PW Pizza Schlafly Beer Dinner 2019

I've never told anyone this story and I doubt my friends would remember this, but I had just gotten back from college and I met them at this new place called "The Tap Room". Well, it was new to me since I had recently turned 21 and there were a lot of places (bars) I had never been before.

When the server asked me what I wanted, I went with my recently learned automatic answer: "Bud Light".

The server and my friends looked at me like I had three heads.

"We don't have that here."

Let's just say I have never made that mistake ever again.

Schlafly was the first beer dinner I ever went to at PW Pizza and they always come back around every few years. I always have to tip my cap to them as they were "my first" craft beer I learned about. This time was special again as it was the first time for Eddie Corno, now a "long time" Schlafly employee and a personal friend, giving the beer presentation.

While I was in the minority at my table, I loved the first pairing since it was a cider! Ciders are very rare at these beer dinners and it was so easy to drink and not too sweet. It was paired with a fall harvest salad and the rosemarry ranch dressing made me want to lick the plate!

Fall Harvest Salad

I was looking forward to the Smoked Chicken Pizza, although I had to pick off the candied jalpenos. Since Kirkwood Brewing has shut down, Schlafly has taken over brewing the St. Louis Football Club Ale D'or. Considered an APA, this was a little hoppy for me. Yet it made sense to pair this with the pizza since it had a little kick to it.

Smoked Chicken Pizza

Surprisingly, the highest ABV of the night went to the Pumpkin Ale at 8%. That was my second favorite although this year's version has a high cinnamon punch to it. This was paired with the Honey Pulled Pork Pizzza, which was a lot milder, and I had to knock off all the shaved fennel slaw as it was a bit overpowering.

Honey Pulled Pork Pizza

I think everyone loved the Banana Bread Pudding with caramel drizzled on top and Oktoberfest pairing the best. Definitely always a winner from Schlafly.

Banana Bread Pudding with St. Louis Football Club Ale D'or beer 

Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Schlafly = http://www.schlafly.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

PW Pizza Schlafly Beer Dinner 2015

Since Patience is a huge fan of Schlafly, we didn't want to miss this year's pizza and beer dinner with them. We guessed correctly that their fall beers would be featured.

Menu

We started the night outside in the perfect October weather for the first course: Caprese Crostini with roasted tomato, parmesan, and a balsamic reduction paired with one of our favorites, Kolsch.

Caprese Crostini

The first pizza course was my favorite since the Chicken Alfredo had so much flavor and was paired with another favorite, Oktoberfest. You can see the provolone and blue cheese oozing on top with red onions and spinach.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

I think the Roasted Butternut Squash pizza could have been just as good, but the goat cheese, broccoli, pecans, and cranberries kept falling off the crust. I made a huge mess trying to serve it. This was paired with the old stand by, Pale Ale.

Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza

And of course the dessert course paired the Pumpkin Ale with a Apple Roses pastry. This had a beautiful design that included apricot, coffee beans topped with caramel sauce and more ground coffee beans.

Apple Rose

Yet, the best part of the night was going downstairs to the 21st Street Brewer's Bar and getting to sample a new Schlafly beer. No photos were allowed so let's just say it's very light and refreshing!

Resources:

Schlafly = http://schlafly.com/

PW Pizza = http://pwpizza.com/

21st Street Brewers Bar = http://21stbrew.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Straub's Beer and Cheese Pairing with Schlafly

I just happened to be at Straub's, now that I work in Clayton, and saw a sign for a beer and Wisconsin cheese pairing with Schlafly for a few days later. You know I had to sign up! An extra bonus is that this class also benefited Operation Food Search.

Wisconsin Cheeses with Schlafly Beer

Cheese in the sun by Jessie Corno

Straub's was very gracious and started off the evening with a light meal consisting of pulled pork sliders, mac and cheese, charcuterie, olives, and fruit. I was relieved since I had just come from the gym and needed something before tasting beer. Also, the cheese samples were in the two-bite range unlike the classes I take at Dierbergs.

The beer instruction was led by former Brew Master Stephen Hale and for the first time I met The Cheese Impresario, Barrie Lynn. It's nice to see another "cheese champion" in the St. Louis area. Her favorite term was "cheese highway", which means to coat your tongue for the beer pairing. hehehehe

Much like Dierbergs, we started with a welcome beer, the easy-drinking Summer Lager, that we got to have with our appetizer course.

The first beer to be paired was the Schlafly Hefeweizen and the lighter beer went perfectly with an equally mild Crescenz-Stracchino cheese from BelGioioso. The cheese was so creamy!

The also popular, Pale Ale, was paired with a Roasted Red Pepper and Cracked peppercorn cheese from Wood River Creamery. I thought the cheese was a little too big for the beer, but it helped to take care of any hoppiness in the Pale Ale.

A new beer to me, the Belgian Style Golden Ale, had a bit more hoppiness than the Pale Ale so this was well paired with the Aged Brick Cheddar from Widmer's Cheese Cellars, which had quite a bite.

The other cheese from Widmer's Cheese Cellars, their Aged Brick Spread, was also paired with another hoppy beer, the AIPA.

And to mix things up a bit, instead of pairing the blue cheese with the AIPA, it was paired with the Lewis Osterweis Hard Ginger Beer! The ginger was good for cutting through the thick, creaminess of the BelGioioso's Creamy Gorg blue cheese. Pretty ingenious!

Resources:

Straub's = http://straubs.com/

Schlafly = http://schlafly.com/

Operation Food Search = http://www.operationfoodsearch.org/

Beer and Cheese Tasting at Larder & Cupboard

As a big fan of Larder & Cupboard, I was thrilled to find out on Facebook that they would be hosting a beer and cheese tasting class at the store after hours.

The event was one in a series that was put on by The OG: St. Louis Women's Craft Beer Collective, along with another female-centric beer group "Femme Ferment". The first event in the series had been a home brew demo at O'Fallon Brewing. The last event will be to taste the "home brews" made that night.

This second event was more educational as Karen King of Side Project Brewing led the all-female class in a sensory panel of seven beers. After that, Robin Wheeler of Larder & Cupboard, guided us through a beer and cheese pairing.

I really appreciated the tall bottle of water and note cards!

Even though small, plastic cups were probably not the best for smelling, they did hold plenty of beer and I hated to leave so much leftover beer behind. We certainly got our money's worth tasting seven beers in the first round and then four more with the cheese.

Beers!

Each person had two place mats, one without names and one with. The first seven beers were passed out and were in order from lightest to darkest. And just like with wine, Karen King walked us through the tasting by having us discuss the color, whether the beer was clear or hazy (unfiltered), and then finally the smell. Of course we tasted at the very end and tried to make our best guess of the beer's style.

Starting at the top and going down in a zig zag pattern, here are the beers:

1) Morgan Street Brewery - Citrusy Lemon Beer

2) Morgan Street Brewery - Golden Pilsner

3) Urban Chestnut - Snickelfritz

4) Schlafly - Pale Ale

5) 2nd Shift - Art of Neurosis

6) Civil Life - Brown Ale

7) Deschuettes - Black Butte

As for the second round, we worked our way through several cheeses, pairing a few with each beer.

Cheese!

1) Civil Life - Oatmeal Stout = Paired with sharp cheeses, granola, and another with an expresso rub.

2) 4 Hands - Black IPA = Paired with bigger cheeses like a cheddar, blue, and chocolate honey.

3) New Holland - White IPA = Paired with more creamy and buttery cheese and a fresh sheep's milk. The IPA really helped to cut through the cream. Also paired with spicier items like salami and peppers.

4) Dupont - Saison = The lightest beer was paired with Baetje Farms semisoft cheese and the fruit/nut press.

If you follow Larder & Cupboard on Facebook, hopefully there are more classes to come!

Resources:

Larder and Cupboard = http://www.larderandcupboard.com/

The OG = https://www.facebook.com/theogstl
https://sites.google.com/site/ogwomen/

Femme Ferment = http://www.femmeferment.org/

Side Project Brewing = http://www.sideprojectbrewing.com/

Morgan Street = http://www.morganstreetbrewery.com/

Urban Chestnut = http://www.urbanchestnut.com/

2nd Shift = http://www.2ndshiftbrewing.com/

Civil Life = http://www.thecivillife.com/

Deschuttes = http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/

Schlafly = http://schlafly.com/

4 Hands = http://4handsbrewery.com/

New Holland = http://newhollandbrew.com/

Dupont = http://www.brasserie-dupont.com/

Baetje Farms = http://www.baetjefarms.com/

Schlafly Brew Master Beer Dinner

I have attended a couple of beer dinners in the past, but I was especially looking forward to this one since Schlafly is one of my favorite local breweries. While this one wasn’t as fancy as the ones in the past, I really did enjoy PW Pizza as the food pairings since I enjoy their pizza so much.y looking fore past but I was especial Beer

 

These PW Pizza beer dinners are priced at $24.99 (before tax and tip added when you pay), which is quite a reasonable for the four courses. I really thought I could pace myself, but I still ended up quite full. There was enough pizza for everyone to have 2-3 (half-sized) slices for the pizza courses and I probably should have stopped at 2 slices each to have more room for dessert!

 

The first course was well paired with the Kolsch and the Mixed Greens. Kolsch is light enough for me to drink regularly so of course it’s the salad course. Hehe

 

My favorite pizza was the Shrimp and Spinach since it was on the Honey Wheat Crust, although the second pizza tasted much like BBQ chicken, which I love, but I had to pick off all the bacon bits. While we both love the Oktoberfest, neither Patience nor I could stand the Tasmanian IPA. You either love the hoppy stuff or you don’t!

 

As for pumpkin crème brulee…yes..it tasted just as delicious as it sounds! It was paired with a Schwarzbier (which means dark beer) and I was surprised that a heavier beer could have such a smooth finish.

 

For you beer lovers, everyone gets a tasting-sized (4 ounce) pour and we often poured our own samples from a pitcher for the whole table. So there was definitely no shortage of beer!

 

1^st Course

Mixed Greens

Roasted Butternut Squash, Spiced Pecans, Parmesan, Tart Apple Vinaigrette

Paired with Kolsch

 

2^nd Course

Shrimp & Spinach Pizza

Honey Wheat Crust, Red Onion, Goat Cheese, Tomato Sauce

Paired with Oktoberfest

 

3^rd Course

Roasted Chicken & Bacon Pizza

Original Curst, Pineapple, Mixed Mushroom, Cheddar Jack, Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

Paired with Tasmanian IPA

 

4th Course

Pumpkin Crème Brulee

Paired with Schwarzbier

 
 

Resources:

 

Schlafly = http://schlafly.com/

 

PW Pizza = http://pwpizza.com/

Schlafly Beer and Cheese Pairing 2011

For my second year in a row, I attended the Schlafly Beer and Cheese Pairing at the Tap Room (http://www.schlafly.com/breweries/taproom) during Craft Beer Week. Three of the beers were from Schlafly while the other three came from Urban Chestnut, (http://urbanchestnut.com) located right around the corner on Washington Avenue.

This class was done a little bit differently since the beers and cheeses were introduced first so that we could taste on our own, as well as mix and match a little bit. While I enjoy the freedom to mix up the pairings, I definitely require more cheese for that to happen!! Luckily, we all planned on getting dinner after the class.

While I just assumed we would start with the lightest beer and move on to the darker ones, I was surprised right out of the gate with a Schlafly Kolsch that had a very bitter flavor. This totally overpowered the Seahive Cheddar (Utah) that had no sharpness to it (as I prefer my cheddars to be)!

Luckily, the next pairing saved me since I really enjoyed the Urban Chestnut Zwickel that was light and refreshing. It had a mild flavor and paired equally to the Cambzola Blue (Germany). I think this is the first time ever that a blue did not have that “stinky cheese” flavor. It definitely opened my eyes to the range of blues!

The popular choice at my table was the Urban Chestnut Schnickelfritz, which had a strong fruity finish. It was a little overpowering for me, (and I normally like fruity beers) but was probably the best suited to be paired with the Pantaleo (Italy) cheese that was so dry, I felt like I had to scrape it off the roof of my mouth like peanut butter! ACK!

Going back to a Schlafly beer, I thought the Biere de Garde had a lot of flavor and paired well with the Marieke Foenegreek Gouda (Wisconsin). Both had a strong finish and this was definitely my favorite pairing of the night.

The Urban Chestnut Kinsale had a full bodied coffee flavor and was paired with a Walnut Gourmandise (France). These paired well in the sense that I didn’t like either one of these. The nutty flavor of the cheese was too much for me and I’m not a coffee drinker.

At least the best cheese overall came last with an Old Chatham Camembert (New York), which was pungent and gamey, but so smooth and creamy like a triple crème. A strong Schafly American IPA was paired with it, which makes sense, but I’m just not a fan of them.

The funniest part of the whole class was at the very end when we all shouted our favorite beers and cheeses. Usually one or two stand out in a class but the votes were ALL over the place! I guess it’s a good thing there are so many beers in St. Louis and plenty of cheese to go around as well.

Sushi, Sake, and Wine

Sushi, sake, and wine was the theme for this Provisions (http://provisionsmarket.com/) class and I was stoked because I love sushi so much. I have only tried sake once, thanks to my friend Anne, and it wasn’t too bad but it doesn’t have the easy-drinking flavor that I enjoy with sweet wines.

This class was totally different than previous classes at Provisions because we were given all our beverages first…two types of sake, a sparkling wine, a plum wine, and Schlafly Summer lager (http://www.schlafly.com). I think Angie was trying to knock me off my game, especially since she did not provide a menu for me to follow and take notes on. Not only is it tough to read my own handwriting but I’m having to write this review via napkin notes.

Yet, there was a method behind this madness because this allowed us to try a variety of flavors with each course. At times, this presented quite a challenge because it was hard to have enough bites of sushi to last all five beverages. And then you had to make sure to ration all five to make it through all the courses. Luckily, my buddy Joe asked for seconds so I was able to get seconds as well…especially seconds of my favorite…sparkling sake!

I was very surprised that there was even such a thing as sparkling sake but it added the missing sweetness to sake that it so desperately needed. We also drank both sakes cool or at room temperate. It turns out that sake is often heated to hide imperfections or lower quality sake.

I thought that the sparkling wine or plum wine would go best with all the courses since sparkling wines tend to go well with everything, while plum wine is frequently served at Japanese restaurants. But I found them both to be far too tart for the courses. Instead, the sparkling sake was easily paired with everything because it held that hint of sweet.

The first course was tempora vegetables and anything fried is well cut by bubbles. That’s one of Angie’s top ten wine rules. Someone should create a list…hmmm…she could probably write a book of them.

Anyway, the second course was a salmon avocado cucumber roll…definitely one of my favorites of the night because that’s typically what I get a at a sushi restaurant. I even tried it with the wasabi, but it just overpowered all the beverages, although the plum wine almost stood up to it.

The third course was a seared ahi tuna with ginger, which had a light flavor so again, only the sparkling sake was light enough to match up.

Another first, I had a Korean-style sushi roll with egg and ham inside and an overall sweeter flavor. So one more time, no heavy drinks went well.

Finally, the last course, beef tenderloin in a teriyaki sauce, could handle the regular sake. The beef was so soft and tender, I was definitely wishing for seconds.

Unfortunately, I will be missing the next Provisions class due to a concert but it looks like it will probably sell out: August 24th – A Taste of the Mediterranean (http://www.stlwinegirl.com/UpcomingEvents.html).