Since Free the Hops passed the Gourmet Beer Bill in May 2009, increasing the permissible ABV in Alabama from 6% to 13.9%, the market has changed beyond all recognition. That’s my excuse for slacking off horribly in posting articles here, so here’s a suggestion to help out those of you who, like me, sometimes feel a bit intimidated by all the new beers on the market: head over to the Free the Hops “where the beers are” forum and see what’s going on around the state!
Continuing my crusade to reclaim cheese from the grips of rotten grapes, I had a late breakfast of Gouden Carolus with two radically different cheeses.
The first cheese was a Camembert. If you have never had any, this is a soft, creamy French cheese with a chalky rind, and is very similar to Brie. I usually pick up very gentle notes of mushroom in the taste, along with masses of creaminess. This cheese is very subtle and delicate in taste, and is a style I have only recently become a fan of.
The second cheese was a 3 year aged Australian Cheddar cheese. This is a very assertive cheese, pretty much the diametric opposite of the Camembert – if the Camembert whispers sweet nothings in your ear in French, this Cheddar comes up to you and yells “G’day, mate, time for a tinny!”.
As I expected, Gouden Carolus Tripel handled these radically different cheeses with utter aplomb. With the Camembert it brought out the creamy, lush, buttery richness without drowning out any of the subtlety. With the Cheddar it calmed the cheesey exuberance without becoming harsh or watery or leaving any nasty after-taste.
Combine this experience with the barleywine pairings I did previously, and it looks as though the days of the rotten grape being paired with cheese are numbered.
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Beerlicious articles by Stuart Carter, stuart@beerlicious.net is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Tags: Camembert, Cheddar, Cheese, Gouden Carolus, Gouden Carolus Tripel
Thanksgiving meals, like Christmas, have a number of challenges when it comes to pairings. The turkey is sweet but can be rather flavourless. Sweet potato casserole can be extremely sweet indeed. There tends to be a lot of butter floating around, as well as cranberry sauce, gravy, and (at least in my household!) mustard sauce, too.
This combination of radically different flavours, textures, and fat content is enough to give anyone other than a world-class Sommelier nightmares.
For a beer connoisseur, it’s easy – give me a good Saison or French Farmhouse ale, and we’re done.
The explosive carbonation lifts the fats off your tongue – goodbye butter. There’s a sweetness in there that plays nicely with the turkey and the sweet potatoes (and brown sugar or marshmallows, depending which way you like to make it).
There’s a sharp acidity in there that laughs at the cranberries, and there is a final sharp snap of bitterness from the hops that scours your tongue, leaving it refreshed and waiting for the next bite.
Wine with my Thanksgiving meal? No thanks! Give me a Saison and I will give thanks 
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Beerlicious articles by Stuart Carter, stuart@beerlicious.net is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Tags: Saison Dupont, sweet potato casserole, sweet potatoes, Thanksgiving, Turkey
Too many people are willing to accept watery mass brands for their drinking pleasure, simply because of advertising. They carry that through into their cooking as well.
I refuse to accept this – that’s why I became involved in beer culture – so I kicked this recipe up a notch by using an Imperial Stout – Old Rasputin from North Coast, to be precise.
250ml/8.5oz Old Rasputin
250g/8.8oz sweet (unsalted) butter
75g/2.6oz cocoa
400g/14oz caster (superfine) sugar
142ml/4.8oz sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
275g/9.7oz plain (all purpose) flour
2.5 tsp baking soda
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180c / 350f. Butter and line a 23cm/9 inch springform tin.
Pour the Old Rasputin into a large wide saucepan, add the butter in spoons or slices and heat until the butter has melted. Whisk in the cocoa and sugar.
Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the mixture in the pan, then whisk in the flour and baking soda.
Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out mostly clean. Leave to cool completely in the tin on the cooling rack – this is a very moist cake.
When the cake is cold, sit it on a flat platter while you add the topping – a plain, white vanilla frosting makes the cake look like a glass of a fine stout.
Cut a slice of the cake and eat with some of the Old Rasputin. Wonder as the chocolate runs to the front of your mouth, followed by a rampaging horde of coffee flavours, then the sweetness is finally chased off your palate with an assertive *snap* of hop bitterness.
Now you can confidently leave those watery mass brands on the shelf for those of a less discriminating palate to purchase while you enjoy an extraordinary dessert served with a World Class beer.
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Beerlicious articles by Stuart Carter, stuart@beerlicious.net is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Tags: cake, chocolate cake, chocolate stout cake, North Coast, Old Rasputin
This is my favorite way to do food & beer pairings — stumble across something totally unexpected that’s amazingly good.
I already had a glass of Oktoberfest poured up when I decided to serve up a helping of homemade peach cobbler. I never dreamed the two would compliment each other.
Lo and behold, the gentle sweetness and light bready maltiness of the beer blended perfectly with the sweetness and peach flavors of the cobbler. It was stunning.
If you had asked me before hand what beer I would ideally pair with the cobbler, I would have said witbier or fruit lambic. I’ll give those a try someday. In the meantime, I had this pairing again after the first experiment and it held up perfectly. Serendipity.
Tags: peach cobbler, Spaten Oktoberfest
Bell’s is a new entry to the Alabama market. Their Amber Ale is probably one of the best examples of the style (84th percentile and B+ on the two big rating sites).
Today being a colder day, I decided to go with a beef chuck pot roast, with potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, and using some of the Amber Ale to provide the liquid component of the dinner.
This was a perfect meal for a colder day. The malt sweetness played off the beef and the sweet potato. The carbonation lifted the fat off the tongue, refreshing the mouth for each bite. The hop bitterness freshened the tastebuds and contrasted nicely with the sweet, fatty richness of the rest of the meal.
Sometimes simplicity is what you crave. This hit the spot exactly right.
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Beerlicious articles by Stuart Carter, stuart@beerlicious.net is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Tags: Beef, Bell's, Bell's Amber Ale, pot roast
It being Labor Day, and traditionally a cook-out kind of day, I decided to combine an old classic, a new twist, and something fantastic.
Burgers – who doesn’t like them? Brie – a cheese I have only recently discovered a liking for. And beer – the classic combo.
I went with the Indian Brown Ale from Dogfish Head, one of the best breweries in the world. Their IBA clocks in at 7.2% ABV, and is ranked as one of the best beers in the world on both major beer rating sites (95th percentile and A-, if you’re curious). The flavour is wonderfully layered, with hops, coffee, and caramel – almost like a caramel latte made with hops. It’s beautifully carbonated, with a gentle effervescence on the tongue. I wanted to know how this dangerously drinkable beer went with burgers and brie, so I kept it simple: bun, burger, a little ketchup, brie, and beer.
The malt sweetness and roastiness played off the caramelised surface of the burger. The hop bitterness contrasted nicely with the rich lushness of the brie. The combination – having the burger, brie, bun, and beer in the mouth at the same time – produced an explosive combination of flavours – coffee, chocolate, hop bitterness, beef sweetness, mushroomy creamy buttery extravagance from the brie.
Could you find a better pairing? Probably. But for me, on this nice September afternoon, this simple combination raised itself head and shoulders above the crowd into a memorable moment of beerliciousness.
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Beerlicious articles by Stuart Carter, stuart@beerlicious.net is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Tags: Brie, burger, Dogfish Head, Indian Brown Ale
I sincerely hope this doesn’t somehow come across as a knock against Highland Gaelic Ale — which is a fine beer — but it goes perfectly with this subpar Chinese takeout. Really, the Gaelic is a very good amber ale. Primo. It just happens to pair remarkably well with a less-than-mediocre food dish.
The food came from a nondescript typical Chinese takeout place in Alabama. General Tso’s is the standard by which I judge all Chinese joints, and this iteration was not high quality at all. As sweet as candy and no spicy heat at all. Fun to eat in a junk food sort of way, but not gourmet cuisine.
But the Gaelic classed the meal up quite a bit, offering a beautiful malty sweet compliment to the General Tso’s. Only the Gaelic Ale is not cloying, so it actually reduced the sickly sweet flavor of the chicken. And the chicken’s sweetness somehow brought out some interesting notes from the caramel malt that weren’t otherwise obvious, actually improving the experience of drinking the beer.
Call me crazy, but I’m going to rate this pairing as “perfection,” not because the food was particularly good, but because sometime in life you might find yourself eating crappy Chinese takeout and knowing which beer to put with it to improve the overall experience would be helpful.
The eggplant paremesan here is one of those frozen dealies that doesn’t taste anything like a frozen dealie. My wife loves eggplant parmesan and she is of the opinion that if you served this one in a good Italian restaurant, no one would be the wiser. From Costco.
Anyway, I am increasingly of the opinion that Italian food goes exceptionally well with Belgian beer. Which would explain why several of the craft breweries in Italy (inspired by the American craft brewing revolution) focus heavily on Belgian styles: http://www.bunitedint.com/portfolios/collections/beer/country.php?country=Italy They’ve figured out that Belgian style beers go very well with their native cuisine.
Gulden Draak is a Belgian strong dark featuring the typical spicy and dark fruity flavors of BSDs. Something like red wine. And BSDs typically compliment tomato-heavy Italian dishes very well. I’ve had a lot of success on this front and will probably reach for a Belgian style beer nearly every time I prepare an Italian style meal for the foreseeable future.
Tags: Eggplant Parmesan, Gulden Draak
I had the privilege of presenting a high gravity only beer dinner at the J Clyde on Saturday. I call it a privilege, but really it was a dirty job… but I did it, because I am That Kind Of Guy. No, no praise necessary. I Took One For The Team.
Grilled Gulf Shrimp served on a Fried Green Tomato and Remoulade paired with Terrapin Rye Squared
The high gravity Terrapin beers have just entered Alabama. This was my first experience with the Rye Squared. As usual the hops in the Terrapin worked wonders with the spice in the remoulade to make an explosive spice mix. Wonderful.
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja served with a traditional Chef’s Salad and La Roja Vinaigrette Dressing
Jolly Pumpkin make very interesting and complex beers using wild fermentation, and are not the easiest to get hold of. All of them have some brettanomyces to provide a sour, wild flavour and unique taste profile.
The combination with the vinaigrette dressing and the chef’s salad is divine. The gentle sourness provides an almost vinegary tang that works perfectly with the salad. Seek out Jolly Pumpkin ales – don’t be put off by the description “sour” – this is an exceptionally good beer.
Three Cheese Tortellini covered in an Alabama Chevre Pasta Sauce accompanied by Rochefort 8 Trappiste Ale
The three-cheese pasta and goat cheese sauce is a great dish in itself. The Rochefort is the 73rd best beer in the world (at the time of writing) and deserves this place – it is stunningly flavourful, rich and malty, explosively carbonated and delicious.
The combination is sheer perfection. The maltiness in the beer matches the rich unctuousness of the cheese, while the explosive carbonation scrubs the palate – and tongue – clean with every mouthful, cleaning and refreshing the palate to make every bite of the tortellini just as tasty as the first.
An example of a perfect beer and food pairing.
Cask Conditioned Ola Dubh Special 40 Reserve along with Sliced Smoked BBQ Mutton
Ola Dubh – Scottish Gaelic for Black Oil – is an old ale from Scotland. It’s matured in a cask that was previously used to mature single malt Scottish whisky from Highland Park, Scotland’s second most northerly distillery. It is rich, dense, tasty, with profound notes of single malt; a sublime beverage.
The Ola Dubh stands in stark contrast to the rich smokiness of the pulled mutton and the citrus-infused BBQ sauce, perking up your taste buds and providing a nice digestif to finish off the main course.
Good People Fatso Imperial Stout Ice Cream Float
Fatso is the new Imperial Stout from Birmingham’s own Good People brewery. Its taste has masses of coffee richness and an almost silky mouthfeel. In the ice cream float, it mutates into the richest, densest, most silky mocha coffee you can even imagine. Absolutely wonderful.
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Beerlicious articles by Stuart Carter, stuart@beerlicious.net is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Tags: BBQ, cask conditioned, chef's salad, chevre, Fatso, fried green tomatoes, ice cream, Imperial Stout, Jolly Pumpkin, La Roja, mutton, Ola Dubh, Rochefort, Rye Squared, shrimp, Terrapin Beer, tortellini, Trappist