Creo’ Beer Dinner featuring Jacks Abby Brewing

In my travels for work, I manage to cover the same areas of New York State for long periods of time.  During those travels, I have met many beer drinking characters that I consider friends now.  One such of those characters is my buddy Booch….err Fuj.   In the two plus years that Fuj and I have hung out, I will gladly take credit from turning him from a Dogfish Head chasing noob into a full fledged craft beer elitist.   During those times, I have also had the pleasure (and displeasure) to meet some of his friends and one such friend was his buddy Dave Gibson.  Dave is a good dude and also an executive chef at a place called Creo’.  When it turned out that I was going to be in the capital district during the same period of time as a beer dinner at Creo’, I was all about it, especially given that I finally had a chance to finally see Chef Dave perform his craft with Jacks Abby beers.

Jacks Abby Brewing is a small family owned brewery based out of Massachusetts where their primary focus is Lager Based beers.  Every beer that they make is a lager but with a twist.  New York State is the first state to receive distribution of their beers outside of their home state.

Please do not confuse me as a ‘foodie’ by any means, I have tasted some exquisite cuisine from many different cultures but I am more of laid back kind of guy.  Although, I wont throw a perfectly prepared confit off of my plate either.

One thing that Chef Gibson wanted to point out was that he was trying to set up the courses similar to a full day of meals with a breakfast course, lunch course, appetizer, dinner course, cheese course and a dessert course.

The first course served up was the Amuse Bouche which was a Sweet Corn Fritter with Tabasco Honey served over a glass of fresh full cone hops and grains.  The sweet corn fritter was a nice starter but the tabasco honey was just awesome as it the heat and sweetness complimented each other very well.  Also, interesting enough was this course was served with Jacks Abby Jabby Brau…. which tastes amazing when the fresh hops were added straight into the beer.

The next course served up was the lunch course which featured a Duck Confit Hash which featured caramelized fennel, apples, truffled sea salt and a quail egg.  The Duck Confit Hash was amazing…I could make a lifetime eating that blend of delicious fowl.  This course was also being served with the Jacks Abby Jabby Brau as well.

The Third Course was a Crispy Pork Belly soup served with Spicy Tom Yum broth, soba noodles, straw mushroom and cilantro.  The pork was served to a perfect crisp and the broth had just enough heat on the back end that complemented the beer very well, which was Jacks Abby Hoponius Union.  I have always been a huge fan of drinking a very solid hoppy beer with spicy food, this just confirmed that belief.

The Dinner Course was the next one up on the docket which was a Bison Short Rib served over a parsnip puree, garlic rapini and smoked paprika onions.  OMFG, the meat was literally falling off the bone…soft, juicy, tender and paired very well with Jacks Abby Smoke and Dagger.  The full on smoked malts of the beer went very well with the short rib even though I am not a fan of the beer itself.

The next course was a cheese course which featured three local cheeses paired with Jacks Abby Saxonator Dopplebock.  The cheeses served were R&G Eclipse, an Ash Ripened Goat Cheese, Ewe’s Blue, a local bleu cheese from Old Chatham Sheepherding Farm and finally Hop Tilset from Harpersville Cheese.

The Dessert Course, which was not listed on the menu was a Maple Bacon Ice Cream, served with small slice of crispy bacon dipped in chocolate.  Yup….money!   The maple was enough sweet but not over powering and the bits of chewy bacon were a fine compliment to the sweet creation.  Another treat (other than bacon in ice cream) was that Jacks Abby donated a case of one day old Jacks Abby Baby Maker, which is their version of a barleywine but in reality, a lager wine.

After everything was said and done, it turned out to be an awesome evening.  While I am not a huge fan of Jacks Abby beers (primarily because I am not a lager guy), the food and beer pairings were dead nuts on.  Chef David fucking killed it and now I ham going to have get back to Albany for their next scheduled dinner in March featuring beers from Allagash.

Special Thanks to Fuj for the awesome pictures.