{"id":1012,"date":"2020-05-27T10:02:22","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T10:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2020-05-27T10:03:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T10:03:48","slug":"a-beer-banquet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/05\/27\/a-beer-banquet\/","title":{"rendered":"A beer banquet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">White wine with fish? Red wine with cheese? For centuries, it was beer that was drunk with food. So what happened? Probably a bit of snobbery! Beer is a great accompaniment to all foods but it\u2019s often hard to try a number of different beers with food in a pub but the \u2018lockdown\u2019 gives you a great opportunity to experiment, so long as you have a range of bottles at the ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last winter, we ran a course at the Bohemia at North Finchley, home to the London Brewing Company, to give people tips in making menu choices. This is a \u2018taste\u2019 of what we tried: six beers and seven foods; it turned out to be quite a banquet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"460\" height=\"403\" src=\"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/image-17.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1013\" srcset=\"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/image-17.png 460w, https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/image-17-300x263.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Firstly, everyone\u2019s palate is different and what suits one person will not necessarily suit another. Using the cut, complement and contrast method (covered in my article <a href=\"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/03\/23\/cut-complement-and-contrast-for-easter\/\">here<\/a>) you can work out why some things work and others don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Cauliflower wings (cauliflower in tempura batter) provided the first course and was teamed with Veltins Lager, a 4.8% ABV German Pilsner. The combination reduced the saltiness and oily character of the wings and softened the beer making it less bitter and sweeter.<\/li><li>The next course was the eternal standby of fish fingers, accompanied by London Brewing Company\u2019s Chuckaboo Pale Ale (4.2% ABV), which uses Rakau, Simcoe and Mandarina Bavaria hops. This again was a \u2018cut\u2019 with the bitter fruitiness of the beer cutting through the fat in the fish finger and, conversely, the fish finger enhanced the fruitiness of the beer.<\/li><li>Next on the menu were chicken wings, served with a separate Korean spicy sauce so that tasters could assess how a sauce can change the pairing. This time the beer was London Brewing Company\u2019s Never Mind the Kent Hops (5.5% ABV) which, being slightly stronger, was chosen to cope with the stronger flavours. The strong, citrusy and tropical flavours from the Galaxy, Mosaic and Citra hops provided a perfect contrast to the meat and roast notes of the chicken and was bold enough to cope with the sauce. There was a three to one preference for the combination with the sauce as some tasters thought the beer was too strong for the chicken on its own but others disagreed!<\/li><li>The next challenge was matching two beers and two cheeses. The beers were a strong ale, Fuller\u2019s 1845 (6.3% ABV) and London Brewing Company\u2019s 100 Oyster stout (4.6% ABV). Overall, there was a preference for 1845 as working better with both the cheeses, although some preferred the stout with the stilton. To quote one table of tasters, \u2018The 1845 had a rich malty character with marmalade and sultana notes but with some hoppy bitterness to provide balance. Its complexity coped well with both cheeses, contrasting with the creaminess of both of them. It was a close run thing but the cheddar just had the edge when it came to the preferred combination for this beer\u2019. One other comment was that the nuttiness and fruitiness in the cheddar brought out the same flavours in the beer i.e. a complement.<\/li><li>Westmalle Dubbel (7% ABV) was the finale and tasters were given a chocolate brownie and some Oddfellows\u2019 Morello Cherry Dark Chocolate. To summarise the feedback, \u2018The dark roast and fruity notes complemented the chocolate but the brownie had the upper hand.\u2019 Its chocolate flavours were also thought to complement the beer but the rich sweetness also provided a contrast to the bitterness, adding a bit more complexity.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A show of hands at the end of a hard afternoon\u2019s eating and drinking gave the best pairing by a narrow head (but by no means universal) to 1845 and cheddar but why not try a few out for yourself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"705\" height=\"634\" src=\"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/image-18.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1014\" srcset=\"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/image-18.png 705w, https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/image-18-300x270.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 705px) 100vw, 705px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of the beers tasted were draught but here are some alternatives from breweries around the Capital (in order of tasting):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1. Ora \u2013 Ermes Pilsner (4.7% ABV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2. Twickenham \u2013 Naked Ladies (4.4% ABV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">3. Hackney \u2013 Boogie Van (5.5% ABV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">4. East London Brewing \u2013 Nightwatchman (4.7% ABV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">5. Anspach &amp; Hobday \u2013 The Porter (6.7% ABV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">6. Five Points \u2013 Barrel Aged Grand Stout (12% ABV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And you can get the chocolate <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/oddfellowschocolate.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">online<\/a>. Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Christine Cryne<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NB: At the time all writing, all of these breweries were doing deliveries but some only deliver to their local area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>White wine with fish? Red wine with cheese? For centuries, it was beer that was drunk with food. So what happened? Probably a bit of snobbery! Beer is a great&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1015,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions\/1015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}