Devotay A Wine Bistro Confronts A Beer Challenge

            Devotay, considered by many to be Iowa City’s premier wine bistro, was the site of this weeks Beerventure. The restaurant was colorfully decorated with lots of red earth tones. Cloth seemed to cover most of the surfaces. The lights were dimmed and large canvases covered the walls. Our waitress was friendly and she seemed very exited about our challenge.

            Before long she retuned with the first beer, the Two Hearted Ale from the Bells Brewery in Kalamazoo Michigan. She poured the ale into two glasses and then was off. The head was gone almost instantly but its color was beautiful. It was a light copper gold with lots of yeast, medium in opacity. The nose of the ale was fruity and creamy, filled with complex hops aromas. A lot of the elements in the nose continued into the taste  which was beautiful, long and complex. Crisp and tart yet creamy, it’s base was refreshingly light. The hops and the carbonation created a wonderful rolling effect that moved over the tongue. It was nice and bitter going down. The bitterness really came out as it passed the back of the throat and it lingered very pleasantly. Devotay features a Tapas menu. and we decided to really challenge our waitress by asking her to pair each beer with a different appetizer. The Two Hearted Ale was paired with bacon wrapped figs and a red sauce. The appetizer had a wonderful sweet-and salty taste, the figs making it very rich, almost like bacon candy. However, the pairing didn’t work very well. The flavors were too different, didn’t add to each other. In fact, they competed. Each was good on its own but we concluded that this beer needed a more spicy dish to balance out its flavorful hops.

            Soon our waitress delivered the second beer, Xingu Black Beer from the Xingu Brewery in Brazil. Like the first ale, the head retention of the Xingu was poor. Its color was rich and dark, like a really dark red wine. There was a deep sweet maltiness in the nose and also a surprising but unmistakable scent of bananas. Considering how rich this aroma was, the beer’s body was surprisingly light. The banana aroma carried over into the taste, but all of its flavors were very weak and felt watered down. The most movement we got from this brew came from the carbonation. It helped with the transition of the flavors and made the beer very quaffable. Xingu was paired with chorizo in a tomato sauce. The flavor was meaty with lots of fennel and capers. This rich dish added the missing body to the black beer and the spice in the chorizo kicked up the hops. The beer stayed out of the way and complimented the dish nicely. All in all a nice pairing for this very light beer.

            The last beer on our servers list was the Black River Gumbo Stout from the Peace Tree Brewery in Knoxville Iowa. Doesn’t it just sound delicious? The Stout had medium head retention. Its color was a solid black brown that didn’t let any light through. A rich malty aroma with aspects of molasses, black licorice, and roasted malt wafted up through our nostrils as we smelled this beer. The first thing we thought upon tasting was - Now that’s a Stout! The body started out lighter than we expected, however it developed nicely. The roasted malt took the lead and then the bitter hops came through. It evolved into a bitter-tart, full body that went down well. This was definatly a great Stout. It was smooth and subtly complex with lots of different tones of flavor. The Black River Gumbo was paired with Emu Empanadas. The ground emu tasted very light, wrapped in a fine pocket of puff pastry and an awesome tomato sauce added just the right amount of spice. The dish and the beer paired wonderfully together. The flavors bounced back and forth allowing us to fully taste one and then the other, adding to the movement that the stout itself had already created. Overall a great choice.

            After the challenge was over Carl and I stuck around to chat with our server. She was very excited to hear we liked the pairings and had a lot to say about Devotay’s beer selection. After some experiences with less interested staff it was refreshing to have a server that was so excited about beer knowledge and pairings. If you’re ever looking for a restaurant with knowledgeable wait staff, delicious food, and a wonderful beverage selection make your way down to Linn Street and stop on in to Devotay. Till next time beer lovers and market mavens alike. Prost!