A lot of us eat snacks in the pub while enjoying a pint but did you ever consider what beer goes best with which snack? In July, at the Snooty Fox in Canonbury, a group gathered to enjoy an evening of snacks and beer and to get some tips on food matching using the ‘3 C’s’ (cut, complement and contrast).
The tasting started with salted popcorn, matched with Pilsner Urquell. This Czech lager has a bready sweetness that complemented the similar sweetness in the popcorn, while the beer’s bitterness cuts through the creaminess. ‘ It makes the popcorn quite edible’ was one comment. Popcorn is made by heating up corn kernels and in each kernel there is a small drop of water. Heat makes this expand until the husk pops.
The next beer was from the Nightjar Brew Co of Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire. Called Release the Pressure, this 4.2% ABV amber beer was paired with Jacob’s Mini Cheddars (the Leicester cheese variety). This baked snack is strongly flavoured and this beer was chosen because of its depth of flavour, with caramel notes and a little fruity character from the Amarillo and Simcoe hops.
The next snack was Pringles, a potato based nibble that is fried for eleven seconds. We had the the plain salted version. Howling Hops’ Swing Time DDH pale ale (5.2% ABV), full of citrus fruit from El Dorado, Citra and Columbus hops, was the beer choice this time. The fruity flavours, along with some bitterness, created a cut to the Pringles without overpowering the subtle flavours of the snack.
You couldn’t do a tasting like this without including a traditional bitter. The beer chosen was Burnt Mill’s The Other Worlds, described as an ESB and weighing in at 5.8% ABV. It was a collaborative brew with Kyoto Brew Co and used Cascade and El Dorado hops but, more unusually, included buckwheat and puffed brown rice. The malty character complemented dry roasted peanuts, where the umami roasty flavours were a complement to the roast malt character in the beer, while the beer’s bitterness also provided a cut to the nut’s sweetness. Burnt Mill brew just outside Ipswich and the head brewer is Sophie de Ronde. If you recognise the name, Sophie used to brew at Brentwood Brewery; it’s a small world!
The last beer was Bad Seed’s Painted Sanctuary Stout at 6% ABV. Bad Seed are based in Malton, North Yorkshire and, like so many other small breweries, were set up by home brewers. The beer is a flavoursome full bodied oatmeal with Amarillo hops. It was paired with Belgian Triple Chocolate cookies. This was truly a complement where the roasty characters in the beer bought out the similar chocolate notes in the cookie. In addition, the dryness and bitterness of the beer cut through the sweetness of the cookie.
Everyone’s palate is different but when attendees were asked which snack they liked the best, the winner by a mile was Mini Cheddars but the favourite combination was the stout and chocolate cookies and so the sweet tooths won!
If you are interested in attending one of my beer and food matching sessions, visit http://cryneinyourbeer.sitelio to see what tastings are planned or drop me an email to go onto my mailing list: christine.cryne@gmail.com.
Christine Cryne