Warm Up to Good Food and Good Beer

The Middleton Place Restaurant will celebrate the beers of winter on Saturday, Jan. 24 with the 5th annual Braise & Brew beer dinner at Middleton Place. Braise & Brew is a feast of braised food prepared by the Middleton Place Restaurant paired with beers crafted by Holy City Brewing.
Middleton Place Restaurant executive chef Brandon Buck and his team visited the brewery in December, sitting down with head brewer Chris Brown to sample beers, discuss flavor profiles and plan a spectacular beer dinner. After due consideration, Buck released a menu designed to maximize the harmony of specific dishes with complementary beers.
The evening will begin at 6 p.m. as guests are welcomed to the Middleton Place Pavilion, where a warm fire will be crackling in the fireplace. A welcome course of Tequila-Aged Old Man Helles (5.0 percent alcohol by volume, or ABV), a helles-style blonde lager and assorted cheeses will be served.
After all guests are seated, Middleton Place Director of Food and Beverage, Micah Garrison, will announce each course and describe its construction. Then Brown will describe the beer pairing and how Holy City came to produce it. The first course will consist of Pain Perdu with seared foie gras torchon with toasted SC pecans and a calvados (apple brandy) reduction. It will be served with Holy City’s Julbocken (10.6 percent ABV), an American barleywine spiced with cinnamon, cloves and star anise.
The second course will pair olive oil poached East Coast shrimp and creamy polenta with Angel Oak (4.9 percent ABV), a citrusty, yet light-and-easy American pale ale.
The third course will serve up rich lobster bisque with butter poached lobster and house-cured bacon lardons with Holy City’s dunkelweizen, The Gruesome Twosome (6.6 percent ABV), a dark take on traditional German wheat beers.
The fourth and fifth courses get to the heart of the event with low and slow braised meats. Course four is braised grass-fed Georgia short rib with truffle grits, bordelaise, braised mushrooms paired with a very special Collision Stout (9.5 percent ABV), an American double/imperial stout aged two years in a whiskey barrel. Then a braised Heritage Farms pork shank with bourbon creamed spinach and butternut and Carolina Gold risotto will be served with a unique sorghum-infused beer prepared especially for Braise & Brew.
For the dessert course, an apple galette with creme anglaise is paired with Gingerstache (7.7 percent ABV), an Imperial Red Ale with gingerbread twist.
Charleston singer/songwriter Graham Whorley will serenade patrons throughout the evening. In addition, the Inn at Middleton Place (a five-minute walk from the venue) is offering 10 percent off the regular room rate to Braise & Brew ticketholders who stay the evening of the event (subject to availability).
Braise & Brew will begin at 6 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 24 at the Middleton Place Pavilion, located at 4300 Ashley River Road. Tickets are $85 per person and can be purchased at www.middletonplace.org.