{Image Via St. Killian's Cheese Shop Denver, Co.}
These are some old school beer and cheese notes from 2006. This was from a pairing I helped organize back in my Formaggio Kitchen days. It's all about Dogfish Head beers. This is basically the definitive guide to a good portion of DFH beers and their matches with cheese. It's a bit of a battle between the cheeses. I no longer have my list of what was voted the favorites. But this would make for a great taste test for some of you out there who love beer and cheese pairings or are new to the game. Feel free to comment with your winning selections if you do try some of these.
I worked on these pairings with Allen Reitz, Sam Caligione, and my friend Robert Aguilera who is one of the "Illest Motha Fucka's from here to Gardena" when it comes to cheese and fine gourmet condiments and food.
Sam Caligione Dogfish Head
Robert Aguilera Formaggio Kitchen
Dogfish Head - 60 Minute IPA
A session India Pale Ale brewed with Warrior, Amarillo & "Mystery Hop X." A powerful East Coast IPA with a lot of citrusy hop character. 6.0BV
Morbier
Semi soft cow's milk cheese from the gentle rolling pastures of the Jura Mountains in France. This cheese is most recognizable for its layer of ash in the middle of the cheese. A technique that harkens back to the days when you had to keep a rind from forming on one side of the cheese in order to add another layer after the morning milking of the next day. This cheese is nutty, yeasty and dense with a shortbread biscuit flavor finish.
- Vs.
Gorgonzola Piccante
Large
format crumbly cow's milk blue cheese from Lombardy, Italy. The cheese
that adorns many a pear walnut salad, this forty-pound wheel has more
earth and clay flavor to buffer its spicy overtones.
Dogfish Head - Raison D'Etre
A deep, mahogany ale brewed with beet sugar, green raisins, and Belgian-style yeast. As complex as a fine, red wine. 8.0BV
Charollais Fermier
Raw
Goat milk "chevre" from the Burgundy region of France. Its dry, crumbly
nature would lead you to believe that this goat milk cheese would be
"gamey". Quite the contrary, it is sweet, peanuty and a thick palate
hugger.
-Vs.
Comte Le Fort
Twenty-four
month aged cow's milk cheese from the high mountain pastures of the
Jura, France. The humid, cold former ammunitions fort that this
"gruyere" style cheese comes from helps give this large wheel its
sweet, caramelized milk flavor and its lingering wild onion finish.
Dogfish Head - Chicory Stout
A dark beer made with a touch of roasted chicory, organic Mexican coffee, St. John's Wort, and licorice root. Brewed with whole-leaf Cascade and Fuggles hops, the grains include pale, wheat, roasted & oatmeal. 5.2BV
Croste di Pane
A flat cow's milk cheese from the Piedmont region of Italy. Called "bread crust," this cheese does have a biscuit flavor with a clay-cream finish. A rare one.
- Vs.
Calcagno
Sheep
milk aged one year from the Salerno region of Italy. Made in the same
style of Parmigiano Reggiano, this southern Italian cheese has a fair
amount of sweetness with a citrus finish.
Dogfish Head - Burton Baton
A blend of oak-aged English strong ale and our 90 Minute IPA. Citrus notes from Northwestern hops meld with vanilla notes from the oak. 10.0 ABV
Triple Cream Cow's Milk
The specifics will come at the class, but expect that the flavor will be buttery, creamy with a little limestone flavor finish. The Champagne area of France, where the best triple-crmes come from are best with bubbles, but they will also do with extreme beers.
- Vs.
Laguiole
Cow milk cheese from the Auvergne region of France. Similar to English Cheddars, this 60-pound wheel always brings spice to its buttery sharp flavor.
Dogfish Head - Midas Touch Golden Elixir
This recipe is the actual oldest-known fermented beverage in the world! Our recipe showcases the known ingredients of barley, white Muscat grapes, honey & saffron found in the drinking vessels in King Midas' tomb! Somewhere between a beer, wine and mead, this smooth, dry ale will please with Chardonnay or I.P.A. drinker alike. 9.0BV
Bleu de Basque
Sheep milk blue from the Pays Basque, France. Sweet and spicy with a creamy texture. Most similar to English Stilton in its flavor profile, it strays only in the dense sweet butter flavor that always dominates sheep milk cheeses.
- Vs.
Cap Gris Nez
Washed-rind cow milk cheese from the Flanders area of France. A tradition that dates back to the middle ages and the blessed cheese making monks of Belgium. Yeasty, vegetal and quite aromatic. You might even want to pair Scotch with this one.
Dogfish Head - Festina Lente
A neo-lambic ale that goes through both a yeast and bacteria fermentation and is then aged on oak chips and 400 pounds of Delaware peaches. This beer is very tart and complex. It is bottle-conditioned in champagne bottles. 7.0BV
Bouq Emissaire
Vegetable ash covered goat's milk from Quebec, Canada. Thick, creamy textured, lemony goat's milk with a salty finish. Take your time with the pairing. Let it warm up in your mouth with the Festina and enjoy the meld. (This perfect pairing needs no other.)
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