#CABPOM August Seno RusioKvass and Diplomats Siers

Something a little different cheese and beer wise this month. Perusing my local Eastern European food store I came across a selection of nominally alcohol free Kvass beers. Kvass is fermented from rye bread and a beer style I've been interested in since reading Pete Brown's account in Three Sheets to the Wind. Here's what I picked up:

Yes, the middle one is in a plastic bottle!

These particular examples are from Lithuania and Latvia. I don't expect them to be a patch on the real thing, particularly the one in PET (I suspect this is made with syrup and force carbonated) but its fun to try new things and ranging from 50p- £1.10 in price they don't exactly break the bank.

In drinking order Porteris, Kvasa, Gira Kvass.

Bauska Porteris Bezalkoholisks pours a ruby tinged brown with a lacing of tan head. Lactose sweetness on nose but fairly faint. Fairly sweet with plenty of carbonation, fudgey full bodied, plum, muscavado and toffee finish.

The Sencu Kvass is a sparkling ruby chestnut with lacing of off white head. You can see its fairly similar to the porteris in appearance. Malty with sultanas, dusty flour on the nose. Very fizzy, very sweet but not exactly unpleasant. Sweetened coke.

Best of the bunch is Seno Rusio,unsurprisingly the "strongest" at 1.5%. It also differs somewhat from theother two in that it retains its head. Perhaps this is actually brewed? Dark chestnut with a tan head, retains well, sour aged fruit and christmas cake on the nose. High carbonation with a sweet molasses and fudge flavour, but the body helps to absorb it and prevent cloying. Liquid Edinburgh tablet with stewed plums. I'd love to try a higher strength version of this...I guess that would be a scotch ale.

What better to go with Lithuanian and Latvian beers than the corresponding cheese? I also picked up an unaged and a smoked Gouda style cheese from the same shop. Certainly thefirst time I've tried Latvian cheese.

Diplomats Siers (unaged) first, its waxy with a semi-open texture (holes) Rich milk fattiness and a semi-aged edam quality about it with a hint of smoke. Slightly waxy texture. Would make a good beer cheese for snacking on with a pilsner.

The Rokiskio Suris Rukytas appears to be a smoked cheese,with waxed rind. The paste here is solid and a darker yellow than the first cheese. There's a good level of oak smoke on the nose and immediately smoky in the mouth with a richer depth of flavour and very Edam like, unaged cheese.

So how do they fare with the beers?  Well the Diplomats reduces the porteris sweetness whereas the Rokisko brings outblack forest ham notes. The same cheese coaxes kola from the PET-bottled Sencu whereas Diplomats does nothing much. It does add a lot of depth to the flavour of the Seno Rusio however, the richness of the cheese complementing the texture and taming the sickliness somewhat,could enjoy the whole bottle with the cheese in tow. The smoked cheese, whilst tasting good has an unusual chalky texture with the Seno; so falls down at thefinal hurdle. 

The winner this month? Seno Rusio Kvass and Diplomats Siers. What are your thoughts on kvass (interesting article here from Beer Hunter Michael Jackson)? Have you ever tried any beer /cheese from Lithuania or Latvia or where's the most exotic place you've had beer/cheese from?

Guest Post: Dutch Cheese with beer

I'm not the only person with a hankering for beer and cheese, my friend Scuff is also a fan. I've known him for almost as long as I've been drinking beer but met through a different medium...music. Probably my first Belgian beer experience was drinking a Kwak in a Brighton pub with him. So without further ado, here's a guest post

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 I'm a lucky chap! I knew things would improve once we'd moved into our new house and I was proved correct when one of my best friends presented me with a selection of fine aged Dutch cheeses as a housewarming present. He won them in a raffle at a pole dancing competition that his girlfriend took him to - how's that for a back story!? 

These cheeses might not have been to his taste but fortunately they are very much to mine. I've visited Amsterdam several times and I'm a big fan of the food and drink scene out there. I didn't want to waste this good fortune so I set out to pick up some suitable beers to enjoy alongside my cheese. I'm quite the novice when it comes to beer and cheese pairing, though I'm fairly confident I could bore people sufficiently in a conversation about either one on its own, so I took a few wild stabs and this is what I came up with... 

I decided big strong cheese would probably need big strong beers. Unfortunately good Dutch beer is not as widely available as I would like in England and I was rather at the mercy of the supermarkets and a couple of independent off-licences. To the keen beer drinkers out there these will probably seem quite familiar, to everyone else I encourage you to hunt down and try them. 

Beemster (2 years old)

A smooth textured and obviously carefully kept cheese that still managed to retain some sweetness despite the ageing. This was the first one I tried and it was clear from the first bite that these cheeses were of a class that would be offended to be offered up on a biscuit or alongside any condiments. I played it cool on this one and went for something light, but that would hint at all the flavours I wanted to bring through, and picked a De Koninck.

Dutch Sheep's Cheese (4 years old)

As well as the usual nuttiness that you'd expect from Sheep's cheese this had quite a lingering bitterness to it that came through very strong in the aftertaste so it was going to take something powerful to cut through that. I think I made the right choice by going with a good powerful stout, and they don't get much more powerful than an Ellezelloise Hercule Stout. Strong malty pallate and with a sweetness in the aftertaste that brought out the nuttiness of the sheep's cheese whilst balancing the bitterness. 

Old Amsterdam (3 years old)

Last time I went to Amsterdam I bought a huge chunk of this back with me. It's a lovely cheese made with milk from dairies in and around Amsterdam. I knew exactly what beer to drink with it, unfortunately I couldn't find any. My recommendation for this would be the Natte made by Brouwerij ’t IJ (pronounced "Brewery eye"). It's a red/brown double beer, well hopped and with the sweetness of caramel malt that would compliment this traditionally aged cheese well. However I've found that the beers brewed in this converted windmill in Amsterdam don't travel particularly well and you rarely see them in the UK so I made do with one of my favourite beers of all time, Pauwel Kwak. Simply because a) it's a suitable substitute, b) I'm a sucker for challenger hops, and c) I'll look for an excuse almost any day of the week to sit back and enjoy a Kwak in my traditional stirrup glass. 

Aged Gouda (2.5 years old)

Wow, what a fine cheese this was. All the fine creamy flavour of gouda with a mature bite to punctuate it. This was the easiest pairing for me though. I have always enjoyed gouda and trappist together and I don't care if its 2.5 or 25 years old, I'm not making an exception this time. If this hadn't been a strong enough cheese to look after itself I would have brought in the dijon mustard and a gherkin or two, but as it was this little cheese stood up to the mighty Trappistes Rochefort 8 all by itself. Good for it. 

If I was to pick a favourite I would have to say I particularly enjoyed the Old Amsterdam and Pauwel Kwak. The flavours transported my back to fond memories of sitting in Amsterdam's fine drinking establishments enjoying a plate of cheese alongside a fine quality beer whilst deciding which pub to hop to or which canal to stroll alongside next, or whether to simply order yet another beer and a plate of ossenworst and some pickled gherkins.

Scuff Blogs at Scuff's Kitchen

CABPOM December: Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout and Aged Gouda

Two very different beers.

The continental market at Christmas time is something I look forward to as it affords the opportunity to try new cheeses. Two that took my fancy this time were Old Amsterdam Gouda and a goat's milk Gouda. Being quite different from my usual choices I thought they'd be good for this month's cheese and beer pairing. I turned to the BA's food & beer guide for inspiration and they suggest that aged goudas go well with both imperial stouts and brown ales. As I have an oatmeal stout and a nut brown ale from Sam Smith's I'd been waiting to try I decided to try these together and find out what works best.

Aged Gouda, oatcakes and goat Gouda.

Goat Gouda is a hard, slightly waxy off-white with a slight sweaty-feet aroma. Fairly chalky in texture it has a light and fruity flavour with a long finish.

Aged Gouda is a pale and crumbly yellow with an open texture. Not much in the way of aroma but more than made up for by the rich and lasting mature cheddar flavour.
 

Nut Brown Ale (5%)

This is a good  amber-brown bitter with off-white head. There's not much aroma in it other than a trace of yeast esters. Quite fruity up front with plenty of bready malt, an unpleasant metallic hop bitterness and a sweet finish.A bit of a let down if I'm honest considering the good things I've heard about it.

With goat gouda the nutbrown ale loses its metallic character and flavours of bruised apples and baked sulatanas are drawn out with a long sweet toffee finish. The cheese at first becomes more intense in flavour but strangely begins to have a very sweet icing-sugar finish.

With the aged gouda I got a strange solvent flavour from the beer and the cheese loses some of its complexity, not a match i'd recommend!

Oatmeal Stout (5%)

The Oatmeal Stout is dark brown-black with an aroma of tobacco and bitter coffee. Pours with a fluffy tan head. Sweet up front in the mouth with a hint of oak and smoke. The oats give it a creamy texture and a long milk chocolate finish. Again a slight metallic hop but not too distracting from the overall flavour, much more enjoyable.

Oatmeal stout and gouda is however a revelation, the tobacco from the aroma manifests itself in taste as good quality pipe tobaco of the kind the kindly old gentlemen waiting at the bus stop used to smoke. The cheese is lifted up from the palate and takes on a meaty flavour of good quality  ham and smoked bacon all at once. A sticky liquorice toffee finish is coaxed from the beer. When an oatcake or two is added into the equation it becomes a meal by itself and one I'd happily have again!

The beer stomps all over the delicate goats cheese however, though it does draw out some of the creamy and citrus flavours you'd expect from a fresh goats cheese.

CABPOM

So if you haven't been able to guess I'd recommend Sam Smith's oatmeal stout and aged gouda as a cheese and beer pairing to try!

I've discovered M&S in Belfast has a big cheese selection so I look forward to tasting and pairing these together with beer in the new year!