FABPOW Leek & saffron soup with Camden Hells

I got an Ales By Mail order through the post today and in it were some bonus bottles courtesy of Paul, thanks! I was excited to find three Camden Town beers amongst these, as they of course don't make it to these parts. I have tried them before, but that was after a busy tasting in the Camden Brewdog bar; so this time they'll be given a fair go.

Proud Siblings

The new branding is out in force and looks lovely, clear and with a definite house style to make for easy identification (NB new labels coming soon apparently). Branded bottle lids meant I knew what I was getting as I pulled them out from the box.

To continue with my beer and soup range of posts I had a look at what recipes would work well and settled on leek and saffron. Very simple, just chop four medium leeks and soften in oil/butter for a minute or two, add a pinch of saffron and two tbsps of flour, then mix in two pints of vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, simmer for ten minutes then blend.

Piping hot soup, with homemade* bread  and Camden Hells

The lager is clean with just the right level of carbonation and a refreshing beverage by itself. The fruity and gentle sulphur of the leeks is really allowed to come to the fore and the saffron adds a sweet note. This plays well with the honey notes I can detect in the beer. Served with bread there's even better overlap as the two fermentation products come together, with malt notes to the fore. The crisp lager refreshes the palate between sips. Lager doesn't just have to be an accompaniment for curry...

The pale ale is just as good in bottle as I recall the draught version, first sampled last Autumn in the Sheffield Tap. Orange fruity hops and a bitter finish, but no in your face hopping here. The glass was emptied in no time!

The wheat beer has plenty of banana yeast character on the nose, with a clove spiciness coming out in the flavour. That 5% ABV is hidden, drinks like a session beer but with a sting in the tail, be warned!

They're largely how I remember them, flying in the face of the assumption that too many beers in one sitting can dull the palate.

*Alright, breadmaker

FABPOW: Beetroot Soup and St Stefanus Blonde

@beersiveknown  Food and Beer Pairing of the Week (another Mark Dredge Creation)

 A few months ago a group of bloggers were invited for an all expenses trip to the Brouwerij Van Steenberge in Belgium for the the UK relaunch of their beer. Badged as St Stefanus (@StStefanus) instead of Augustijn the artwork and bottle underwent a redesign. Upon their return they received a glass and two bottles of beer through the post, as did some other bloggers who didn't attend. A whole host of reviews left me salivating to try it; so I cheekily asked if they had any sample packs left. A few weeks later and I'm sat with the package on my coffee table.

The bottle shows the
expected flavour changes over time

As others have mentioned its well put together, a snazzy box replete with carboard holder for two bottles of beer and an attractive stemmed glass. Theres also some beer mats and a bit of the info behind the beer. The bottle as you can see is stylish, with info about how the flavour profile changes over time and a colourful cap. All the bottles are aged for three months before release, so my bottle dated november 2011 is 6months old on tasting. I'll keep the second for another six to see how it changes.

Glorious golden beer with thick head
and attractive glass.

The beer pours an attractive ever so slightly hazy blonde with half inch dense white head that lingers. Slightly dusty with banana esters on the nose it's highly carbonated and full of fruity yeast notes. Fairly sweet without being cloying as some can and a good robust body. It finishes with a spicy earthy bitterness.

Its a long lasting finish and a sipping beer, despite the alcohol being hidden. A very enjoyable beer, its reminded me that I need to get back to Belgian beers this year after a few years off. I'd be keen to try some of the rest of their range, especially if I can find them to drink at home.

Beetroot soup with beer bread

Its still cold so I was after a soup again. I had a great beetroot soup starter on cheese school so decided to try it out myself. The fact that I found some reduced fresh beetroot at the shops sealed the deal. I looked up a recipe online and added some English goats cheese instead of feta plus a good pinch of chilli flakes. (Caution: grating beetroot leads to purple hands!) Served with home made beer bread its great on its own but with the spicy fruitiness of the beer the sweet and earthy flavours of the beetroot and sweet oven-roasted tomatoes. Those sweet goaty flavours with a hint of pepper are really allowed to shine through too, the carbonation scrubbing the tongue to refresh the palate.

A glance at the ever-reliable Brewmaster's table suggests that I'm not the first to pair a Belgian with beetroto, though actually it appears wheat beers are a more common choice. I can certainly see that working with this dish too, as goats cheese and wheat beer (especially weiss) goes very nicely together too.

Other beers to try: Bristol beer Factory Weisse, Thornbridge Weisse Versa, Schneider Weisse, Duvel, Piraat.

A NogneO FABPOW

@beersiveknown FABPOW stands for "Food and Beer Pairing of the Week", a term coined by Mark Dredge of the excellent Pencil and Spoon blog.

I'm a big fan of soup. Its pretty easy to make, filling and gives me an excuse to fire up the breadmaker (not that I need one). For Christmas I got Madhur Jaffrey's excellent Curry Easy book, which to my delight has a number of Indian soup recipes within its 70s wallpaper inspired covers. I decided to make the tomato and lentil  soup (I'm not sure I can reproduce it here, due to copyright issues, but its similar to this one). Its pretty spicy; so decided to try it out with some IPAs. Double IPAs in fact.

Two boozy bottles 10% ABV each.

 What could be better than a 10% double IPA? That's right two of them! Brewed by Nogne O for the 100th and 500th brews respectively they proved popular enough to remain staples of the range. As you can see from the picture above, both #100 and #500 are very dark for IIPAs.

Mmmmm Tasty soup

#100 had a strange nose of soapy coconut and the body was just too much sticky caramel and little malt, with a bitter finish. Paired with the soup however the sweet tomatoes and fragrant corriander combined to coax out some previously unseen hidden flavours of chocolate and citrus. I'd class this beer as an American style barley wine rather than double IPA.

#500 on the other hand worked quite well on its own. It was very mameladey on the nose (think good quality spicy seville orange) with dark burnt sugar and candied orange peel in the taste and a treacley finish. When tried with the soup it picked up an unpleasant earthy hop/metallic flavour which jarred with the tomatoes.

Of the two I marginally preferred the #500, being closer to an IPA, though conversely #100 paired better with the soup. They're very boozy though so I'd like to see them in a 330ml bottle, though probably wouldn't buy either again.

Does anyone else have beer and (veggie) soup pairing suggestions? 

You can see my other NogneO reviews here and here.