Where's the Cheese & Beer Book You Were Writing?

Image kindly created by Simon @ CAMRGB

Its a question I'm often asked and certainly valid, given the number of people I told I would be writing it! Its a difficult topic to write about because it touches on life outside of the beer bubble so take this post outside of my usual sphere of comfort but people deserve some kind of explanation, particularly those brewers who sent me beer samples for potential inclusion and the cheese makers who likewise sent through cheese. Special mention must also be made of Paxton and Whitfield who kindly arranged to sell me cheese at cost; to make it easier for me to afford the project on my own coin. Perhaps a chronological summary would best help explain.

Things kicked off well in early 2012. The idea was fresh in my mind and I drafted  layout of how I envisaged the book to look. Possible pairings were drawn up using previous experience as a guide. I decided early on that I wanted to feature UK breweries and cheeses; to highlight the breadth and quality we have on our own shores. I wanted to challenge the unwritten assumption that the best cheese is French and the best beers are Belgian and US! (I'd very much have liked to included Irish beers and cheeses, and whilst the latter was flourishing Irish brewing was fairly stagnant; an explosion in brewers (and more importantly UK and world class beers emerging) perhaps contributed to what would transpire).

Anyway, I digress, rough pairings hashed out I went about sourcing the best examples of beers and cheeses within the proposed styles. Once sufficient of each had been accumulated I was able to hold pairing sessions (often ably assisted by my friend Julie), determining whether my envisaged pairings actually worked (luckily the majority did!), taking photographs and notes on all of the pairings. These were all completed by Autumn 2012.

At the same time I began submitting my proposal to a number of publishers, with some enthusiasm at first. However when they read in to the detail the majority decided that focussing solely on the UK wasn't going to result in many book sales. Unwilling to change the raison d'etre of my book I decided to go down the self-published e-book/print on demand route. This was the start of the procrastination.

You see, when you don't have a deadline looming over you, or someone to prod you in to action things get put on a back burner. I edited a few photographs, started compiling tasting notes and worked out a rough page order for my pairings. Confidence already knocked by the rejections of publishers it was to suffer further on the release of Vinken & Van Tricht's Beer & Cheese. Aside from having to think of a new title, the calibre and quality of the book and writing was amazing. How could anything I write,a some-time beer blogger and enthusiast with some technical knowledge compete with the years of expertise of a sommelier and affineur? How could self publishing result in anything to compete with a gorgeous coffee table tome like theirs? My photos look crap in comparison. I knew my book would be unique and certainly more from a beer angle than theirs; so I wasn't completely put off. Then Janet Fletcher came along and took "Cheese & Beer" away as a possible title, I've not even been brave enough to look at that one...

Yet I was still keen to get the story of British Brewers and Cheesemakers out there to a wider audience (as well as of course opening people's eyes to the fact that beer and not wine is the best liquid to pair with cheese!). I kept the draft notes at the top of my to-do pile, picking them up, leafing through them but never getting anything substantial written.

The constant realisation I was letting down people who had kindly sent me samples led me further away from getting the writing done, causing me to lie awake at night fretting that I should actually be up and trying to write something...but what was the point anyway because whatever I wrote wouldn't do the beers and cheeses justice and I'd be better off not writing anything and pretend I wasn't writing anything in the first place.*

Alongside this self-doubt & self-loathing my personal circumstances outside of beer changed. I moved house, my fiancée (now wife) moved in with me and my job changed at work. My in-laws also came to stay for a while; so I decided to regroup for a few months and start afresh in the new year. Now almost three years have passed, I still get occasional pangs of guilt but often manage to ignore those notes calling at me from their pile on my upstairs desk. But then I start to get asked when the book will be coming out. I feel like a fraud, no better than that guy scamming loads of free beer for his non-existent book just to avoid having to pay for anything. At the same time some great UK beer writers began to emerge, all keen on food pairing and the writing began to be featured in more publications...did I even need to write the book any more?

At the same time new breweries and beers that I would love to include were cropping up all the time, some of the beers I'd written about were no longer in production, cheese companies had closed and our near neighbours in the South had really pulled their fingers out in the good beer stakes. It would be a tough job to revisit all of those pairings again.

But still the questions about the book continued to come, the "cheese and beer" pairings on my blog business card always garners the most questions, there's still plenty of interest out there for a book. But how to reinvigorate myself to start again? The answer came to me during a  cheese and beer pairing session at Killarney Beer festival. My Co-host Caroline Hennessy (co-author of the splendid book Slainte) asked me about the book and I tried my best to explain all of the above. "Never mind," she said, "Why not serialise it on your blog". What's that now?! "Why not write some of the pairings up and blog them, you've done single posts before, it will certainly be easier to tackle one at a time than trying to get everything together at once".

What a great idea! I can get all the pairings written up as a collection of blog posts then bring it all together as a book when I'm done, tweaking things to use beers that are still available and feature newer breweries, without wasting the work I've done to date. Fantastic idea. So that's what I'm going to do. The long dormant Cheeseandbeer.co.uk will play host to the 50 pairings I had arranged. I'm going to aim for one a week. Please feel free to harass me if I let that slip. That should allow me to pull everything together by the end of summer 2016 with the aim of having something releasable in time for Christmas sales next year. Wish me luck!

*This also impacted on my frequency of writing other non cheese, beer posts helping to explain the often large gaps in between posts. I have plenty of stuff pre-written but I've lost confidence in my writing and end up not publishing with things inevitably going out of date whilst dithering over that "publish" button.

A New Beer Festival (With cheese!)

Just a quick one today to let everyone know of a cheese and beer festival to be held at the Strongroom in Shoreditch next week (5th -9th June). As you're all tired of hearing by now, cheese is another love of mine alongside beer and if I were based in London I'd certainly aim to be there. (I was asked to help out, but didn't have enough time to make it happen!)

 There sounds to be a good range of cheeses available plus a great selection of 65 beers from 22 breweries, (see below for more details) including some that only opened this year! There's a few festival one-off specials too for the tickers amongst you. And for those of you who don't fancy beer, fear not as ciders are available.

There are also tutored cheese and beer pairing sessions, something which is close to my heart. You can book in advance here, which I'd advise doing as they're sure to be popular considering the lineup of experts and beers.

Obviously being in trendy Shoreditch there's plenty of decent food and music too, but the main event is obviously the cheese and beer.

The festival opens from 5pm Wednesday, see here for further details. If you do head along, let me know how it goes and highlights and I'll certainly aim to make it along in 2014!

Strongroom Bar & Kitchen
120 Curtain Road
Shoreditch
EC2A 3SQ

@StrongRoomBar
Facebook

The Beers!

BARNET

Barnet (2013)
Pepper Porter
Porter 5%
Palamino
Pale 4%

PORTOBELLO

Ladbroke Grove (2013)
Star
Bitter 4.3%
American Pale Ale
APA 5%

BRUPOND

Leyton (2013)
Sweet Bee Honey’d Wheat
Wheat beer 4.5%
Tip Top Hop
Pale 6.0%

CLARENCE & FREDERICK BREWING CO.

Croydon (2013)
Strong Mild
Mild 4.1%
Golden Ale
Golden 3.8%

WEIRD BEARD

Hanwell (2013)
Black Perle
Coffee milk stout 4.5%
Marina Trench
American Pale Ale 5.3%
Hit The Lights
IPA 5.8%

CRATE

Hackney Wick (2012)
Crooked Stout
Stout 4.6%
Golden Ale dry hopped with Motueka (one-off)
Golden Ale 3.8%

HACKNEY

Hackney (2012)
Golden Ale
Golden 4%
Best Bitter
Best Bitter 4.4%
American Pale Ale
Pale 4.5%
New Zealand Pale Ale
Pale 4.5%

ADVENTURE

Chessington (2012)
East
IPA 6.6%
West
Porter 5.8%

BOTANIST

Kew (2012)
Gone Pacific
Golden Ale (4.2%)
Kew Green
Wheat Beer 4.8%
Humulus Lupulus
Pale Ale 3.8%

EAST LONDON BREWING CO.

(Clapton 2011)
Foundation (dry-hopped with Pacific Jade– exclusive to festival)
Amber/ Best Bitter 4.2%
Quadrant
Oatmeal Stout 5.8%
Jamboree
Golden Ale 4.8%
Orchid (new!)
Vanilla Dark Mild 3.6%

BY THE HORNS

Wandsworth (2011)
Double Diamond Geezer
Red Ale 5.5%
Lambeth Walk
Porter 5.1%

LONDON BREWING CO.

(Highgate 2011)
Highrise
Pale 3.9%
Blood orange IPA
IPA
Ginger Ale
Ginger Ale

LONDON FIELDS

London Fields (2011)
Weiss Monkeys
Wheat beer/IPA 5.5%
Shoreditch Triangle
APA 6%
Black Path Porter
Porter 4.2%
Hackney Hopster
Pale ale 4.2%

MONCADA

Notting Hill (2011)
Notting Hill Ruby Rye
Ruby Ale 5.2%
Notting Hill Bitter
English Bitter 3.8%
Notting Hill Amber
Amber Ale 4.7%

A HEAD IN A HAT

Herne Hill (2010)
Tommy
IPA 4.2%
Trilby
XX Mild 4.0%
G ‘n’ T
Golden Ale (made with botanicals from City of London distillery) 4.3%
Camembeer
Full-bodied Golden Ale made for cheese – exclusive to the festival 4.4%

WINDSOR & ETON

Windsor (2010)
Park Life
Bitter 3.2%
Kohimoor
Classic IPA 5.5%
Conqeuror
Black IPA 5%
Guardsman
Best Bitter 4.2%

REDEMPTION

Tottenham (2010)
Trinity
Light Ale 3.0%
Hotspur
Amber Ale 4.5%
Big Chief
IPA 5.5%
Pale Ale
Pale Ale 3.8%
Urban Dusk
Dark Ale 4.6%

HA’PENNY

Ilford (2008)
London Stone
Amber Ale 4.5%
London Particular
Ruby Beer 4%

SAMBROOK’S

Battersea (2008)
Wandle
Best Bitter 3.8%
Powerhouse Porter
Porter 4.9%

BREW WHARF

Borough (2005)
Cranberry Common
Steam Beer 4.3%
Imperial Jack (collaboration with 21st Amendment Brewery, San Fran)
Imperial Bitter 7.2%

TWICKENHAM FINE ALES

Twickenham (2004)
Pale Beauty
Wheat 4.7%
Hornet
Pale Ale 4.4%
Naked Ladies
Golden Ale 4.4%

FULLERS

Chiswick (1845)
Golden Pride
Strong Golden Ale 8.5%
London Porter
Porter 5.4%
Summer Ale
Blonde 3.9%
Wild River
APA 4.5%
ESB
Extra Special Bitter 5.5%

Book Review: Beer & Cheese

As some of you may be aware by now, I'm writing an E-book of cheese and beer pairings. When I had the idea I Googled cheese & beer pairings and found a book had recently been published in Belgium on that very subject. The catch? Its in Dutch! Well its evidently done well enough in the author's native tongue to be translated into English and its to be published on July 25th. (Available on Amazon here)

The authors certainly have the right credentials on paper, one a brewing industry professional/ sommelier of many years standing, the other a cheese affineur of almost 35 years experience. The book looks the business, harback with succulent cheeses arranged on slate.

Inside it's even better, with thick paper, decent quality photos and a two page spread for each suggested pairing. It purports to cover "all the major styles" and whilst it features 50 different beers, a number of styles are repeated whilst other more modern or obsure styles seem to have been omitted. It also seems to rely heavily on the more commercially available beers (unsurprising given Vinken's connections) but does feature six of the seven Trappist breweries (what, no Westvletern?). Comprehensive tasting notes though and a few beers I've not yet come across I shall now be seeking out.

The pictures of the cheese cause much salivation and there's plenty of info on the cheeses but actually little by way of tasting notes on the cheese or the pairing, relying more on writing up the "experience" of the pairing. I'd have liked to know a bit more about the cheeses as there were a number I'd not heard of, let alone tasted.This is reinforced by photos of the authors scattered throughout tucking in to cheese and beer. Its less of a guide and more of a report on a few enjoyable afternoons.

One thing I did enjoy was reference to brewery and cheesemaker visits, which were the subject of a series of 15 minute programs on a Belgian food and drinks channel. There are also suggestions of alternative cheeses, which is handy as I suspect a number of them may not even be available in the UK. Unlike the beers, there are a smattering of cheeses from outside Belgium and France used as pairings, but the omission of a decent cheddar is surely a grave omission!

My biggest bugbear with the back is perhaps the lack of indexes. I'd like to see an index by cheese and by beer at the very least. A decent glossary would also make the guide more accessible to the casual reader. There is a contents page but the pairings are in no discernible order.

I'd recommend the book to anyone interested in cheese and/or  Belgian beer and it certainly looks the price. Perhaps a little highly priced, but I've seen Lulu prices would be similar if I were to go down the printed route. If successful it could potentially come out in paperback in the future. Nevertheless this is a great coffee table tome and one which I will enjoy dipping into on occasion. As for the greatness of the pairings I've not yet had a chance to test them, but there's plenty I'm keen to try!

I requested a review copy of the book from, Lannoo, publishers of the book. 

"Beer & Cheese" by Vinken & Van Tricht. Lanoo (Tielt) 2012. ISBN 978-9-401401-73-9  RRP: £28.50

FABPOW: Mushroom stroganoff and cider

FABPOW=Food& Beer Pairing. I guess that this is really a FACPOW!

Not all food and drink pairings have to be planned out meticulously in advance. Nor do they have to be haute cuisine or use an uber rare/ expensive drink for pairing. Some of the best can be spur of the moment things.

I had a load of mushrooms I'd bought reduced last weekend that needed using; so decided to make stroganoff. This needs something sweet and fruity to help bring out the flavours, which is often wine but I plumped for cider. The cider section in Asda is in sorry shape, not even sporting the likes of Weston's, so ubiquitous on the main land but rarely seen outside of Wetherspoon over here. What I did pick up was a 750ml bottle from McCann's, a Northern Ireland producer, which I must have previously overlooked due to its proximity to Magners and Stella Cidre on the shelf. I used about 250ml in the dish, leaving the best part of a pint as a chef's perk.

It pours a slightly hazy light gold, almost perry coloured with a steady stream of fine bubbles. The nose is sweet mushy golden delicious apples, with richer bramley's underneath and a touch of old straw. 

Fairly sweet in the mouth, certainly a high proportion of eating apples in the mix, but with just enough tannin at the back of the palate to be medium rather than sweet in category. Gentle carbonation and a dry finish leaves you going for more. Not bad for just over £2! 

The stroganoff is fairly simple to make. Fry an onion and clove of garlic in butter until translucent, then reduce heat and sweat down ~400g mushrooms for 10mins. I used a mix of chestnut, portobello and baby button plus dried oyster, shiitake  and porcini to give a good depth of flavour and mix of textures. Remove the lid from the pan and allow the mushroom juices to evaporate, then add 250ml cider or wine, simmering for two minutes. Add a tub of crème fraiche and 1/2 tbs of cornflour made up in 2tbs water*,  stirring well until thickened. Serve with rice and sprinkle with parsley/ chives if you so desire. Simple!

It pairs perfectly with the stroganoff. You'd expect it to make a decent fist of it,what with it being used in the dish but I think it brings more to it than that (certainly a better pairing than wine and stroganoff). The earthy, umami in the mushrooms provides a contrast to the sweet, fresh apples, riffing off each other. The carbonation and alcohol content cut through the crème fraiche, refreshing the palate and the rich sauce is perfectly complemented by the dry, slightly tannic finish to the cider. Such a simple pairing but a classic. 

*I used the liquid from rehydrating my dried mushrooms for extra richness.

A food and beer dinner.

I like to try beer and food combos out, but they tend to be spontaneous, selecting a beer from the cupboard based on what I'm cooking. This time I decided I would decide what I'm cooking based on what beers I wanted to drink. I tried to arrange it so that the beers would go with two courses each then used my girlfriend as the guinea pig. They seemed to all go down okay so here's the details:

Vegetarian ceviche

Starter:Vegetarian ceviche...

Regular ceviche is a seafood salad originating in Mexico, so I found a vegetarian recipe using hearts of palm to look like octopus. And I don't have a martini glass so made use of my St Stefanus Glass.  

...paired with Lindemans Cuvee Rene

Garrett Oliver suggests gueuze with regular ceviche (that's how I found out about the dish) and it certainly works well here. The lime juice accentuates the gueuze sourness which acts as a great palate refresher. I'm now eating fish again so will certainly try the more authentic seafood version, which I reckon will make an even better match.

Goats cheese bruschetta with rocket and balsamic tomatoes

2nd Course: goats cheese bruschetta...

I already know geueze works well with goats cheese, those bretty funky barnyard flavours pick up on that capyric acid in the cheese to give you full on farmyard, but the lactic acid in the beer also helps to bring out those hidden citrus depths.  

If you're not a fan of the gueuze then try a hefeweisse or (as I chose) a biere de garde.

...paired with 3 Monts Biere de Flandres

I had a disappointing experience with Jenilain ambree but glad I didn't give up the style as a lost cause because this was a superb beer. The slight wild yeasts again accentuate the goatiness but the herbal sage and slightly peppery flavours in the beer work well with both the cheese and salad. Last but not least the all important carbonation helps to cleanse the greasy cheese from the palate between mouthfuls.

Fruity salmon and tasty veg.

Main Course: Cider Poached Salmon...

Having bought a fillet of salmon and at a loss of how too cook it I turned to my Traditional Beer and Cider recipes book. I found this recipe and it works well with a simple tomato sauce, roast new potatoes and purple sprouting broccoli.

...paired with Thatcher's Somerset Vintage Cider. 

The the unused cider is an obvious pairing choice, accentuating those fruity flavours in the salmon and with enough sweetness to counter the acidity of the tomatoes.

 The 3 Monts didn't hold up quite so well, 

but was by no means a poor partner for the food.

Now with Minieggs

 Dessert: Key Lime Pie...

A dessert I've long enjoyed but never attempted to make until now. I was surprised at how simple the recipe was, the hardest part is waiting for it to set!

Melt 100g of butter and mix in 250g of crushed digestive biscuits. Spread into a 20cm loose bottomed tin, shaping the edges to 4cm. Chill in the fridge for 30mins. Combine the zest and juice of five limes with a carton of double cream and condensed milk and leave for a few hours to set. Simples.

Purple hued.

...paired with Shot in the Dark Blackberry lambic

This was the only sensible choice really, a nice fruity lambic to contrast the lime sharpness and condensed milk sweetness of the dessert. This is my second and final bottle of the beer and its drinking even better than a few months ago. blackberry, sweet cream, sour lambic, tart citrus - its a great match and probably my favourite of the lot.

If you've not tried food and beer pairing at home then give it a go and why not try converting a few sceptical wine drinkers whilst you're at it?!

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!)

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.

Beer Tasting at Belfast Beer Fest

Earlier in the week I posted about my weekend working at Belfast Beer Festival 2011 and promised a later post about the tutored tasting sessions. Well here it is!

It was organised by branch chairman Phil Hernberg and jointly hosted with Rab Cowan from across the water (in that there Scotland) with tidbits of interest interjected by my good self. The beer lineup had to be tweaked slightly each day as casks ran out or others came into condition. The basic lineup was as follows:

Phil in full flow whilst Adrian and Rab discuss in the background

Lager

Mild

Bitter

Wheat beer

Speciality

Best Bitter

Porter

Stout

 Lager: we started off with Williams Ceildah but later switched to using Ossett Silver King. Its a shame we had no Schiehallion but the lagers we did have were nice enough. The assembled tasters were asked if they knew the difference between lager and "ale" amd some did know of the yeast differences. People said that they would have preferred it a few degrees colder. Alas the logistics which make it nigh on impossible for coolers. We have to resort to the "wet tea-towel" method.

Mild: B&T Black Dragon Mild was used first, then Ilkley Black, one of my own favourites. This one found a lot of favour with the female participants. Described as a beer that can range in colour and strength and named for its usually* low hopping rate. I suggested that it would pear well with good carby dishes as would be consumed by those after a hard day down t'mines.

mmm this mild has chocolate

Bitter: We had some good examples of bitter's on in the festival but in the end settled for O'hanlons firefly as it was well balanced between malt and hops and for its good mid-brown colour halfway between the lager and mild. Highlighted that the UK is great at making flavourful "session" beers.

Weisse: Little Valley Hebden's wheat: This is a bit of an odd one, uses a german weisse yeast but has corriander seed and lemon peel added. It has the wheatbeer haziness which alowed us to talk about other forms of haze/cloudiness to look out for in a beer.

Witbier: Hilden Barney's Brew. This was a real marmite beer. For some people it was the standout, for others only a sip was tried before declaring it foul. Spicy beers are just not some people's cup of tea.

Golden Ale: We switched best bitter for a golden ale when the dark star American Pale Ale ran out on the second day and the speciality beer became a witbier. Then hophead ran out and we had to use Oakleaf hole hearted. Talked about how American hop varieties had become more prolific in English brewing and how Golden Ale as a style is a fairly recent invention.

Porter: Did my best to dispel porter myths but I can't promise that some didn't get through when I was out of the room. We used Elland 1872 porter for a while but as it overpowered the stouts switched it for Coachhouse blunderbus [sic] old porter, which claims an "authentic" recipe. It certainly contrasted well to the stout.

Tasters start to feel it after 8 thirds

Stout: Talked about how not much separates stout and porter as styles these days, with stronger and lower ABV versions of both. We used Acorn Gorlovka stout so I was able to recount the tale of the rise of Imperial Russian Stouts, Baltic Porters and the recent great Baltic Adventure. There were inevitable comparisons to the ubiquitous black stuff from down south, but hopefully peopel's eyes were opened to the range of different stouts available.

The sessions finished with a final chance to ask questions and the three of us offering suggestions for what beers to try next. Was slightly embarassed when one tasting session gave a round of applause but it felt good to be appreciated.

I was pleased that the majority of sessions were oversubscribed (though this made my job a nightmare with only one hour between sessions trying to get 120 glasses and 8 jugs through the potwash and cool enough in time for the next session!). There was also a good mix of old and young, male and female, 2 Catalans and 2 Japanese visitors. Some people were pretty knowledgable and others just starting out in their beery journeys. I was surprised to meet a few peopel who had also travelled to the festival from Cookstown and hope to taste some beers with them later in the year.

I enjoyed helping out with the tasting sessions, maybe I'll be allowed to do one by myself next year, I reckon cheese** and beer would go down well as a talk ;)

*See R.Pattinsons research.

**Any Excuse eh?

Hilden Beer

Getting arty with my wide angle lens.

As I have mentioned in one or two other posts I volunteered at the Hilden Brewery Beer festival this year.  I've already reviewed the other Northern Ireland breweries bottle ranges (with the exception of new guys on the block Inishmacsaint); so decided it was time I pay the same courtesy to Northern Ireland's oldest brewery.
I came away from the beer festival with two each of 2 Hilden beers and 3 College Green.  

I decided to break out the champagne glasses again that I last used for my first post way back in May. As you can see, with the exception of Molly's the beers are fairly pale and could even be mistaken for each other on first glance. Does this similarity in colour carry over into flavour? See below.

From Left: Belfast Blonde, Molly's Chocolate Stout, Headless Dog, Cathedral Quarter Beer & Titanic Quarter Beer.

College Green was originally to be a microbrewery attached to the fantastic Molly's Yard restaurant in Belfast, but the beer is now all produced at the main Hilden brewery for commercial reasons. There is a range of three beers.

Belfast Green Belfast Blonde

Starting with the lightest of the bunch, Belfast Blonde (4.3%) is the beer that attempts to win over lager drinkers from the ubiquitous brands of Tennents and Harp and is often to be found on font rather than cask. Certainly if the Hilden Beer festival was anything to go by it seems to be working as whenever word got out that the beer was pouring again around twenty men would appear as if out of nowhere to buy pints of the stuff.

So how does it taste? Floral hop aromas on the nose with underlying honey sweetness. Prickly carbonation, malt sweetness with a clean lightly bitter finish. Served chilled on a summers day this would slip down nicely. 

College Green
Molly's Chocolate Stout

Pouring garnet red-brown with minimal head Molly's Chocolate Stout (4.2%) had noticeable legs, which I find unusual for a beer of its ABV. Hint of beech-smoke then rich roast barley on the nose. Robust body with bitter coffee, dark chocolate and burnt toast. Finishes with a not unpleasant coffee astringency. 

It would certainly make a good beer for pairing with food. It has Coffee and chocolate notes that would pair perfectly with cakes and chocolate dishes but its robust barley burntness, sweet malt and slight smokiness would make it a good match for barbecued or roasted red meats.

College Green Headless Dog

Headless Dog (4.2%) completes the trio of College Green beers. It pours gold with a thin white head and steady stream of bubbles. Dusty blackcurrant and Farley's rusk on the nose with some heather honey. sweet and grassy, bitter spike, then dry malty finish. I would have liked a bit more of the hop character from the nose to assert itself on the palate but an enjoyable beer nonetheless.

This beer would pair well with game as well as traditional Irish dishes like colcannon and stew.

 

The Hilden bottle range is to be a series, currently consisting of two beers and named corresponding to two of the cultural "quarters" in Belfast. A third in the range "Queens Quarter" was due to be released in 2009 but seems to have fallen by the wayside for the time being.

Titanic Quarter Beer (4.2%) The first of the Belfast Quarter Beers was specially commissioned to mark the regeneration of the Queen's Island site. This is a pale ale brewed with the beers in mind that were once shipped from the UK around the world. Clean and refreshing with a good level of bitterness. The Titanic Quarter of Belfast encompasses the once mighty industrial area of the Harland and Wolff Ship Yard, builder of the ill-fated RMS Titanic. Today the area is at the beginning of a renaissance which will put the quarter back as a focal point, not only of Belfast's commercial but also social and cultural world. Pale golden beer with honey malt aroma and a trace of black pepper. Balanced sweet/bitter body with sweet hay finish.

 

 Cathedral Quarter Beer (5.3%) - The second of the Belfast Quarter Beers is a rich warming, premium beer. A classic red Irish ale with a full bodied flavour.The area Belfast knows today as the Cathedral Quarter is based largely around St. Anne's Cathedral. Before its modern re-invention, the area was best known as a trade and warehousing district. With the decline of Belfast's traditional industries, arts and cultural organisations took the opportunity to establish themselves in the area. Today the area continues to revitalise, placing itself at the centre of Belfast's social and cultural scene.

Not so much red as dark amber, this beer has a savoury sweet aroma like honey roasted parsnips with golden syrup and raspberry and maybe a hint of rosemary. Robust body with fruity sweetness and mouthwatering moreish party ring biscuit finish.

Reviewing beers certainly works up an appetite, so I decided to finish off the bottle of Belfast Blonde with a Mediterranean style dish of olive and chilli bread with melted mozzarella and herby balsamic tomatoes. The clean malty body helps to cut through the acidic vinegar and tomatoes, whilst the floral hops help to scrub the mozzarella oiliness from the tongue. A nice simple pairing that I'd repeat again.

All in all a solid range of beers, though I would like to see some of the other Hilden range available in bottle, particularly the stouts and porters. These will no doubt be the subject of a future post. 

CABPOM July: Snowdonia Amber Mist and Odell Cut throat porter

I started a regular monthly feature last month with Cheese and Beer pairing of the Month (okay it was this month but it was the June post...). This weekend I found another match.

My girlfriend went to the Taste of Edinburgh recently and brought me back an interesting looking cheese. Wrapped in orange wax this mature cheddar has whisky added. As may be apparent I love cheese and this is a marvellous specimen. Mature enough to feel the "burn" over the whole mouth. The rich fruity character needs a good contrast in a beer so decided to try it with a roasted beer.

Snowdonia Amber Mist (from manufacturer website)

I recently picked up a bottle of Odell Cut Throat Porter from The Vineyard in Belfast. This is a traditional English style porter with plenty of roast barley and chocolate on the nose. Roasted and thick body with gentle carbonation and a chocolaty finish.

When this is paired with the cheese the mature flavour really brings out the roast barley character. The sweet oatcakes I ate it with contrasted the sharp whisky in the beer. The carbonation lifted the cheese from the tongue and the coffee refreshed the palate for a fresh onslaught by the beer.

I think this transatlantic pairing worked particularly well. I think the cheese would also be a good match for a rauchbier or peated Islay whisky.