I had the pleasure last Thursday (10/15/09) of attending a beer and food pairing at the C-Level restaurant out on Harbor Island (the bar side of Island Prime).  The dinner was focused on various German beers in celebration of Oktoberfest.  With beers I’ve never heard of and phenomenal food, you know this deserves a review on Tap Hunter!

First of all, if you’ve never been to C-Level you’re missing out on an excellent little restaurant (and a nice happy hour too).  The service is unbelievable and the food is always amazing.  Case in point about the service – some water that had randomly pooled up on a tarp overhead dripped (more like poured, actually) right on my friend’s shirt.  The manager promptly came over, apologized, and bought us our first and second rounds of beer.  Very nice!  And, of course, the views of downtown San Diego across the bay are unbelievable.

Alright, so on to the food and beer pairings!

First Course:
Beer: Hofbräu Original
Food: Alaskan King Crab Salad / With Carbonated Tomatoes, Roasted Corn & Avocado

Beer: I’ve never been a huge fan of the Hofbräu Original beer – to me it seems like the German Budweiser.  It tastes like Steinlager, or Fosters, or Heineken, or any of these other “classic” import beers that we all know can’t possibly represent the best these countries have to offer.  I’ll stop myself before this entire review descends into a lecture about the perils of the mass-produced beer market.  Anyway, the beer is your typical fizzy yellow lager with a malty taste and a peculiarly sweet finish.  I couldn’t tell if it was coming from a cheap adjunct used in the brewing process, or if it was just a few months past it’s best date.

Food: I’ll stop complaining about the beer now, because the food was absolutely amazing.  There was a perfect balance of sweetness from the corn and an acidity with the crab, and just a little bit of heat in the whole dish.  The corn was grilled just enough to give it a little char on the edges which is a flavor I love.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the beer pairing, probably because I wasn’t a huge fan of the beer.  I just felt like the sweet aftertaste of the beer overwhelmed the rather delicate nature of the salad.  A lighter Czech-style Pilsner would have been perfect, which I’m guessing is what they were going for here.  Right idea, wrong beer.

Second Course:
Beer: Kristallweizen Weihenstephaner
Food: Oven Roasted Quail / Stuffed with Carrot, Brioche and Tart Cherry-Walnut Stuffing

Beer: The Kristallweizen is best described as a filtered Hefeweizen.  It’s got the same clove/banana flavors from the yeast, but it’s clear instead of the cloudy body you have with a Hefeweizen (I’m not sure if this is due to a different strain of yeast or due to a filtering process).  To describe this particular beer in one word: banana.  The aroma was all banana, more than I’ve noticed in any Hefeweizen I’ve had before.  But the beer had a crisp taste (almost like a lager, except that it’s a top fermented ale), with a clove taste and finish, and a cantaloupe-like sweetness.  A wonderful beer and a great representation of the style.

Food: I’ve never had quail before, but I was quite impressed.  The bird had a bit of a gamey taste to it with a nice lemon seasoning that really brought out the fruit flavors of the beer.  The stuffing was absolutely amazing – brought memories of a huge Thanksgiving feast into my mind.  The cherries in it provided a tartness that was a perfect compliment to the sweetness of the beer.  An excellent dish and an excellent pairing.

Third Course:
Beer: Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel
Food: Braised Pork Belly / With Brown Sugar Crust, Pumpkin Spatzel, and “Sauer-Sprouts” & Beer Caviar

Beer: This one was very malty on the aroma, much like a red ale.  The description of the beer mentioned aromas of caramel and apple – the caramel was obvious immediately, but the apple flavor didn’t come out until the third or fourth sip.  This was actually one of the memorable characteristics of the beer – it got better with each sip.

Food: The pork belly was soft and succulent – it literally fell apart with my fork.  The beer was a good compliment to the pork flavor as it dulled the strong flavor of the sauer-sprouts (like sauer-kraut) and brown sugar crust and left me with this salty pork taste in my mouth that had just enough of a hint of spice from the sauer-sprouts.  The pumpkin spatzel was sort of like what you’d get if you mixed rice and pumpkin pie together, and that cinnamon sweetness flavor worked real well with the caramel maltiness of this beer.  Easily the best food of the evening (I was more than willing to help my wife Sarah finish her portion) and my favorite beer.  The combination of the two brought out a different flavor with every taste.

Fourth Course:
Beer: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen
Food: Short Ribs Aujus / With Butter Braised Porcini & Mascarpone Ravioli

Beer: The menu described this beer as being all about smoke, and they weren’t kidding! A few sips of this and I was overwhelmed by that same smokey flavor that’s all over my clothes after an 8 hour pork butt barbecue.  It’s interesting to note that the smoke flavor is imparted by the process they use to cure and dry the malt over an open flame, which was the usual technique until kiln drying became popular.  The beer had a medium reddish color, which was not at all what I was expecting.  With a smoke flavor that intense, I was expecting something dark along the lines of a porter.

Food: The point of the food in this course was to provide a grounding for the smoke, but I was still completely overwhelmed by the smoke flavor.  Perhaps I should have waited until the food arrived before even having a sip of the beer.  The creamy butter in the raviolis definitely cut the smoke a bit, as did the fat in the short ribs, but neither took away enough of that edge.  You’ve got to hand it to them though, this was a bold plate of food and a risky beer to put on the menu.  I’m glad they went for it, even if the smoke was overwhelming.  My only complaint on the food is that having pork ribs right after the pork belly was a bit too much pork.  Maybe I shouldn’t have had extras on that third course…

Fifth Course:
Beer: Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock
Food: Dark Chocolate Flourless Cake / With Espresso Ice Cream & Hazelnut Brittle

Beer: This one had a strong taste of raisins right on the first sip.  The beer style guidelines do say that a Doppelbock can have a slight grape or plum flavor, but I think this one had a bit too much.  The sweetness was definitely the main characteristic with this beer, which I suppose can be a good thing in a dessert course (although I prefer a nutty maltiness in a dessert beer).

Food: Strong dark chocolate flavor in the cake, with a coffee taste that was enhanced by the espresso ice cream.  The intense flavors on the cake really overpowered this beer and took away almost all of its flavor.  The hazelnut brittle on the other hand did pair with the beer because it masked some of the sweet raisin flavor and let a bit more of the malt come through.  Just for fun I tried a sip of the smoke beer with this cake, but the smoke flavor was still overpowering even for the coffee flavor.  A great job on the dessert, but the beer needed more of a roasted malt flavor to hold up to the coffee taste.

Overall the experience was one of the most wonderful and memorable dining experiences I’ve had.  You really can’t go wrong with a beer and food pairing – if you’ve never had the chance to do one, I highly recommend it.  Beer has so many complex flavors that you’re always going to find some kind of incredible flavor when you pair it with a specific food.  The food always seems to bring out some quality of the beer that you wouldn’t have noticed without it.  If you’re interested (and how could you not be now?), check out all the dining options going on during San Diego Beer Week.  The staff at C-Level also said they’re planning on doing lots more of these dinners, so sign up for their mailing list if you want to get in on the next one.

And of course, I’ve got to give a shout out to my friends Jonas and Cyndie for treating me to such a wonderful experience – we’re definitely going to do it again!