Tuesday night I traveled up to Sebastopol to Dean Biersch’s new place, the Hopmonk Tavern, for a beer dinner featuring the beers of Russian River Brewing. Hopmonk looks like they’re going to be stepping it up and having regular beer dinners roughly every two weeks on Tuesday evenings.

The evening began with a new Russian River beer, which Vinnie declared was his new favorite: Happy Hops, which is a well-hopped blonde ale, but more about that beer later. The meal was four courses and the pairings quite good. We started out with a small salad, including tarragon flatbread and a local artisan goat cheese, which worked especially well with Temptation.

Hopmonk Executive Chef Lynn McCarthy and Russian River brewer Vinnie Cilurzo.

Our second course, scallops in a tomato cream sauce, was paired with two different Damnations, the current batch and one from a year ago.

The main course was Rabbit Pappardelle with a cream sauce, paired with Salvation.

After a dessert of Humble Pie (key lime pie in reality), Lynn McCarthy, Dean Biersch, Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo.