Froth n’ fromage

So we got talking recently about that old penchant for cheese tasting and the various complimentary drops.

Having got the scientific low down on why wine tastes so good with cheese from Bob Campbell a few months ago, I was intrigued to discuss cheese tasting with beer as a lubricant.

To the well-informed (I am no such thing) this may be old news, but the score is that beer blows wine out of the water when it comes to marrying it with a creamy slice of something cheesy. Call me sheltered, but I’ve never been to a beer and cheese tasting. Likely I’ve had a beer with cheese once upon a time (perhaps in the form of a steak and cheese pie) but the moment clearly went undernoticed.

So when the topic came up in conversation, I thought I’d do a little snooping. Where to start? Cult beer bar Hashigo Zake.

These guys do beer like it’s worth doing, summed up in their catch line of “nothing crap on tap”. I spoke with the manager Dave and said what about beer and cheese Dave.

He looked at me like I was a dork (wrong, in case you were wondering)  and said “Of course!”. We went from there, with Dave harking back to a cheese and beer night they had at Hashigo with a matching of Barley Wine beer and Kapiti Kikorangi blue. He lolled into a heady state telling me about beer and cheese before coming back to earth and suggesting that I talk to the man about town who knows this stuff backwards.That would be reeb and eseehc and he would be Kieran Haslett-Moore.

Kieran is more than the beer connoisseur at Regional Wines and Spirits, he’s prolific about all things beer. And he’s got a pretty cool beard.

But more to the point he spent six years as cheesemonger at Moore Wilsons, so he knows his washed rind from his raclette. Popping in to see Kieran at his Basin Reserve hangout, he nods sagely when I say I’ve come to ask about beer and cheese.

Kieran has been running beer and cheese tastings at Regional for a while, but only does one a year. I missed this years. But he’s happy to share a few pearls.

The truth behind beer being a better match for cheese is in the flavours. “Wine and cheese always contrast. Whereas the rich creamy flavoursin beer have complimentary flavours in cheese,” he begins. The more rich and lush the beer and cheese the better the match Kieran reckons, but matching is critical. Pitching a stilton against a light pilsner is always going to be a knockout, and an ugly one at that.

Mind you, there are no rules, and you like what you like, he admits.

Favourites are Pink Elephant Mammoth beer matched with a Barry’s Bay cheddar. On the locally sourced front Kieran’s pick is a Tuatara Ardennes ale against “something funky and smelly” like a Kapiti Ramara or a Te Mata Irongate (from Hawkes Bay), both washed rind cheeses.

The possibilities for cheese and beer are boundless, and as artisan brewing keeps growing, there’s got to be more of this talk about soon. Why is it that with such advocates behind the cheesy hoppy mix, there’s precious few brewbars where you can get a cheese platter? Hashigo Zake doesn’t do it, Malthouse doesn’t do it. Anywhere else you can recommend?

Perhaps they’ll break out a fromagerie at Beervana next month.

For more recommendations on cheese and beer check out some of Kieran’s blogpost while he was slaving away over a cool round of something stinky, like this one.

Some generic matches I fished off the web for your benefit :

• Fruity beers with mascarpone cheese.
• Wheat beers with soft cheeses like goat, feta or chevre.
• Dark lagers with fresh mozzarella.
• Hoppy beers like pilsners with havarti.
• Aged cheddar with a nice dark stout.
• Brown ales with a sharp cheddar or colby.
• Strong Belgian ales with blue cheese, Stilton, Roquefort.
• Pale or amber ales with Parmesan or Romano cheeses.