mind deconstruct and capture the flavors without tasting in 3D.

Underground dining is something I have not (yet) experienced, but I enjoyed reading
Darin Dines' January 15, 2011 blog post about Wolvesmouth in LA pairing an interesting selection of beer with a very eclectic menu created by Chef Craig Thornton (Wolvesmouth.com), whose online photos of other dinners he has prepared are mouthwatering!

"The affair is strictly BYOB (no corkage). Thinking that the alcohol would be wine heavy (it was heavily weighted toward reds), we opted to bring a selection of craft beers. Not knowing what the menu would be, I selected an array of beers: The Bruery Orchard White (Orange County), Ballast Point Sculpin IPA (San Diego), La Chouffe (Belgium), Stone Double Bastard Ale (San Diego), and Rogue Chocolate Stout (Oregon). " [snip -- many courses and beers later]

"This was pretty much as advertised. It was a french toast ice cream done very well. It was appropriately sweet with a hit of cinnamon spice; it totally tasted like french toast. Just as important was that it was served at an ideal temperature. It was a few degrees above frozen (almost slightly melted) so that the flavors were very apparent at that temperature. I really liked this one. We drank this with the Rogue Chocolate Stout…this would be perfect for a beer float."

Darin, I was wondering, hoping that you enjoyed Rogue Chocolate Stout with the final course:
chocolate panna cotta, chestnut purée, coffee shortbread, pear ice, coffee meringue, warm pear.

Also, thanks for bringing beer to the table! Great post, menu and musings!

tags: @darindines @wolvesmouth @chocolatestout @rogueales