Home brew at Blue Velvet

Brew pubs have been around since the '80s, and the idea of pairing food with beer instead of wine has been nudging its way into the mainstream. The stylish downtown/Westlake restaurant Blue Velvet is just taking these concepts to their logical conclusion: brewing its own beers designed for its seasonal menus. Last night it trotted out the three beers of its first batch for a six-course tasting menu.

Three beers, six courses? Yes, they had to stretch out their own brews with a couple of other beers, all either wheat beers or Belgian ales, since this was a wheat/Belgian-oriented menu. And this is a wheat/Belgian-oriented beer age, come to think of it.

After an aperitif English bitter ale (quite bitter, in the West Coast style, almost an IPA), they produced seared scallops in a sauce subtly flavored with the herbal tea chamomile (a surprisingly nice flavor combination) paired with their saison, a Belgian farmhouse-style ale. The saison had a tangy note of wild yeast that stood up to the bits of grapefruit on the plate. And it was flavored with chamomile too; cool idea.

The third beer was a Christmas ale dosed with cherries and juniper as well as the conventional nutmeg and cloves. It made a very convincing foil for a course of rich seared foie gras (accompanied by toasted barley, almonds and dried fruit-lime marmalade; Blue Velvet does like to put little unexpected tastes on the plate).

Altogether, very good for a maiden effort (and a small one; they'd made only 5 gallons of each beer). Who knows what they'll brew next?

-- Charles Perry

Photo by Charles Perry

Comments

[Jeremy R]

Great idea. I wish Centeno still paired cocktails with his tasting menu at Opus!

[Andrew Z]

As a diehard craft beer fan, I think it's great that a restaurant is not only promoting beer as an alternative (better in my opinion) to wine as a food pairing, but taking it a step further and making their own. I'm not talking about a brewpub, but a fine dining place. Kudos to them, I would have loved to try this tasting.

do you know if it will be a regular thing? Thanks.