Just finished the first evening of Savor: An American Craft-Brewing Food and Beer Experience, the craft brewing industry’s Washington beer and food pairing extravaganza. Summary in one sentence: The Great American Beer Festival with great food and the actual brewers present.

If you’ve ever visited the Brewers’ Association GABF in Denver in the fall, you’ll know what I mean. The GABF’s a showcase for American craft beer. But consider: a giant convention hall with perhaps 1,400 different beers being poured and almost no food, just a handful of food booths and maybe 5,000 people. Ach!

Well, the association has fixed that here in Washington D.C. The association invited 48 brewers from around the country to bring one or two of their favorite beers to Washington. Then Federal City Caterers, which the association’s Julia Herz says regularly caters State Department dinners, carefully matched each beer with one or two dishes. But this is no sit-down dinner. The food is “tapas-style: little morsels, some with dips, elegantly arrayed beside each beer.

The setting is elegant: Andrew Mellon Auditorium, in the Federal Triangle, a big government complex between Pennsylvania and Constitution avenues, about three blocks from the White House.
Waiters in black coats drifted unobtrusively through the crowd, picking up empty plates and swiftly adding more food.

This was Washington and I was uncertain what to wear. I had visions of a sea of dark blue suits. I only use a suit for bar mitzvahs and weddings, so I compromised. I wore a black shirt with my brother’s sneaky tie: Looks like a random design, but examine it closely and each little graphic is a .45 automatic. And me, a gun control nut. A pair of Levi’s and running shoes completed my outfit.

I needn’t have worried. This was a beer event. Sure there were suits and Washington’s idea of casual goes toward khakis and sports coats for guys; similar stuff for women. But there was plenty of California total casual. Today, I’m back to t-shirts.

The most impressive thing about the event is how serious (and how much fun) everyone was having. The association says 60 percent of the several thousand who bought tickets for the three dinners are from around Washington, the rest are from all over the U.S. This really does show the incredible interest nationally in good beer. There were TV and print reporters from around DC there last night.

They never ran out of food (or beer) throughout the four hour moveable feast. In the last hour or so, a lot of the tapas changed to dessert items. The whole thing went off flawlessly; there was great beer and at most booths the actual brewers or the brewery owners were pouring the beer.

Toward the end of the evening, I made it to the 21st Amendment (San Francisco) table; brewer-co-found Shaun O’Sullivan was pouring his 21A IPA – the one in cans. It was paired with Christopher Elbow Spiced Artisan Chocolates and Citrus. Wow!

Earlier, Shaun was also pouring his canned Watermelon Wheat, paired with Strawberry Chicken Salad. Both beers are being renamed, Brew Free or Die IPA and Hell or High Water Strawberry Wheat. They’re being brewed under contract at Cold Springs Brewing, Cold Springs, MN. and they’re coming out in cans with wide West Coast distribution in July, Shaun says.

From there, I stopped at the Rogue booth. They were pouring Rogue Russian Imperial Porter from those distinctive, flip-top, ceramic bottles. Great beer, dark and inky, whoosh of alcohol, mellow hoppy bite. Same chocolates that were paired with the 21A IPA.

I didn’t see Rogue’s founder Jack Joyce, but Sebbie Buhler was there. She’s Rogue’s East Coast rep and a lady who knows much about beer.

Next, I found myself in front of Bosco’s Brewing, Memphis, Tenn. This is a brew pub famous for its Flaming Stone Beer. Here’s a description from Bosco’s Web site:

Red-hot pieces of pink Colorado granite are heated to 700 degrees in Boscos wood fired oven and lowered into the wort (unfermented beer) during the brewing process. The resulting steam and sizzle caramelizes sugars in the wort. The result is a sweeter, softer tasting beer with a caramel undertone.

But no Stone beer here. Instead, Bosco’s founder Chuck Skypeck was pouring his multi-prize-winning Bosco’s Hefeweizen. This is a beer I dearly wish we could have in the Bay Area. American hefes have become routine and mostly boring. Not this baby. In the last three years it’s won two GABF golds and one silver.

It’s got a surprisingly light body, a blend of 40 percent wheat, 60 percent malted barley, with a massive fruity nose, which carries through in the taste: full of ripe fruit and spicy notes. Splendid beer. Chuck explained that Bosco’s brewers have zeroed in on the yeast (White Labs WLP 300). “We know just the temperature to get the maxium fruit,” he said.

It was paired with Individual Mini-fresh fruit truffles, served in little plastic cups: a topping of whipped cream, slices of fruit and a shortcake like bottom layer. Perfect combo. The hefe cut through the cream, the fruit in the beer and the slices of apples married. Again wow.

More later. Stay tuned.