FAT TUESDAY!!! (Sierra Nevada/Taco Mac Dinner)

It's a bit late in arriving but, here is the entry for the beer dinner hosted on Fat Tueasday by Taco Mac.

It was a sold out, paired tasting of some great food and Sierra Nevada brews. Included was the much anticipated release of Hop Secret 393. This is the brand new brew, brought to life by none other than Fred Crudder of Taco Mac and the gang of brewers at Sierra. It's name and amazingly unique taste come from a new strain of hops, known only as 393. Results are so great that the word is Sierra is contemplating making it an official brand!! What, Why, How is this sooo different? It just does not taste, drink or play on the palate like any other beer. Big claims? Yes. Can they replicate it? We all hope so. I'll get back to this in a minute.

Ok, this was a five course dinner. Executive Chef Matt Deckard prepared dishes from an experimental menu, possibly showing up on a plate near you soon.

ONE: Beer Battered Shrimp, wrapped in bacon with an Ale remoulade. Both the batter and the remoulade were made using the classic Sierra Pale Ale. A perfect kick-off for the evening, paired great, crunchy crusted shrimp chased with crisp Pale Ale.

TWO: Blue Crab Tart w/ house made Grainy Mustard & arugula. Delicious newcomer, Anniversary Ale made it's way into the mustard and was balanced well with the light crab dish.

THREE: Chicken Tikka & Charred Green Tomato/serrano chile chutney. PERFECTLY marinated & prepared chicken and delicious chutney were 'spot on' with the amazingly different Hop Secret 393 brew. Both beer and bird were so unique on their own and then even better together. Again, 393 floats on the tongue, as if not even there and yet, the delivery of full flavor never even thinks about coming up short. I don't even know what else to say. If you missed this release, YOU MISSED IT. Only 29 kegs were produced for all of these United States, hope that they do this again, . Thanks Fred, a keg of 393 is truly "the bomb" of choice.

FOUR: If that course wasn't enough, Matt turned the dinner up to Eleven with an amazing Ancho rubbed Farmers Steak with sweet Plantains and Smoked Porter Rum sauce.

Holy Sh*t.

Where to start? Farmer's steak is that yummy outer ring of perfect meat on a ribeye. This version comes from shaving the whole farmer's off a standing ribeye, then rubbing it in chile ancho powder. Finally rolling it up, searing it perfectly outside and rare in the middle. On it's own a carnivorous wildfire. But wait - sweet plantains (hispanic love) swimming in a sauce so perfectly balanced between smoky and rum sweet, well, it was perfect. A bite of steak dredged through the sauce, chased with one of the best porters to ever walk the earth, now you're talking about wishing you had never even tried the first three courses, and they were wonderful. Personally, I could have repeated this pairing all week. Sierra's Smoked Porter is a balancing act of outrageous proportions in of itself and it just makes everything meat even better.

whew!

FIVE: Yes, there's more. Milk Chocolate Cake with Barley Wine frosting paired with Bigfoot Barley Wine, of course. With barely enough room left to even begin thinking about cake and Bigfoot all in the same menu item, we dove in. Once again taken to yet another delicious place. I was nearly in a digestive coma by now, coming round long enough to smile, then pass out. YUM!!

This may sound like a Taco Mac/Sierra Nevada paid
infommercial, but it's not. It was really that

great of a night. If you don't believe me, ask my wingman Ale Sharpton. He was just as

frightening to watch eat like a banshee as I was. Sierra front-man Dave Kemper showed up 48 hours after intensive hand

surgery to dig into Farmer's Steak with just a fork!!! (wipe your chin man)

Many thanks to everyone at Sierra Nevada for letting a known fanatic like Fred Crudder come into the brewery and help knock off a fantastic beer. 393 is here to stay I say, just make more this time. Thanks also go out to Taco Mac for hoppin' up the menu to nitrous injected. I hope this turns into a permanent thing too.

Gotta go. I'm hungry all over.......