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Dogfish Head Off-Centered Film Fest wrap-up
Two nights a year, the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek — which regularly puts on great beer dinners and programming — turns into hophead heaven for Dogfish Head’s Off-Centered Film Festival with Sam Calagione, the Delaware Brewery’s founder, presiding over the festivities.
This year they outdid themselves. Friday night was a 15-course dinner paired with 15 Dogfish beers, a number of which aren’t yet available in the Texas market. (Calagione had a few things to say about what he regards as Texas’ rather finicky labeling requirements.)
“Tonight, we’re going to get our geek on for beer,” Calagione said at the outset Friday. That we did. Paul Michie’s house-made duck sausage paired beautifully with Dogfish’s Indian Brown, and Aprihop, a crisp and refreshing apricot ale, ambled up nicely with a chicken, corn and black bean mini-burrito. A sturdier brown ale, the wood-aged Palo Santo Marron, stood up to a chorizo and cojita cheese quesadilla. Pours and portions were small, but even so, by the time we got to that latter course many in the crowd were flagging. But your you, dear bloggy readers, I soldiered on. Great jazz all night by local band Torch, whose keyboard player teased us with a little Journey.
If you didn’t feel like spending $60 for the decadent dinner experience, Saturday spotlighted the film submissions and they were offering $5 pints of 10 Dogfish beers. Out of some three dozen submissions, Erik Mitchell of Philadelphia was the winner for “Burton Baton and the Legend of the Ancient Ales,” an Indiana Jones-style parody that actually featured Molecular Archeologist Dr. Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, who’s worked with the brewery for more than five years to help develop Dogfish’s series of ancient ales such as Chateau Jiahu. Brilliant. (That’s Calagione, second from left, and Mitchell, third.)
Mitchell was a finalist in last year’s competition, too. What’s his secret?
“We did a lot of drinking while we were coming up with ideas,” he said. “We were third last year and wanted to come down to Austin and do some drinking again.”
Making sure Mitchell didn’t have to do all that drinking by himself were Brian Moore, Robert Desjardin and Dan Woolard.
Best comment I heard about DFH all weekend came not at the film festival but at the Wine & Food Fest out by the Salt Lick Sunday. On Doghfish Head 120, Brian Senn of Austin said this: “That beer makes you see God.” Aye.
(American-Statesman photo by Patrick Beach)
Comments
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By Torrance DeLuge
April 19, 2010 9:49 AM | Link to this
Was trolling around looking to the see if the Statesman had brought back that rip-snortin’ Weather Blog when I ran across this. You been doing this long? Anyway, I noticed your comments have been stuck on zero for quite a while so I thought, wouldn’t it be great to be this guy’s first reader? Well, maybe not regular reader. Way too much about one lousy brewery. Hey, Liquid Boy, I’m guessing there are about 1,499 breweries in addition to Dogfish Head in America. Why not give another one a try. I’ll give you another tip: fruit in beer. I have a friend, dim witted but sweet, who always puts a papaya slice in his MGD 64. Says the girls love it. Can you say trend? Got to go take a look at the National Weather Service seven day forecast for Austin. Pretty funny stuff if you read it in just the right way.
By Patrick Beach
April 20, 2010 9:19 AM | Link to this
Dear Mr. DeLuge, you’re all wet. There are not “about” 1,499 other breweries, there are exactly 1,499 other breweries. The imprecision of your language suggests your rhetorical broadside, and the reasoning (such as there is any) behind it are the product of a feeble mind. Nonetheless, I’m considering giving up the beer beat to write full time about tamales. Delaware tamales. Happy now?
By Aaron C.
April 21, 2010 9:18 PM | Link to this
Not sure if I am seeing things, this Boulevard Dark Truth Stout is kinda strong. Yeah Patrick, how dare you write a whole post on Dogfish. What were you thinking?
Torrance, don’t read my blog this week. Your eyes will melt.
Aaron Chamberlain www.craftaustin.com