Sweet Treats and Beer

A huge thanks to Leigh of The Good Stuff for his sterling baking odyssey that resulted in some stellar baked goods for our beer and food matching evening. Words can't do justice to how great the matches were, but here goes:

Baked Vanilla Cheesecake with Oakham Hawse Buckler or Summer Wine Teleporter

If there is anything that will convert a sceptic to the cause of beer and food matching, it's this pairing. Rich creamy cheesecake against bittersweet roasted flavours. Exceptional.

Banana and Fudge Bread with Maisels Dunkel or Erdinger Dunkel

This was the pairing that I was the most sceptical of, but as it turns out, I don't in fact know everything. The match of spice, malt and banana in both was a winner, and ,ike a high tea for grown ups, the absorbency of the bred against the fluffy texture of the weissebier was revelatory.

Chocolate Brownie with Mort Subite Kriek or Timmermans Framboise

What's not to like? Rich dark chocolate, set off against a sweetly fruity backdrop, with the bitterness of the brownie and the faintly wild notes of the beers keeping everything lively on the palate. Cracking stuff.

If you came along, please let us know what you thought. If you didn't, shame on you! If you're not in Leeds, and you can bake, why not get in touch with your local bottle shop and suggest something similar? It's fun!


Women! Men! Beer! Cake!


Leigh issues careful instructions: "YOU! CAKE! NOW!"


Jeff, hard at work, clearly looks annoyed that someone wants some of 'his' cakes.

Birthday Round-up: What Have We Learned?

The lines are closed, the votes are in, and the general consensus is that my splendidly self-indulgent 40th birthday bash as outlined here was a great success. Everyone drank beer, and almost everyone liked almost all of it.

There were a few hiccups, of course. The Mort Subite Oude Gueuze raised a few eyebrows, and I was happy that there was a jug of cassis on hand to soften it for those who found it a bit challenging. It was a great reception beer though, and went well with all of the canapes.

I had the duck confit terrine to start, served with Chimay Premiere, and it was a killer match. The richness of the duck and the tang of the pickled beetroot worked brillantly with the soft fruitiness of the Chimay. Even a hardened wine veteran gave it a go, and pronounced it a great success.

My main of pork with apple and vanilla sauce was good, although the Schneider Weisse was a bit heavy for it. Grolsch Weizen might have been a perfect match - oh well, you live and learn. However, everyone went nuts for the cheese course, served with 2005 Fuller's Vintage Ale, and rightly so. The beer had just the right amount of age on it, with an incredibly smooth richness to it, malt and hops integrated into a seamless fusion of flavour that was somewhere between ale and some sort of crazy sherry/port hybrid. Sensational.

By the time dessert rolled around (and I use the term rolled to reflect my physical state as much as anything else), everyone was past their best - the cheese course had done them in. But my match of Black Forest gateau and Ola Dubh 40 was great, a good flavour match, although perhaps a tad on the rich side for anyone without a bovine complement of stomachs. I left some cake and finished the beer, the only sensible thing to do under the circumstances.

Look, I know you're reading this blog because you're interested in beer, and unless something terrible happens to you, you've got a birthday coming up within the next twelve months. Why not find a local restaurant who will let you bring beer in for a corkage charge, buy a copy of The Brewmasters Table, and put a menu together with the restaurant? Have yourself a cheery beery birthday - it was more fun than I ever thought it could be. Just don't give people a choice of what to drink.

That picture of a ravaged plate of cheese and a spent bottle of Fuller's 2005 Vintage Ale lines me up nicely for a report on a visit to Chiswick's finest. Watch this space.