with Kristen Kwiatkowski
The 12th Annual Brewer’s Plate, held Sunday, March 13, brought more than 1,200 beer and food lovers to the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts to sip and sample their way through three floors of pairings. Always a premier Philadelphia event, the Brewer’s Plate showed once again why it is a must-attend occasion.
What makes the Brewer’s Plate one of our favorite events of the year is not only the amazing variety of beer and food but also the chance to mix and mingle with beer lovers, restaurant owners, chefs, brewers and beer sales reps. As you get a taste of each pairing, you also can get an education on why the beer rep and chef chose to put certain flavors together.
With more than 100 pairings of food and beer it was difficult to choose favorites, but these were some of ours:
Kristen’s Favorites
The 2nd Story Brewing Company pairing featured a house-made pretzel topped with a delicate Fritzie’s Lager fondue alongside a perfectly portioned two-bite steak crostini sampling. Looking for a hoppy brew to sip alongside it, I chose 2nd Story Brewing’s Jigsaw Imperial IPA, which was so good I had to circle back later for seconds.
The Belgian Cafe was flanked by two extraordinary breweries, Brooklyn Brewery and Conshohocken Brewing Company. Each brewery offered at least one type of beer for the crowd to enjoy, while The Belgian Cafe presented two varieties of BBQ samplings, each one featuring a Brooklyn or Conshohocken brew as part of the creation and served up on easy-to-eat chips.
Beer wasn’t the only beverage highlighted at The Brewer’s Plate. Bluebird Distilling offered a standout non-brew option to the crowd—the pleasantly zesty and superbly sweet Firebird cocktail—made with Bluebird vodka.
Ronna’s Favorites
Weyerbacher Brewing Company and Guerilla Ultima presented a pairing that highlighted smokey flavors. Weyerbacher’s Jester’s Choice Smoked American Porter was the perfect accompaniment to Guerilla’s chicken liver and kielbasa spiced scrapple made with a smokey syrup that utilized the beer.
Varga Bar served a blueberry-Meyer lemon and mascarpone cheesecake alongside Evolution Craft Brewing Company’s Rise up Stout. The creamy and rich cheesecake paired with the coffee-forward beer was a perfect ending to my night, reminding me that beer can work great as a dessert.
New at the Brewer’s Plate this year was the VIP plus pairing event that unfolded prior to the food festival. The VIP plus experience featured Victory Brewing Company’s founder, Bill Covaleski, and visiting guest brewer Zach Bodah of Allagash Brewing Company of Portland, Maine. The two brewers collaborated with chefs from the Garces Group’s Village Whiskey, The Olde Bar and Garces Events in the spectacular Hamilton Garden, perched atop the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center. The 150 VIP Plus ticket holders judged the brewers on three categories of pairings—seafood, meat and sweets. When all was tasted and the votes counted, guest brewery Allagash swept the competition, winning all three pairings.
My favorite pairing of the night was tasted during the VIP Plus experience. Allagash debuted its St. Klippenstein Douggernaut to Pennsylvania during the event. It’s an 11% Belgian strong stout aged in bourbon barrels for three months with coffee added. This limited-edition beer worked perfectly with Garces Events’ peanut butter bacon macaron. This pairing, combined with the sweeping views of Philadelphia from the Hamilton Garden, created an experience that was VIP Plus indeed. If Brewer’s Plate offers VIP Plus for the 13th Annual Brewer’s Plate, my advice would be to make sure you grab those tickets before they’re gone.
- Top photo: Kristen Kwiatkowski
- Bottom photos: Ronna Dewey
