CABPOM February: Marble Special 2011 & Stinking Bishop

Mixed marinated olives

February's CABPOM is similar to lat month's in that its the same style of beer paired. A beer I kicked myself for not buying whilst in York in December just so happened to be available at the Marble Arch on a visit recently. The beer in question is of course their 2011 Special, a saison brewed in collaboration with Mark Tranter of Dark Star (whose saison was one of the first brewed in the UK and I'm still yet to try!) Saison is one of my favourite styles and a number of UK breweries have produced them recently. A stalwart feature of the Marble Arch is their legendary cheese boards. We opted for a 9 cheese selection as a starter to our planned meal at Zinc Bar and Grill.

9 cheeses and a bottle of saison

1. Hereford Hop
2. Desserts de Trappistes
3. Cropwell Bishop's Stilton
4. Barber's Cheddar
5. Northumbrian Baltic unpasteurised ale washed cheese
6. Stinking Bishop. perry washed rind
7. Epoisses de bourgogne. unpasteurised washed rind in marc de bourgogne
8. Cotswold Blue
9.L'alpini

Cheese menu front

cheese menu reverse

Cotswold Blue Brie

blue brie: Slightly metallic, very ripe ammonia. Not a particularly good match and I think probably overripe.

l'alpini: no notes made. I think the cheese was quite delicate and overpowered by the saison.

Stinking Bishop

Epausses: sweet pineapple esters, rich strong aromatic...lovely

cheddar. bread and chutney.

hereford hop, very drying, bitter jarring with the beer

stinking bishop perfect match, meaty flavours, accentuated hoppiness.

barber's cheddar

northumbrian very gentle gruyere style reminds of Caerphilly, beer too powerful.

Trappistes almost as good with the beer as stinking bishop.

colston basset. not one for saison but a great finale cheese

  

That seems to suggest that it will go well with washed rind cheeses, its a difficult choice but I think CABPOM this month has to be Marble Special 2011 and Stinking Bishop. I Dare-say any washed rind with a saison may be a good match. If you've not yet had a cheese platter from the Marble Arch, do get along there and remember, the most fun you can have with beer and cheese is just to try something out and see what works for you!

Thus concludes my Manchester series and blog posts until March (except for any major news of course!)