If you know me you know I love beer, and I’m a long time fan of Dogfish Head. You’d also know I love music and food too, and once Dogfish Head announced a release combining all three, you know my ears perked up. Positive Contact is an ale brewed with apple cider and spices, based on the favorite ingredients of Dan the Automator of Deltron 3030. It was only released as a box set of six champagne bottles, with a vinyl EP of Deltron 3030 remixes, and the album cover had a list of Deltron 3030-inspired recipes from a small group of renowned chefs (including Mario Batali and Momofuku‘s David Chang.
Although I missed the first shipment, thanks to the frequent Facebook updates of Lee at the Beer Market in Whole Foods Fairfax, I got my hands on a box when they got another one. After getting it home and checking it out, I decided I wanted to have a dinner party based on the recipes. Except we were running short on time before vacation, and it would have to be that weekend. So I invited a couple folks, and headed out to the grocery store Friday night June 29th. Of course that was the night the derecho hit us, but I bought everything I needed, and we didn’t lose power so I was able to stay up very late cooking.
The biggest pain was the Momofuku fried chicken, as there were three cooking steps spaced out. But between staying up late and cooking most of the day (much to my daughter’s disappointment), I got everything done by the time folks arrived (the Jewells came a bit earlier than the Norwoods as they were without power). For the main meal, in addition to the chicken I made the zucchini fritters as well as a fruit salad with a blueberry rhubarb sauce (not a pairing but good with everything else); the Norwoods brought some zucchini bread. I also had the the audio tracks playing in the background (ripped from the vinyl).
Dessert was a trifle made from three separate desserts: brownies, a pudding (made with the beer, and not burned off, so had to make a separate one for the 3 year old), and caramelized apples. Very nice paired with the beer. It was an epically long preparation, but an excellent meal and nice to share with friends.
