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beer and food

Beer and Cheese #3

ssimperialstout

This is a fun way to spend an evening, although it can interfere with your sleep.  Using the same cheese line up as first time, we tried each against a couple of contrasting beers, namely Brooklyn’s East India Pale Ale, and Sam Smith’s Imperial Stout.

The goat’s cheese didn’t really work with either — it accentuated the bitterness (at the expense of the malt) in the pale ale and killed the roastiness of the imperial stout.  The cheap camembert didn’t make a dent in the imperial stout’s flavour but brought out a little sweetness in the Brooklyn.  However, the beer made the cheese taste like rubber.  We had hopes that the imperial stout would be a good match for the Roquefort and it did stand up to it, but again, lost some roasty flavour.  The Roquefort made the pale ale harsher and more bitter.  So – we’re still looking for a good match for this one.

The best match for both beers was actually the boring cheddar.  It made the East India Pale Ale more balanced (we’re fans of the beer but think the hops are a little too grassy and dominant) and it intensified the flavours of the imperial stout.

8 replies on “Beer and Cheese #3”

I love all the mad suggestions for food pairings on the back of Sam Smith’s bottles – they must be tongue in cheek, particularly the suggestions for the Imperial Stout.

A while back I hosted a beer and cheese event for a large group of friends, and by far the biggest hit was an aged cheddar from Black Diamond.

We thought the same thing essentially, “we’ll throw the boring old cheddar in there as a control group.” Turned out, it performed exceedingly well according to the crowd. A great combo was the Brooklyn Monster with Thomas Hoe Stilton, but I always enjoy an aged Gouda with an ESB.

Kieran — you’re the expert. We will hunt down some Harvey’s and give it a go.

On a somewhat related note, does anyone else find that eating olives with beer makes the beer taste like cheese…? Or is that just me…?

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