Donuts + Beer = FYeah!

Over the weekend I had a chance to participate in something I’d never done before. A craft beer and doughnut pairing event. It was held at Mary Jane Burgers & Brew in Perryville, Missouri. The restaurant teamed up with Urban Chestnut Brewing Company and Strange Donuts out of St. Louis. Admittedly, I had never had doughnuts with anything other than chocolate milk or coffee, so I was curious how this would work.

Fellow Craftbeericans Tom Harness (@itomharness) and Doug Brinkley (@doug_brinkley) also partook in the adventure. We made the 80-minute trek to Perryville and upon arrival saw there was also Beer Olympics going on. We were encouraged to sign up. Besides looking like a lot of fun, there was no extra charge for the games.

We did a live review of the pairings on the Craftbeericans Facebook page. But here were the pairings; the Gooey Butter donut with Dorfbier (Dunkel), Maple Bacon donut with Winged Nut (Chestnut Ale), Blackberry Jelly donut with Ku’damm (Berliner Weisse) and Bart’s Revenge donut which was chocolate topped with Butterfinger bits with Maximillian (Weizenbock). I actually screwed up some of the pairings to the enjoyment of Tom and Doug.

All of the beer was good. My favorite though was the Ku’damm. It’s a sour beer but has a great finish. I’ve become a big fan of sour beers since becoming a Craftbeerican and exploring options outside of the Budweiser family. I’ve never met a doughnut I don’t like. My favorite of this patch was Bart’s Revenge. The Blackberry Jelly was epic too. I liked the Maple Bacon because who doesn’t like bacon? I’m not a huge fan of gooey butter cake in general, and that followed suit here too. The other three beer choices were good. I didn’t rate any below a 3.0 on the Untappd app. Friend me there, I’m KevinHunsperger.

The beauty of the pairings was you could go back and get as much as you wanted during the course of two hours. My buddies thought the $20 ticket was a bit pricey for what we got, but I was satisfied with the amount of food (doughnuts) I ate and beer I drank. And getting in on the Beer Olympics for free was an added surprise.

We started things off with a hula hoop toss over beer kegs. This was a timed event in which Tom excelled (it pains me to say that). Next was a competition to hold a pitcher of water over your head with one hand. We didn’t win, but I am proud to say I was the last Craftbeerican standing. Doug and I donned blindfolds to do a race carrying sandbags. Tom instructed us on how many steps to take and where to drop the bags. We did well at that and an obstacle course. Tom rolled three kegs on a two-wheeler. Doug did the bottling and hose attachment and I carried two cups filled with water.

The final competition was supposed to be a tug of war, but it had rained a lot and there were concerns over the pavement being too wet. So we ended the Beer Olympics with a beer chugging contest. The beer was Sadler Radler from Jackson Street BrewCo, which happens to be next door to the restaurant. Overall we placed fourth out of nine teams, which is not too bad for a bunch of middle age guys.

Before leaving, we had a bite to eat at Mary Janes, which has an amazing menu. I love their burgers, but I was full of doughnuts, so we split an order of Poutine, which includes fries, cheese curds and gravy. While the day was not good for Operation Find My Abs, it was good for bonding with my beer drinking brothers. It’s an event I look forward to participating again in the future.

Craft Beer Shadow Box