Cheese and Beer – Enough Said

As I grow older and ever more unsuccessful with the mythical species of men, it becomes increasingly clear that my one great love is, in fact, cheese. Cheese won’t forget your birthday or ditch you for its football mates. No, cheese is always there, even when you’re on your period or just want to stay in and watch a movie. It makes me drool more than any movie star I’ve seen, and if you mix it up and try some other types, nobody will ever call you a slapper. Yes, cheese and I are in it for the long hall.

So when ACHICA invited me to a cheese and beer tasting, a veritable gang bang in my world, in Great Britain’s oldest Cheese shop, Paxton and Whitfield, suffice to say I was up for it.

Our hosts explained that beer is a natural pairing with British cheese. Back in olden times, villages would produce a local cheese and, given that it was then the tipple of choice, a beer brewed from the same terroir as that the cows grazed on. Certainly, as I sampled some of the pairings I could begin appreciating the dual earthiness running through both products; the rich, camembert-like goo of a Hampshire Tunworth, cut by cool lemon oats in a Shoreditch Blonde Ale – it just works. Similarly, the delicate citrus tones of a washed rind goat’s cheese, Rachel, from Somerset were echoed in a fruity, caramel swirled wheat beer, brewed in the London Meantime Brewery. For those who like something a bit meatier, strong Cheddar-y cheeses such as the Berwick Edge from Northumberland held up well against hoppy Indian Pale Ales like Yorkshire born Jaipur. The find of the evening came in an unexpected pairing of a chocolatey Imperial Stout by Sam Smiths and a Cropwell Bishop stilton. Stilton and chocolate in theory should never, ever appear on the same plate, however when tempered with deep fruit and oats the combination mellowed into a rich, unctuous mouthful that truly wowed me.