Britain’s Beer and Food Matching Culture Comes of Age

Whenever I visit the States, I’m impressed by the amount of beer and food matching events. Brewery dinners with each course paired to a different beer are just something craft brewers seem to do as a matter of course. “We brew beer, we’ll host a beer dinner featuring our beer.” American craft beer logic.

In the UK, we have some catching up to do. It’s not that we don’t do beer and food matching. We do. There are a good number of names from the brewing and pub industry who champion beer and food and a decent number of establishments with menus suggesting beers to order with your meal; nevertheless, it’s an idea still very much in its infancy. But late last month, I went to a beer dinner in London that I’d like to think could be a coming-of-age party.

, Britain’s Beer and Food Matching Culture Comes of AgeOk, so you guys had a hand in it. The event, called Re-Evolution, was a joint bash hosted by Beavertown Brewery, US brewery Dogfish Head, and Charles Wells at the birthplace of Beavertown – Duke’s Brew and Que in north London – but it was the London brewery’s beer pairings that stole the show.

, Britain’s Beer and Food Matching Culture Comes of AgeThe first course was crab mac & cheese. When I was a kid, we used to call it macaroni cheese – but that’s so 1970s – so mac & cheese it is. What would make it even better? How about mixing it with crab meat? That’s Beavertown Brewery’s logic (or maybe I should say genius). It was certainly inspirational to pair it with a Berliner Weisse-style sour that included Earl Grey tea among its ingredients and was aptly named Earl Phantom. The beer was pleasantly like drinking a lemon meringue pie – a combination of tart citric and lactic sourness through which bergamot flavours emerged. It stood its ground with the heavenly concoction of crab meat, cheese, and pasta acting much like a squeeze of lemon juice across the top.

, Britain’s Beer and Food Matching Culture Comes of AgeThe next course sounded crazy – and seemed like a dish for which the phrase ‘riot of flavour’ was invented. Beetroot-pickled egg wrapped in sausage meat & black pudding, crumbed and fried, served with bacon dust and tarragon hollandaise paired with Beavertown’s Blackberry Gose (4.8% ABV)a kind of salty, sour wheat beer that reminded me of rhubarb and custard sweets, including the fizzy, sherbetty flavour. The beetroot-pickled Scotch egg was a massive, perfumed, meaty flavour explosion, but if you can believe it, sipping the Blackberry Gose afterwards actually had a calming effect. The fruitiness of the beer was also a delicious contrast to the rich, fatty meat surrounding the egg. 

, Britain’s Beer and Food Matching Culture Comes of AgeBeavertown’s Smog Rocket is a smoked porter. Normally a keg beer, it was instead served in the vernacular UK style – cask – as a rare treat. Imagine the smoothest, most chocolatey beer you’ve ever had and then times it by 10. Pair with a mammoth meat dish of pork rib, smoked beef rib, and brisket with mash, lemon chilli broccoli, and BBQ jus – and the beer’s chocolate and smokey flavours are boosted so much that it becomes a Smog Rocket shooting you straight to heaven.

This is what beer and food matching should be like – pairings that not only sing, but also dance. Given the reputation and influence of Beavertown Brewery – they are feted here in the UK and are already carving a name for themselves in the US – I’d like to think this epic beer and food matching night of theirs might have set the standard for future British brewery dinners – so here’s hoping it’s the start of a new age.

 

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