Brewmasters' Dinner
Thursday Opening Dinner | Friday Brewmasters' Dinner | Featured Brewmasters |
Previous Dinners

If you love big beers, you must come have dinner with us! The 2008 event will be our Fourth Annual Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Brewmasters’ Dinner, and it promises to be a tremendous treat. The additional weekend event was suggested by Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, and much ado has been made of them by our guests. In 2008 we will be turning a new leaf with an additional Big Beers Weekend Opening Dinner! Read on for details…

Brewmaster's Dinner
Friday, January 11th, 2008

Our 2008 Host Chef Mercer Mohr, Executive Chef of Ocotillo Restaurant, invites you to join him and Guest Beer Chef Bruce Paton, Executive Chef of The Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco, CA in a fine dining adventure for the Big Beers Brewmasters’ Dinner on Friday, January 11. The Ocotillo Restaurant is conveniently located within the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort & Spa, our host resort.

Chef Mohr, is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and was named National Hotel Chef of the year in 2001 for his work with the American Culinary Institute.  He has had a prestigious career serving at notable hotels and restaurants including Camelback Inn, a JW Marriott Resort in Scottsdale, Clift Hotel and Caviar Café in San Francisco, as well as Inn on the Park in Houston. While at the Clift Hotel, Chef Mohr was named 1997 San Francisco “Chef of the Year” for his innovative New American Cuisine.  Most recently Chef Mohr has created a hugely popular American West Steakhouse featuring USDA certified Prime steaks, fresh Colorado seafood and organic produce. 

Chef Paton has been hosting the "Dinner with the Brewmaster" series since 1995 in three consecutive different venues. He has created special menus for over twenty-five of these fun events to date and is locally recognized as an expert at paring food with beer. Bruce is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Chefs Association of the Pacific Coast and The San Francisco Chapter of the American Culinary Federation. He is also past president and 2002 Chef of The Year of this organization. Among Chef Paton’s Brewmasters’ Dinner list are many of our favorite brewers and Featured Big Beers Brewmasters, including Tomme Arthur, who is co-hosting this Brewmaster’s Dinner.

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2008 Featured Brewmasters

Our Colorado Featured Brewmaster this year is Doug Odell, Founder & Brewmaster at Odell Brewing in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Doug Odell's passion for crafting great beer started in his kitchen in Seattle. After the demand for his home-brew grew, Doug - along with his wife Wynne - searched for a good location to take Doug's passion commercial. They moved to Fort Collins to be closer to Doug's sister, Corkie, who quickly joined forces with them in opening the brewery in 1989. At that time, after brewing and kegging his beer, Doug would deliver it, pick up empties, and make sales calls out of his old mustard-colored Datsun pickup. To this day, after many beers, tremendous growth, a new facility, and with the support of a wonderful staff, Doug still finds time to experiment and tinker with new ideas and new beers. Some of the beers featured at this year’s Brewmaster’s Dinner are custom brewed with our event in mind, and we are honored to be an inspiration!

Our International Featured Brewmaster for 2008 is Tomme Arthur, Director of Brewery Operations for both The Lost Abbey and Port Brewing. A native San Diegan, Tomme was hired by Pizza Port in Solana Beach in 1997 and remained the Head Brewer until June of 2005 when he was named Director of Brewery Operations for Pizza Port and Port Brewing Co. In this role and that of Founding Partner, Tomme oversees the brewery operations for The Lost Abbey, serving as the Head Brewer for this entity as well. Over time Tomme has gained a reputation in the brewing industry and with consumers for his interpretation of classic Belgian Style beers as well as a cult like following for some of the most imaginative free spirited beers brewed in the USA. Most recently, Tomme and The Lost Abbey were the recipients of the Best Brewer and Best Brewery of the Year Award for Small Breweries at the 2007 Great American Beer Festival.


Now that you are familiar with this year’s Hosts, here’s the lowdown on the Dinner itself: The format of the Brewmasters’ Dinner is rather unique. It is a “double” beer pairing in the full sense of the term. The Executive Chef and Guest Chef are challenged to design a menu around the creations that the Brewmasters offer. Each course features one beer from each brewery, therefore considerably more difficult than a single pairing for each. And Chefs Mohr and Patton are pairing five courses for dinner, which makes for an incredible beer adventure as well!

This year, Ocotillo Restaurant and the Brewmasters have agreed to follow the historical precedent of donating product and assisting us with our special event, and it has made it possible to keep the cost of dinner to our guests quite reasonable. The cost of dinner will be $59.99/person, plus tax and gratuity. Tickets can be purchased online via our Tickets & Lodging page by credit card only. Cancellations are fully refundable, providing that we can rebook your seat. (Thus, refunds will only be issued after the replacement reservation has been paid in full.)

For historical Brewmasters’ Dinner information, scroll down toward the bottom of this page. All previous Brewmasters’ Dinner menus are available, as well as Marty Jones’ review of our first Brewmasters’ Dinner.

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Big Beers 2008 Opening Dinner
Thursday, January 10th – A special treat!

Three years ago, Adam Avery talked Sam Calagione and his wife, Mariah, into coming out to Vail to ski for Big Beers weekend.  The story that follows has become the roots of our traditional Big Beers weekend: Sam, Founder/Owner of Dogfish Head Brewery & Eats in Milton, DE, and Adam, Founder/Brewmaster of Avery Brewing in Boulder, CO, became our first Featured Brewmasters, and Sam insisted that if they were coming “all the way out there”, then we had to do a dinner. Thus, the Brewmasters’ Dinner was born.

This year, when the idea of an Experimental Brewing Seminar was suggested, Sam jumped on it and offered to come out toVail for our festival once again. And, as Adam has also agreed to partner up with the Experimental Brewing Team, the duo proposed to do another crazy beer dinner, reminiscent of the first Brewmasters’ Dinner three years ago. The result: The Big Beers 2008 Opening Dinner with Avery & Dogfish Head!

Executive Chef Dario Santelli, together with Chef/General Manager Richard Kellogg, invite you to join them for the Big Beers 2008 Opening Dinner at The Blue Tiger, located in the Cascade Village in Vail. With their staff, the two create an eclectic dining experience in an art gallery setting. The Blue Tiger focus on World Tapas and small plates featuring sushi, Mediterranean & Latin Tapas, Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese cuisines allowsthem to create a worldly, exotic experience, and promises a new and different adventure in the world of beer.

Both The Blue Tiger and Avery & Dogfish Head as your hosts have agreed to follow the tradition of donating product and contributing toward keeping the cost of our dinners as affordable as possible. Therefore we are able to offer seats for $49.99/person + tax and gratuity for this unique dining experience. For reservations, see our Tickets & Lodging page. If questions, please contact Laura Lodge.

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Previous Brewmasters' Dinners

As our Fourth Annual Brewmasters’ Dinner gets underway, we offer an overview of  our previous Brewmasters’ Dinners, including menus and a review, so that you can peruse the culinary extravagance that has gone before…

2007 Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Brewmasters’ Dinner

Restaurant Kelly Liken,  Vail Village, Vail, Colorado
Executive Chef/Owner: Kelly Liken
Brewmasters:
Hildegard Van Ostaden, Brouwerij de Leyerth, West Flanders, Belgium
Brian Dunn, Great Divide Brewing Company, Denver, Colorado
View the Menu

2006 Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Brewmasters’ Dinner

Lord Gore Restaurant, Vail Village, Vail, Colorado
Executive Chef, Richard Mason
Brewmasters:
Eric Wallace, Left Hand Brewing Company, Longmont, Colorado
Rob Tod, Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, Maine
View the Menu

2005 Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Brewmasters’ Dinner
Montauk Seafood Restaurant, Lionshead Village, Vail, Colorado
Executive Chef, Dimitri Souverin
Brewmasters:
Adam Avery, Avery Brewing Company, Boulder, Colorado
Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, Delaware
View the Menu

For further endorsement, here’s what Marty Jones said about the 2005 Brewmasters' Dinner in the February/March 2005 issue of Celebrator:

"…about 50 judges, brewers and beer fiends gathered at Montauk Seafood Grill for a Brewmasters’ Dinner. The hosts were boundary-pushing cult hero Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head Brewery) and his Colorado counterpart, Adam Avery (Avery Brewing Company).

The extreme-beer dinner featured 14 muscular, genre-bending beers from Dogfish Head and Avery, along with elevated cuisine from Dimitri Souvorin, Montauk’s chef. Souvorin — conducting his first beer dinner — faced the daunting task of pairing his food with high-gravity beers. Dinner patrons faced the equally daunting task of squaring off with the night’s highly alcoholic beers.

Brewer Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Milton, Delaware speaking

The affair started with guest-mingling and appetizers of calamari, crab cakes and smoked salmon crostinis. These choice nibbles were paired with snifters of Avery’s hop hammer, Hog Heaven, and the company’s winter beer, Old Jubilation. There were also servings of Dogfish’s dreamily aromatic 60 Minute IPA and its heartier sibling, 90 Minute IPA.

The sit-down portion of the meal matched expertly prepared food items with a pair of large beers from Avery and Dogfish Head. A bowl of mussels and clams steamed in saffron-infused cream was partnered with Dogfish’s Raison d’Etre and Avery’s Salvation. A toothy Black Angus filet was served alongside Dogfish’s deceptively strong Olde School barley wine and Avery’s Belgian-inspired heavyweight, Reverend.

The meal ended with a gooey chocolate lava cake and assorted cheeses matched with Dogfish’s portlike elixir, World Wide Stout, and Avery’s imposing Czar Imperial Stout. By dinner’s end, guests had enjoyed their fill, with some passing on finishing their beer portions. The over-the-top beer, fine food and fellowship benefited from tasty repartee from Calagione and Avery, who shared gonzo beer info and beer-blessed anecdotes with their smiling fans."

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