Last week the Northwest Washington PNW Beer Moms met up for some merriment and gluttony at The Woolley Market in the small city of Sedro Woolley, a town known for its' chainsaw scultper competition, western flare, amazing tacos and mexican food and great views of the cascade mountains. There couldn't have been a better place to hold our December meet up!
I wanted some small town holiday charm for our December meet up and Sedro Woolley didn't disappoint, with lots of lights and a huge Christmas set up in the middle of the main down town intersection. My photos of it doesnt give it justice, but you got to appreciate a city that creates a roundabout for a Christmas tree!
It really set the mood for the evening!
I'd never been to the Woolley Market, but knowing that it was run by a fellow Beer&Body Craft Beer Girl Rebecca and had a self serve tap wall, I knew I was in for something special. And boy was I right! It's a beautiful huge building. A wide open floor plan that could easily be turned into a dance hall. It has a stage and wrap around loft upstairs with more tables and lounge areas to hide away in. There is a full menu, espresso bar, baked items and a huge cooler of craft beer and a self serve tap wall!
I have to be honest, I was orginally critical of a self serve tap wall. I'm a person who likes to strike up conversations with bartenders, talk about beer and excercise my extrovert muscle and ask beer related questions. A self serve place takes that away I feared. But I'll tell you what, I've been swayed. I knew in order to do a beer and cookie pairing, we would need a place with variety, where we could bring in treats and drink smaller amounts of many different kinds of beer. Luckily Rebecca, the manager was all about our plan.
Six of us made cookies and we paired them and tested our theories of what would go best. The great thing about the self serve wall is you can try a quick taste and move on to something else without asking a bar tender for a million samples or feeling guilty about getting them for free or the dishes you are dirtying. The way it works is you give them your ID and they give you a key card. It looks like a room key or casino card and each tap has a slot for the card above it. There is also a small screen that shows you how much you've poured and how much you are spending as you pour. The market has a wide variety of glasses to choose from and a glass rinser at each end of the tap wall. It was so easy to make our pairings just right.
But without further ado here's the actual cookies and what we paired them with:
Sugar cookies with royal icing. These cookies are buttery, with a touch of almond and vanilla and a whole bunch of sweet! We wanted to pair it with something that wouldn't add to the sweetness or be too complex. I'm not a big fan of lagers, usually too bland for me, but in this case Valley Gold Lager was perfect. This particular lager has a surprisingly nice rich round body and a slight spice to it, which on it's own was very drinkable and with these cookies, absolutely delightful. The lager washed the cookies down easy, making you ready for another sweet bite of these ridiculously sugary cookies. The tasters were quite surprised at how nice they were together.
Biscotti made with brandy and walnuts. What better beer to pair with coffee porter than biscotti!? And so we did! Mike in the Morning Coffee Porter from Farm Strong isn't my favorite coffee beer. It's one of those beers that reminds me of instant folgers or church coffee, but the biscotti totally saved this beer. It sweetened up the beer just enough to take out the bitterness and dipping the biscotti in the beer like you would coffee was equally as satisfyingly! I wouldn't drink this beer any other way now, and totally a great mimosa replacement!
Snickerdoodles! My favorite cookie of all time! There were three dark beers we thought would be good with these cookies. I wanted to add some complexity to these cookies by adding a dark, rich, complex beer. So for me the best match was the Black Eyed Katy imperial stout from Ten Pin. This is such a rich, syrupy dark beer. The kind of beer you want to sip in a cabin in the woods, next to a fire, wrapped up with a blanket with your favorite person. I know a beer this heavy is not for everyone and definitely not a session beer. So if not, grab a dry or semi sweet cider instead. Which is what I did by my 4th or 5th Snickerdoodle.
Salted Butterscotch pretzel cookies...omg! These cookies are so good, you don't even remember to drink your beer because you're stuffing your mouth like you've been starving your whole life! But we were there to pair! So pair we did! Boundary Bay Brewings Scotch Ale was on tap and we thought it would be a great match, but the keg was on nitro and didn't pour quite right. So we abandoned that and moved on to an IPA, which was good enough. But I'd like to try these with Great Divides Scotch Ale, my personal favorite scotch ale and retry my original idea. So to be continued... I'll suffer through these cookies once again if I must, in the name of science, of course. Wink, wink.
Eggnog logs. From the moment I knew these existed (about a week before the pairing) I was convinced that Kulshan's Kitten Mittens would be the one! And these worked really well together, but as the years have gone on, I've began to like Kitten Mittens less and less. A sentiment I've found other tasters also share. I dont know if the recipe has changed or I've just had better beers over time. Whatever it is, I enjoyed a richer beer with these cookies, IPA was good too, and even cider. Anything with a little spice or complexity was good with these cookies.
Ginger snaps from Trader Joe's. Because let's be honest, moms with infants (or really any age) don't have the time to bake! Odin's Thor Double Belgian Strong Ale was our gluttonous pick! A thick spicy strong brew with a spicy, crispy light cookie was wonderful! But I also felt that the Ragged and Right semi sweet cider was also delicious together, like an apple pie!
And there you have it. Now you know how to wash down those left over holiday cookies and gingerbread houses. I hope you're inspired! And let me know how it goes if you do. Cheers!
Comments
Post a Comment