Beer for Breakfast

Beer is the perfect accompaniment to dinner or lunch. But it also goes great with breakfast! Especially when the beers themselves taste like some of our favorite breakfast treats.

The Beer for Breakfast special event on September 25th brought together beer and food pairing in a meal many not think to pair with beer. With two seatings available at 9AM and then 11AM at Great Notion Brewing, the event offered for $50 a grand 3 courses with literally a dozen beers – 4 beers with each course!

Great Notion is not usually open for brunch, though I hope they might consider doing so after tasting how great these dishes were and how well they paired with beer. I also greatly appreciated that there was an omnivore option as well as a vegan option, which allows the meatless eaters out there to also be able to enjoy the deliciousness.

Course 1

Parfait (either dairy or vegan yogurt) with marionberry and ginger compote and pulverized hazelnut brittle and Random Order blueberry muffin or a vegan blueberry fig bar.

Beer Pairings

• Great Notion Brewing Barrel Aged Apricot Mimosa
• Reverend Nat’s Tepache with Prosecco
• Culmination/Ruse Breakfast in Paradise, an Imperial Wit with Pineapple
• Great Notion Brewing Blueberry Pancakes

By itself, I liked the hint of spicy of the Tepache with Prosecco with its effervescence. But, it seemed a bit much with the yogurt unless you made sure you got a spoonful of the ginger with your bite. The Blueberry Pancakes, the stout of these four, went best with the blueberry muffin, no surprise there not only for its hint of blueberry but because it’s stronger sweet maple syrup could then be balanced by the crumb of muffin.

Meanwhile I liked how the Imperial Wit with Pineapple highlighted the berry and the yogurt with its fruit and bit of funkiness in the flavors of the beer. I’ve always like the Tepache, but since it’s not a beer even though I adore it it won’t make my list of best beers of the brunch, though it is a fantastic mixer for many a beer.

Of all four beers, my favorite of them all in this pairing since it went with everything was the Barred Aged Apricot Mimosa that was tart and refreshing with a fruitiness that went well both with marionberry and with blueberry. This beer also makes the top 2 faves of the whole meal.

Course 2

Oatmeal Brulee with grilled peaches, caramelized brown sugar, Double Stack Stout reduction and either housemade sausage or vegan sausage

Beer Pairings

• Great Notion Brewing Bellini
• Double Mountain Lyle Rider Bloody Mary Red Ale
• Scout Beer Porridge Oatmeal Pale with Vanilla and Raisin
• Great Notion Brewing Double Stack Imperial Breakfast Stout

My #1 favorite beer of the entire Beer for Breakfast event is definitely the Double Mountain Lyle Rider Bloody Mary Red Ale which perfectly mimicked a bloody mary. I found the Bellini to carry peach flavors well, but also had a slightly harsh finish as if it was a Bellini made with a cheap prosecco? Ha ha I still finished it though. The Oatmeal Pale had a great texture, but I was hoping for more vanilla and raisin then I got than just porridge.

The best pairing of the four was the Double Stack Imperial Breakfast stout with its sweet maple and roasty coffee – since the oatmeal has reduced Double Stack reduction the fact these two were complimentary – with the reduction being sweeter and thinner so you could detect more body and coffee (including natural coffee bitterness) in the beer – was intriguing for me.

Course 3

House Empanada stuffed with pepper bacon, sharp cheddar, home fries with scrambled cage free eggs, or alternatively for vegans the empanada was stuffed with marinated tempeh, Daiya cheddar, and home fries with scrambled Ota tofu

Beer Pairings

• Great Notion Brewing Blueberry Muffin Berliner Weiss
• Great Notion Brewing Orange Creamsicle
• Cellarmaker Coffee and Cigarettes Coffee Porter
• Modern Times City of the Dead Barrel Aged Coffee Stout

The Orange Creamsicle here boasts strong orange flavor, but a hint of bitterness like from the rind ratehr then vanilla creaminess like I was expecting – still an enjoyable beer, but I was mislead by the name of the beer.

The Barrel Aged Coffee Stout had the most coffee of all the coffee beers this day, but it does have the extra advantage of using barrel aged coffee beans and that extra depth from bourbon. Of all the coffee beers though I still preferred of all of them the Coffee and Cigarettes Coffee Porter because I liked the strong smokiness and I thought the mouthfeel was so smooth with a nice body.

I was surprised to see the Blueberry Muffin here as really does taste like a muffin, but with extra tartness from the Berliner Weiss – perhaps juxtaposing it with the actual blueberry muffin in Course 1 was too on the nose. I really like the beer – but was a little confused on how it went with eggs or an empanada. I might have swapped the Tepache with Prosecco of course 1 with this one.

Overall, a fantastic event. One thing I wish had been clear is that although the ticket purchase via Mercury Tickets had described the price as all inclusive, we were asked at the end to drop some cash tip to show appreciation for the staff – fine to ask for, but wish we had known before hand so we could have been better prepared.

The other wish is that it would have been nice to hear a little extra about the beer or the food on why they were chosen or why the particular food preparation based on the beer. On one hand it is nice to taste everything on your own to see what you experience without being told what to look for, but on the other hand it can be educational since some might have finer palates to hear on what they might pick up on.

Ok, maybe one more wish. I wish this event, or the ability to at least have Great Notion Brunch, would be available again, not just this one event – maybe even if it’s just the last Sunday of a month, or quarterly, I would so love to experience this again and not have to wait a year. Particularly many of the GNB beers as you saw from this list are so perfect for a brunch pairing!