BEER AND CHEESE - A NIGHT OF INDULGENCE!

BEER & CHEESE
WEDNESDAY 29th MAY 2013

Location: Cuvee Bar - Leeds

Beer and Cheese, one of life's underrated partnerships.  So what better way to demonstrate the brillaint matches and marriages then to host a cheese and beer night, with an ever so passionate colleague of mine Nick Copland.  Nick is renown in Leeds and the Yorkshire area as one half of Homage du Fromage and a key player in the Leeds Loves Food festival and other events showcasing local produce.

After two meetings one which involved an afternoon of cheese and beer tasting (the meetings after were interesting) we settled on a range of cheeses of varying texture's flavours and aromas some being old favourites some that were off the wall.  

We looked at matching strength with strength, intensity with intensity.  We took spicy aromas and balanced them with hop bitterness, we also looked at sweet caramel flavours and paired with nutty flavours and washed rind.  

The result, well an evening of Beer and Cheese indulgence, presented with fun, facts and towards the end some slurring of words.....

Below are the Cheese's and the Beer's we matched them too......

Enjoy!

COMTE

Comte is a cooked and pressed cow's milk cheese, made only from the milk of the

Montebeliard cow.  It is the first French AOC (label of origin) cheese, guaranteeing the

quality of the cheese.  It's typically described as salty, mild, fruity with a little sweetness. 

It has a strong nutty flavour, and sometimes a subtle hint of nutmeg.

Saint – 4.6% ABV

A premium British Lager, brewed using Saaz Hops, 

Pilsner and Caragold malts as well as using the 

finest locally sourced South downs water.  It has a clean 

fresh flavour with no lingering aftertaste. Saint has a sharp 

citrus hop taste with floral and soft fruit notes.  Saint uses 

a yeast that fully ferments all the sugars out of the liquid 

creating a beer that is low in carbs.

Here the sweetness of the Comte enahances and

complements the residual sweetness in Saint.  The

floral flavours and aromas in Saint are enhanced by

the fruity Comte.

_____________________________

Abro – 5.1% ABV

Premium Swedish Pilsner, made using carefully chosen 

ingredients. Spalt Select, Perle, Tettnang and Taurus hops, 

Pilsner and Munich malts alongside spring water from the 

brewery in Smaland.  Abro has a flowery, grape aroma.  

On the palate it demonstrates sweet malty flavours, a 
hint of citrus with a generous pilsner hop bitterness.  

Abro is a beer brewed under the Rheinheitsgebot

Here the bold hop bitterness cuts through the

saltiness and slight acidity in the cheese.  The floral

flavours are complemented leaving a floral, slight

herbal note throughout.  This allows a the sweet

malts in the Abro to work with the subtle sweetness 

of Comte allowing a pronounced experience.

___________________________________

HARROGATE BLUE

Golden bodied, delicate blue veined cheese, made with milk from 'classy' Yorkshire cows!

It is a soft and luxuriously creamy cheese delivering a mellow blue flavour with a hint of

black pepper on the finish

Anchor Steam – 4.9 % ABV 
       
Anchor Steam demonstrates a deep-amber colour with a thick creamy head and a rich distinctive flavour.  There is a fresh hoppy aroma with a hint of caramel.  It is quite light and refreshing on the palate, slightly fruity, with a dry finish.

Harrogate Blue demonstrates an initial bold cheese flavour, with creamy textures to follow. The maltiness from Anchor Steam cuts through the saltiness, whilst the carbonation contrasts against the creamy texture that coats the mouth, this will allow the blue to prevail at the end with the beer providing a little drying.

___________________________________

RIBBLESDALE GOATS CHEESE

From the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, Ribblesdale Goats Cheese, does not have that 'goaty' overpowering characteristic you get with most goats cheeses.  This is a lot more refined, with a clean, fresh lemony aroma, with a slightly dry texture.

Watou - WitBier - 5.0% ABV

A Belgian style Wit Bier,  The beer demonstrates lots of citrus aromas, lemon and orange peel with a hint of spice from the coriander seeds.  There is a slight earthy bitterness followed by a bold hit of citrus and a residual sweetness to end. Dry finish with a slight acidity.

First you’ll experience the goats cheese coat the tongue and leave an earthy flavour.  Watou will lift these earthy flavours and provide and replace with an intense citrus lemon flavour that is enhanced by the cheese, coming from the back of the mouth up through the nose.  Sweet toffee flavours prevail on the palate whilst the carbonation cleanses any residual fats.

_______________________________________

WOOKY HOLE CHEDDAR

Wooky Hole is a full bodied farmhouse cheddar made at the Dorset Cheese Farm using milk from local herds.  The cheese is then wrapped in cloth and taken to the Caves at Wookey Hole where it is transported deep into the heart of the caves.  The cheese is left to mature in this constant atmosphere for up to six months.  
It is tasted and tested regularly to ensure it retains its moisture and takes on the full flavour and earthy characteristics of these historic caves. 

Kriek Boon – Cherry Lambic - 4.0% ABV

The cherries and young lambic create a red beer that is both natural and fresh, with an absolutely unforgettable sweet and sour taste. 
This is kriek as it should be, with nothing but real cherries and lambic.  
They use old and young lambic beer that has aged in oak casks. When the lambic is 6 months old, 25% black cherries are added. This provokes the second fermentation. It is then clarified, filtered and bottled.

The sweet, sour flavours from the beer cuts through the saltiness and earthy tones of the cheddar.  This enables the sweetness of the cheese to prevail and help cut through the sour lambic wild yeasts.  The subtle nutty flavours in the cheddar enhance and complement the almond flavours of the cherries.  The Lambic is aged in wild open air vessels, whilst the cheese is aged in caves.  These methods complement each other, and you can taste the natural flavours in both working together.

____________________________________

MUNSTER

A strong tasting soft cheese made mainly from milk from the Vosges, between Alsace, Lorraine and Franche-Comte in France.  Derived from the Alsace town of Munster where the cheese was conserved and matured by Monks.  The cheese is protected by AOP which means there are key steps that need to be followed to make the cheese: A limited area of milk production, precise characteristics of the transformation in cheese. It is made from unpasteurised cow's milk and formed into flat cylinders.  The cheese's rind must be washed regularly, and matured in damp cellars for five weeks.

Worthington’s White Shield – IPA – 5.4% ABV

The archetypal beer, born out of tradition and heritage, 

an original India Pale Ale brewed for the expats in India in the late
1800’s. High in hops, red apple fruit, and complex to the n’th degree! 

The drinker will experience everything from toasted malt, bitter hops, 

biting carbonation, hints of liquorice, drying yeast and burnt toffee.

The bold hop bitterness of WWS is quelled and neutralized by the

aromatic cheese.  The pungent sharp citrus aromas enhance the

red apple aromas in the beer, allowing a rounded balance of fruity

citrus to prevail.  The caramel, toffee flavours of the malts in WWS

complement the caramel flavours of the washed rind of Munster,

allowing the natural flavours of the cheese to shine through.

____________________________________

MIMOLETTE

Mimolette is an extraordinary cheese, traditionally produced around the French city of Lille.  It was originally produced for Louis XIV who, was looking at the time for a native French product to replace the very popular Dutch Edam.  The greyish crust, is due to Cheese Mites, intentionally introduced to add flavour.  It is coloured orange with anatto and has a sweet, nutty flavour with a hard texture much like Parmesan. Cut in thin slices it is fragrant and aromatic.

Chimay Tripel – 8.0% ABV

Golden Belgian trappist ale with a hazy amber glow.

On the nose spicy hop with a sweet honey aroma 

style.  On the palate there is a bold hop bitterness, 

which is quickly replaced by a generous punch of fruit 

flavours and a sweet maltiness.  The finish is dry with 

a touch of acidity and a lingering alcohol warming.

The sweet, nutty flavours of Mimolette counters the bitterness of the Chimay, and 

activates the fruit flavours. The aromatic aromas in the cheese enhances those spicy

hop aromas in Chimay creating a bold intense aroma. The beer refreshes the tongue

and palette, leaving a delicious buttery finish.  

    ___________________________________

COLSTEN BASSETT STILTON

Big flavours demand... well... big flavours! This authentic stilton brings sharp, blue tangs

and rich, elegant creamy finish. There is a depth and robustness that refuses to cower

before even a beer as robust as this. Complex, evolving as bit follows mouthful follows

bite... not for the feint-hearted!

Anchor Porter – 5.6% ABV

They use 100% malted barley, generous amounts of fresh, whole hops, entirely natural carbonation and a simple, natural brewing process which is like no other in the world. It has a deep black colour,  a thick, creamy head and the intensely rich flavour with a lingering coffee flavour and slight drying to finish.

Initial salty bold stilton flavours envelop the mouth and coat the tongue, then the hop flavours in the porter  help cut through those rich flavours and salt.  The malted barley brings an element of sweetness with a bold coffee flavour that stands up to the tang of the blue.  The creamy cheese is then complimented by the creamy texture of the beer with a slight drying that enables the cheese to prevail at the end.

______________________________

GORGONZOLA

A veined Italian blue cheese, made from unskimmed cows milk.  It has been reported that Gorgonzola has been made in Milan since AD 879 acquiring its greenish-blue marbling in the eleventh century.  Today it is mainly produced in Lombardy and Piedmont regions of Italy.  Under Italian law, Gorgonzola enjoys DOP and can only be produced in a number of Italian provinces

Yorkshire Stingo – 8% ABV

Some of the oak casks at Samuel Smith’s date back more than a century with the individual oak staves being replaced by the Old Brewery coopers over the years. Gradually the casks soak in more & more of the character of the ale fermented in stone Yorkshire squares. Yorkshire Stingo is aged for at least a year, matured in these well-used oak casks in the brewery’s underground cellars deriving fruit, raisin, treacle toffee, Christmas pudding and slight oaky flavours, before being further naturally conditioned in bottle.

The estery dried fruit flavours from the Barley Wine are complimented by the sweet creamy complexion of the gorgonzola.  This allows the earthy flavours to contrast against the hop bitterness, which draws through the warming alcohol. The creamy sticky cheese coats the mouth and is lifted by the subtle carbonation.  Cleansing the palate.