What Do You Pair With Hopped Cotton Candy And Foie Gras?

Though it’s necessary to be reminded how great rudimentary pale ale is, and sometimes I even poke fun of how crazy we get with our beer these days, it’s also nice to put some playfulness back in the spotlight and let craft beer’s joie de vivre shine ‘neath the big top. One night during SF Beer Week last week, ringmaster and Homebrew Chef Seax Paxton put on the Greatest Show on Wort. Well, actually, just the funnel cake was drizzled with wort, but when talking about a nine-course beer dinner, why skip to dessert?

Billed as a Three Ring Circus—the rings being Shmaltz and Speakeasy of San Francisco and Ninkasi from Eugene, Ore.—the strongman was Shmaltz, under whose umbrella the Coney Island Brewery falls (makers of a Pumpernickle Porter and Korndog Kolsch). Riffing off the Coney Island Sideshow Freaks line of lagers, daredevils and contortionists performed between courses but, this being a Homebrew Chef event, it was Paxton’s dishes that took center stage. And he didn’t clown around.

Take the fourth course. First Paxton infused sugar with Centennial hops before converting it into bona vide cotton candy. But instead of merely wrapping it around a paper cone, the hoppy candy ensconced locally-sourced foie gras (before it suffers its own form of Prohibition in California come July 1). Instead of soda pop like you’d find at a conventional circus, this was paired with Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA.

The next course, unlike the ducks, guests were the ones being fattened up. To wash down the slider (made with ground elk, duck hearts, and rendered beef lard), diners were poured not one, not two, but three Imperial Stouts, one from each of the breweries. Veritably, somehow a dozen beers were showcased despite there being only nine courses. The aforementioned funnel cake was but one of two plated desserts (and even then that’s not including the savory churro dish, itself made with a Double IPA).

So while brewers and chefs, like coaches, are right in preaching the fundamentals, there’s certainly a time and a place for a little showboating razzle-dazzle. Do you prefer your beer dinners on the classic side, or would you always rather see some freakishness?