Beer-Cheese Dip

There's something to celebrate — beer isn't just "beer' anymore; it; a delightful beverage to share with family and friends who appreciate quality ingredients in cooking and a new experience in American cuisine. There is nothing "common" about beer anymore.

Written in 1989 by Jack Erickson, Great Cooking! With Beer is a snapshot of American beer 'culture' in the 1980s, when 'craft' beers were called "microbrews" and beer 'culture' was a nascent thing to be coddled. ¹ Of course, it was also a cookbook: a useful beginning point for learning about beer IN food. And it remains so today (though sadly out-of-print).²

Mr. Erickson lived in the northern Virginia area through the early 1990s, where he evangelized on the goodness of the new-fangled microbrews. I met him there on a few occasions. I never gathered up the nerve to make his recipe for "Beer Syrup" for pancakes (for which he admonished me), but I have prepared (and enjoyed) other of his recipes, including Beer-Cheese Dip.

Today, the Sunday of Super Bowl LIV, it might be a good day to post about that. So, here's the recipe, but with some personal adaptions. ³


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Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups (6-8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, at room temperature
• 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 tsp dry mustard powder
• 1 clove garlic, mashed...or 1/4 tsp garlic powder (see note below)
• 1 tsp (vegan) Worcestershire sauce ⁴
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp malt vinegar
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) light lager (e.g., PBR: Pabst Blue Ribbon)
• 1 dash smoked Spanish paprika
• scant handful spring onions, chopped

PROCEDURE

1. Combine cheddar, cream cheese, mustard, pepper, turmeric, onion powder, cumin, garlic, vinegar, cayenne, and Worcestershire in a food processor or blender. (No salt needed; the cheese will be salty enough!) 
2. Process/blend 30 seconds to blend. 
3. NOTE:
   When recently re-making the dip, the taste of the single fresh garlic clove overpowered the dish. So, I would recommend first blending all else and only then adding a little at a time of the smashed garlic to the blender/processor and checking for flavor before (or not) blending more.
4. With processor/blender running, add the beer gradually, blending until the mixture is 'peanut-butter' smooth, not runny. Add more, only if necessary. 
5. Transfer the mixture to a serving bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour to allow the flavors blend. 
6. Before serving, bring to room temperature. Garnish with chopped spring onions and a dash of paprika. Serve with raw vegetables. 

Great Cooking! With Beer

• Author: Jack Erickson
• Paperback, hardcover: 146 pages
• Publisher: Redbrick Press (February 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941397017
• ISBN-13: 978-0941397018

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• ¹ American beer writer Vince Cottone is credited with first using the term "craft brewery" in print in 1986, although it didn't enter the common usage until more than a decade later.
• ² Erickson also wrote several beer travelogues, themselves snapshots of 'microbreweries' of the 1980s and early 1990s. These are also out-of-print, but you cna find them if you search for second-hand sources.
• ³ See Erickson's original recipe: here.
• ⁴ Worcestershire sauce, although fermented from barley malt, also contains anchovies. There are non-fish, vegan/vegetarian alternatives.
• Vegan? Try this 21st-century recipe for a Beer-Cheese Dip, with no actual cheese, from blogger Rabbit and Wolves. Almond milk and nutritional yeast supply the 'cheesiness.' It's tasty.


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Pic(k) of the Week: Cheese plate with beer.

In the foreground:

• Ossau-Iraty (sheep's milk: Spain)
  Me: Firm paté; grassy and nutty.
• Cherokee Rose (raw cow's milk: Georgia)
  Me: slightly tangy.
• Pierre Robert (cow's milk: France)
  Me: luscious triple-crème with hint of mushrooms.

In the background:

• Pernicious IPA
  (from Wicked Weed Brewing, in Asheville, North Carolina).
• 7.5% alcohol-by-volume (abv)
• ?? IBUs (International Bittering Units), but assuming many. ^*
• Me: Excellent clarity and good conditioning; juicy, sharply-etched hops; alliaceous hint.

Enjoyed at Porter Beer Bar, in Atlanta, Georgia's Little 5 Points neighborhood, on 11 February 2016.

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#VeggieDag Thursday: Beer & Cheese Soup.

VeggieDag Thursday is an occasional Thursday post
on an animal-free diet and ecological issues.

Beer is brilliant in the kitchen —far more versatile than wine. You can use it for marinating, baking, long, slow casseroles —and quick stir-fries; sauces and soups; breads and batters; crisp fritters and melting moments; to add tartness to a salad dressing, spice to a curry, and pungency to a pickle. It glazes, caramelizes, tenderizes, lifts, enriches. It can flavour — or accompany — fish, game, meat, mollusks, poultry, vegetables, fruit, cheese, chocolate, cakes, puddings, and pies. Keep your mind open, a bottle opener to hand, and be creative.

—Susan Nowak, The Beer Cook Book

Cheddar/Stilton Beer Soup might be vegetarian, but it is not, of course, vegan, and it is not, of course, low-calorie. But, oh, so tasty.

Use a good-tasting beer.¹ Unlike other beer-in-food-recipes, with this, the beer's flavor will be evident. Likewise, please use good cheese; it's the soup's primary ingredient.²

And, it all starts with a roux.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 + 3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil (or butter)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 6 ounces lager beer
• 4 ounces room temperature cream cheese
• 3 cups (12 ounces) freshly-grated aged artisinal cheddar
• 1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled Stilton or other blue cheese
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce ³
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp fresh sage
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp white pepper
• Kosher salt, to taste
• Freshly popped popcorn

PROCEDURE

• 1) In a large pan, sautée the onions, carrots, and celery with one tablespoon of olive oil over medium to medium-low heat until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
• 2) In a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed soup pot, make a roux. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil or butter over medium heat. Slowly add 3 tablespoons flour. Stir or whisk the flour constantly for about 5-7 minutes, lightly-toasting it. The roux adds depth of flavor and prevents the cheese from separating (or becoming stringy) once added.
• 3) In the soup pot, whisk the vegetable stock into the roux. Add the sautéed vegetables and bay leaves, mix in the nutmeg, and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes.
• 4) Remove bay leaves! Blend soup with immersion blender.
• 5) Return to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat. Add a few ounces of beer and whisk. Add a small chunk of cream cheese and whisk. Add a handful of the blue cheese and cheddar, and whisk. Repeat, whisking constantly, until the cheeses have melted. Don't boil!
• 6) Stir in the milk, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce, and gently simmer. Season with pepper to taste. (Only add salt if needed.) If the soup is too thick, add more milk and/or stock and/or beer as needed.
• 7) Serve immediately. Ladle into bowls. Garnish each with a few popped kernels of popcorn, a dash of smoked paprika, and a few shreds of sage.

ADDENDA

• Following the recipe should yield enough soup to serve five or six.
• Do NOT boil the soup. Boiling will cause the cheese to separate.
• The soup is best served immediately. If any is left over, refrigerate and use the following day, re-heated, as a dip.
• For a smoother consistency, follow steps 1 through 4, but then strain out the vegetables and bay leaves, return to the pot and continue with step 5 (even though, as this is beer-cheese soiup, why?).
• To make the soup in advance, follow steps 1 though 4, cooking the vegetables, making the roux, and simmering the stock and blending. Do NOT add cheese. Refrigerate. When ready to finish, bring to a simmer, and then add the cheese and follow the remaining steps.
• ¹ For the lager, choose a flavorful Dortmunder-style like Great Lakes Brewing Dortmunder Gold or an amber lager such as Yuengling, or, more flavorfully, Anchor Steam. Avoid anything overtly hoppy or overly bitter. When cooked, hops can become unpleasantly astringent.
• ² For the cheeses, go artisinal. For cheddar, try an aged Cheddar from Grafton, in Vermont, for example. Or classic, from Keen's, in the UK. For Stilton, Stilton, of course. Or a good American blue, such as classic Maytag Blue.
• ³ Worcestershire sauce, although fermented from barley malt, also contains anchovies. There are non-fish, vegan versions. Or make your own.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Kale Ale Cheese Fondue

Pic(k) of the Week is a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as a subject. Today, it's a photo of fondue. The good fermentable is in the fondue.

Aged gouda, sharp cheddar cheese, chopped kale, and house-brewed ale. On the side for dipping: sunchokes, baby carrots, and a house-made pretzel. Tasty but maybe the texture was a wee bit thin from too much ale in the mix. Accompanied with good beers in interesting subterranean stone surroundings.

As served at the Wrecking Bar Brewpub, in Atlanta, Georgia (in the Little 5 Points/Inman Park neighborhood), 12 December 2015.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Cheese with Trappists

Yours For Good Fermentables was recently press'd into service; mentioned, that is, photographically (with credit) in a broadcast story on beer-with-cheese pairing.



Beer-cookbook writer Lucy Saunders and cheese-writer Jeanette Hurt discussed the topic on Lake Effect, a "magazine program" of Milwaukee Public Radio station, WUWM 89.7, on 4 November 2015.

"Beer and cheese are fermented friends," Lucy Saunders said "And we are fermented friends, too," laughed Jeanette Hurt.

"There's nothing against wine and cheese pairings, said Saunders, "but one of the most interesting things is that beer and cheese have more of a similar profile of aromatic compounds."

"When I'm looking at wine and food pairings, and beer and food pairings (and beverage and food pairings, in general)," Hurt said. "I'm looking for that perfect marriage. By themselves they taste great, but together, they taste even better."

"Beer and cheese complement each other very well," she continued. "Beer is liquid bread, and milk is hardened milk, the makings of a sandwich in your mouth."

"Beer is bubbly," said Saunders. "The effervescence of the bubbles cleanses the palate of the cloying creaminess of the cheese."

The pair discussed the importance of food pairing 'bridges.'

"Foods and accouterments can bridge the cheese and the beer (or the cheese and the wine) to bring them together," Hurt said. "One of the bridges we're using is honey, which is an amazing accessory for cheese. Just a little bit drizzled is just so, so good, and it goes so well with the honey aspect of a beer."

"Also dried fruits," added Saunders, "and some of the spices like cocao nibs, and a dusting of pepper can really elevate the tastes of a cheddar or a creamy, really soft cheese."

And then there was this wonderful exchange on the spice of beer, the hops.

Hurt observed that, "The fragrance of the hops tends to be a little resinous, piney, and that citrusy note elevates the butterfat in cheese, and you get a really nice harmony going on with that."

To which Saunders replied, ""With the hops, you have the aroma and the aftereffect. When you swallow, which is really important in beer, you get that retro-nasal reverb. It's really delightful when you have a beer and cheese pairing, because there's a before, during, and after."

Retro-nasal reverb, indeed! Listen to Hurt and Saunders' entire discussion: here.


*****

About the photo

A beer sampling Balducci's Food Market (in McLean, Virginia, 9 April 2015), in which I served three Belgian Trappist ales (brewed by monks) with three cheeses.

• Westmalle Dubbel
  Served with Stilton cow's milk blue cheese (U.K.)
• Orval
  Served with Humboldt Fog goat cheese (California).
• Westmalle Tripel
  Served with Chimay Grand Cru washed rind cheese (Belgium).
  A Trappist cheese!

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Crafty Combo! Artisanal beer makes a better match with cheese than many wines.

Enjoying cheese and beer together. Oh my!

That's an accepted morsel of wisdom these days to many of the American 'craft' beer zeitgeist. Thus it might come as a surprise that beer-with-cheese as a culinary concept had until only recently been poo-pooed by foodies in the U.S. (who somehow ignored the ubiquitousness of beer-with-pizza). Silly, considering that in other parts of the world, beer-with-cheese has long been a staple of food culture.

Ten years ago, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun wrote an article on the superiority of beer over wine when matching with cheese. I've posted it below. Was it because she quoted me?

Before you read that, consider this. In that same year, 2005, the vino-zeitgeitist Wine Spectator wrote this:

• "Cheeses fight with dry wines."
• And this: "Many people find that the moldy flavors of these cheeses fight with dry wines. Their creaminess is especially tough on reds. Sweet wines are the answer."
• And this, about washed-rind cheeses: "As much fun as these cheeses are to eat, in most cases only very sweet or fortified wines can hold their own against them."

Shocker! That was the Wine Spectator itself telling us that wine and cheese weren't always suited for each other. To be fair, the editors didn't suggest beer as an alternative.

I will: "Try beer!"

Crafty Combo! Artisanal beer makes a better match with cheese than many wines.

A prize-winning soft chevre from Quebec.

A buttery California brie.

A semi-firm, washed-rind cheese and a potent blue, both from Wisconsin.

Like fragrant, edible jewels, the cheeses nestle on a rectangular ceramic platter. Four different bottles of craft beer are arranged behind them.

The delectable still life has been assembled by Susan Scovell, cheesemonger at the Wine Source in Hampden [neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland], as an introduction to the ambrosial pleasures of pairing cheese and beer.

The two farmhouse products that have long been a part of traditional meals in Europe, including the venerable ploughman's lunch, are being reinvented with inspired finesse. The resulting proliferation of artisanal cheeses and craft beers has brought forth boundless possibilities for pairings in restaurants, gourmet shops, homes and even wine bars.

Scovell initiates a novice with a modest selection so as not to overwhelm the palate. "Think in terms of contrast or similarities when you pair cheese and beer," she says.

Scovell begins with Biquet, a soft goat's milk cheese made by Fromagerie Tournevent in Canada. She smears a bit on a cracker, takes a bite and lets it rest in her mouth with a sip of Blue Moon's Belgian White, a tangy ale made with wheat. "It lifts a little bit in the mouth - nice," Scovell says. The Biquet is a young cheese, high in acidity, she says. "Pair it with something fresher, a little higher in acid." Also, "The cheese tends to be dense. A wheat beer will cut through that."

The combination does a tingly tango on the tongue that begs the question: Why should wine grab all the glory, particularly when both traditional and innovative beers can frequently be a better mate for cheese?

Why cheese with beer?

"Wine struggles with cheese," says Tom Cizauskas, a sales representative for Clipper City Brewing Co. [now known as Heavy Seas Beer] and a veteran of many cheese and beer tastings. The butterfat in cheese "often overwhelms the flavor of wine. And the acidity of wine seems to create an off-putting metallic character in the presence of cheese," he says.

Beer and cheese "don't joust with each other in the mouth; they complement each other," Cizauskas says. "The natural sweet graininess of beer brings forward the aromas and flavors of cheese, just as a good hunk of bread does with cheese."

Cheese and beer are natural companions, he adds. "The fermented flavors of cheese -- cream, nut, slight fruit, funk -- all are present to various degrees in beer."

Beer, as well, "has its own built-in palate cleanser," Cizauskas says. "The bubbles, or carbonation, cleanse the palate after each nibble of cheese."

Like others who take pleasure in food and drink, Cizauskas has a strong gustatory memory and can wax poetic about tasting a particularly transcendent match of cheese and beer. "Nelson Carey ^* at the wine bar Grand Cru in the Belvedere Square has hosted formal beer and cheese tastings. He once offered me a slice of Livarot with a rauchbier I was drinking. The pungent slug of the Livarot's aroma chased by its creamy flavor was an inspired mate for the smoky, almost bacony, aroma of the rauchbier and its finishing sweet German malt."

The Cheese Wars, with Garrett Oliver.

When exploring traditional beer's born-again clout in fine dining circles, all roads lead to Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery and champion of a series of tastings that he calls "The Cheese Wars -- Beer vs. Wine With Cheese."

In these tempting tournaments, Oliver and his friend, sommelier Paul Grieco, have paired cheeses with beers and wines and let guests who sample the selections judge the winning matches.

Oliver recounts one such battle in his book, The Brewmaster's Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer With Real Food (Ecco, 2005): "I drew my secret weapon -- Castelain, a French biere de garde, displaying a complex aromatic interplay of damp earth, herbs and aniseed, wrapped around a soft, golden beer with a warm, malty center. Eyebrows were raised. The match was perfect. The wine was vanquished."

Designed to be humorous and fun, the wine against beer smack downs allow "people to learn a lot about flavor and really get into it," Oliver says by phone as he speaks of beer's new gastronomic credentials. "People have expected wine to do everything. [But] often there are a lot of areas of food where wine has considerable difficulty -- for example, with spicy food or various vegetables, and cheese is actually one of those areas."

The 'rules' of beer-and-cheese pairing.

The first rule of beer-and-cheese pairing is that there are no rules, "only enthusiastic suggestions," Cizauskas says.

"Rather than mating flavors between beer and cheese, look to pair intensity (or gentleness) and character," he says. "A pungent cheese mates well with a beer that has a good tannic structure. A subtle cheese mates well with a beer of soft malt sweetness. A blue-veined cheese mates well with dark malty sweetness. A rich and spicy cheese mates well with a beer showing similar fermentation attributes, such as many Belgian beers. A hard and slightly nutty cheese mates well with a beer which shows toasted and earthy notes."

The 7 styles of cheese.

With seven basic styles of cheese to choose from, and a growing array of flavorful beers, from malty bocks to chocolaty stouts, it is easy to become bewildered by the ever-expanding universe of options.

Laura Werlin, co-author of The New American Cheese (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2000), advises beginners to become familiar with those seven styles -- and proceed from there.

• fresh
• semi-soft
• soft ripened
• semi-hard
• aged
• washed rind
• blue

"Once you learn those styles, it becomes pretty manageable," she says. "Your universe is cut down."

The adventurous will take risks in their cheese selections. Still, "Your chances of not ruining a beer are much better than the chances of not ruining a wine, because of a wine's delicacies and nuances," Werlin says.

Pairing cheese and beer: Always, something will surprise.

Once you've got the basics down, cheese becomes a catalyst for other pairings, Oliver says. "Cheese is a great way to do it. It allows you to bring really complex flavors and put them in front in essentially a small chunk." From there, "People can extrapolate to something else," Oliver says. Cheese, in essence, can be used "as a metaphor for all sorts of things. Once people see how these [flavors] work together, they'll think, 'Hey, it's not just the cheese. I can see drinking this beer with a salad, with fish, with all sorts of other things.' "

As an award-winning authority on brewing, Oliver is likely to approach pairings with specific beers in mind. Scovell, though, would start with the cheese. "It's different for everybody," she says. "To me, it's a question of what are you most excited about."

After the first pairing of the evening, Scovell repeats the process with the remaining three cheeses and beers. She uses a new knife for each tasting. That way, there is no cheese residue to confuse her taste buds.

She takes a sip of beer, a nibble of cheese (always at room temperature) on a plain cracker and lets the flavors mingle. "Let them rest a little bit and let them marry. It helps you figure out what's working," she says.

The brie from the Marin French Cheese Co. and a sharp, Belgian-style saison, or "season," beer traditionally brewed at the end of winter or spring from the Yards Brewing Co., make a smooth, but not extraordinary match. Perhaps "a fruity beer would be better," Scovell says.

Then, she pairs the subtly delightful, semi-firm cheese called Pleasant Ridge Reserve with Anchor Steam porter [sic]. "Nice salt component and rounded texture," Scovell says.

"The finale is a blue," she says. Because of their strong flavor, blue cheeses are always tasted last, "no matter what the age," Scovell says. She pairs the Hook's Cheese Co.'s blue with "a nice, round, chocolaty-type beer," Rogue's Shakespeare stout. "The creamy blue surrounds it nicely," Scovell says.

That is just for starters in a world of infinite flavor combinations. Pairing cheese and beer is "a constant learning process," Scovell says. "Always, something will surprise me."

By Stephanie Shapiro
© Baltimore Sun
September 21, 2005.

Try these 'enthusiastic suggestions.'

Some of the more so-called 'extreme' beers, such as 'Imperial' IPAs, might clash with or simply overwhelm some cheeses. But, all in all, beer and cheese are delicious partners. For example, in a recent tasting, I paired a Trappist Tripel with a washed rind-cheese, a Trappist Dubbel with Stilton (blue cheese), and a brettanomyces-fermented and dry-hopped Trappist Ale with a goat cheese.

As I was quoted in the article above: "The first rule of beer-and-cheese pairing is that there are no rules, only enthusiastic suggestions." Here are some more.

• Triple creme with fruit beer.
• Aged gouda with Oktoberfest.
• Cheddar with British bitter.
• Manchego or other sheep's milk cheese with pilsner.
• Goat's milk cheese with saison.
• Bloomy rind cheese with 'wild' ale (brettanomyces).
• Blue cheese with a strong stout; British Stilton with a barleywine.
• Washed rind cheese with an aromatic IPA.

Better yet: explore!

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• A good resource is Cheese & Beer, by Napa Valley-based writer Janet Fletcher, published in 2013. It's exclusively on-the-topic, with beautiful photography. "Nobody needs convincing that beer and cheese go together."
• The bias against beer as noble or elegant, even when complimenting it, runs deep. Note this damning-with-faint-praise aside from Ms. Werlin in the article: "Your chances of not ruining a beer are much better than the chances of not ruining a wine, because of a wine's delicacies and nuances."
• Confused about beer 'styles'? The (U.S.) Brewers Association has recently created an online beer-style guide. Although slanted towards American interpretations of styles and their history (and finding many distinctions where there are none), it is a useful starting-out tool.
• ^* "Last July (2014), the affable and original owner, Nelson Carey, died of heart failure." Grand Cru remains open, but under new ownership.


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  • Follow on Flickr: Cizauskas.

"Cheeses fight with dry wines," says the Wine Spectator. "Try beer," I say.

If you had turned to page 132 of the Wine Spectator's The Encyclopedia of Food "With Exclusive Wine Matching Advice," in September 2005, and read the chapter on cheese, you would have seen this:

Cheese and wine have long stood at the top of the gourmet pyramid.

But then, on the very next page, you would have seen this:

The mouthcoating texture of soft cheeses can make red wines taste thin and tough, but the sparkle of Champagne cuts through beautifully. Crisp, aromatic whites such as German or Austrian Riesling also do well, especially if they have a bit of sweetness.

And, of blue cheese and wine?

Many people find that the moldy flavors of these cheeses fight with dry wines. Their creaminess is especially tough on reds. Sweet wines are the answer.

And, with washed-rind cheeses, which the Wine Spectator refers to as "extreme cheeses"?

Over-the-top flavors make these cheese irresistible to some, but few wines can retain much personality when paired with them. [...] As much fun as these cheeses are to eat, in most cases only very sweet or fortified wines can hold their own against them.

To be fair, the Wine Spectator did, with no hesitation, praise the pairing of red wines with hard cheeses like Cheddar, and of Sauvignon Blancs and fruity reds like Zinfandel with goat and sheep's-milk cheeses. But, with the other great cheeses of the world —soft cheese (like Brie), blue cheese (like Stilton), and washed-rind cheese (like Meadow Creek's Grayson)— the magazine struggled to find gastronomically logical pairings, relying on sweeter dessert wines and their antithesis, tart Champagnes.

Even though this 'bible' of the wine world didn't suggest beer as a mate for cheese (now, really, would it?), it is indeed beer which is the answer.

Beer doesn't 'fight' with cheese; and vice-versa. The flavors of the two complement each other: fermentation character, spices and herbs, fruits and fungi, and the flavors of the kitchen and cooking. And, both share a unique affinity. Wine is like fruit jam slathered on the cheese, but beer, made from grains (such as barley and wheat), is like the cracker served with the cheese, already there, liquid in the glass.

Some combinations of beer and cheese might be more delightful than others —goat cheese with a pilsner, washed rind cheese with an abbey ale or an American IPA, blue cheese with a stout or barleywine (no 'fight' there!), cheddar with a pale ale or brown ale— but one would be hard-pressed to find a poor pairing of the two. Simply apply the the first rule of serving cheese-with-beer: there are no rules, only enthusiastic suggestions.

And remember that Wine Spectator suggestion of Champagne with soft cheese? It's all about bubbly texture and acidity, to cut through the milkfat. Why not, next time, with your Camembert, drink a tart/funky gueuze-lambic instead? Same idea, only with more flavor in the beer. Or why not try that same funky gueuze but with a stinky (in a good way) Epoisses? Or ... so it goes. This is such an easy and rewarding thing to do with beer.

As Stephen Beaumont and Brian Morin wrote, in 2009, in their gorgeous —not coffee table book; kitchen counter book?— The BeerBistro Cookbook:

Any honest wine professional will admit that the motto in the grape trade is "taste with bread, sell with cheese." [...] Beer and cheese, on the other hand, well, that's just a match made in gastronomic heaven. [...] So put away your corkscrews and break out the beer the next time cheese is on the menu. You may get a curious sideways glance from the wine snobs in the crowd, but everyone else will likely enjoy themselves immeasurably more.

Hold the cracker. Hold the wine. "Cheeses fight with dry wines," says the Wine Spectator. "Try beer," I say. (And, how about an update?)

Pic(k) of the Week: The Perfect Bite 2014

These whimsical morsels are Perpetual Goatstoppers: seedless red grapes wrapped with chèvre (soft goat cheese), studded with candied ginger, and encrusted with ... Post Cereal Burstin' Berry Poppin' Pebbles (!), a breakfast version of Pop Rocks, a CO2-infused fruit-flavored candy that 'pops' in your mouth.

They were created by Perry Soulos —cheesemonger at Arrowine, a wine, beer, and cheese shop in Arlington, Virginia— as a "perfect bite" for his first place finish at the 1st West Coast Cheesemonger Invitational Championship, held in San Francisco, California, in January 2014.

In one of eight rounds of the competition, contestants had sixty minutes in which to put together a dish, from one pre-determined cheese. Soulos' was goat cheese; he named his confection, 'Goatstoppers,' in a nod to the fictional Everlasting Gobstoppers of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: candies that change colors and flavors, and can never be finished.

Several months after the competition, Soulos recreated his goat-cheese 'truffles' at an 'after-hours' beer-and-cheese tasting at his Arlington, Virginia, shop. And, one could taste why he had won. As crazy as Perpetual Goatstoppers might have sounded, they weren't. Soulos had successfully mashed-up the tang of goat cheese with contrasting textures (soft cheese, popping candy), shots of gingered sweet and spice, and a frisson shot of grape juice.

As the evening began, folk tasted three 'unadorned' sheep's milk cheeses and six beers: a Belgian sour gueuze, an English oak-aged barleywine, a German hefe-weizen, a Trappist tripel, a Trappist-brewed brettanomyces beer, and a Spanish 'craft' beer.

I mentioned the affinity of cheese for beer. How serving a California Cabernet Sauvignon with a cheese is like pouring jam on the cheese. How, at the very least, beer is a wash with cheese; it doesn't fight it. How, at its best, beer shares with cheese the flavors of kitchen, field, and 'funky' fermentation.

It was Soulos, however, who had the best line of the evening. "With cheese, wine is an a**hole. Beer is a friend."

The 'stunner' of the evening was the 'craft' beer from Spain, La Socarrada —a Valencian ale brewed and infused with rosemary and rosemary honey. Tried with the goat-cheesed Goatstoppers, flavors of sweet and savory popped in the mouth as if one had bitten into a pod of cardamom.

And, you too can make Perpetual Goatstoppers at home. Soulos has graciously shared his recipe. Serve the beers. Amaze your friends!

INGREDIENTS

• 8 oz Chèvre Goat Cheese
• 2 oz candied ginger, finely chopped
• 2 1/2 cups Burstin' Berry Poppin' Pebbles (or Pop Rocks)
• 1 bunch red seedless grapes

INSTRUCTIONS

• Wash and de-stem red grapes.
• In large zip-lock bag, combine 2 oz. of crushed candied ginger and the cereal. Lightly crush into small pieces.
• Pinch off a small amount of chevre, and slightly flatten out to make a small indentation for the grape.
• Place grape in center of goat cheese, and work the cheese completely around the grape, to create a small cheese ball. Repeat.
• Roll cheese balls in ginger and cereal mixture until evenly coated.

-----more-----

A Victory, with Stilton

The month of November was —for three thousand, three hundred, and thirty-eight of us— National Blog Posting Month: NaBloPoMo, for short. The idea was to write and post one blog entry per day.

I managed to complete the month, but only just. Writing 30 short-form pieces in 30 days, of content of worth, of length greater than a Tweet or photo caption, posted relatively on schedule, while holding down a real job, proved downright difficult. The exercise only increased my astonishment that 'real' writers who write for a living —and write much, much longer pieces— do so under (multiple) deadline demands.

Tonight, for this 30th post, I celebrated (and toasted writers everywhere). I opened a bottle of Victory Brewing Storm King and unwrapped a chunk of Stilton cheese.

First released by Victory Brewing (of Pennsylvania) well over a decade ago, Storm King is a very dark beer, and quite strong (9.1% alcohol-by-volume) and roasty. The brewery calls it an Imperial Stout, but with the its aromatic slug of resiny and piney hops, Storm King out-muscles parvenu Black IPAs at their own game. (In the 1990s, there had been no such Black IPA style designation.)


Stilton, a British blue cheese, has a stinky-foot aroma (in a good, non-Rex Ryan way) and a buttery, salty flavor. As I did, eat the cheese while drinking a strong dark beer like an imperial stout. In a pas de deux of flavors, the beer's roastiness will soften the cheese's blue mold, which, in its turn, will calm the beer's roastiness.

Thirty posts written, I'm sipping from a glass of Storm King, and nibbling on crumbles of Stilton. That's a victory. Until next year, NaBloPoMo; until next year.

********************
By cheese law, Stilton (or, at least, cheese called Stilton) can only come from the three English counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire. Cheese made in the town of Stilton, ironically, cannot be designated as Stilton.

The Session: The Great Online Beer & Cheese-Off

The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community begun in March of 2007 by Stan Hieronymus of Appellation Beer, and co-moderated with Jay Brooks of the Brookston Beer Bulletin.

On the first Friday of every month, one beer blogger hosts The Session: Beer Blogging Friday, choosing a specific, beer-related topic, inviting all bloggers to write on it, and posting a roundup of all the responses received.

For more information, view the archive page.

For May 2011, Jay Brooks himself hosted the 51st iteration of The Session. His topic was The Great Online Beer & Cheese-Off.

I’ve been to many cheese and beer tastings, whether part of a structured dinner or a separate dedicated cheese event. In almost every case, whoever put on the tasting chose the beer and the cheese. If you’ve done likewise, I’m assuming you’ve had the same experience. Some pairings work, others don’t. Whichever way it goes, you usually only get one shot at it, that is just one cheese paired with one beer. But finding that divine pairing always made the effort worthwhile because when it works, boy does it ever. A perfect pairing of cheese and beer is practically spiritual. At least to me, but as I say; I love cheese.

So I was thrilled when someone figured out another way to sample cheese and beer. During the first SF Beer Week three years ago, Vic Kralj — who owns The Bistro in Hayward — hosted a different kind of cheese and beer event: the “cheese-off.” What Vic did was pick five cheeses and then invited five breweries to play along. Each brewery took the five cheeses and paired each with one of their beers.

On the night of the event, attendees got a plate of each cheese, in turn, along with the five beers (one chosen by each of the five breweries). You then tried each beer with the cheese and then picked the pairing you thought worked best.  

That brings us back to Session #51, and the topic of cheese and beer. Below are three cheeses. I chose ones that I believe are available throughout the U.S. and quite possibly beyond our shores. And they all sell via mail order, too. So pick up some of each, or if you can’t find those specific cheeses, choose similar ones. 

• Maytag Blue, or another blue cheese.
• Widmer Cellars 1-yr old aged cheddar, or another aged cheddar.
• Humboldt Fog, or another goat cheese.

Pick a few beers you think will pair well with each cheese. Drink them with the cheese. Write up your results and post them on or before Friday, May 6.Leave a comment here, the announcement, or send me an e-mail so I can find your Session post.

I've done this many times for others, personally selecting the combinations, and, as Jay noted, insisting, but with enthusiasm, that the pairings 'worked.' Why not have my pre-&-post-conceptions organoletically tested? I was game!

***************
THE BEERS
For the venue, I chose Arrowine, a wine, beer, cheese, and charcuterie shop, in Arlington, Virginia. I asked Jesse Ploeg —the shop's beer buyer— to choose five beers. My only stipulations were that a dark beer and a saison be two of the five. And, not as a stipulation, but as a request, I asked that at least one be a local beer (for freshness of flavor) and that one be a beer that the store purchased from me (as a representative of Select Wines, Inc.).

Here are the five beers he selected, and his tasting notes:

• The Public Pale Ale, from DC Brau of Washington, D.C.
  DC Brau is the first production brewery to open in Washington DC since 1956. The Public Pale ale is its inaugural brew.
  
  Pours a nice orange color with a thick white head and some good spotty lacing as it makes its way down the glass.The nose is pretty hoppy with a bit of malt undertone. A good bit of pine, floral, and citrus hops. The flavor is along the same lines.
  
  
  
• Dubbel Cannon, from Heavy Seas Brewing, of Baltimore, Maryland.
  
  A Belgian-style IPA. Pour is a goldish-copper color with a white head and a ring of lacing down the glass. The nose and flavor brought floral/spicy hops, spicy Belgian yeast, and stone fruits. Zesty with medium mouthfeel. Hop presence gives way to fruit and spicy yeast. 7.25% abv.
  
  
  
• Moo Thunder Stout from Butternuts Beer & Ale, of Garratsville, New York.
  
  A 'milk' stout, brewed with lactose. Pours a rich, opaque black with dark brown edges and a creamy tan head. Soft aroma and flavor: malty with some roastiness, dark chocolate, and a hint of milk. Lighter side of the Stout Ale spectrum, without being water. Edges have a slight roasty bite, smoothed with chocolate, earth, toasted bread, slightly sweet. Finishes dry and fast. 4.9% abv.
  
  
  
• Saison de Lente from The Bruery, of Orange County, California.
  
  Cloudy, bright gold, with a large head of foam. Aromas and flavors of toasty yeast, warm spice, lemon, mowed grass, and pepper. Medium mouthfeel, lots of carbonation, slightly tart, and a long finish. 6.5% abv.
  
  
  
  
• Trappiste Rochefort 10 from Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy, in Belgium. The abbey was founded in 1230, and the monks began to brew beer sometime around 1595. The small brewery in the abbey, Rochefort Trappiste, is one of only seven Trappist breweries in the world.
  --Merchant du Vin
  
  Deep brown with a off-white creamy head. An aroma of spice, alcohol, raisin, plum, and ripe melon. A sensation of alcoholic warming is evident on the palate, with flavors of ripe plum pudding, peppermint, and white pepper. 11.3% ABV
  
  

***************
THE CHEESES
Then, I decided to mix things up a bit. I asked Katie Carter —a cheesemonger at the store, and a soon-to-be cheesemaker in her own right (Afina Cheese)— to select three cheeses other than those Jay had suggested. Not there there was anything wrong with his trio —Humboldt Fog is a personal favorite of mine— but, just as with craft and imported beers, there is a trove of wonderful cheeses locally-fermented, and imported, now available in the US.

I asked Katie to keep to the spirit of Jay's choices, but to include a washed rind cheese as one of the three.

• Isle of Mull Cheddar
  A smokey Scottish cheddar was substituted for the Wisconsin cheddar.
  
  The Reade family creates this unpasteurized, traditional cheddar on a small island in northwest Scotland. Short summers provide little fresh pasture for the 100 cows that are raised by the family so diet is supplemented with silage and spent grain husks from a local whiskey distillery. This moist cheddar is made traditionally, meaning it is made in 40 pound drums and wrapped in cloth. This gauze rind allows the cheese to breathe and develop deep, complex flavors during its long aging period. The flavors are earthy and fruity with a bright acidity and subtle peatiness.
  
  
  
• Monte Enebro
  Combining the choices of a blue cheese and a goat's milk cheese.
  
  From the town Avila in Spain comes this extraordinary goat’s milk blue cheese. Formed into a flat log shape, this dense and rich cheese is not pierced, so the blue mold (penicillium roqueforti) grows only on the outside of the cheese. This unique cheese is well balanced with very bright, lemony acidity and a earthy creaminess. A great spring and summer cheese because of the bright, fresh flavors.
  
  
  
• Oma, from Von Trapp Farmstead.
  Substituting a funky washed-rind cheese for the tangy Humboldt Fog.
  
  Brothers Sebastian and Dan Von Trapp turn organic, raw cow’s milk from their family’s farm in Waitsfield, Vermont into this supple washed rind cheese. A mixed herd (mostly Jerseys) graze on lush Vermont pasture. For being a raw milk, washed rind cheese, the aroma is not intensely funky or earthy. The rich paste is soft and supple, yet will never reach a runny consistency. Oma has well balanced flavors of fresh, raw cream, toasted nuts, and chocolate. Low acidity.
  —Aged by Jasper Hill Farm, in Greensboro, Vermont.

***************
THE PREPARATION
Seven of us gathered at Arrowine on Thursday evening, 28 April 2011. There would be 15 pairings, so there was a 'spit' bucket, if one chose not to drink. Buckets are also provided at cheese judgings, Katie told us. The judges would otherwise be quite cheese-filled.



Left to right:

• Graham Reid, Arrowine wine buyer.
  
• Katie Carter, Arrowine cheesemonger, and "next level" cheesemaker at Afina Cheese.
  
• Badr Adam Abaichi, Arrowine cheesemonger.
  
• Jesse Ploeg, Arrowine beer manager.
  
• Michael Zelechoski, craft beer sales for beer/wine wholesaler Hop & Wine Beverage.
  
• Not pictured: Aldo Molina, Arrowine cheesemonger;Thomas Cizauskas of YFGF, behind the camera.

Katie gave us a quick overview of the cheeses. Isle of Mull Cheddar is aged in a cloth bandage, which protects the cheese as it ages but also allows it to "breathe," its flavor developing. The Isle of Mull is an island off the west coast of Scotland. Cheddaring is the process of making cheddar, a cutting and concentrating of the curds. 

The Monte Enebro is a pasteurized goat's milk cheese that has been inoculated with Penicillium roqueforti —the same mold as in 'blue cheese'— but only on the surface rind of the cheese, rather than veined throughout the loaf, as in blue cheese. She described the flavor result as herbaceous. 

The milk for the Oma comes from an organic-certified dairy in Vermont. The rind is washed with wine and the tomme style cheese is aged for 3 months. The rind develops a characteristic "stinky foot" aroma, but the cheese within the rind does not, and is soft and slightly sweet. Oma is not pasteurized.

Then, it was my turn. I asked the participants to avoid the flights of fancy found on beer rating websites and wine magazines. Paraphrasing the British website CyclopsBeer, I suggested, instead, they use descriptions more useful for a typical beer consumer: no more than 5 words for the appearance, aroma, and taste. More specific flavor terms —such as orange, chocolate, toffee, etc.— should only be used if those flavors/aromas could be overwhelmingly picked up. 

When tasting beer and cheese together (or any beer and food), the taste of the food and the beer together is more important (and more satisfying) than the the taste of the beer or the food by itself. Thus, taste the beer first. Describe it. Then, taste the cheese. Describe it. Then, taste the beer and cheese together, and describe the synergistic result. "One plus one equals three," said wine buyer Graham. 

The beers were described by beer manager Jesse Ploeg as each was tasted. (See his notes, above.) 

***************
THE TASTING

Saison de Lente 

Most of the panel remarked on the slightly tart but crisp taste of the saison. Badr noted that the peat of the cheddar brought out a sweetness in the finish of the beer, while Katie felt that the saison overpowered the cheddar.

Jesse said that the Monte Enebro goat cheese "spanked the saison." Katie tasted "band aid" in the combination.

Graham liked how the saison cut through the stink of the Oma. Katie sensed a meaty and slimy character when the Oma and saison were tasted together. 

The Public 

I remarked on the candied grapefruit nose of the beer; Graham noted the quick finish. Katie liked the interplay between the hops and the sharp cheddar flavor; Graham noted a smoked almond flavor when the two were tasted together. I felt that the beer and cheddar together completed the flavors of the other. 

There was less enthusiasm for the Monte Enebro. I found the pale ale and the cheese tasted medicinal together; Mike added it was like "going to the dentist." Aldo found that the cheese overpowered the beer; the hops simply vanished.

Badr found the Oma's aroma complimentary to the beer's hops.. Mike added: "If you like hops, you'll like this combination." 

Trappiste Rochefort 10
All found flavors and aromas of plum. Katie noted "warm spices," such as ginger and cinnamon. Graham noted the (pleasant) aroma of old banana.

Tasted with the cheddar, the Trappiste seemd to gain an artificial sweetener flavor, Graham observed. Katie said the flavor of the cheddar simply vanished but the beer seemed more carbonated.

No one liked the combination of the Monte Enebro blue goat cheese with the beer; the flavors did not meld at all.

Mike found the Trappiste and Oma to be a pleasingly earthy combination. Katie noticed a Gran Marnier flavor. Tasting that, Katie brought out some Parmesan, feeling that the subtle fruitiness of the hardcheese would mesh with the Trappiste. We we all astonished by the gorgeousness of this unplanned combination ... which, again, was the point of this endeavor.

Dubbel Cannon
When the bottle of this 'Belgian-style IPA' was opened, the panel found it too cold, and the pairings simply harsh. Things improved, when a second bottle was opened 15 minutes later. Badr noted flavors of sweet spices, brown sugar, and molasses.

In tandem with the cheddar, the group tasted a strong earthinesss. I liked it; Katie not so much.

Jesse found the pairing with the Monte Enegro very salty, "like Virginia Beach water," he said.

No one cared for the beer and the Oma together: the flavors clashed unpleasantly.

Moo Thunder Stout
Katie said the beer reminded her of iced coffee. Jesse said that Moo Thunder Stout was one of his end-of-the-day "go-to" beers; not too strong (4.9% abv), but very flavorful.

Graham liked the beer but he faulted the combination of the beer with the cheddar: "Neither enhances the other," he said. It's empty calories."

On the other hand, everyone reacted positively to the stout with the Monte Enebro blue goat cheese. "The beer's coffee character really accentuates the cheese's goatiness, " said Jesse.

No one cared for the pairing of the Oma with the stout. "They feel slimy together" said Mike, "like I just ate a worm."

***************
SUMMARY
Most of the panel felt that the Oma washed rind cheese was generally unsuccessful as a mate for any of the cheeses. I disagreed; I liked it with both The Public Pale Ale and with the Dubbel Cannon. However, I agreed that it was not nearly as successful as some of the other pairings.

For his favorite combination, Graham voted for DC Brau's The Public Pale Ale paired with the Isle of Mull Cheddar, as did Jesse.

Katie chose Butternuts' Moo Thunder Stout with the Monte Enebro blue goat cheese, as did Mike.

Badr voted for the combination of the Trappiste Rochefort 10 ale with the Parmesan. I agreed, but also selected the peaty Cheddar with the hoppy Public Pale Ale.

The consensus surprise of the evening was Katie's's last-minute substitution of the Parmesan over the goat cheese to taste with the Trappiste Rocheforte 10 ale.

***************
CONCLUSION
One lesson of the evening?

Beer and cheese do indeed taste wonderful together, but not all combinations are created equal, and some are downright no good. Do not merely postulate a pairing, but actually taste a proposed beer and cheese, together. Then decide. "The first rule of beer-and-cheese pairing is that there are no rules, only enthusiastic suggestions."

Another lesson was something that I thought about after the session had concluded, and we were cleaning up.

Only just recently, life in the US was only light lager and processed cheese. Now, the time is indeed a golden era for beer. The variety and quantity of beer available is stunning. Not all is of high quality, but a lot is, and this could be said for cheese as well. Such delights are not guaranteed. As consumers, we need to support those breweries, dairies, restaurants, and merchants who provide us with this bounty.

Thank you to Jay Brooks of the Brookston Beer Bulletin for suggesting this delicious exercise. Thank you to my fellow panelists. And, last, but not least: thank you to the owners of Arrowine for graciously donating the venue, the cheeses, and the beers.

***************

• Today is Sunday. The Session is published on the first Friday of the month. I was tardy.
• See a slideshow of the tasting here.
• Read Jay Brooks' summary of all the submissions to The Session. There were quite a few.
• Read about another Arrowine beer & cheese event, for charity, held four years earlier: here.
  
• Read more about Beer-with-Cheese: here.
  
• Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virgina— I sell the beers of Heavy Seas.

FREE Beer & Cheese

Wendy Buckley owns and operates Screwtop —a wine bar, café, and shop— in the Clarendon district of Arlington, Virginia.

Wendy also sells —and likes— cheese and beer. Wednesday, 2 February, 2011, she'll pair those two in a demonstration she calls a Super Bowl Beer & Easy Cheesy Appetizers Class.

Participants will taste five beers with five cheese-based appetizers. Prepare-at-home recipe cards will be available. Here's the lineup:

• Prairie Breeze Cheddar.
  Served with Stoudt's Winter Ale.
  Hoppy red ale. 6.2% alcohol-by-volume (abv). Pennsylvania.
  
• Red Dragon Mustard Seed Cheese.
  Served with The Raven Special Lager.
  Amber lager. 5.5% abv. Baltimore, Maryland.
  
• Morbier Cheese, Spicy Chorizo Salami, and Beer Mustard.
  Served with Allagash Dubbel.
  'Belgian abbey-style' ale. 7% abv. Maine.
  
• Buttermilk Blue Cheese/Roqufort Dip on Endive.
  Served with Heavy Seas Siren Noire Imperial Chocolate Stout.
  Strong stout, brewed with chocolate nibs. 8% abv. Baltimore, Maryland.
  
• Fondue prepared with Gruyere and Comte Cheese, and Beer.
  Served with Brooklyn Brewing Local 1.
  Strong 'Belgian-style' pale ale. 9% abv. Brooklyn, New York.

I'll be on hand to assist Wendy, to talk a bit about the beers, and to offer some enthusiastic suggestions on pairing beer with cheese.

So, how much would you pay for all of this? $40? ... $30 .... $20? Well, how about zero, nada, nothing!

Wendy is offering all of this sipping and nibbling for free, but with one proviso. For that $0 price, you have to be a member of Screwtop's wine club. Otherwise, the cost is five dollars.

***************

• Easy Cheesey Recipe cards: here.
  
• More on beer with cheese: here.
  
• Caveat lector: As a representative of Select Wines, Inc. —a northern Virginia wholesaler of beer and wine— I sell all of the beers in this event.

Pic(k) of the Week: Still Life with Cider & Cheese

Real cheese and real cider:

the product of fermenting fresh apple juice. The amount of apple juice which went into the final product must be between 85 and 100% and should be clearly stated on the container it is sold in or dispensed from. No artificial sweeteners, flavourings or colourings are permitted. ( For real perry, substitute pear juice.)

The cider:
Gwatkin Yarlington Mill Cider, pulled from a cask at Churchkey in Washington, D.C., 18 March 2010.

It was tart, with a tannic bite like an apple skin, and chewy, with background hints of barnyard funk and smoky phenolics. I remember the 2009 imported cask of this to have had a bit more of a cinnamon character (possibly from the choice of wood?) and to be of a darker reddish color. Gwatkin is the cidery, the 2009 Cider Maker of the Year in the UK. Yarlington Mill is the specific apple varietal. 7.5% alcohol by volume.

The cheeses (l-r):
Meadow Creek Grayson, from Virginia (raw cow's milk, washed rind, aka 'stinky.'); Tête de Moine, from Switzerland (raw cow's milk as well but a milder washed-rind than the Grayson); Monte Enebro, from Spain (pasteurized cow's milk; slightly tangy. Beautiful 'bloom' presentation. Its slight tang paired well with the cider).

*********************
Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on a Saturday, and often of a 'good fermentable' as subject.

Don't forget the cranberries ... or the glasses

Last night, I forgot the cranberries.

I was the guest speaker at a beer-with-cheese tasting, a charity fundraiser. Just before begining, I silently reviewed my talking points.

How is beer made? How is cheese made? Why pair cheese with beer? Do your beer a favor: drink it fresh, and drink it from a glass, not from a bottle. If you drink beer from a bottle, you won't be able to smell the aromas, a major contributor to flavor.

To facilitate the last point, I will often bring 5 ounce dessert wine glasses to a beer tasting.

The bulb holds 4 ounces of beer, a good sample size when several beers are to be tasted. The taper concentrates the aromas. The flare allows the drinker to smell the aromas (without dipping a nose into the beer!).

But last night ... I had forgotten the glassware. The host (the event was held in a private home) graciously pulled out 20 or so wine glasses, and the tasting proceeded.



On the right: a triple-creme, to be served with Allagash White. The clue is in the name. A triple-creme or cream has a high concetration of butterfat. The acidity and coriander spice of the beer both cuts through and sits well with the cheese.

On the left: a 3-year aged Gouda, to be served with Brooklyn Lager. Aged Gouda's sweet caramel nuttiness plays off the slightly sweet toasted notes of the beer.

Not pictured:
Danish Blue, served with Abita Turbo Dog (brown ale). Even though the beer has a dark caramel sweetness, its roasted notes soften the 'funk' of the blue cheese, and vice-versa.

Humboldt Fog goat cheese, served with Duchesse de Bourgogne (Flemish sour red ale). A deliciously tangy cheese, the Humboldt Fog tasted appropriate against the tart almost cherry-fruity character of the Belgian beer. This pairing elicited the greatest number of comments: some quite favorable, some not so.

Époisses (washed rind cheese), served with Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hop3 (IPA). The, shall we say, 'stinky' aromatics of the cheese mated well with the pungent aromas of the American hops.

Oh, yes, about those cranberries.

For almost every childhood Thanksgiving I can remember, as we would push ourselves, sated, from the table, the meal ended, our mother would call us back: "Oh, I forgot the cranberries." We'd sit back down, and eat some more. Whether intentional or not, this ritual seemed to repeat itself every year. It became a family mantra for "be prepared."

Last night I forgot the cranberries, that is, the beer glasses, again.

**************************************

• The book in the above photo is Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher. It's an instructive and entertaining primer on just that.
• Caveat lector: As an employee of a beer & wine wholesaler in northern Virginia, I sell the beers of Allagash, Brooklyn, Abita, and Heavy Seas (but not Duchesse de Bourgogne).

Cheddar with beer

There was a door prize for members of Giramondo Wine Adventures at last evening's Beer 101 lecture, in Washington, D.C.

Cabot Creamery, a Vermont dairy farmer's cooperative, donated a gift pack of its cheddar cheeses.

For several years now, Cabot has been an advocate of pairing beer with its cheeses. They've created a printed guide to pairing beer with cheese; participants also received that.  (To be fair, the dairy recommends wine pairings as well.). Here's an earlier version which Cabot published in 2006 in cooperation with Clipper City Brewing of Baltimore, Maryland. (Click on the graphic for the full pdf file.)

Some bits & pieces:

• The pamphlet includes a recipe for Welsh Rarebit.
• Clipper City is now known as Heavy Seas Brewing. The McHenry Lager in the pamphlet is now known as Heavy Seas Classic Lager.
• Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc., I sell the beers of Heavy Seas in northern Virginia.

VeggieDag Thursday: Toasted Cheese Sandwich

Today: a quick recipe for a toasted cheese open-faced sandwich .. as if a recipe were needed!

This sandwich was made with Sottocenera, an unpasteurized cow's milk cheese, speckled with truffles, with a cinnamon-spiced ash rind. (Imported from Veneto, Italy.) Substitute with your preferred cheese.

*****************************
Lightly butter both sides of the bread. I used sourdough bread and Earth Balance, a butter substitute, just because. Lightly toast both sides.

Slice the cheese into thin strips.



Sprinkle with a dash of garlic powder, smoked paprika, and oregano. Toast at 450 °F until the cheese bubbles and just begins to brown.



And, now, a gratuitous beer shot. Sandwich served with Mikkeller Nelson Sauvin Single Hop IPA. (Imported from Denmark.)



*******************************

• VeggieDag is a series of occasional Thursday posts on
  vegetarian cooking and food issues.
  
• Why the name? Here.
  
• Suggestions and submissions from chefs and homecooks welcomed: Here.

Pic(k) of the Week: The Best Cheese Ever?

The

Most

Delicious

Cheese

Ever!

... So says Sara, the cheesemonger at River City Cellars, in Richmond, Virginia.

The river in question is the James River. The cheese in question is an aged Gouda, from the Netherlands. Say 'GOO-dah,' or, if you're traveling in the Low Countries, say 'KHOW-dah,' sounding as if you were about to clear your throat (but won't).

Gouda, a cow's milk cheese, has a fairly high milk-fat content —near 50%— a chewy loaf, and a nutty/creamy flavor. But, ah, when it's been aged! It takes on a firmer cheddar-like texture, it deepens in color to near orange, it gains a rich nutty/sharp/sweet complexity, and it sprouts crunchy crystals of lactic acid, derived from the fermentation of cheese's sugar —lactose.

Pair your Gouda with a nutty beer, like a märzen, or a toasty beer like a bock, or a doppelbock, with its sweet plummy flavors. Delightful.

*********************

• More about cheese-with-beer here.
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays.

"Beer is NOT appropriate for food," a wine guy said.

"Beer is NOT appropriate for food," a wine guy said to me.

My response could have been, "Well, then, why are some wines described as 'food-friendly', as if other wines would not be?"

But in the interest of comity, I offered no response, just a shrug, and an inner regret that the speaker would not be enjoying one of life's pleasures.

As an example, I recently matched these cheeses with these beers in a beer and food demo:

Raclette and Gruyere with Brooklyn Lager.
---> Sweet and nutty cheese (gruyere; raclette is more neutral a cheese) pairs with firm yet not overpowering sweet malt middle and new mown grass aroma.

Humboldt Fog with Brooklyn Local One.
---> Lemony and faintly barnyardy cheese pairs with strong beer of sweet food spices and lemons.

Aged Gouda with Allagash Reserve Dubbel.
---> When aged, an almost caramel character. How delicious with the rummy character of a dubbel.

Grafton aged Cheddar with Clipper City's Winter Storm Imperial ESB.
---> Buttery, earthy, and sharp cheese (it's not your grandfather's yellow cheddar) pairs wonderfully with the earthy nose and tannic finish.

Sweet Grass Dairy Green Hill with Stone Arrogant Bastard.
---> Pungent with pungent!! And the cheese is oh so creamy.

Rogue Smokey Blue with Victory Storm King.
---> The malty/burnt flavors of strong stouts 'flavor dance'with blue cheeses. The roast softens the funk of the blue, whereas the cheese's mold softens the roast of the beer. Smokey flavor of the blue is a plus.

First, sip the beer. Then, nibble the cheese. Now ... do both. Again, celebrate the flavor dance. Each enhances the other.

More on beer and cheese pairing here.

A delicious cheese platter, including Sweet Grass Dairy,
served at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur, Georgia.
Accompanied with Dales Pale Ale and Reisdorf Koeslch. July 2008.
I expanded upon this post, after gentle prodding from Mr. Bryson. (See comments.)

Beer with Cheese and NPR

The former Carnegie Library, a glorious building in Washington, D.C., now houses the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

On a recent cold November evening, the Society played host to National Public Radio. Susan Stamberg moderated a discussion with The Kitchen Sisters about their radio program: Hidden Kitchens.

What's the beer connection?

During a reception beforehand, cheese was donated by Cabot Creamery of Vermont and beer by Clipper City Brewing of Baltimore, Maryland. Wine was provided by Chateau Morrisette of Virginia.

Placards on each table displayed the appropriate pairings.

• McHenry Lager with Cabot Reduced Fat Cheddar. This all-malt lager, reminiscent of what mainstream American lagers once tasted like, has a subdued quantity of malt and hops but enough character to pair with this reduced fat cheddar. [At the 6 o'clock position in the photo.]
• Clipper City Pale Ale with Cabot 3-year Aged Cheddar. The earthy bite and aromas of bitters and pale ales matches the sharpness of cheddars. [At the 3 o'clock position in the photo.]
• Small Craft Warning Uber Pils with Cabot Pepper Jack Cheddar. The beer's hellerbock-like sweet malt soothes the spice of the cheese. But its spicy hops [thus the beer is designated an Uber Pils rather than bock] match the intensity of the cheese's peppery spiciness. [At the 12 o'clock position in the photo.]
• Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale with Cabot Sun-Dried Tomato Basil Cheddar. The ebullient herbal and fruity hop aromas and flavors of the beer are a match for the cheddar's basil and sun-dried tomatoes. [At the 9 o'clock position in the photo.]

NPR's Susan Stamberg wasn't a convert. She stayed with wine: wonderful juice from Virginia winery Chateau Morrisette. But there was a split loyalty. NPR's Ari Shapiro, sartorially elegant, chose beer.

A week earlier, I had tutored a beer-with-cheese tasting, a charity event for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The major theme of that evening was that beer is a wonderful mate with cheese. In fact, I claimed, most any beer pairs well with most any cheese. (Exceptions might be some of the more extremely flavored beers.)

The same does not always hold true with wine.

According to common lore, matching wine and cheese is a no-brainer. But when a rich, plush red wine meets a fresh, tangy chèvre, it causes an unpleasant tannin explosion in the mouth.

Wine Spectator
100 Great Cheeses
September 2008

Even so, the Wine Spectator does not praise beer's companionship. But the Baltimore Sun did, in the article Crafty Combo.

• More here on Hidden Kitchens and Hometown Appetites.
• Photos here.