On any normal Wednesday evening you can find Melissa and I at the gym on the rock wall. On March 8th, 2017, we found an excellent excuse to skip the gym; beer dinner with a brewmaster. The Virginia brewery, Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company, in on their expansion tour and we were lucky enough to be invited to one of their events at the White Star on Warren Street in Jersey City, NJ.
The Brewery
The Basecamp Brewpub is located in Roseland, VA and runs a traditional German designed 10 hectoliter brewing system. That equates to 8.5 barrels according to their website. This brewery is the “test kitchen” for recipe development and boasts 16 taps, a full kitchen from breakfast to dinner, a range of athletic activities and festivals.
The Outpost Brewery and Tap Room is a Bring Your Own Food venue in Lexington, VA. This taproom and brewery holds their 120 barrel system, canning and bottling lines.
This large brewery employs approximately 150 people to staff the beer line, restaurant, marketing and sales. The house favorite beer is the black lager, but Jason the brewmaster leans more towards their Vienna lager. Fun fact, the black lager was originally called the Schwarzbier (black beer or black lager in German) but they had to rebrand it because their local target market apparently doesn’t speak German and probably thought it was some bat-sh*t crazy beer that couldn’t possibly taste as delicious as a regular black lager. Without google translate I’d probably think the same thing.
Since we didn’t visit, we can’t score the brewery yet. But we hope to someday!
The Interview
Usually, we need to travel to score a 1 on 1 with an owner or brewmaster. This was one of those rare cases that the Devil’s Backbone brewmaster, Jason Oliver, came to us. Since we didn’t want to take up all his time, we limited our curiosity to four, short questions. Also, this is just an approximate of our conversation. I usually leave recording conversations to the CIA (zing).
Andrew: How long have you been brewing and how/where did you start?
Jason: I was a liberal arts and philosophy major in college, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I found a book called “Unique Careers” and flipped through it until I found brewmaster. I started my career in 1996 at the Wharf Rat (no longer exists) and moved on to Gordon Biersch (chain brewpub) before becoming the founding brewmaster and partial owner of Devils Backbone.
Andrew: How often do you “bump heads” with management over beer related operations?
Jason: Never. My only limitations are usually our own internal bias of what we want to drink. Since we have the 8.5 barrel system, I can work on some unique recipes without affecting our main production line.
Andrew: If you could clone a beer and sell it as Devils Backbone, which beer would you clone?
Jason: Firestone Walker Pivo Pills. Its crisp and clean, and this is the ideal pilsner. I’d also like to make Orval Trappist Ale because its so unique.
Andrew: Do you feel that craft beer is in a good economic position or is this a bubble waiting to pop?
Jason: I think it boils down to location and focus. A local brewery with a good tap room is here to stay. Unfortunately, a lot of people in the craft beer world are snobs and have a shiny object syndrome. These are the customers that move with the trends and do not stand by the brewery. It’s important to have a strong following and keep your following happy.
Andrew: So how do you feel about these insane lines and people camping out at places like Hill Farmstead and Tree House?
Jason: Again, it’s great while it lasts but some of these people who are die hard beer fans are going to always hop onto the next big thing. That’s why it’s important to have a strong, local following.
Andrew: Do you have anything new and exciting coming down the beer line?
Jason: I just got back from South Africa on a hop trip. You will have to wait and see what we do with them.
Jason is an extremely knowledgeable and passionate brewer. If you have the opportunity to pick his brain at the basecamp brewery in Roseland, VA I highly recommend you do.
The Beer
Pear Lager: A well done fruit beer like the DB Pear Lager normally boils down to two different views.
Andrew- I taste the pear, and it’s clearly a beer. Well done.
Melissa- I taste the pear, and it’s clearly a beer. But I want to taste more pears.
This pear lager used the DB house lager yeast which already produces subtle apples notes and combines it with pear juice during fermentation. Love them or hate them, there is no denying that this fruit beer came as advertised. At a low 4.9%, you can consume this all day and stay hydrated.
Vienna Lager: This two time World Beer Cup award winning brew is a mild caramel lager was smooth and malty without any bitterness. It’s a flavor that’s been perfected over the years by Jason. Historically, the Vienna lager was the precursor to the traditional Oktoberfest style we know and love; the Marzen. It weighs in at 5.2% with 18 IBUs.
Eight Point IPA: This was the first beer that Jason had ever brewed at Devils Backbone in 2008. It was named after the two eight point bucks living in his neighbor’s yard, and it was actually going to have eight different malts and eight different hops until he came to the crushing realization that it couldn’t possibly work. So he honed in the flavor to a citrus and pine profile with combination of Cascade, Centennial, Columbus and Simcoe hops. The Simcoe pine flavor certainly outweighs the citrus in our opinion. It comes in at a respectable 6.2% and 70 IBUs; certainly higher than your average IPA but not quite imperial. (it was also my favorite but I’m a bit hop-biased)
Black Lager: This smooth coffee lager had a sluggish start to decent sales because of the name “Schwarzbier” but that was quickly remedied after a small rebranding to Black Lager. This 5.1% (22 IBU) beverage looks and tastes like a coffee stout but has the much lighter body of a lager. Clean, malty, and easy are a few words we would use to describe it.
Cattywompus: Cattywompus could be the name of your clumsy cat that doesn’t quite make the jump from table to counter, but in this case Cattywompus is an unusual Belgian IPA. While the flavor profile does have hits of pear and apple from the yeast, there is an overwhelming pineapple taste that made us instantly want Thai food and not the delicious cheesecake in front of us. Clocking in at 7.5% and 50 IBU, this modified IPA isn’t quite imperial but will sure to pack a fruity punch.
The beer verdict? Melissa’s favorite was the pear, and of course mine was the Eight Point… But that probably doesn’t surprise anyone who knows us. While the Vienna and black were true to style, we didn’t find them as interesting as the Pear, Eight or Catty.
The Food
We’re not going to pretend to be culinary experts so I’m just going to list the items and tell you that chef Jon Mecca and his staff at White Star makes some excellent dishes. We traveled two hours round trip for this five course pairing and we were certainly not disappointed. Frequent patrons across the table from us also said we need to try the burgers next time we stop by.
First: Fourme D’Ambert Blue Cheese Croquette with lemon garlic vinaigrette and blueberry
Paired with the DB Pear Lager
Second: Local Day Boat Scallop Crudo with oranges, grapefruit, lotus root chips and basil
Paired with the DB Vienna Lager
Third: IPA Steamed Mussels with house smoked pork belly, lemon grass and miso broth
Paired with the DB Eight Point IPA
Fourth: Roasted Pork Tenderloin with crispy gnocchi, roasted maiitake mushroom, apricot jam and salsa verde
Paired with the DB Black Lager
Fifth: Coffee Mascarpone Cheesecake with caramel mousse, white chocolate glaze roasted meringue and a chocolate rice crispy cluster. This was our clear favorite.
Paired with the DB Cattywompus
Closing Thoughts
Overall this was a very well organized and thought out beer dinner. We don’t pretend to frequent these too often, but the menu was crafted with the beer in mind and the Devil’s Backbone team all worked to make this an intimate environment. In addition to chatting with the brewmaster, marketing and sales teams we were encouraged to make friends with our fellow diners. We enjoyed conversation with new friends and bonded over beer and food (and working for insurance companies). Also the goody bags were top notch.
*Disclosure Item* Melissa and I were invited to partake in this event, and given complimentary tickets by the Devils Backbone Marketing team. Our experience and opinions are our own.
