Beer & Cooking

Experimenting!

Yesterday we had a beer and food experimental cooking day, planning dishes to use on the Adventures in Beer & Food Cookery Days. There were some successes and some dishes that need further exploring.

Rabbit and Schneider Aventinus Stew was, as expected, a great success, as was the Creme Brulee with a Strawberry fruli reduction in it, although we will use more Fruli next time. The polenta cake with BrewDog Paradox Speyside in it, was ok, but needs tweaking. It improved when we made a Paradox syrup and soaked the cake in it! Pork medallions in a Schlenkerla Marzen sauce with shallots and garlic was a great combination, although as a dish it will need a bit of sweetness. However the Schlenkerla didn't work in a fondue as we thought it would, but no surprise here, BrewDog Hardcore IPA worked a treat both in the fondue and served alongside it.

We've made a little video of some of our beer & food cookery and will have it ready any day now!

Happy Adventuring!

Anchor O.B.A.

The Good News & The Bad News

First the bad news... I seem to be on an incredible run of bad luck with my car. I can't quite believe it. I have had my Renault since 2001 and have done about 95000 miles in it, it's been a good servant, until the last 12 months, since when I have had problem after problem. A couple of days ago on my way to the pub I hit a flooded pothole, which it seems, has bent the alloy and left me with a flat tire. I pulled on to the grass verge of the single track road, and my friend, my dog and I walked the mile and a half we had left to get to the pub. It happens, I know, but it has been compounded today by having to change the tire in the rain on a soaked verge that meant the jack disappeared into the earth rather than raising the car... and why do mechanics have to do the wheel nuts up so tight, it took me over half an hour of kicking with all my considerable weight to loosen the bloody things. These things are supposed to happen on sitcoms not to real people.

The good news also happened last night when we eventually finished our hike to the pub. We arrived at the bar, where the landlord greeted us with "So words got out then?" I had no idea what he was talking about "You had better try some then" he says and pours an unknown beer from a magnum. The beer in question turns out to be Anchor O.B.A (Our Barrel Ale) a blend of all of Anchor's beers aged in a freshly emptied whisky cask. It had been sent over so that the pub could find a suitable food match for an Anchor Beer & Food matching night they are hosting.

I am a huge fan of Anchor's beers, they are all well crafted with good balance and seem to be some of the best examples of particular styles. I have written before about The Old Foghorn comparing the draft and bottled version, and there was a lot of the Old Foghorn character in the O.B.A. The aroma was dominated by a sweet smokiness, that combined the toffee aromas from Old Foghorn and the smoke from the whisky. I love it when a beer has an aroma that really makes you want to dive in head first and you just can't wait to get it in your mouth. This beer certainly had that effect on me, and didn't disappoint either. It has a wonderful complexity, with hints of the fruit that you find in the Porter and toffee and raisons from the Foghorn, there is a slightly dry, hoppy finish from the Liberty Ale and underneath it a rich smooth warmth from the whisky. This is one truly fabulous craft beer that I really hope to try again. One glass just wasn't enough.

Our initial thoughts were that the O.B.A would go well with cheese, but all the different cheeses we tried didn't really work for one reason or another and we came to the conclusion that belly pork and scallops might be the best match. I think it is one of those drinks that might just be best savoured on its own. Either way, I just want to get my grubby hands on some more, role on the tasting dinner on the 30th April!

Happy Adventuring!

Beer Cookery

Adventures in Beer & Food

I am really looking forward to Saturday! Not just because its the weekend and not because my wife is kicking me out for the day (for girl time with her friends), no, its because of Beer & Food. My two favourite words in the English language.

We are having an experimental cook off for our forthcoming Adventures in Beer & Food courses that I am doing in conjunction with the Fine Food School, Dorset. I have a mouthwatering long list of top dishes and great beers. The only problem is, we want to make a video of what we are doing and apparently slurred speech isn't the look we are going for!

I suspect you will all have an opinion on what we should be cooking, so tell us about some great beery dishes that we could make.

Happy Adventuring!

More Beer & Food

The Lemon Tart Problem!

Next week I'm doing a Beer & Food Matching evening at a local pub. We are running the event as a Dinner Party tasting, with small samples of food from each course paired with appropriate beers. Oysters, Thai Prawns, Pork Belly, Chocolate Pud & Lemon Tart, all sound good to me, but I have been struggling to find the right match for the Lemon Tart. It is going to be quite a tart Tart, so I was worried that a citrussy wheat beer wouldn't be sweet enough for it, and decided I needed to experiment.





Last night I sat down with a Lemon Tart and a number of fine beers to try and pick a winner. I know it's a tough job but someone has to do it. Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus, Delirium Tremens, Jaipur IPA, Vedett Extra White, Blue Moon and Sam Smith's Cherry were the selected beers, an eclectic selection I know you'll agree.



The first thing to say, is that the tart was delicious! Nice crumbly, buttery pastry and a smooth tasty filling with plenty of real fresh lemon flavour and tiny little pieces of tasty zest. I always try to find beers that are sweeter than the dessert or they will just taste too bitter, which is exactly what happened with the Jaipur and Delirium. Fine beers though they undoubtedly are, they weren't what I was looking for. I always think of Blue Moon as being very orangey and I'm not really a fan, but it was OK with the tart, not a perfect match, but the citrus flavours were good together and it wasn't too bitter either. A possible. Cherry beer was just wrong, the lemons and cherries didn't get along, and it was quickly put to one side. Vedett Extra White came next, and I was expecting it to be too dry a taste. How wrong could I be, a really good match, the Lemon Tart brought more citrus out of the beer, and there was the right amount of sweetness, they really danced together on my taste buds and did everything you hope for from a great food match, enhancing both the drink and food. Brilliant. Finally I tasted the Cantillon, a sour lambic raspberry beer. It had been a while since I've had one and I wondered if the sourness of the lambic was going to be too sour for the lemon in the tart. It most certainly was, wiping out all other flavours with a big, fat smack in the mouth. I really want to have a better appreciation of lambic, but i do just find them too sour to enjoy. Maybe I haven't tried them with the right food or in the correct environment (?), but I always find them really hard to finish and wondering why I other people enjoy them.



So, it's Lemon tart and Vedett Extra White at the tasting... problem solved!

Happy Adventuring!

Beer & Food - Cooking & Matching

Beer & Food Courses

Together with the Fine Food School of Stour Row, Dorset we will be running two very special one-day classes in April. Although the precise course titles have yet to be agreed they are, loosely; “Beer and Sweet Things” will be held on Thursday the 16th April. And “Beer and Savoury Things” will be on Saturday the 25th April.

These promise to be great fun days with some really unusual ways of combining beer and food. Our first day will see us not only pairing the right beer with the right dessert but actually using different beers as a key ingredient. Have you ever considered a beer crème brulée or stout, chocolate and chestnut mousse? There’s a lot more for us to get into yet!

Our second day will be about more than just steak and ale pie. Beer breads, beer batters, beer sauces and beer marinades are all on the agenda. Beer Ventures will introduce us to some terrific beers, all unusual, all delicious and all perfect for cooking brilliant food and these are going to be two quite possibly unique days. In a few days we’ll begin to advertise and promote these events, so there are more details to follow...

Both days will be excellent value for money at £99 per person per day. There will only be twelve places on each so, as if you needed to be told…book early!

Cheers all!

Happy Adventuring!

Hop Wars

The Quest for Hoppy Beers

I become ever more addicted to the hop bug and want to have a bit of a Hop War between 4 beers... exciting hey?

Thornbridge Halcyon, Mikkeller Stateside, Moor Hoppiness and BrewDog's new version of Hardcore IPA. I think I know what will win, but i'm not going to tell you!

I'll just tell you what the winner was and say that I got it right!

I need to find a comrade or two to take on this thankless task...

Balls of Steel

New Pub Opening! Haven't said that in a while...

Tony and Sarah Lethbridge have BALLS!

They are opening a pub... now... well on Wednesday, and I am looking forward to seeing how they get on. Since I moved to South Somerset last August I have driven past what was once The Kings Arms at Charlton Horethorne every day on my way to work. I speculated that it would be another pub turned into a private residence, but to my astonishment it is being re-opened as a pub. However the local freebee paper The Blackmore Vale have told me the bad news that it is going to be a gastro pub and hotel. I hate this description, and if the owners were the ones who described it I am sure I will be disappointed.

The BMV says they have spent over a million on it in the last year adding 10 luxury en-suite bedrooms, with a restaurant that seats 70 and a smaller dining room that seats 20.

It worries me a lot that they don't mention the bar or the beer. I wait with baited breath for Wednesday to see if I have a pub to stop at on my way home from work, or one that I drive straight past.

Happy Adventuring!