Counter Weight Vulture Culture DIPA and Claire’s CORNERcopia Sunbutter Cookies
When I first moved to New Haven, I had my prejudices against this vegetarian/vegan institution. How can Cookies be good if they don’t have butter? Well I have learned a lot since then and fortunately one lesson was if enough people like something, you gotta try it. On a rainy and cold Friday, swinging by Claire’s for a massive tostada salad, I couldn’t resist getting a bag of treats.
The Vulture Culture IPA, one of a series of amazing offerings from Counterweight, a brewery that is just a year old, along with a stalwart player in the bakery scene this is a match made in heaven.
When your dice match your beer, things are bound to go your way.
The Beer: I feel like I just keep gushing over counterweight stuff. They are just crushing it. The Vulture Culture is no exception this Double IPA is full of aroma and galaxy hop flavors. It pours a very bright orange color with a wonderful haze. No light is traveling through this beer. It has big bright pineapple and citrus notes with just a medium bitter bite.
The Cookie: Claire’s Cornercopia is such a great place for baked goods, and, according to the very friendly staff, the sun butter cookies are easily one of the best. Crispy and moist with a good amount of sweetness, this cookie is very different from many we have tried recently. It is a densely packed smorgasbord of nuts, with an overall mild flavor. Breaking it open, you may encounter a green layer, off putting until you realize it comes from pistachios that add to the great flavor. The crunch from the bake and the oatmeal additions give this cookie a wonderful well rounded taste. By the time I got to game night, there was less than one cookie left. The guys in our D and D party put them down like they were Lembas bread and we were hobbits traveling to mordor.
The Pairing: Both components of this pairing are fantastic on their own and I would take the beer or the cookie by themselves in a heartbeat. The IPA is a little more bitter than I usually prefer, so the sweetness and round nut flavors of the cookie blunted it at just the right time. A mellow but flavorful cookie with a bold IPA turned out to be a great combo.
