Ridgefield sausage fest full#

Maybe Both? was a barely cloudy golden color under a thin head as poured, with a west coast-y forest of hops to the nose. Heavily hopped with Citra and Azacca, this was to be the beer's first-ever serving. something: an ale fermented at much cooler temperatures, like a lager. This third beer of the evening is an India Pale. The idea of a bar patron asking their server for Some Zep On The Jukebox or Are You Single? is amusing enough, but Maybe Both? has a different story. Kent Falls is famous for giving their beers unusual names, mostly thought up during long hours on the road, or in early morning delirium. The lightly herbed relish had a nice, vegetal aura, and the Gratzer made friendly relations with the sausage and garlic. The andouille was fiery, but mellowed by the sweet, and pleasantly still crisp, corn. Smoke met smoke with beer battered andouille sausage over a base of corn/jalapeño relish, and a drizzle of black garlic aioli. Each glass was proof against simple 'light' or 'dark' being indicators of a beer's flavor profile.

Ridgefield sausage fest full#

There was both smoke and cream on the first sip, testament to the gentle nature of wheat beers, and both flavors lasted the full glass through. With a big, pillowy head over a blonde body, the nose was straight funk not 'horse barn' like pure Brett beers can be, but wild and unusual - almost like an exotic soap. 'We didn't want it to be a smoke bomb, or come off tasting meaty.' 'We dialed back the smoked wheat, which can be as high as 90% in these,' brewery co-owner Barry Labendz told the crowd. Round two was a pour of Anachronism, Kent Falls' revival of an ancient Gratzer-style smoked wheat beer. The potato and cheese could have stuck around too long and gotten a bit wearying, but each sip of the beer reset my palate. The sweetness and cream threatened to be a bit cloying, despite a tinge of sourness from the chèvre, but the caramelized onions really made the dish, adding both bite and a slight, bursting crunch to the texture.

The initial dish selected for pairing by Little Pub's chefs was a sweet potato, caramelized onion, and goat cheese quesadilla. It's refreshing, and not overdone, despite the cornucopia of ingredients. All these profiles mixed with the floral broth of hops to produce an orange colored, tart beer with serious bite. Tiny House is a mixed fermentation ale, which means it was fermented first with traditional Saccharomyces brewer's yeast, then refermented with funky brettanomyces, and finished with a souring inoculation of lactobacillus. The night at Little Pub began appropriately, with a serving of Tiny House: a wet hop farmhouse ale brewed in collaboration with the crew from Hudson Valley Brewery, who were lending some support during the first hop harvest at Kent Falls. Small wonder then, that Little Pub in Ridgefieldchose to host the Kent Falls crew for a rare beer pairing dinner event early this February. That level of output is preposterous, and all the more remarkable not just due to the high volume of recipes, but for their excellence. This March only marks a year since Kent Falls Brewing Company released their first beer, and somehow it doesn't feel too early to call them 'renowned.' The Litchfield County operation has already become one of Connecticut's most productive, releasing 37 different beers and variants in their first ten months.