Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale
Stella and her sister in law decided that it would be a good idea to take all the kids to Chuck E. Cheese while we were visiting Ft. Worth last weekend. I don't think that Chuck E. Cheese is ever a good idea and frankly, I was hoping my kids would grow up not knowing about Chuck E. Cheese's existence. Not only were we going to wrangle a six year old, 2 three year olds and 2 kids under 1 into a Chuck E. Cheese, we were going to eat there too. Well, no sir, not me, I wasn't put that crappy pizza in my mouth. That is where I draw the line, eating crappy food; I won't do it if it can be helped and I definitely won't do it when I have a limited time to try all the food that Ft. Worth has to offer.
Needless to say, my kids had fun at Chuck E. Cheese and I managed to not get too frustrated at rude kids, bad game play and not executing the fundamentals of standing in line. I had worked up a hunger and my belly was going to have to be filled by something greasy and heavy. The sister in law, Bud Lime, suggested this Ft. Worth famous place called Kincaid's. The bonus was that it was really close to the Chuck E. Cheese. I had seen this place the night before when Milk Stout and I left the Fox & Hound. I thought it seemed a lot like Winsteads but mostly because it was syllables with one vowel in the first and consecutive vowels in the second. I was intrigued and I needed to eat there.
We made our way across the highway and drove over to the Kincaid's. I left the van running with the A/C on so Stella and the kids and would be cool while I waited on my burger. I went inside and scanned the menu. Not much to choose from; burger, cheeseburger, bacon cheeseburger and jr.'s of each. I toyed with getting a jr and fries but thought, I had better go all in and get the full sized burger. As I was ordering, I noticed some fried pies in a box on the counter. I saw that there was apple and coconut, I was intrigued. I asked the nice girl taking my order how much the pies were and she said $1.95, I was tempted but I declined. After all, I was spending $6 for a burger. Then she told me something fascinating, they would throw one in the fryer for me because they are best that way. She suggested I get the strawberry cheesecake one because it was her favorite, especially if it is fried right before she eats it. This was the most stunning sales job ever perpetrated on me, the fried pie went home with me.
When we got back to Milk Stout's house I went out to the fridge and got out a Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale. At that point, I had yet to experience the India Brown Ale and was really looking forward to it, brown ales are some of my favorite beers donchaknow. I opened up the burger wrapper and was excited by its hugeness. It looked so good I didn't really want to eat it, I wanted to frame it. I set up at the kitchen island with my beer poured into a tall pilsner glass and stood while I ate. The burger consisted of two beef patties, ketchup, onions and lettuce as any good burger should. I did not have access to Tabasco sauce which takes any burger over the top but this burger didn't need it. It was greasy enough that the bun started to fall apart as I was eating the burger, I love that.
The Indian Brown Ale was the perfect complement to a wonderful burger. The sweetness of the brown ale style is mixed with the hoppiness of an IPA which is mixed with the maltiness of a Scotch ale. It is a wonderful beer that should be paired with a good meal. To me, a burger is the best type of meal to enjoy with a beer, especially a beer with the Indian Brown Ale's characteristics. Five more of them made the trip with me back to KC and I am only going to drink them with good hamburgers.
On a side note, the next day I went to a Borders to check out some books and I saw “He Said Beer, She Said Wine: Impassioned Food Pairings to Debate and Enjoy...” and flipped through it some. In the burgers section it specifically recommended the Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale to go with burgers. I like it when I stumble upon a great food pairing for beers. The book didn't say anything about the beer pairing for a freshly fried strawberry cheesecake fried pie, but a warm bucket of spit would be sufficient, anything else would be overkill. For those concerned, I did not have a heart attack later that evening.
