In the Barrel: Beer Dinner Featuring Societe's Sours

I agree. With those prices, they really should outline the menu items in detail.

Societe is the brewery I'm most excited to try out next time I'm in San Diego.

 

Societe is a place I absolutely love visiting, to the point that I stop by for growler fills on the way down to visit the in-laws and on the way back home for re-fills, but the pricing structure and vagueness of their special events leaves a bit to be desired. They made good on their Anniversary Party though, I'm sure this event will also be well worth the cost.

 

For those without Facebook, this was the post from Societe:
Join the members of Societe for an exclusive first taste of Societe Brewing Company’s line of barrel-aged beers. The event will feature three unique beers drawn from our barrels, and will also include beers from our standard lineup. Each beer will be artfully paired with delectable fare from Alchemy during Societe’s first in-house beer dinner. This is the only opportunity to sample the first offering of beers from the barrel room.

The event will begin at 6:00pm with a social hour including small bites paired with Societe’s regular lineup of Out West, Old World, and Stygian beers. Table service will then begin at 7:00pm with a three-course meal where each plate will be tastefully paired with a barrel-aged beer, fermented with wild yeast in the barrel room. Travis Smith and Doug Constantiner will be on hand to serve the guests, talk about Societe’s barrel program, and describe the three unique beers that will be served, and Ron Troyano will be present to explain each unique course.

This will surely be an event you do not want to miss, especially for those beer lovers who have eagerly awaited the opportunity to taste what Societe has In the Barrel!

 

I can't figure out what I'm getting for $100. This is kind of an issue.

 

Three barrel aged wild ales, a three course meal, small bites during the social hour along with beers from their regular lineup.

 

For a $100, I thought it was going to be a 5 course meal. Really surprised to find out it was only a 3 course meal.

 

How many pours? How large are the pours? Or is this another dumb-ass concept like their initial attempt at selling tix to the 1st anniversary for $70 that only included a single beer and a t-shirt with dinner.

If all you're getting is three pours of the new sours - even if their other fine beers are included - then I'll take a pass, thanks.

 

Yeah, I paid a little more than that for a 5 course dinner in LA created by James beard winning chefs...it also included all you could drink from the Bruery for 1.5 hours plus food truck snacks...3 courses are not worth it from any brewery...

 

The anniversary party was so incredibly worthwhile I would be very surprised if this wasn't.

 

Seriously? Where do these prices for beer events come from lately?

 

There's never any shortage of dudes willing to pay the high prices. They charge those prices because they can.

 

This event was awesome. They did a great job setting up the space and clearly put a lot of effort into. Fantastic food (it was plentiful, not just bites) that paired very well with the beers. Oh, and the new beers are incredible. Can't wait till they start bottling them. The Swindler (a sour blonde ale) was probably my favorite but all 3 were great.

I'd say it was definitely worth $100 and I actually wouldn't be surprised if Societe lost money on the event. Basically as many pours of the special beers (after releasing them to us) and their regular rotation beers as we wanted. Great food. And first rights to buy their barrel aged beers when they go on sale.

Here's what the menu was:
Small Bites:
Pretzel Bites - veal/pork brats wrapped in pretzel dough served with a beer cheese sauce (I could have bathed in that sauce)
Lefse - Potato flat bread stuffed with surkaal, carrot caviar, sour cream, rye crumble and baby dill

1st Course:
Yellow Curry Quail - pee wee potato, green peas and thai yellow curry topped with micro cilantro and a quail egg purse
Paired with The Swindler - a blonde sour beer

2nd Course:
Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin - bruleed apple, mashed rutabaga, sunflower greens, apple cider reduction and grains of paradise - normally not a fan of pork tenderloin but this was fantastic. So juicy, moist and the bacon was fantastic
Paired with The Highwayman - a hoppy brett fermented golden ale

3rd Course:
Cheese Mille-Fuille - havarti tuilles, goat cheese mousee, buckleberry preserves, honey almond phyllo cigarette, pedro jimenez reduction
Paired with The Savage - sour amber ale with cherries

 

Completely second this. This event was a real treat. Can totally understand people balking at the ticket price, but I had a feeling Doug and Travis weren't going to disappoint. Didn't hurt that we had a whole table full of friends. Was fun watching people pick Doug and Travis's brain about the beers.

As if Societe wasn't an exciting ride already, the next couple of years are going to be wild feral (as Doug would suggest).

 

I was caught completely off guard by their sours – I was expecting Russian River style beers, and it turned out they were way more like Crooked Stave. They were all softly acidic and had huge Brett character. The Savage basically tasted to me like a Chad-ified Supplication, and The Highwayman reminded me of some of the experimental Hop Savants I had in Denver (though a touch more sour). If anybody wants them to stay under the radar it’s me, but honestly: I was floored.

 

Oh $h!t storm...

 

Any clue as to when their sours might be bottled and ready for sale?

 

About the same time you see any of the regular line of beers bottled or canned which is...?

ISO: !!!

 

Man, Societe has to have my favorite naming scheme for beers. Did they say what the overall name for their wild ales is?

 

I would guess they'll group them under Feral's. I seem to have heard/read/seen that somewhere.