CABPOM March: Brooklyn Brown Ale and Ossau Iraty

From www.artisinalcheese.com

Cheese pairings don't have to be anything fancy. Last week I picked up a bottle of Brooklyn Brown Ale from the Vineyard in Belfast and some cheeses from Sawyers Deli. On tasting the beer I knew that it would work well with Ossau Iraty, a cheese I've had many times before (you can get it in Waitrose).

Non-boring brown beer

The beer pours a russet-brown with brief beige head and smells like cadburys whole nut chocolate, with hazelnuts and cocoa powder on the nose and plenty of toffee. The body is quite thin and well carbonated with a nuttiness from brown and chocolate malts and a sweet finish. As the beer warms up a resinous pine note is evinced.

Those nutty, earthey flavours are what work so well with the aged sheeps milk in ossau iraty. The savoury cheese helps to tone down that malt sweetness and the carbonation from the beer helps to pull some redfruit notes from the cheese.