This is a good week. I got things done, rumors of the Beer Camp case being found locally have reached my ears, this weekend is the JoAnn Garrett 10333495_716949105032351_488547306507389777_oClassic, and tomorrow night, here in Frederick, is a true pan-Maryland craft beer event as Barley and Hops will be hosting a beer dinner featuring the beers of Baltimore’s Full Tilt Brewing Co.

Let’s start with that last one, the Full Tilt Beer Dinner.

Yeah, this is an unusual thing, and worth talking about – a brewpub pairing courses with beers that are not their own. It’s different, it’s strange, and it is tres cool.

For those of you not familiar, and I’m sure most of you are, a beer dinner is a dinner that usually consists of five courses paired (typically) with house beers. It’s unusual for a brewpub to do this with a different brewery’s brews, but there’s a plan, says chef Kevin Barnette. “We want to do more of these (dinners with other breweries), and in the future, maybe make them collaboration dinners,” he explained. Brewmaster “Larry [Pomerantz] and I talked about two courses with our beers, two with theirs, and maybe some sort of blend, or collaboration beer [brewed specially for the dinner]. We just didn’t have time to do it for this one.”

While collaboration ales have picked up steam – Frederick Beer Week’s collaboration, Cigar City with New Belgium, Victory with Dogfishhead, the list goes on – and collaborative beer dinners do happen, it’s a little unusual for them to happen at a brewpub. This sort of beer dinner would more commonly be found at a place like Madrones, or JoJo’s, or The Roasthouse. I, for one, am looking forward to this, and the ones in the future – the ones that become truly collaborative brewing enterprises between the brewpub and the participating brewery.

And for those of you curious about this one, it’s a great menu with unusual items like quail, and wild boar. Add to that the job that Kevin does selecting his pairings, and you’re in for an evening of great beer and awesome food.

So, if you’re not able to make tomorrow night’s beer dinner, maybe you can make it to the JoAnn Garrett Classic on Saturday at the Frederick Fair Grounds. For those of you who don’t know, the Classic raises money for cancer research through an annual event which includes an auction, all sorts of food, and beer from Milkhouse Brewery, and Barley and Hops. Go get your food and brew on, and help someone with cancer. There are worse ways to spend your Saturday.

For those of you who missed it, the Frederick Beer Week board recently donated $3000.00 to Team Rubicon, continuing its mission of philanthropic giving through beer. There are some additional plans that are being worked on for FBW5 – yup, that’s right, next year is FBW5! And some important changes are coming – none that will decrease your enjoyment of the week, the changes will merely be done so that FBW can and will more aggressively pursue its mission of promoting craft beer in and around Frederick.

We look forward to the journey to FBW5 with all of you.

Photo: Courtesy of Chris SandsFBW_check-3656