5Th Annual Regional Beer And Cheese Tasting

This year’s annual beer and cheese tasting was as popular as ever with places booking out quickly. This year’s tasting was the 5^th year that I have been running beer and cheese tastings at Regional. I presented 8 different matches which included both some tried and true combinations and some new ones. To keep things fresh I decided to have a crack at doing a fondue course which added an element of fun and spectacle. As with past years those attending the tastings were able to vote at the end for their favourite beer, their favourite cheese and their favourite match.

This year we ended up with a lot of tied results with a tie for 1^st and runner up for the best cheese, a tie for best match and three way tie for 3^rd place match.

Croucher Pilsner and Over the Moon Double Delight

Part of my ongoing project to find cheese matches to new world hop accented beer styles. Croucher Pilsner is tasting fantastic at the moment with a big bright exotic fruity NZ hop character. Over the Moon Double Delight is a white mould cheese that is produced from a blend of goats and cows milk. This results in a cheese that is very approachable for a goats cheese but more complex than your run of the mill NZ Camembert. Together the match was definitely built on contrasting flavours with the zesty fruity hop character cutting the richness of the cheese and cleaning the slightly spicy marzipan notes from the goats milk.

Emerson’s Weissbier and Meadowfresh Farm Fresh Goats Cheese

A classic summer match of wheat beer and goat’s cheese. The Emerson’s Weissbier had some age on it making it tarter and drier than it would have been fresh. The Farm Fresh Goat’s Cheese had a zesty tart sour cream like acidity. This match was all about refreshment and light zesty flavours working together.

Townshend ESB and Barry’s Bay Mature Cheddar

The classic ploughman’s lunch is the most well known beer and cheese match. This match pitched the big rich malt, earthy hops and rounded fruit character of an English style extra special bitter against the tangy earthy notes of a traditionally produced and aged cheddar. The richness of the malt and the richness of the cheese blended beautifully while the earthy hop character of the beer found harmony with the earthy musty horseradish notes in the cheese, finally the bitterness of the beer helped to clean up the richness of the cheese. A very deserving winning match.

Yeastie Boys His Majesty 2010 and Blue River Dairy Blackmount Cheddar

In many ways this took the Ploughman’s lunch match and turned the volume up, with the beer side of the equation at least. Yeastie Boys His Majesty 2010 is a new world take on an English strong ale presenting a big rich malt profile, a rounded fruity yeast character and a firm hop finish. Blackmount cheddar is a hard sheep milk cheese from Southland with lots of nutty tangy notes and a slightly oily texture. The beer in this case slightly overpowered the cheese and the match served as a good example of how you need to balance the intensity of elements when beer and food matching.

Moretti La Rossa and Meyer Old Gouda

The match of Doppelbock and aged gouda is a tried and true match that we chanced upon at the first beer and cheese tasting back in 2007. The match is all about seamless rich malt flavour meeting rich caramel accented cheese flavours. Moretti La Rossa hails from the north of Italy and is a very authentically German tasting example of the style. Unfortunately the batch we tasted wasn’t as smooth as La Rossa usually is. La Rossa was displaying some noticeable fermentation derived esters.

Dupont Moinette Blonde and Meyer Maasdam Fondue

This match used the strong peppery tartness of the strong Saison from Dupont as a foil for the enveloping richness of the fondue. The fondue was made with the same beer that it was matched with. I thought the Moinette Blonde did a good job of cutting the richness of the fondue however the match didn’t really involve much in the way of complimentary flavours. It was however a lot of fun.

Ben Middlemiss Nota Bene and Over the Moon Galactic Gold

This match scared a lot of people. The washed rind course is always one which separates the stinky cheese lovers from the rest. This particular batch of Galactic gold was pretty intense with some pronounced ammonia character. The Nota Bene was tasting fantastic with a big wild yeast character. The two together worked well although common opinion was that they beer made the cheese slightly less unpleasant.

Rochefort 10 and scrapped out Vintage Windsor Blue

For this match I revived the Victorian tradition of scraping out a wheel of blue cheese with liquor. In this case I used the strong dark Trappist ale from the Abbey of St Remy in Belgium in place of the traditional port and then served it with the same beer. The result was spectacular with spicy blue, rich malt, dark fruit and fortified wine notes all blending perfectly to create a deeply complex pairing.

The full results are below: