Beer with it

Last year,Doolally held a workshop called ‘Cooking with beer’. This year,the micro-brewery moved on to pairing beer with cheese. Along with Godrej Nature’s Basket stores and Tossed Salad,Doolally had organised a beer and cheese pairing workshop on Thursday evening at The First Brew House,Corinthians Club. As Nilesh Shendye,store supervisor of Nature’s Basket moved to the makeshift stage,the guests gathered around in a circle. Shendye,well-versed with beer and cheese pairing,took them through their history. Just like wine and cheese pairing,one is supposed to sip the beer and then bite into the cheese. Chew it once or twice,and sip the beer again. This is how one can understand the combined taste of the beer and the cheese.

The workshop started the session with a semi-dry,mildly acidic apple cider made from Himachali apples and French Champagne yeast and paired it with Feta cheese,which is a salty goat cheese so soft and crumbly that it is an ordeal to pick up a cube with a toothpick. Small samples of the beer were passed along the attendees and a tray of cheese cubes followed. A combination,which is fruity,salty and a pleasant discovery.

The next pair that followed was of Bavarian Wheat Beer with Pecorino cheese. The blonde fizz-less drink had flavour so light that it was difficult to taste anything in the first sip,which makes it a good choice for those who are just being introduced to beer. The cheese,in contrast to the first pairing,is hard and rubbery. Nonetheless,the pairing of both these flavours clicked and the participants sipped,chewed and nodded in approval.

Samples of a pungent and bitter American pale ale was served with cubes of Fruity Wenslyday with cranberries,a dry sweet cheese that smells of cut grass. The mouldy flavour didn’t work for many,while others took another shot at it with varying proportions of the beer and cheese.

The last pairing for the session was done with The Darth Vader 9000,a dark,aged and sinfully-strong smoked beer with a smoked chilli cheddar. When the flavours of smoke,chocolate and citrus of the beer mix with paprika flakes of the creamy cheese,there was a burst of flavour that made one reach for more samples and the guests were left with a long-lasting bitterness on their taste buds.