JonesWith a long drinking day ahead of us, we thought it was wise to load up with nutrients before the activity started. We went for comfort food at Starr’s touristcentric upscale dinner, Jones.
The BMW Pancake is layers of buttermilk pancakes with caramelized Banana, Maple syrup and toasted Walnuts. I do not like sloppy gooey glop on my pancakes so the BMW toppings became BMW sides for me. The pancakes were big, covering almost the plate itself. They were of good thickness, medium sponginess, very moist to the degree of mushy in the center bottom layers but otherwise good throughout the stack. The “sides” were too sweet for my taste. I could not see how people could eat this dish if the glop was on top covering everything. Breakfast is not the time for a mega-sweet dessert.
Apple smoked bacon is a mandatory item for breakfast.
The Huevis Rancheros was the usual fried eggs, refried black bean, salsa, avocado, warm tortillas… This Mexican version of a bastardized chop-suey weight about a pound with the plate. The hungry Tourist Tree scoped up the dish faster than Superman could change in the phone booth. She liked it despite that the black beans were pureed into the same texture as the rest of the dish. Aiiyah thought the whole thing looked kind of …vile like looking at bird droppings under a microscope.
As we were enjoying our breakfast, we noticed the couple sitting next to us at the counter was sharing a big format bottle of Voodoo Love Child, which led to an interesting conversation about…beer! It happened that they were from Tampa and were in the city specifically for the Beer Week!
Local 44Doing an encore performance of the Russian River Sunday of Beer Week 2009, Local 44 put every Russian River beer it could get its hands on on tap including the new Registration. I don’t like sucking on grapefruit rinds therefore I wasn’t particularly hot about this American IPA, but the Tourist Tree and just about everybody else at the bar loved it so much that this 7.9% beer was just flying off the tap.
After downing (in this order) Supplication (7% Am.ale), Consecration (10% Am ale), Pliny the Elder (8% Imp IPA), Damnation (7.75% Belgium strong); and with the three guys from the Home Sweet Homebrew next to us, the conversation had become less and less relevant, “Hey, what about the Constipation one?” “It’s a brown ale!” Have you done the Masturbation Ale yet?” “Russian Resignation?”
Being the Executive Director for the Beer Week, he was very earnest in getting feedback on the events. He was interested in hearing from us about our experience and was even surprised to learn from us about upcoming brews that he didn’t know about.
Mrs. Sixpack and Tourist Tree bonded over yoga talk. She even gave Tree a free pass for her yoga class. The one that seemed most interesting was the monthly yoga social - yoga followed by beer afterward. 
AmadaWe dragged ourselves out of Local 44 in order to make the sold-out Flying Fish Beer Dinner at Amada on time. With the amount of people attending, the dinner took over the entire space at the back of the restaurant.
Yes, that is Casey Hughes in his Sunday best wearing flip fops in the picture giving an introduction on the beers and the dinner
We were seated six to a table and got to meet some very interesting people from in and out of town. Some were novice in craft beers while others were geeks like us with everybody anticipating an exciting tonight.
Our first beer was the thirst crunching Farm House ale. It was a refreshing low abv (4.6%) treat after having spent an afternoon drinking the heavier duty Russian Rivers
Exit 16 Wild Rice Double IPA
Grilled Mediterranean sardines, wild rice and citrus tempura. The fish was awesome! It was fresh, moist, tender, seasoned and grilled perfectly with a sprinkle of tempura flakes on top for textural contrast. The wild rice was a wonderful compliment to the dish. Everything jived very well with the characteristic of the 8.2% Exit 16.
Exit 6 Wallonian Rye
Braised short ribs, white asparagus escabèche and grilled sourdough. The short ribs went phenomenally well with the Exit 6. Bites of tartness and sourness in the marinade and the sweetness in the rye beer were perfect dance partners. The meat could have been a bit more tender but the white asparagus escabèche on the meat did make it interesting.
We really enjoyed this newer release from Flying Fish. The characteristic of this beer would make it an excellent candidate to be barrel aged. Casey?
Oh yeah, definitely having a good time. 
Cochinillo AsadoExit 4 American Trippel
Roasted suckling pig, wilted spring greens and truffled rosemary white beans. If there is a dish that we can count on Amada to do it right, it’s the suckling pig. Our beer dinner suckling pig surely had lived up to its legendary reputation. The meat was sublime from the overnight marinating and the double roasting in the oven. What elevated the pig to heavenly reign was the crackling skin. A bite into the skin was pure ecstasy! The by-catches on this dish were very nice; unfortunately they were just a distraction for me.
There is no piggy for the Tourist Tree on this night. As a substitute, she had two absolutely perfectly grilled lamb chops. I would eat these chops on any given night; but for tonight, I would keep my suckling pig and its crackling skin, thank you.
Exit 1 Bayshore Oyster Stout
Fried Cape May Salt oysters (L) and baked Cape May Salt oysters(R). The fried oyster was topped with a sliver of pickled mushroom and with a sour’ish sauce on the bottom. The combined flavors and texture of the ingredients and the freshness of the oyster made this bite size morsel super awesome. The baked oyster was an ingenious take of the Oyster Rockefeller. A wowing repackage of a by-gone classic without the usual heaviness and greasiness.
We love the Exit 1. We never had the Exit 1 served in a snifter. This fine 7% stout brewed with oyster shells tasted just as nice to me in this novel vessel but the noise was definitely more pronounced. Pairing the Oyster Stout with an oyster dish sounded gimmicky. Fortunately, Amada had done its homework to make the flavors from each component work very well together.
Imperial Espresso Porter
The Imperial Espresso Porter is one of my all time favorite beers. It is already on the menu for my “last meal” if I were to have one. Use this beer for a beer float with sweet cream and caramel ice cream was just gilding the lily. That was such a perfect dessert except it came in a small glass and not even half-filled!
Tourist Tree got her usual standard issue food allergy dessert alternative: Sorbet.
In a moment of irrational exuberance, we had post-fest desserts. After such an long fun-filled day and an extraordinary dinner, it would only be fitting to have an absoulate blowout dessert gluttony.
The brownie peanut butter ice cream fudge sundue was satisflying and certainly a good end to finish the day. Torist Tree’s mint chocolate chip soy ice cream was…soy’ish but yummy.
Day Ten Beer Tally:
Russian River Registration
Russian River Supplication
Russian River Consecration
Russian River Pliny the Elder
Russian River Damnation
Russian River Blind Pig
Flying Fish Farm House Ale
Flying Fish Exit 16 Wild Rice Double IPA
Flying Fish Exit 6 Wallonian Rye
Flying Fish Exit 4 American Trippel
Flying Fish Bayshore Oyster Stout
Flying Fish Imperial Espresso Porter
And yes, we were still standing after all of these.
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