Little Goat Diner, West Loop
When Co-founder of Founders Brewing Co, Dave Engbers was told that Stephanie Izard would be presenting food pairings for the CBS Dinner, he immediately committed to make an appearance. This was a special night, a small private party upstairs at Little Goat for friends and retail accounts that started with Blushing Monk and ended with Canadian Breakfast Stout.
Chicago is an important town for Founders. When you think about it, Chicago is roughly the same distance from Grand Rapids that Detroit is.
Stephanie’s dishes hinted at what we can expect from her new Asian inspired restaurant Duck, Duck Goat. Founders is a brewery that LG has carried on draft since day 1. The staff spent a couple days last year on site at Founders for a camp. There’s a camaraderie and mutual respect between the brewery and the restaurant that was apparent when one spoke about the other.
This dinner in many ways was a showcase of the Founders Backstage Series.
Blushing Monk 2015
The Grand Rapids taproom and the 3bbl pilot system are the inspiration for some of their most sought after beers. I never knew the story behind CBS until last night. Dave Engbers has a friend, Steve over at BLiS Maple Syrup. “It’s a bourbon barrel aged syrup that’s really too good for pancakes.” he says. “..like 26$ for a 10oz bottle, good”. The crew at the taproom lost their shit when a few bottles showed up one day as gift. They made it a mission to acquire these maple bourbon barrels from BLiS after blending the syrup with KBS in the lab. Of course the recipe today is a little different, but that’s where the idea was born.
Founders is currently in the midst of the largest growth spurt in their 18yr history. They’ve increased sales by 50% in their backyard of Western Michigan in the last 2yrs. During that time they’ve launched All Day IPA. A session pale ale that now makes up 40% of their annual output. Their growth rate has led to lengthy conversations from private equity firms and macro breweries looking to purchase their company.
Dave and his partner Mike Stevens decided the best way to expand the business was by partnering with 7th generation Spanish brewer, Mahou San Miguel, a 100% family owned business with 7 breweries in Spain and 1 in India. It’s a family operation that has been brewing for 125 years.
The team has a goal of changing the way people drink globally. This is hard to do when it takes about 40 days to export beers from Grand Rapids to European markets. Creating Founders beers in Spain is the best way to ensure that flavor isn’t impacted. The next chapter of their adventure is to increase market share without compromising who they are.
“Founders is as much a part of us as our children are.” says Dave. “Selling out to a private equity firm would kinda suck.”
lamb ribs. chili garlic sauce.
CBS 2015. draft only.
The lineup and the pairings were just filthy good. Blushing Monk is a beer that has only been produced three times in their history (2007, 2011 and 2015). Black Rye twice (2005, 2014) and Canadian Breakfast Stout twice (2010, 2015). After Stephanie saw the taplist even she admitted that Little Goat was lucky to have all these beers to present. ..the only people luckier than Steph were the 30 people in attendance…this party was one for the ages.
–Nkosi
*Cheers to Chris Hess, Lakeshore Beverage, the entire staff at both Little Goat and Founders Brewing for allowing this magic to unfold.
Reception Beers
All Day IPA Session Pale Ale 4.7%
Mosaic Promise American IPA 5.5%
Founders / Little Goat Beer Dinner
Blushing Monk .Belgian Raspberry Ale 9.2%
“hot pot” soup. grilled pork belly
Black Rye. Black Ale 7.5%
roasted duck breast. silver needle noodles. rapini. shrimp-duck jus
Curmudgeon Old Ale 9.8%
lamb ribs. chili garlic sauce. hot potato salad.
Dirty Bastard. Scotch Ale. 8.5%
goat mole. tortilla. Avocado
Canadian Breakfast Stout. imperial stout 10.6%
mont amore & bittersweet chocolate cake
