Dick’s Brewing to Host Girl Scout Cookie and Beer Pairing Event

St. Patrick’s Day weekend is around the corner, and Dick’s Brewing Company is celebrating accordingly. The brewery is set to host a Girl Scout Cookie and Beer Pairing event Friday, March 15 at the Brewery Tasting Room and NW Sausage & Deli. 

“We brought our employees in to do a little taste test,” Owner Julie Pendleton said. “Dave and I first sat down to talk about the cookies and the flavors and what we thought might go with them. … We tried two or three where we thought the flavor profiles might match well.”

Julie Pendleton said head brewer, brewery manager and husband Dave Pendleton brewed a couple new beers for the event.

Dick’s will offer a tray of six 4-ounce pours of beer paired with a Girl Scout Cookie for $15. Each tray will come with a sheet that explains the pairings and flavor profiles. The tray will include Trefoils with a Pale Ale, Savannah Smiles with a Batch 202 IPA, Smores with a Dick’s Danger Ale, Do-Si-Dos with a Lava Rock Porter, Caramel Delites with a Coconut Porter and Thin Mints with a Cold Brew Imperial Stout.

Julie Pendleton said there was only one beer that was ill-received with its cookie combination during taste testing, when employees judged which beers worked best with each cookie.

“Dave’s dad was here and he dunked his cookie and then ate it,” Julie Pendleton said. “Then I sat there and took notes of what people said. We would do one cookie with the beer and then tally which beer was people’s favorites.”

Before Dick’s Brewing opened Wednesday afternoon, Julie Pendleton put together a sample tray. Brewer Travis Johnsey stopped working to sample the Coconut Porter for the first time.

“That’s the best one,” said Johnsey, as he tried the Coconut Porter, pausing between sips. “The Coconut Porter is the best one. That really is impressive. It works out really well. … I really think that the caramel in the cookie matches the coconut excellent in this beer, and we did a decent amount of caramel malt in this, too. I think the play off each other is awesome.”

Thin Mint, one of the most popular Girl Scout Cookies, will accompany a Cold Brew Imperial Stout.

“We just did a coffee cold brew stout, where Dave added cold brew to the beer,” Julie Pendleton said. “So that one we assumed was going to go well with the Thin Mint. I think that’s the only beer we really tried with the Thin Mint and we were like ‘yep that works well.’”

Julie Pendleton mentioned a couple combinations when asked which she liked best, but said the Savannah Smiles — which Dick’s will pair with the Batch 202 IPA — is one of her favorite combinations.

“The lemon cookie with the 202 is both citrus-y and fruity, which play well together,” Julie Pendleton said. “I like the plain, so I like the shortbread cookie with the pale because they’re both just kind of bread-y and very basic and simple. It’s probably one of my favorites.”

This is the first time Dick’s Brewing will hold the Girl Scout Cookie and Beer Pairing event, but Julie Pendleton said she has gotten a lot of positive feedback from people so far.

“We saw somebody else doing it and thought ‘oh that would be a fun idea,’” Pendleton said. “So we decided to order a box of each cookie and sample them. We brought our employees in to taste test and decide which pairings are the best. We thought it would be something fun, and unique and different — it’s been done quite a few times, just not locally.”

The Girl Scout Cookie and Beer Pairing event will take place both at the Brewery Tasting Room (3516 Galvin Rd in Centralia) and NW Sausage & Deli (5945 Prather Rd SW in Centralia) during business hours on Friday, March 15.