Upslope Beer Dinner (8/22/23)
One of the many great things about Colorado is that there is no shortage of delicious, locally brewed beer, in fact, Colorado has the most breweries out of any state. The reason for this goes back to the gold rush when modern refrigeration was only a dream. Beer didn’t travel very well, so brewers had to make their craft locally and stock it on demand.
Among the hundreds of craft breweries located in the mountain state lies Upslope Brewing Company, a brewing company based in Boulder, CO, created by Matt Cutter, Henry Wood, and Dany Page who left their original homes of Cleveland, Atlanta, and Argentina goodbye to provide their beer-brewing love affair to Boulder.
And it was on one special night (August 22, 2023) that Upslope teamed up with Limelight hotel in Aspen to bring us a night of refreshing brews and tasty bites for locals and visitors of Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley to enjoy. I was lucky enough to attend this dinner and am more-than excited to share how it all went down.
The Brews
Unlike previous articles of dinners I’ve attended, I decided to do something a bit different, I am going to share all of the different beers that I tasted and then get to each individual plate of food afterward. There were 5 beers that we got to sample, each from Upslope and each with it’s own unique flavor profile.
(Please note that I did not actually drink all of these beers, but I did taste all of them and can tell you about them.)
Upon sitting down, we were given Upslope’s hazy IPA, quoted to be the product of extensive experimentation to find the juiciest expression of hops with a smooth delivery. Normally, I’m not a big fan of IPAs or hop-forward beers, but this one had a citrusy orange flavor with hints of peach and pine that blended together beautifully.
To pair with our first course for the evening, we were given a Japanese-style rice lager, which has flaked rice added to the brew to give a light, crisp flavor. This was the sort of beer that I always enjoyed drinking, it had lots of visible bubbles plus a smooth, refreshing taste and a mild toasty flavor from the rice.
For our second food course/third beer course, we were given an Apres-style brew known by Upslope as a Mary Jane ale, Mary Jane being the name of a mountain in Winter Park, Colorado, it has nothing to do with the girl that Spider-Man had a crush on. This brew was a bit stronger than the lager and had a grapefruit-like bitterness plus peach tartness that was quite tasty.
Our fourth beer of the evening was appropriately named after one of the most well-known German festivals, Octoberfest. Upslope’s Octoberfest brew is a malt-forward brew that gives off the yeasty aroma of fresh-baked bread followed by a light, herbal flavor that is very pleasant to taste.
To pair with our dessert for the evening and our final beer for the evening, we were given another classic for Upslope, their Indian Pale Ale (IPA), which had the signature citrus bitterness you expect from hops matched with a caramel sweetness. I don’t often think of beer being paired with desserts, but Upslope’s IPA did the trick by giving me a refreshing palette cleanser.
My favorite beer of the evening? Well, you’ll have to read down to the bottom of the article to see that.
Course 1: Japanese Fried Chicken
Now I will move on to the food portion of the dinner. I hope you hang on to your stomach because there’s going to be loads of tasty food mentioned.
The first dish of the evening, to pair with the Japanese-style lager, was a classic Japanese style of fried chicken known by many as Karaage. Karaage features chicken coated in a rice-flour batter before being fried, giving you a very crispy, crackly crust that can stay crispy even after 20 minutes of being out of the oil.
This fantastic chicken was paired with a fresh cabbage slaw, a circle of crisp brioche bread, house-made pickles, a chili-garlic aioli, and a blistered shishito relish.
I can’t say enough good things about this dish. The chicken itself was incredibly crispy and juicy, there was a nice amount of spice from the aioli which was fun to mop up with that toasted brioche, but then the richness gets balanced out with the tangy pickles and the slaw. It was, without question, the most perfect plate of fried chicken I’ve ever had.
Course 2: Mary Jane Mussels
Right now you’re likely thinking, how can any plate of food possibly be made after that incredible chicken?
Well, next up we are diving into the sea with one of my favorite forms of seafood in the world, mussels. It’s not like you need to do much to get mussels to get them to taste good, but these little bivalves of love were stewed in the same Mary Jane ale that was paired with them and paired with house-made chorizo, fennel, Calabrian chili and served with a slice of grilled toast.
Mussels already have a special place in my heart, so there was no way I wasn’t going to like this dish. The citrus flavors of the ale was a great way to enhance the flavor of the broth the mussels were served in, that along with the spice from the chorizo and that slight anise note from the fennel.
(Also, just a note, technically the pot of mussels I received was meant to serve two people but…there was nobody sitting in front of me and, well, I couldn’t let good mussels go to waste.)
Course 3: Octoberfest Pork Belly
Moving onto the meat course for the evening, the dish served with the Octoberfest brew, we were given a lovely German-inspired dish that consisted of pork belly braised for 5 hours in that same Octoberfest beer, house-made spaetzle (a German pasta), aged cheddar sauce, cider jus, braised red cabbage, Swiss chard, and apple slaw.
Pork belly is one of the great wonders of the world, look at its descendant, bacon, and the piece of belly I received was fall-apart tender and had great flavor from the beer; the spaetzle was plump and had great flavor from the cheese sauce they were tossed in, then you get some acidity from the cabbage and a bit of balancing bitterness from the Swiss chard.
However, I do have one complaint about this dish. On the menu, we were promised crispy pork belly, and the pork that we received was not crispy. I might be nit-picking, but if I’m going to be promised a crispy pork belly, I should receive a crispy pork belly.
Other than that, the dish was great.
Course 4: Chocolate-Bacon Bread Pudding
And now we have reached the end, but I hope you didn’t think for a second that I wouldn’t go out with a bang. For our dessert, we were served a dish with a very homestyle feel and flavor: Bread pudding laced with chunks of chocolate and bacon, topped with cherry ice cream, and even more bacon.
One bite of that beautiful decadence and I was sent to heaven. First off, the bread pudding was very soft and had that spongey, fluffy consistency that good bread pudding has plus bits of that Belgian chocolate for some extra richness and depth, then that tart, slightly sweet ice cream comes in with the perfect blend of hot and cold and the crunchy, salty, crispy bacon on top made the whole dish sing in my mouth.
I would have that dessert again and again until I needed to get a new foot.
All of the food and all of the beers that I tasted at the Limelight-Upslope dinner were out of this world and I will certainly have to look out for the next time Limelight does a beer dinner.
Oh, and as for my favorite beer of the evening, I would have to say the Japanese-style rice lager. Although all 5 beers tasted great, I do prefer the lighter taste of the lager.
