Name: Coronado Brewing Company
Location: Coronado, CA
Website: http://www.coronadobrewingcompany.com/
Type: Production brewery and brewpub
Available in DC Market: No
What you need to know: The San Diego beer scene is both intense and saturated with fine craft breweries. Breaking news, right? While this landscape is so massive, there are a handful of established breweries sustaining slow and steady growth while continuing to innovate. Coronado Brewing is just that kind of brewery. Founded in 1996 as a brewpub, the response to their beers has been so great that they now have to fight to keep up with distribution. They now distribute to 12 states and brew over 5,000 barrels of beer a year.
Beer #1: Barrel Aged Old Scallywag (Barleywine / 11.4%)
In Their Own Words: Okay, so this isn't from the brewery, but our friends at The Full Pint help us out with this: "Coronado Brewing is adding an old school touch to two favorites by brewing small batches and aging them in oak bourbon barrels. Called the Coronado Collection, the Southern California brewer released its first barrel-aged specialty in 2011 as a Barley Wine. The beer was brewed with brown sugar and orange blossom honey and aged for six months in oak brandy barrels."
Food Pairing: Cheddar wafers with Stilton and red currant (Light wafers baked with cheddar cheese and topped with Stilton mousse and a red currant relish.)
Our Thoughts: Without having had this, I can't say how it is. It'll come down to the food pairing really. I tend to stay away from huge beers at SAVOR, just a personal preference, but if there are some good rich nutty cheeses, I could snag a hunk of that with this it sounds like. The food pairing with this is one of the tastiest-sounding ones at SAVOR. Stilton and old ale/barleywine is a classic combination, which makes this a pretty intriguing pairing.
Beer #2: Jurata (Baltic porter / 8%)
In Their Own Words: "When naming this Baltic porter, a collaboration with Tampa’s famed Cigar City Brewing, we opted for Jurata as a nod to a mythological mermaid known to roam the depths of the Baltic Sea, just as energetic yeast used to brew this deep dark beer navigated our fermentation tanks. Dive in and enjoy Jurata’s true-to-style rich and complex flavors!"
Food Pairing: Lamb keftath (Ground lamb seasoned with paprika, parsley, lemon and coriander. Grilled and served with a yogurt and cucumber relish.)
Our Thoughts: Baltic porters aren't the most popular style out there, which is a bummer because they are a nice confluence between stouts, porters, and dubbels. Nice and roasty with some nice stone fruit, I'm sure this won't get the play it should at SAVOR, but with both Cigar City and Coronado involved in a project you know it's going to be good. Since you can't normally get Coronado here, check this out. As far as the food pairing goes, I don't normally think "lamb" and "porter," especially with coriander and lemon involved. Not sure this pairing is going to work, but maybe if there is a hard sear on the keftath it will work nicely.
This profile is a part of the DCBeer.com SAVOR Brewery Profile series. For more information, follow the link to see profiles of all 2014 SAVOR participants.
