Chef and Brewer to present “fantastic last meal of 2022” at Kalona Brewing

By Cheryl Allen
Posted 12/19/22

For the last five years or so, Kalona Brewing Company has ended the year with a New Year’s Eve Beer or Wine Pairing Dinner, a ticketed event that includes five courses with a four-ounce beer or …

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Chef and Brewer to present “fantastic last meal of 2022” at Kalona Brewing

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For the last five years or so, Kalona Brewing Company has ended the year with a New Year’s Eve Beer or Wine Pairing Dinner, a ticketed event that includes five courses with a four-ounce beer or wine pairing with each course.

This year the brewpub will continue that tradition, but with a significant new pairing: Executive Chef William Swire (“Will”) will join Head Brewer Warren Yoder (“W”) for the first time in this culinary and brewing endeavor.

Swire joined Kalona Brewing six months ago, after years of “trying stuff here and there.”  He’s been head chef at restaurants including Atlas Restaurant & Bar and Blackstone, both in Iowa City, and has put in volunteer hours at an organic farm, in addition to exploring other types of work.

“I don’t really like offices, like, cubicles,” he admits.  “It weirds me out.  I think it’s too constricting.”

Now that he’s found a home at Kalona Brewing, he says, “I like it, because I have creative freedom to just kind of do what I want, and I like that.”

Total creative freedom is what the brewpub offered Swire when it came to the pairing dinner next weekend.  That made him feel “a little pressure, but not in a bad way,” because he hasn’t created a menu for this event before, and in end he sought to make courses that were “homey, comfortable, and nice.  It’s something that I’m used to, and I think we can have fun with and expose [people] to different flavors.”

“My wheelhouse, flavor-wise, is Jamaican, Caribbean, and Asian,” he says.  “So, at this venue, I’m going to go on a journey through those flavors.  We’re going to have mussels with a saffron tomato sauce and focaccia.  Then we’re going to have a seafood stew: coconut curry and different seafood like octopus, squid, salmon, [and] shrimp.  Then a five-spice pork steak, and either a Chinese pancake or sesame rice cake with an apricot sauce/glaze.”

For the final course, Swire has planned “a hibiscus strawberry shortcake.  The cake will be hibiscus and then the strawberries in the middle.  It will be layered and then wrapped in a strawberry fondant, so when you cut it open, you can see different layers, and it kind of oozes out.”

For the beer pairings, final decisions have not yet been made. 

“It’s a little bit up in the air as far as what’s going to be ready at that time.  We’re kind of at the mercy of the brewing process,” explains General Manager Shauna McKnight. 

“We are looking at possibly an amber that might be coming out that’s brand new, that we’ve never made before,” she said.  “Then our Tis the Saison, which is a seasonal farmhouse style ale, we’ll probably use that for one our pairings.  Then our Son of a Peach, the peach cinnamon wheat, and our Tree Stand Pilsner.”

Diners may choose either beer or wine to pair with the courses. 

“We try to pair the beer or wine based on the flavors that are complementary within the dish and kind of showcase some cool stuff that we do back there,” McKnight says.

“I’ve done tasting menus once or twice before, and I enjoy it because it is different,” Swire says.  “It’s the challenge of bringing two different mediums together, putting them together and making them match.”

“I do think that it’s a fantastic last meal of 2022,” McKnight concludes.

Tickets for the New Year’s Eve Beer or Wine Pairing Dinner are available for purchase through Resy.com for $85 + tax each, which includes gratuity.   Only 45 tickets are available, and there will be a single seating for the event at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 31.