James Squire's taste testing night at the Northern Star Hotel (Newcastle)..
so as anyone on my friends list will know the other night i went to a james squires tasting night.. basically 6 courses of food and heaps of beer.. below i offer you the menu we had and thoughts on the dishes. The beer in Bold, the food in italics, and the comments in plain old type.
1) Hahn Vienna Red served with h'odores (twiggy sticks, olives, little meatballs, and spring onion and spinach stuffed pastry things. The Vienna Red was a stand out beer for the evening.. not only because it was the first (and thus litterally the most able to be remembered).. but because it had a nice blend of fruitiness (think european beers), and loveliness (think aussie standard beers). the food was pretty basic and not the best way to grab my attention.
2) Squires Golden Ale served with local king prawns with a creamy citrus risotto dressing. now this prawns were good and the citrus risotto complemented the Golden Ale really well. As soon as this one went into my gob i was starting to think that the evening might be a success.
3) Squires Pilsner served with prosciutto wrapped scallops with a salad of baby herbs and a mild curry dressing.. the scallops were wonderful.. the curry dressing was pretty forgetable.. and the salad of baby herbs was non-existent. The Pilsner was pretty damn good.. and it was about this time (after about 4 schooners in the first hour and a half) that we started to have some leary fun!
4) Squires Amber Ale served with peppered kangaroo fillets on stewed tomatoes.. it is my personal theory that skippy was only popular because we knew how good he'd taste. kangaroo is a wonderful meat.. and this was no exception. the meat was so damn moist and the tomatoes just fell apart.. it was all laid on a bed of mash.. wonderful! We also did 3 schooners of the golden ale cause it was fantastic.
5) Squires India Pale Ale served with roasted venison loin stuffed with pistachio nuts and juniper berries served on a bed of Indian spiced vegetable stew with a sweet jus.. now the India Pale Ale is twice and strong as most beers, and by this time you could've given me petrol and i would've told you that it was a nice beer. okay.. i wasnt that bad at all.. it was meant to be one bottle of the India between two, because of some responsible service bullshit.. but cause im a local i managed to get a bottle and a half. it was fantastic and i even snuck a couple out and they're sitting in the fridge for later tonight. the Indian spiced vegetables were done just right.. enough spice to make you take notice of them, but not so much that it would take over the venison. the strange thing was that they gave us bigger than bite sized bits of venison, but no knives. so you kind of had to do a caveman move to get it into your gob. it was lovely though.
6) Squires Porter served with duo of dark and white chocolate mousse topped with whipped cream and mixed berries.. now im not usually a lover of the darker beers.. but when you took a sip of the Porter, then had a spoonful of berries and mousse, and then another sip of the Porter.. my goodness.. i discovered a whole new love affair. however, when the mousse was gone so was my love of the Porter.. solution = more dessert next time please.
7) Hopp Thief served with selected cheese plate served with crisp lavish and fresh pear.. it was a nice bree.. but something that could've just been bought at your local grocery store.. and the other two cheeses were average.. the pear wasnt juicy enough (which is expected cause they had to serve up 178 plates at once).. the Hopp Thief wasnt awesome, so after a glass of that i got another Squires Amber Ale..
summary.. seeing as though all that only cost me $45 i was well impressed. id do it again, and tonight i will drink some james squires.. the guy that hosted it was non-other than mr chuck hahn.. father of all hahn beers and all the squires beers. he has an annoying american accent, but i could deal with it cause of his gorgeous beers. if he was an attractive woman everyone would want him.
1) Hahn Vienna Red served with h'odores (twiggy sticks, olives, little meatballs, and spring onion and spinach stuffed pastry things. The Vienna Red was a stand out beer for the evening.. not only because it was the first (and thus litterally the most able to be remembered).. but because it had a nice blend of fruitiness (think european beers), and loveliness (think aussie standard beers). the food was pretty basic and not the best way to grab my attention.
2) Squires Golden Ale served with local king prawns with a creamy citrus risotto dressing. now this prawns were good and the citrus risotto complemented the Golden Ale really well. As soon as this one went into my gob i was starting to think that the evening might be a success.
3) Squires Pilsner served with prosciutto wrapped scallops with a salad of baby herbs and a mild curry dressing.. the scallops were wonderful.. the curry dressing was pretty forgetable.. and the salad of baby herbs was non-existent. The Pilsner was pretty damn good.. and it was about this time (after about 4 schooners in the first hour and a half) that we started to have some leary fun!
4) Squires Amber Ale served with peppered kangaroo fillets on stewed tomatoes.. it is my personal theory that skippy was only popular because we knew how good he'd taste. kangaroo is a wonderful meat.. and this was no exception. the meat was so damn moist and the tomatoes just fell apart.. it was all laid on a bed of mash.. wonderful! We also did 3 schooners of the golden ale cause it was fantastic.
5) Squires India Pale Ale served with roasted venison loin stuffed with pistachio nuts and juniper berries served on a bed of Indian spiced vegetable stew with a sweet jus.. now the India Pale Ale is twice and strong as most beers, and by this time you could've given me petrol and i would've told you that it was a nice beer. okay.. i wasnt that bad at all.. it was meant to be one bottle of the India between two, because of some responsible service bullshit.. but cause im a local i managed to get a bottle and a half. it was fantastic and i even snuck a couple out and they're sitting in the fridge for later tonight. the Indian spiced vegetables were done just right.. enough spice to make you take notice of them, but not so much that it would take over the venison. the strange thing was that they gave us bigger than bite sized bits of venison, but no knives. so you kind of had to do a caveman move to get it into your gob. it was lovely though.
6) Squires Porter served with duo of dark and white chocolate mousse topped with whipped cream and mixed berries.. now im not usually a lover of the darker beers.. but when you took a sip of the Porter, then had a spoonful of berries and mousse, and then another sip of the Porter.. my goodness.. i discovered a whole new love affair. however, when the mousse was gone so was my love of the Porter.. solution = more dessert next time please.
7) Hopp Thief served with selected cheese plate served with crisp lavish and fresh pear.. it was a nice bree.. but something that could've just been bought at your local grocery store.. and the other two cheeses were average.. the pear wasnt juicy enough (which is expected cause they had to serve up 178 plates at once).. the Hopp Thief wasnt awesome, so after a glass of that i got another Squires Amber Ale..
summary.. seeing as though all that only cost me $45 i was well impressed. id do it again, and tonight i will drink some james squires.. the guy that hosted it was non-other than mr chuck hahn.. father of all hahn beers and all the squires beers. he has an annoying american accent, but i could deal with it cause of his gorgeous beers. if he was an attractive woman everyone would want him.