Bridge Road degustation dinner

I am passionate about beer and food matching. In a country that for the most part considers pale lager to be beer and beer to be pale lager with, maybe, Guinness to be the only other flavour available, matching beer to food is a really important element in tempting people to drink more widely across the spectrum of flavours.

It can be a very hard slog to try and get restaurants and even bars to put more thought into their beer lists. I am commonly told by indignant restauranteurs that "we have an excellent beer list", when I suggest there is room for improvement. Their perception of 'excellent' is based on their wide selection of nearly identical lagers, many listed as imported despite being brewed under licence locally. So I always get excited to see hotels putting on high quality beer and food events. This one, featuring Bridge Road, looks a cracker.

I'm not going to be able to get along to this one, but if you're in Melbourne on Melbourne Cup eve and love beer, I suggest you do. I don't know Max Hotel, but I will be checking it out when I'm next in Melbourne on the strength of this dinner.

Where: Max Hotel 32 Commercial Road, Prahran

When: Monday, 2 November.

Cost: $95 (It does always amaze me when you look at something like this that if it was a wine dinner offering exactly the same value you would immediately add $50 to the price and no one would complain.)

The menu:

On arrival: Bridge Rd Australian Ale on tap Beer Bread with fromage frais & soft herbs

Seated: Bridge Rd Robust Porter Oysters cold Kilpatrick Smoked eel crouton

Bridge Rd BLING I.P.A Quail sausage, MT Zero Persian lentils, egg plant, preserved lemon

Bridge Rd Celtic Red Ale Pressed duck a l’ orange with pea sprout and frisee salad aged chardonnay dressing

Chevalier Bier de Garde Slow cooked pork neck, farro, turnips, pancetta & parsnips

Chevalier  Hefe Dunkel Chocolate tart with clove & tea sorbet

Chevalier Saison Meredith blue Goat’s cheese with bitter almonds quince & witlof

Special release from Bridge Road

There aren't too many beers that I would recommend trying sight unseen and untasted, but Ben Krause from Bridge Road Brewers in Beechworth is one of my favourite brewers in Australia. Not just because I enjoy his beers, but I love his approach to brewing. For him consistency isn't the Great God of Brewing. He's adventurous and experiments and while his beers are usually pretty good, they are always interesting. Last year he made a  Chestnut Lager which was one of my favourite brews of the year. He has made two more batches and while, in my view at least, they haven't been quite as good, it's been fascinating to see how they've changed as he's played with hop regimes etc.

Information about his latest experiment below. As I said, can't say what it's like but I know it will be a great ride. If you order a couple of bottles, add a bottle of his Saison to your order. If this warm weather keeps up you may need to keep the Porter in the cellar until next year's cold weather and Ben's Saison is a great summer beer.

Oak Aged Imperial Porter - Special Release

Well its mid winter, and cold enough in Beechworth to freeze the balls o¬ your tethered goat (i know, it happened to mine last Thursday!). However, this weather is not bad for all, it does put a wry smile on the face of the local woodcutter. Apparently the winter is also good for brewing, don’t know why, but it is….. apparently.

The cold weather has also given us the inspiration to create a unique beer to celebrate our 4th birthday…. To do this we've created a bit of a monster, an oak aged imperial porter that has been dry hopped to the hilt and packaged into our big fancy 750ml bottles. Basically we took our best winter beer, the Robust Porter, and beefed it up. We also used red wine barrels that were sourced from Beechworth’s renowned Giaconda winery. The barrels were acquired through a dodgy deal with the winemaker’s son whilst dad was on holiday. I'm sure the cash we slipped him won’t go close to making up for the wine we had to pour down the drain to make the barrels empty for the beer!

After some aging in barrel the imperial porter was transferred back into stainless for a stint of dry hopping. What is dry hopping you ask? - We basically pack a given amount of dried hops; whole and pelletised, into a bag on a string, much like, well exactly like a giant tea bag. We dangle this big t-bag from a string in the tank and allow it to steep for about two weeks. This allows the aromatic hop characters to slowly nd their way into the brew. The resulting beer is an overdone porter with big roasty and chocolate layers which are overtaken by a mid pallet explosion of fruity hops. Each bottle, of which there are only 1000, has been numbered. This beer is drinking like a big bomber of a porter at the moment, but will also age fantastically and we encourage you to buy 2, drink one now and lay the other down for a year or two and allow it to mellow and develop.

Ben Kraus Bridge Road Brewers PO Box 525, or The Old Coach House, Ford St. Beechworth Victoria 3747. p. 03 57282703 e. info@bridgeroadbrewers.com.au w. bridgeroadbrewers.com.au