Flying Saucer had us out for a North Coast food pairing with North Coast co-founder Tom Allen the other day.

It was pretty swanky. Sam and Rob flexed their cicerone muscles and put together a very interesting seafood pairing for the beers.

As a journalistic disclaimer, Flying Saucer was very gracious and comped our tickets. With that said, this was a great event. Allen was on hand and after a brief North Coast history, he walked us through the tasting. It was  very educational [read: my non-beer drinking wife was finishing more than half of each taster, taking notes, and walked away with a new found appreciation and affinity for belgian style ales].

Allen was kind enough to give us a few minutes for a video after the event and informed us that North Coast is working on landing their Acme Pale and Acme IPA series in Texas soon (hurrah!)

Here are the pairings:

Scrimshaw Pilsner (Pilsner Style Ale)

w/ Grilled Brined Shrimp with Tomatillo & Avocado Salsa

Pranqster (Belgian Style Golden Ale)

w/ Fire-and-Ice Melon Soup

Old Rasputin (Russian Imperial Stout)

w/ Fresh Oyster on the Half Shell w/ Shallot Vinegar Drizzle

Le Merle (Belgian Style Saison)

w/ Ahi Tuna Ceviche with Mango and Avocado

Brother Thelonious (Belgian Style Abbey Ale)

w/ Texas Pecan Pie

Personal favorite pairings included the Ahi Tuna Ceviche with the Le Merle and the Brother Thelonious with the pecan pie. The oysters with the Old Rasputin were surprisingly good, but not exactly my cup of tea (wasn’t such a fan of the shallot/vinegar drizzle).

With two of Texas’ four (this was the count last I heard) cicerones on staff, hopefully Flying Saucer will do similar pairing events in the future.

Our swanky new video intro courtesy of the gentelman Adam Gutierrez.