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Beer Dinner: Bell’s Brewery at RFD Washington
On the evening of January 10th, RFD in Washington offered up a dinner my friends and I could not refuse: a 5 course dinner paired with Bell’s Brewery beers including Black Note. We thought the $60 price tag seemed a bit steep up front, but we went for it anyway.
RFD stands for Regional Food and Drink and is located a block away from the Verizon Center, near Washington DC’s Chinatown. It’s the “sister bar” of the former Brickskeller, now Bier Baron, that helped my leap into craft beer. Claiming to have DC’s biggest tap list, RFD also carries 300 bottles and prides itself on pairing craft beer with food and cooking food with craft beer. According to their website, they’ve served over 5000 different beers, over 25 million total, and presented more than 450 tastings. A true gem in our nation’s capital
Bell’s Brewery is one of the better known breweries in craft beer circles across the nation. Their Hopslam release nearly broke the Internet in 2011, and my experience with this year’s release was that depend was equally as high. Black Note is a true rarity, something they only released at the brewery, but luckily a few kegs made their way to DC, this will be my second shot at it.
The dinner started at 7pm, but the doors opened at 6pm for a nice pre-dinner beer and cheese. I went for one of my go-to brews: Bell’s Two Hearted.
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At the dinner, we got to meet a direct descendant of Larry Bell, David, who is the current Beer Director and 5th Generation of the Bell Family. He walked us through how the brewery started, getting its roots from Larry in 1983 homebrewing all the way up to the 180,000 barrels they brewed this year, and their expansion plans that could put them as high as 700,000 barrels in the near future.
After our conversation with David, the dinner began. The first pairing of the night was the Oatmeal Stout and a beef and stout stew. I was quite surprised to see a full glass of beer coming out, I was only expecting tasters.
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The next beer was a real treat. I had never heard of Bell’s Raspberry Ale before. David Bell informed us that it was made with all Michigan raspberries. I very much enjoyed Founders Blushing Monk, so this one piqued my interests. They paired it with mixed greens with candied walnuts, prosciutto and shaved Romano drizzled with Raspberry Ale vinaigrette.
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Next up was another beer I was pretty unfamiliar with: Bell’s Kalamazoo Hopsolution Ale. This beer was brewed especially for Illinois, due to distribution laws, the brewery was having issues with Hopslam. To combat this, they came up with a (hop)solution: create a new beer! This was paired with Machengo macaroni and cheese with carrots, cauliflower and peas topped with brioche crumbs.
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My handwriting started to get pretty atrocious as my liver continued to work overtime. I had no idea we would be served such large portions of the beer. In past beer pairings, we were served measly 4oz drinks, just to taste the beer, not the case at all here. Perhaps I shouldn’t have had a few pre-dinner beers…
Moving right along to the main course, and another Bell’s rarity: Golden Rye paired with grilled medallions of pork tenderloin with a Golden Rye jus, served with brussels sprouts and roasted potatoes. I was quite happy to have a big plate of pork here, my stomach needed to process some meat!
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And now the coup de grace: Bell’s Black Note Stout paired with a Black Note Brownie with ice cream and caramel.
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Overall this dinner gets all 5s. I learned so much about Bell’s Brewery and it really propelled them to one of my favorites. I was most surprised with how much of each beer we got because in previous beer dinners, we only received tasters of each. Pairing that with great food, I was in heaven. Love everything that they’re doing. We also unilaterally decided that the price was not only worth it, but that we would have paid more for what we got. RFD Washington…you’re doing it right. I can’t wait for their next Beer Dinner.
Written by Russ Beck
Russ can trace his beginnings in craft beer to sitting in Zeno’s Pub in State College drinking various craft beer options from across Pennsylvania. Since then, he has never faltered in finding new brews, whether they’re rare, delicious, or hopefully both. Russ will be writing on a large variety of subjects, including but not limited to: reviews, homebrewing, and how to take labels off of beer bottles. He’ll drink just about anything, but prefers a nice Stout, IPA, or Weizenbock.
Filed under: Bell's Brewery, Blend, Fruit, Imperial IPA, Imperial Stout, IPA, Oatmeal Stout, Rye, Tastings · Tags: American IPA, Beer Dinner, Bell's Brewery, Black Note Stout, Bourbon Barrel Aged, Fruit Beer, Golden Rye, Hopslam, Hopsolution, Imperial IPA, Imperial Stout, Oatmeal Stout, Raspberry Ale, RFD Washington, Rye Beer, Two Hearted Ale
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