- February 13, 2025
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The idea to celebrate American Craft Beer Week with a gastropub dining experience came from Mer Fawcett stalking Caroline Taft's food adventures on Instagram. Her and her husband, Alan Fawcett, own Daytona Beach Brewing Company and always wanted to do some more experienced-based events — something Taft, owner of the food blog, The Brazen Gourmand, could relate to.
"I was really excited when Mer reached out because I've been wanting to make the blog more tangible," Taft said. "I want to be able to translate stuff into experiences for other people, to tell them that there's a story behind what you're drinking and eating."
The Fawcetts, who live in Ormond Beach, paired up with Chef Mark Pullin of The Good Food Truck to create a dining and craft beer pairing experience. The event — which was held May 15 — was sold out. Though Alan Fawcett featured some of his own beer, he also highlighted some of guest beers.
"Everyone is always asking me what kind of beer I like," he said. "So these are my favorite beers from around the world, and getting to pair them up with food is a lot of fun."
The process of pairing food and beer is one of many trial and error, according to Taft.
"Some of the obvious pairings that we originally thought," she said, "once we actually tasted them, it was amazing how some of them are more pronounced, some are more muted. That shaped the menu. That's why we were confident that people would have a more interesting experience than just eating and drinking things that taste good."
When it comes to pairing, people typical find flavors that are complimentary, like duck confit with rice noodles and fresh lime and one of Fawcett's peach mango and limed infused brews. The team also did pairings with some opposing flavors like a roasted red pepper tomato bisque — which took Pullin 40 hours to make — and a flemish sour red ale.
"Everybody does it when they eat," Alan Fawcett said. "I think there are obvious ones, like IPAs (Indian pale ale) go well with spicy foods. Everybody has a different palate."
"I think the point of it is showing the diversity of how much more there is then just drinking beer for the sake of it," Taft said. "The whole motivation is really experiential dining and showing people that there's so much more out there."
