{"id":3439,"date":"2011-05-24T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=3439"},"modified":"2021-08-26T16:21:58","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T21:21:58","slug":"wisconsin-milk-marketing-board-founders-beer-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/wisconsin-milk-marketing-board-founders-beer-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Craft Beer Week: WI Cheese and MI Beer Reception and Dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n Yesterday was a pretty big day for us at GuysDrinkingBeer.com. The legislation that we have been tracking for months received the overwhelming approval<\/a> from \u00a0the Illinois House, putting the state just one step away from protecting the rights of craft brewers to self distribute, and we were invited to take part in a cheese and beer reception and dinner hosted by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board<\/a> and Founders Brewing<\/a> at the Kendall College School of Culinary Arts.<\/p>\n Yes, you read that right – beer from Founder’s and cheese from Wisconsin – could this night get any better?<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The evening opened with cheese and beer pairing of Founders Pale Ale with a 4 year cheddar from Widmer Chesse Cellars \u00a0and a Dunbarton Blue from a Roelli Cheese . The cheddar had a bit of bite to it, as you might imagine, which really worked well with the hoppiness of the Pale Ale. And the blue cheese selected for this course, which was a really tame blue cheese, was an excellent choice for this paring. Anything stronger would have potentially overpowered the beer.<\/p>\n The second beer and cheese pairing brought us a Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale with an Uplands – Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Carr Valley Cheese – Casa Bolo Mellage. The Dirty Bastard is a very smooth, drinkable scotch ale, and the bit of oaky, creamy smokiness of the beer highlighted some of those same notes in the cheese. The Pleasant Ridge Reserve and the 4 year cheddar really stole the show in this round.<\/a><\/p>\n The first course of the meal was the best course of the night – an Old Curmudgeon Ale onion soup with Emmi Roth Grand Cru Gruyere and Satorie Sar Vecchio Parmesan paired with the Old Curmudgeon Ale. This pairing was an obvious selection – the beer was used to make the soup – but I really can’t get over how thick and creamy this soup turned out. I love onion soup and this may have been one of the best I’ve had in memory (no offense to Ryan’s killer Oktoberfest Onion Soup). Big home run here from the chef and students at Kendall College.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Our salad course consisted of Belgian endive and tart apple salad with Emmi Roth Blue Affinee, walnuts and Lemon-leek vinaigrette paired with Red’s Rye PA. The beer brings you sweet caramel and bitter notes which was a great choice to set off the flavors of the tart apples. The blue cheese also held its own here, stronger than the blue we had earlier in the evening, but not so strong as to overpower the rest of the salad or the beer.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n For the main course, the chef paired a Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale with a Dirty Bastard braised beef with prunes, Widmer Cheddar polenta and French beans. The prunes really made this pairing stand out for me – they worked in harmony with the dark fruits in the Dirty Bastard. The beef, so tender it could be cut with a fork, was also a perfect marriage with the smooth, creamy beer.<\/p>\n