Portland's Hopworks and Kirkland's Trellis Make a Perfect Pair

When it comes to food and beverage pairings, wine is the predominant liquid that comes to mind. In recent years, however, fine ales have become an increasingly popular alternative to their fruity cousin.

Small, craft breweries popping up throughout the Northwest for more than two decades now can claim much of the credit for the bevvy of options available to consumers. According to Beverage Marketing Corporation, the number of craft brewers in the U.S. climbed from around 200 in 1990 to nearly 1,500 in 2009.

Washington is one of the best places in the country to grow hops, barley and wheat, making it a natural location for its more than 140 active breweries. Our neighbors to the south have some amazing beer of their own. While Oregon is home to more than 80 brewing companies, Portland can claim 37 breweries within its city limits -- the highest concentration of any city in the world, according to the Oregon Brewers Guild. 

With so many great choices at our fingertips, it is no wonder that those in the food industry are paying attention.

Our neighborhood fine dining establishment Trellis recently paired up with Portland-based organic brewers Ben Love and Jaime Rodriguez of Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) for a Brewmaster's Dinner. It was the first of several food and beer pairing events in the area over the next several weeks. at Carillon Point hosts a similar event on June 12 with Pike Brewing Co. Then on June 17-19, the annual Washington Brewers Festival is at .

Billed as the first eco-brewpub in Portland, HUB uses 100% renewable energy, composting and even rain barrels to promote sustainability. Partnering with a wine-centric restaurant like Trellis is a bit of a breakthrough for the beer industry.

While many restaurants offer wine pairing suggestions right on the menu, beer pairings are virtually non-existent at least in permanent printed form. Even those people with a very basic exposure to the world of oenology can rattle off the most common of wine pairings: chardonnay and seafood, cabernet and steak, pink zin and the trash can.

Beer, however, comes in many more flavor profiles than wine, and diners often don’t know where to start when choosing a beer that will compliment their dinner.

Brewer Love describes how he approaches food and beer pairings saying, “I’m always looking for the beer’s flavor to either compare or contrast with the food.”

Love and Rodriguez treated Trellis guests to five varieties, including the 2009 Great American Beer Festival gold medal winning Ace of Spades Imperial IPA and the Rise Up Red. Though everyone at HUB makes pairings at times, Love and Rodriguez left the Trellis pairings up to Chef Brian Scheehser.

“Chefs have amazing palates and are used to discerning hundreds of different flavors,” says Rodriguez.

For this dinner, Scheehser put his sous chef Jeff Soper on a mission to find the highest quality pork in the Northwest. Tails and Trotters, also from Portland, is dedicated to humanely raising their pigs on a verified GMO-free diet. While Italians traditionally finish pigs destined for prosciutto on a 60- to 90-day acorn feast, Tails and Trotters use Oregon hazelnuts to produce the abundant flavorful fat on their animals.

The menu was a celebration of all things porky washed down by all things hoppy. Hor d’ouevres included ham wrapped bread sticks followed by a first course whose title is from a certain popular children’s story. The “Three Little Pigs” consisted of a spicy sweet pulled pork sandwich (the term “cute” attached to the bun by my tablemate Kendra Brossman of Wine World), an impossibly tender St. Louis style glazed rib and a small crouton topped with creamy pork rillette. Paired with these three bites of porky perfection was the HUB Deluxe Organic Ale whose caramel notes mimicked the sweet glaze of the rib.

The heavily hopped Rise Up Red boldly stood its ground against the spicy sausage and salmon cioppino.The salmon was seared on one side (called unilateral in cook-speak) giving it a crunchy crust followed by a buttery smooth interior. Never have I had a piece of fish so freshly off the grill, served at peak temperature. Though throwing half of a sausage underneath such a luscious piece of fish just seems like putting truffle oil on top of truffles, I suppose the chef was trying to stick with the pig theme.

Vegetable lover that he is, chef and farmer Scheehser couldn’t help but slip in a salad of lightly dressed arugula and roasted beets sans bacon. The small pillows of Rolling Stone chevre gave the arugula a nice mellow compliment.

And then came the main event, a viking-sized pork chop glazed with cider and sporting a bouquet of watercress speared to it with a pickled red onion. It was paired with the equally champion Ace of Spades Imperial IPA. As Chef Scheehser delivered our plates in front of us, my tablemate Abram Geballe joked aloud, asking if he “could please have the large.” Brewer Love on my right attempted to give his photo of the chop a good size comparison by holding it up to his head.

We gave it our best effort, but few in the dining room could master the complete chop. Tablemate and freelance writer Chris Nishiwaki wisely asked for a “to go” box. Brewer Rodriguez may have been victorious over his chop, though I did see him with an appetite-settling elixir specially whipped up by bartender John Ueding later in the evening.

Honestly, we were all trying to save room for dessert -- a scoop of Olympic Mountain Creamery vanilla ice cream topped with HUB’s 7 Grain Stout. The seven grains are sourced from another Portland institution, Bob’s Red Mill while the coffee flavor comes directly from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, one of the best in Portland (psst...there’s a Stumptown on Capitol Hill, too). The stout was poured table-side by Trellis staff giving diners a sort of reverse flambe experience.

The very strong bitter coffee flavor was smartly offset by sweet meringue-like sticks, giving rise to a spirited discussion as to the origin of meringue. Having just returned from Australia, Brossman had been convinced by those from the land down under that meringue was an Australian invention. But with a University of Washington degree in French, Geballe definitely disagreed, claiming meringue for France.

All of the HUB beers exude bold flavor and while I might not order a full pint of certain varieties, I thoroughly enjoyed the smaller samples expertly paired with each course. Perhaps one key to beer pairings is to take a cue from wine flights, scaling down the serving size appropriately. While a Miller Lite or a PBR can be downed like fizzy water, it would be a bigger challenge to knock back a pint of 7 Grain Stout in the same manner; not to mention, a complete waste of a flavorful beverage.

Love and Rodriguez, who met four years ago at Portland’s Barleywine Festival, tour around the Northwest promoting HUB products at beer pairing events (beer and cheese! beer and chocolate!) in an effort to educate the public.

“Americans don’t enjoy what we’re eating or drinking because we don’t understand. We want to show that beer can be respected much like a sommelier treats wine,” says Rodriguez who is as comfortable socializing with the public as he is welding a pipe.

In other words, knowledge informs taste buds and triggers creative collaboration between food and brew enthusiasts.

To experience the next professionally paired beer and food event, check out Brews and Bites, combining the tastes of Beach Cafe with Pike Brewing beers. This event is on Sunday, June 12 from 4-6 p.m. Tickets are $25 and seating is limited to 30 people.

Or, in lieu of another bad tie, take your dad to the Washington Brewers Festival for Father's Day to sample from more than 200 different beers brewed right in our state. The festival takes place at Saint Edward State Park June 17-19 and features live music, a keg toss, a children’s playground, rootbeer garden and festival food. Celebrate on Friday night for only $15 (only available online) and includes a tasting cup and four drink tokens; Saturday and Sunday tickets are $20 pre-sale and $25 at the door and include a tasting cup and six drink tokens. Designated drivers can get in for $8. Those under 21 are free, but must be accompanied by an adult over 21.

The rise of great quality beers seems to be gaining momentum. Next time you need to throw a party, impress your friends by filling those goblets with any number of local microbrews. But, keep the pinky down to avoid undue ridicule -- it is beer, after all.