Pairing Beer with Cheese, apparently it’s a Brie’ze!

Learning about beer and food is a lot of fun. We have been told that putting together a small-scale cheese and beer tasting is among the simplest gourmet adventures you can have. We were also told that you have to have at least one goat and one sheep, one soft and one hard, one blue, one washed rind and one aged to have enough to put together a small-scale cheese platter, but to be honest that seems like quite a lot of cheese to us!

Regardless we nipped down to the local Morrison’s (other supermarkets are available) and got me some cheese! we had previously done a little research on the best beers to go with certain cheeses and we found out that Blue Cheese bizarrely tastes herbal when paired with a Hoppy IPA, and as most of us are blue cheese lovers we had to try that one!

Following more research we purchased a number of different beers to experiment with, and listed below are the ones we enjoyed the most!

1. Hefeweizen with fresh Mozzarella.  – it was an odd one this one with the creaminess of the mozzarella and the fruitiness of the beer it was very reminiscent of fruit with ice cream.

2. IPA and Blue Cheese, As I said earlier,the hops in the beer give the blue cheese a herbal like quality which is odd but very pleasant, and the fattiness of the cheese also reduces the bitterness of the beer giving it a pleasant tang.

3. Amber to Brown Ale or a Continental Lager with a washed-rind cheese. this was amazing, by far one of the better pairings, the mild roasted flavour created a liquid grilled cheese sandwich like taste, and we wanted it on tap!

4. Stout with an Aged Gouda, this was another one of our favourites, this time because we are all carnivores, it was meaty and smokey, and down right delicious.

5. Scotch Ale or Barley Wine with a Triple-crème bloomy-rind, If the Gouda and Stout was the main, this one was certainly the dessert, it had a caramel like sweetness to it, that would satisfy many a sweet tooth.

What are your favourite pairings? if you haven’t tried any yet, why not have a go and let us know how you got on!