PW Pizza Left Hand Brewing Beer Dinner 2022

Left Hand Brewing is one of the more popular small batch breweries and they have appeared in this series before in 2016 and 2019, as well as an online version last year. I'm also kicking myself because we drove through Longmont, CO while touring the state last year. (And I was pissed that New Belgium was closed the day we were there.)

Left Hand Brewing Can Lineup

Anyway, we started off the night with something new, Bacon Cheeseburger Pinwheels. Also new, starting off the night with an IPA. I guess to cut through all the meat and cheese? 

Bacon Cheeseburger Pinwheels

The first pizza of the night, The Luau, definitely had a Hawaiian theme with the pineapple and ham, but the BBQ sauce made it not too piggy. Strangely enough, this was paired with their famous Milk Stout in the Nitro can. Ours didn't have much PSSST, so I am wondering if it was a little flat. It's definitely a smooth drinking stout though. 

My favorite pairing of the night was the Chicken Caprese, which was totally covered in cheese. The small container in the picture below held the balsamic drizzle that went on top. The St. Vrain Tripel Ale rang in at a whopping 9.3% ABV, but was the easiest to drink of the night.

The Luau Pizza on the left, and Chicken Caprese on the right

Since Patience was missing this evening, we saved the Peanut Butter Milk Stout (nitro of course) for her and drank the other beers with a Gooey Butter Cake. You know I added chocolate sauce to it!

Gooey Butter Cake

I am pleased to report that we've had almost all completely different beers each time, other than their famous Milk Stout, which has made several appearance. Here are the links to the previous versions.

2016 PW Pizza Left Hand Beer dinner = https://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2016/02/pw-pizza-left-hand-beer-dinner.html

2019 PW Pizza Left Hand Beer dinner = https://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2019/02/pw-pizza-left-hand-brewing-beer-dinner.html

2020 PW Pizza Left Hand virtual beer dinner = https://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2020/09/pw-pizza-left-hand-brewing-virtual-beer.html

Left Hand Brewing Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Left Hand Brewing = https://lefthandbrewing.com/

PW Pizza Wiseacre Beer Dinner 2022

Wiseacre is one of the breweries we stopped at while doing a tour of Memphis in 2016! Patience was super into beer at that time, so we visited several that trip. We have fond memories...

Wiseacre Brewing Can lineup

The first course was my favorite this month because I'm such a big fan of wings. The wings were roasted dry-rubbed, and was paired with the lightest beer, Tiny Bomb, a Pale Lager.

Chicken Wings paired with Tiny Bomb

I wasn't too thrilled there were TWO piggy pizzas on this night's menu but I have to admit the combinations were really good. The first pizza, Carbonara, had a ton of cheese on it. That's my kind of pizza! This was paired with a Bow Echo Hazy IPA... I guess to cut through all the cheese?

Pulled Piggy Pizza on the left, Carbonara Pizza on the right

The second pizza, a Pulled Piggy, was smothered in BBQ sauce, gruyere, and onions with the option to top the pizza with coleslaw. Damn good idea! Again, another IPA called Ananda was paired in order to cut through the BBQ sauce and cheese.

And I couldn't forget a beer name like this: Gotta Get Up to Get Down Stout...definitely one of Pai's favorites. This was well paired with dessert, although it wasn't chocolate. The Tiramisu was pretty tasty with the coffee flavors standing out and going well with the stout.

Tiramisu

So when you road trip to see Elvis, make sure to stop by...

Wiseacre Brewing

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Wiseacre Brewing = https://wiseacrebrew.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

PW Pizza Oskar Blues Beer Dinner 2022

I had to do some research, but the last time PW Pizza did an Oskar Blues was May 2017 so the only repeat I had before was "Old Chub" (make your own joke), the big Scottish ale with 8% ABV! And both times it was paired with dessert! 

Oskar Blues can lineup

I think this dessert might be the better of the two since this year it was a Peanut Butter Pie, which was a great pairing.

Peanut Butter Pie

My other favorite pairing was the Goat Cheese and Oskar's Lager, so refreshing and easy to drink, plus it cut through the thick goat cheese. I probably could have just made that dinner and just spoon it up!

Goat cheese with Marinara with Crostini

I preferred the Shrimp Scampi Pizza, but it was paired with a very hoppy Western Mutant 7% ABV. 

The Hot Italian pizza had a kick to it thanks to the hot capicola, red onions, and pepperoncini! This made sense to pair with an IPA, the Double Dale, which was even bigger at 9% ABV. 

Shrimp Scampi and Hot Italian Pizzas 

Oskar Blues Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Oskar Blues = https://www.oskarblues.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

PW Pizza Main & Mill Beer Dinner

Could it be possible I've never had beer from Main & Mill? I actually got it confused with 4204 Main St. Brewing in Belleville, which closed and now is about to reopen at 6435 W Main Street! 

And could this possibly be one of the best beers we've had in a couple of years?

Main & Mill Can Lineup

I also cannot remember the last time we started a beer dinner with a stout, much less Irish Beef Stew! February definitely is the season for a hearty soup to kick off a dinner. I'm sure there was a little bit of the beer, an Irish Paddy Stout of course, in the stew as well. It was an exceptionally smooth stout with no bitter beer face!

Irish Beef Stew with Irish Paddy Stout

The Buffalo Pizza had quite a kick (for me) and I used ALL of the ranch that came with it on the side. This was well paired with an American Pale Ale that had big citrus notes. Definitely was necessary to help cool down my mouth!

I didn't think I would much like the Prosciutto & Arugula pizza, but really they should have just named it the Goat Cheese pizza and all would have been fine. I had a small piece and the goat cheese drowned out any piggy. Another good pairing with a Hefeweizen. Easy to drink.

Buffalo Pizza (left) and Prosciutto & Arugula Pizza (right)

The best beer of them all, was the dessert stout. That's something I don't think I've ever said either! The Morning Session Stout featuring Mississippi Mud coffee's espresso and cacao nibs had a huge chocolate flavor! The Cinnamon Rolls that went with it were decadent too.

Cinnamon Rolls

One more thing I have also never said before, road trip to Festus may be added to the list??

PW Pizza Main & Mill Beer Dinner Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Main & Mill Brewery = http://mainandmill.com

Photos by Patience Scanlon

PW Pizza Great Divide Beer Dinner 2021

Another full year of pizza + beer dinners at home makes me a little sad, but I'm just happy they've found a way to keep them going. I smiled when I saw the name "Bish" on the pick up list as they were our constant tablemates. I hope they're enjoying the beer and pizzas as much as we still are...

I had to look back through my past blog posts and we did have beer from Great Divide Brewing back in 2019 so there are a couple of repeats, but a couple new beers to try too!

For something new, our starter was a charcuterie plate, which was mostly filled with cheese to my delight!

Charcuterie Plate

The "boar" pizza was a little gamey tasting to me.

Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed a "ham" pizza...shh, don't tell.

Boar Pizza (left) and Hammy Pizza (right)

The Mixed Berry Crumble was delicious and was appropriately paired with the "fruity" Strawberry Rhubarb Sour Ale.

Mixed Berry Crumble

Great Divide Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://greatdivide.com/

Great Divide Brewing = https://greatdivide.com/

PW Pizza Griesedieck Brothers Brewery Beer Dinner

Although we still cannot do PW Pizza Beer dinners in person, we were ready to kick off the new year with a new brewery - welcome back Griesedieck Brothers! So happy for these beer dinners to give us a chance to try new beers on a regular basis.

Can lineup

German style beer with a soft pretzel? Makes sense to me. The Golden Pilsner was so smooth, I almost thought it was summer.

Pretzel Sticks with whipped salted butter

The Tarte Flambee pizza came with gruyere on it, my favorite part, but it was the bacon and caramelized onions that made it a good pairing with the Double Mellow Amber Lager.

I think this may be the first time for a Schnitzel pizza and definitely the first time with grain mustard and German potato salad on top too! There was a lot going on with this pizza. The Bavarian Wheat was still good by itself though.

Tarte Flambee pizza (left) and Schnitzel pizza (right)

You know Patience loved the 1880 Session Porter and was perfect for the dessert course, Black Forest Cake. You know that was my favorite dish!

Black Forest Cake

Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Griesedieck Brothers Brewery = http://www.gb-beer.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

PW Pizza 4 Hands Beer Dinner 2021

The second PW Pizza beer dinner this month also featured another local brewery, and 4 Hands is one of Patience's favorites. There were no surprises as far as the beer was concerned, but one of our favorite pizzas is the Thanksgiving pizza that they serve every year in November.

4 Hands Lineup

We started off with the Ripple White Ale, which is probably my favorite beer by 4 Hands. Perfect patio pounder in the summer, and it was paired with a fall salad. With the apples, cranberries, and goat cheese, I was happy there were some leftovers the next day.

Fall Salad

The famous City Wide beer is too hoppy for me since it's an APA, but this is an everyday beer for Pai, This stood up with to the Popeye and Olive Oil Pizza. I'm guessing it was named that for the spinach? 

The Thanksgiving Pizza always has turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberries ON THE PIZZA, smothered in a brown gravy. It's actually quite delicious and this is probably our second favorite pizza of the year next to the prime rib pizza last month. With all those flavors mixed together, this was paired with the Incarnation IPA, which comes in at a whopping 7.0% ABV.

Popeye and Olive Oil Pizza (left) and Thanksgiving Feast Pizza (right)

Dessert wasn't chocolate this time, but the Chocolate Milk Stout, Pai's favorite beer by them unless you count the Peanut Butter version, did pair well with the Raspberry Torte.

Raspberry Torte

4 Hands Beer Dinner Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

4 Hands Brewery = https://4handsbrewery.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

PW Pizza Big Muddy Brewing Beer Dinner 2021

It has been a couple of months since we've done a PW Pizza Beer Dinner, so it was cool to see a "local" brewery for this month's pick and I'm not sure I've had any of their beers before.

Big Muddy Beers

I think what hooked us for this month was the "Bleus Pizza", which included prime rib and Bleu cheese. The fancy meat pizzas are among our favorites. This pizza required a more flavorful beer, but the Saluki DunkelDog was still easy to drink.

The T-Rex pizza had a little bit of a kick to it with Andouille sausage and pepperoncinis, so of course the Galaxy IPA was paired with the heat. This IPA combines Australian Galaxy and American Hops, but Patience didn't think it was too hoppy if you can believe that!

Bleus Pizza on the left, T-Rex Pizza on the right

The first pairing, a Blueberry Salad, was perfectly matched with the Blueberry Blonde. Still fairly high ABV at 6% for a "light ale".

Dessert was also a winner since it was chocolate - a brownie with marshmallows and a caramel drizzle. Patience loved the Smores Stout, whereas I preferred the brownie!

Brownie with Marshmallows and a caramel drizzle

Big Muddy Brewery Beer Dinner Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Big Muddy = http://bigmuddybrewing.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

PW Pizza Cigar City Brewing 2021

Unfortunately, it does not appear that we'll be having any "in-person" PW Pizza beer dinners this year at the rate we're going at so it was nice to do another "take home" version, featuring Cigar City Brewing, since we skipped the last couple of months.

We actually recently tasted Cigar City's beers back in January 2020, so you can read about it here: https://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2020/03/pw-pizza-cigar-city-brewing.html

Still, there was only ONE repeat beer and the rest were new!

Cigar City Brewing 2021 can lineup

Instead of a salad, the appetizer was Shrimp Cocktail! The shellfish was well paired with a lighter IPA cleverly called "Jai Low" since it only has 4% ABV.

Shrimp Cocktail

The first pizza, a Hot Italian, (insert your own joke here) had a lot going on and there seemed to be an overabundance of onion and pepperncinis for me. All this spice went well with the Jai Alai, their traditional IPA.

BBQ Chicken Pizza on the left, Hot Italian Pizza on the right

I preferred the BBQ Chicken pizza, which was paired with their Maduro Brown, nice and smooth.

There were TWO baby Key Lime Cheesecakes included in this dinner so Pai and I didn't have to fight. This was paired with the fruity, yet sour Margarita Gose.

Key Lime Cheesecake

Now if we can just find time to get down to Tampa and visit Cigar City in person...

Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Cigar City Brewing = https://www.cigarcitybrewing.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

PW Pizza Golden Road Beer Dinner

Patience was excited about this LA-based brewery because there is a female brewer! I wasn't sure she would enjoy any of the beers in the list due to the fact they were all fruity or an IPA! The beers definitely surprised us and it was a good pick for this month.

Golden Road Lineup

The salads are still big winners and we couldn't finish it with three people! All the fruity beers ring in at 4.0% ABV so I think any beer could have gone with the salad since they're all so light. We started off with the Mango Cart, which was matched up with a mango vinaigrette dressing.

Hamilton House Mixed Greens Salad

The best part about the fruity beers is that they weren't tart at all. Of course they would make great patio pounders too! The Melon Cart was paired with a BBQ Roast Pork Loin Pizza, which also had pineapple on top. 

BBQ Roast Pork Loin Pizza on the bottom, Cajun Spice Shrimp Pizza on top

Of course the Cajun Spicy Shrimp Pizza was cooled off with their well-known Wolf Pup Session IPA. It actually wasn't too hoppy! A nice change of pace!

I think the best pairing was the Pineapple Cart beer with a Pineapple Cheesecake, which I don't think I've ever had before. This definitely made me ready for warm weather!

Pineapple Cheesecake

Golden Road Brewing Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Golden Road Brewing = https://www.goldenroad.la/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

PW Pizza The Other Wine Dinner

For the second month in a row, we opted for the wine dinner instead of beer from PW Pizza. While there is either a beer or a wine dinner each week, the amount of pizza we were eating started to get out of hand so now we're just picking one a month.

Basically, we look for the best combination of either beer or pizza. For the wine dinners, you only get one pizza for three courses total, whereas the beer dinners are four courses.

The featured wine was the Peirano Estate "The Other" Red Blend. The blend was 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Syrah, which lended to a very tannic wine and unfortunately, we didn't make it through.

The Other - a red blend

I think "The Wolf" pizza is what grabbed Patience's attention as it came piled with toppings: tomato sauce, house-made fennel sausage, pepperoni, bacon, caramelized onion, green peppers, roasted garlic and mozzarella.

The Wolf Pizza

Instead of a salad, the appetizer was Three Cheese Spinach - Artichoke Dip served with pita. Now this could have been a meal by itself and we were only able to eat one piece of pizza each!

Three Cheese Spinach-Artichoke Dip

Of course we saved room for dessert, Gooey Butter Cake with caramel sauce.

Goeey Butter Cake

Next month we'll be doing the Irish beer pairing since St. Patrick's Day falls on a Wednesday!

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon