On Jan. 15, Four Peaks Brewing Co. is encouraging you to quit your New Year’s resolution with their second annual Ditch Your Resolutions Beer Dinner.
The 2025 event will tempt attendees with five decadent courses, each paired with a carefully selected beer for the occasion to help you put aside those lofty goals and treat yourself to a memorable dining experience.
“Resolutions are overrated, eventually they all fail right? Why not break them early and treat yourselves to a fun night with some delicious food, great beers and even better company?” says Four Peaks' sous chef Brian Graf.
He, along with head chef Jesus Hernandez Gomez and fellow sous chefs Steve Campbell and Nathaniel Robinson collaborated to create this year’s menu.
The concept came to life in 2024, when the Four Peaks team was trying to find its rhythm for events in their Tempe brewery post-pandemic. There had been talk of a New Year’s Eve dinner event, but the idea didn't feel unique.
“We were kicking around possible concepts, and our brewery Experiential Manager Kasey Montes, being mischievous, came up with this great idea to try and tempt all these January do-gooders to get off the straight and narrow and have a night of opulence," Graf recalls. "Two weeks of being good is good enough."
Coincidentally, the event will take place the week after “quitter’s day”, a newer “holiday” that marks the time when many Americans break their New Year’s resolutions. Typically the second Friday in January, Four Peaks' dinner embraces spirit of that newly minted occasion and gives guests something to look forward to in these long, dark winter nights.
The event also provides the kitchen and brewing teams a chance to work together on pairings and to show off special flavor profiles that might not normally make it to the menu.
“It gives both our brewers and our chefs the chance to play, have some fun and show off some of their skills – it literally recharges the teams’ batteries,” Graf says.
The five dishes will be unique, and only available at the event. Coupled with the special beer pairings, the team hopes they're enough to tempt anyone to bend their iron-clad resolutions, if only for a night.
What's on the menu?
Tickets for the event cost $100 per person and include five courses and five pours. A lighter first course of artichokes and roasted tomatoes with grapefruit gastrique and Crow’s Dairy whipped feta will be paired with an ultra-rare, one-night-only special release from the brewery's Sour Room. The second course pairs the Sunbru ale with butter-poached lobster, clams, scallops and garlic shrimp in a stewed Calabrian chile tomato broth.
For the main courses, the Grape and Grain barrel-aged oenobeer (think beer-wine hybrid) brings a fruity punch to braised beef-cheek ragu and bone marrow ciabatta, while the Sirius Black Russian Imperial Stout is coupled with a Cornish game hen with charred onions, roasted mushrooms, rainbow chard and celery root puree.
Finally, another exclusive event-only beer, the Chocolate Wow Berry, will be presented with the dessert course of dark chocolate mousse, champagne gelee and fresh berries.
“The only way to enjoy most of the beers we serve at these events is to be in attendance,” Graf explains. The sour paired with the appetizer course is a particular treat, he says.
“Most of our sours have been aging for over three years and need to be housed separately with an isolated ventilation system and handled carefully so they don’t influence the fermentation process in the rest of the brewery," Graf says. "Each one is incredibly different from the others. The flavors can literally change from one day to the next as it ages. Every sour that comes out of that room is a true one-off."
Rare sips aside, the event will showcase the talent in the kitchen as well. Graf is looking forward to sharing the third pairing.
“I am personally excited for the pasta course. We always love having the opportunity to make fresh pasta. Throw in some delicious Arizona-raised beef cheeks from the guys over at K4 Copper State Reserve and the delicious Grape and Grain and you have a solid course right there,” he says.
While the tradition of setting resolutions is almost certainly overrated, combining exclusive beers and hearty, masterful dishes for this annual event is something Four Peaks hopes to continue for years to come.
Ditch Your Resolutions Beer Dinner
Jan. 15, 6 to 9 p.m.Four Peaks Brewing Co.
1340 E. Eighth St. #104 Tempe
