On Sunday afternoon, I was invited to join in on a beer and cheese tasting.  The theme of the event, in keeping with the Halloween weekend was “In a Dark, Dark Beer.”  We were encouraged to “bring our darkest and scariest” beer and get into the Halloween spirit. I brought along a bottle of Eel River‘s Porter, Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout, and a few bottles of home brew Wee Heavy Scotch Ale for good measure.

The event was held a few blocks away from me on Portrero Hill, and hosted in Tim’s backyard.  All afternoon the weather toyed with us constantly – it would threaten to rain, then clear up for twenty minutes, then resume a light sprinkling, followed by more sunlight.   In the end, the weather held out enough for everyone to enjoy the time outside.  With the weather holding out, we often held our glasses up to the sky to examine the color and consistency. Many of our darker beers coated the inside of the glass like iodine, leaving behind a brown residue of sticky malt.

As the guests piled in, a great collection of bottles began to emerge, along with a huge spread of cheeses. I was impressed.

It was an informal event, with the focus being on an fun afternoon of sampling beers and cheeses, rather than a rigid experiment in tasting. No one furiously scribbled tasting notes, and but the interest level in the pairings was high, and suggestions to tasting and pairings were welcome.

One aspect of wine tastings that has often bothered me is a sense of competition.  I’ve often found that people want to be private with their tasting notes, and horde the information as if it was a limited resource. Not here – everyone was eager to share thoughts and comments, and refine their beer tasting palate.  As the bigger beers came out, I went exploring the in the cheese selection for some pairings.  Drawing on what I’d learned during sessions at GABF, I found some winners.

One pairing I’d heard recommended from Garret Oliver before was a strong blue cheese with a really dark stout.  When a bottle of Souther Tier’s Imperial Oatmeal Stout was cracked open, I paired it up with Roaring 40′s blue cheese – a slightly crumbly, rich blue cheese was an aggressive funkiness to it.   It took a strong cheese to stand up to these beers, and this was one of my favorites on the table.  I returned to it again and again as bigger, darker stouts came out, such as Three Floyd’s Milk Stout and The Dark Lord. I found the Dark Lord to be my favorite of the style – it’s richness depth was unmatched by any of the other beers.  And against the cheese… oh man.  It was good. It was particularly good with the cheese fudge, where cheese is used in place of cream, and lends itself to the texture more than flavor of the fudge.

 

Another beer that I was excited to try was Tröegs Mad Elf.  Brewed with honey and cherries, this 11% “winter warmer” is a big beer.  It had a bit of residual sweetness, and a clear Belgium yeast influence that masked it’s high alcohol.  I paired it up with a soft, raw milk washed rind cheese called “Brescianella Stagionata” that had a great washed rind funk to it.  I thought the pairing was pretty good, but Tim tried it, and complained that the cheese made his fingers smell.  He used slightly more descriptive language to complain about it, but seeing as how it involved a donkey, and I don’t think it’s be appropriate to repeat on a family oriented blog like this one.

 

 

As the sun got lower and the bottles got emptier the event wound down and people started to head home. Overall, I really liked the event – the freewheeling nature made for great conversation, and serious beer geeks got to try to great brews.  As much as I like really controlled pairings that showcase specific aspects, the freewheeling nature of the event made it so much more fun – creating a comfortable atmosphere and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

 

Want more pictures?  Get ‘em here!

 

Tags: Cheese, tastings

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 4:44 am and is filed under Pairings, Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.