Four Classic Beer and Cheese Pairing Events to consider as you plan your Coast to Coast Toast
For those of you contemplating beer and cheese pairings for your Coast to Coast Toast party, here are four inspiring beer and cheese events we have taken part in and some wonderful beer combos. Enjoy and by all means let us know what beers and cheese you put together and how it all goes over. Consider all local cheeses and all imported Vanberg & DeWulf beers for instance.
Murray’s Cheese New York City – Great Cheese Deserves Great Beer with Don Feinberg of Vanberg & DeWulf
In the Middle Ages, the term Flanders was applied to an area in Western Europe, the County of Flanders, and spread over what today are parts of Belgium, Northern France and the Southern Netherlands. This are has a long history of beer and cheese production, many of which originated in the Cistercian monasteries of a Roman Catholic religious order often referred to as Trappist Monks. Tonight we will take inspiration from these monastery traditions and explore several artisanal Belgian beer styles, paired with cheeses originating in Flanders, and a few surprises!
1. Charollais paired with Foret Blanche
Charollais: A four-inch-high cylinder of raw goat’s milk. Chevre the way it was meant to be, with a perfect balance of saltiness, acidity, and sweetness. Its dense, rich pate is covered by a skim of oozing liquid goatiness and a crinkled, almond colored rind. At approximately 90 days, Charollais begins to age, becoming drier and more assertively robust in flavor. Aged by Hervé Mons outside of Roanne, France.
Foret Blanche: Easy drinkability and loads of flavor make Foret Blanche a sensational refresher. Foggy honeycomb color, yeasty bread, butterscotch aroma, laced with orange coriander, white pepper, lavender, hop tartness, and wheat.
2. Pyrenees Brebis with Saison Dupont
Pyrenees Brebis: A pressed, uncooked cheese, made of raw sheep’s milk, and aged for 4-6 months. Made in the Pyrenees, exactly the Basque country and the Bearn – the Ossau Valley. This small scale artisan production has a thick yellow/ orange rind with a smattering of grey mold. The white or ivory paste is firm and dense but smooth with unctuous butterfat. Often best in the spring as the cheese produced from the fall milkings is more floral. Sweet, nearly caramelly, with grassy, nutty undertones. Aged by Hervé Mons outside of Roanne, France. Legend has it that Aristee, the famous shepherd and son of Apollo, created the Ossau-Iraty cheese.
Saison Dupont: Legendary, hailed as the world’s best Saison. Piquant, peppery hop bitterness rounded out by green apple, sugared grapefruit, and unyielding yeast character.
3. Oka paired with Foret Organic Saison
Oka: A mellow, Semi-Soft washed rind cheese from Quebec. Made of pasteurized cows’ milk, with a rind that can range from rosy pink to burnished orange. It’s a stinker, but the flavor is relatively buttery, with hints of nuts. Also an excellent melter.
Foret Organic Saison: A Saison beer that is the first certified organic beer in Belgium. “Bright golden amber color. Rich, layered aromas of honeyed pineapple cake, dried fruits, and toffee with a supple, fruity-yet-dry full body and a pure, elegant fruity soufflé and delicate peppery spice finish. A beautiful saison that is a benchmark of the style. Platinum Medal/ Superlative.” One degree stronger than Saison Dupont. Platinum medal winner in the World Beer Championships.
4. Maroilles paired with Hop Ruiter
Maroilles: A farmhouse Maroilles from Picardie in Nord, in northern France. The A.O.C. (Appellation d’Origine Controlée) granted in 1976 covers both raw and pasteurized Maroilles in three sizes. The cheese is said to have been created in 962 AD by a monk in the northern town of Maroilles. Each one pound square of raw cow’s milk is brine washed and aged for several months. The supple, elastic texture and heady, fruity, pungency peak at an affinage of 90-120 days, unusually long for such a small cheese. Aged by Hervé Mons outside of Roanne, France.
Hop Ruiter: This beer pairs aggressive American hops with Belgian yeast. But rather than taking away from the Belgian yeast characteristics, hops add complexity. Flavors of fruit, grass, and spices make for a very interesting and intricate brew. Brilliantly balanced. Winner of the best Belgian micro 2011 in Belgium!
5. Blue d’Auvergne paired with Lambickx
Blue d’Auvergne: This Bleu d’Auvergne is aged by Hervé Mons outside Roanne, France. Roquefort-inspired, and made with unpressed raw cow’s milk, this firm, creamy, cellar-ripened cheese has perfectly integrated blue veining. The name derives from the Arvenes Celts of the 7th Century BC. Medium-strength and balanced, with well integrated spice and salt flavors, the moist, crumbling paste makes an excellent table cheese, great for cooking, for salad dressing or to crumble on hot pasta. According to legend, Bleu d’Auvergne originated in the mid 19th C. when a shepherd decided to add the blue mold from his rye bread to a wheel of cheese, and piece the cheese to allow the mold to grow. The Auvergnats (people from Auvergne) claim the cheese was born before Roquefort.
Lambickx de Troch 2012: Lambickx is to Gueuze as Chardonnay is the Champagne.
Aroma of sweet grass, smoke, peaches, sour apples all spiked with a background barnyard funk. Big, round acidity in the mouth with notes of lemon, tangerine and grapefruit melting to a rich, sour-sweet finish, balanced by the full presence of tannic and wood notes. Slightest hint of carbonation. Again, not quite cask still but almost!
6. Mimolette with Witkap Stimulo
Mimolette: Produced in Flanders and other Northern parts of France, Mimolette is really a natural rinded version of Dutch Edam. As it ages, the rind darkens to a deep brown (we have seen 4-year old that was almost black!) and the interior turns a rusty shade of orange. These wheels are at least 2 years old, ensuring a cratered, craggy rind and a rock-hard, waxen interior that breaks apart in the mouth like fudge. Made of pasteurized cow’s milk, Mimolette has the sweet, caramelized depth of an aged Gouda, with a dense, smooth texture that sticks to the teeth. It sits on the board like a wedge of cantaloupe, and is famous for having been Charles de Gaulle’s favorite.
Witkap Stimulo: Banana, berry nose, lemony finish. Lighter body and alcohol than Abbey Dubbel or Tripels, but the big aromatic profile typical of the style. Quenchingly flavorful. The lightest and most flavorful of the abbey beers – what the monks drink for lunch!
7. Brillat-Savarin with Scaldis Strong ale or Scaldis Prestige de Nuits
Brillat Savarin: Cheese maker Henri Androuet was inspired by the poetics of French gastronome Anthelme Brillat-Savarin when he created this lush triple crème. Brillat-Savarin is famous for his observation, “a dessert without cheese is like a beautiful women with only one eye.” Well, we’re inclined to agree. And what an ending this cream-enriched beauty promises. Hailing from Normandy, small production, raw cows’ milk, classic bloomy rind. Expect butter cream icing texture, fresh, lactic flavor and just the right hit of salt.
Scaldis: Legendary “cognac” beer of Belgium. Amber colored, nutty and rich. Made from 3 barley malts, hopped 3 times. “The most drinkable ultra strong beer in the world.”
Scaldis Prestige de Nuits: We’ve never tasted a better marriage of wood and beer!. The red wine staining of the legendary Cote de Nuits barrels marries perfectly with the malt sweetness and peach notes of the beer, yielding flavors of cherry, oak, tobacco, Pinot Noir and bitter chocolate. Fermented 3 times – in tank, bottle, and burgundy cask – it takes almost a year to make. Today Show suggests this may be the best beer in the world.
Weekly Pint and Artisanal Premium Cheese (NY) Cheese and Beer Pairing
January 2012
When Christian di Benedetti called to tell us he was becoming editor of the Weekly Pint we were delighted. The launch party for the press took place at Artisanal Premium Cheese in New York City on January 30th, 2012. Artisanal’s Max McCalman (co-author of Cheese: A connoisseur’s guide to the World’s Best) made the pairings. He selected 7 cheeses and we a like number of beers. Read on for Christian’s write-up about the event in the Weekly Pint.
Cheeses
Grassias (goat, US)
Garrotxa (goat, Spain)
Ocooch Mountain (sheep, US)
Sharfe Maxx (cow, Switzerland)
Windsordale Tuckle (Cow, US)
Flosserkase (cow, Switzerland)
Berkshire Blue (cow, US)
Beers
Posca Rustica – Brasserie Dupont
Monk’s Sout – Brasserie Dupont
Foret Blanche – Brasserie Dupont
Lambickx- Vanberg et Famille
Hop Ruiter- Vanberg et Famille at Schelde Brewery
Scaldis Prestige- Brasserie Dubuisson
They Love Each Other
2 Beer and Cheese Pairings that Rock
By Christian Di Benedetti
Rules were made to be broken, right? There’s no hard and fast logic that says wine has a lock on pairings with cheese. In fact the malty-sweet, fruity, bitter, spicy, and sometimes sour flavors in craft beers from cheese-loving regions like France, Germany, Belgium and Holland, the U.K., and the U.S., pair beautifully with a variety of cheeses. Weekly Pint recently teamed up a delicious evening with Max McCalman of Artisanal Premium Cheese in New York and Belgian beer importation pioneers Vanberg & DeWulf. We found McCalman, the easygoing and author of three excellent books on the subject, including Mastering Cheese, which has a full 16-pp chapter on pairing cheese with beer- an invaluable resource.
Where to start? “You’re looking for balance,” says McCalman. “In a beer-and-cheese lineup, as with a tasting of wine pairings,” he writes, “you’ll want to proceed from the lighter, milder lager, pilsner and pale ale styles to the deeper, richer, heavier, darker, more complex-flavored styles of brew.” As you progress up the intensity range in your beers, you’ll need to step it up in your cheese, too.
For a few mind-expanding cheese-and-beer pairings, keep reading.
Sharfe Maxx & Scaldis Prestige
Master cheesemakers in northern Switzerland add a touch of cream and then age this cow’s milk cheese in an herbal brine for six months, giving it a tangy, assertive, almost meaty flavor. Pair it with Brasserie Dubuisson’s Scaldis Prestige, a remarkable Belgian ale with vanilla notes that’s also aged for 6 months – in oak barrels, giving it a touch of pleasant acidity that stands up to strong flavors. Our friends at Ratebeer.com gave this brew a perfect 100.
Berkshire Blue and Lambickx
Cheesemaker Ira Gramble of Great Barrington, MA crafts this American blue cheese inspired by Britain’s famous Stilton. Its strong, balanced earthy flavors are well matched by Lambickx, a 5.75% ABV blend of lambic beers from Belgium which get their sourness from spontaneous wild yeasts and wood barrel aging of up to three years. Made of a secret blend of lambics hand-selected by Belgo-American beer pioneer Don Feinberg from three authentic Belgian Geuzestekkerij (blenders), it’s got mellow carbonation, pleasant barnyardy notes, and a lemony tartness that cleanses the palate well – making way for another memorable bite.
Bar on Buena, Chicago Beer and Cheese Event January 2010
An evening of fantastic flavors with Don Feinberg and Wendy Littlefield of Vanberg & DeWulf
Pairings
Witkap Stimulo Papillon Rondi
Saison Dupont Five year-old Gouda
Biere de Miel Saint Nectaire
Vicaris Dubbel Uplands Pleasant Ridge
Scaldis Refermentee Taleggio
Scaldis Prestige de Nuits Brillat-Savarin
A bit about Don Feinberg and Vanberg & DeWulf:
Don Feinberg and his wife Wendy have pioneered Belgian beer culture in the U.S. market since 1982. Not only do they import some of the finest beers from Belgium (Brasserie Dupont, Brasserie Dubuisson, Brouwerij Slaghmuylder) and France (Brasserie Castelain), they have been major forces in the introduction and growth of Belgian beer in the U.S. market since its inception. They were formerly responsible for importing Duvel, Affligem, Rodenbach, Bosteels, Boon Lambics, and Jenlain back in the 80’s and also co-founded Brewery Ommegang in 1997. The Ommegang abbey ale, Hennepin, Rare Vos, and Three Philosophers are their recipes.
Don has played a role in supporting not only artisan beers but also the celebration of artisan and specialty foods, and was a large part of that growth with Dean & DeLuca in New York City, (the first off premise account in New York to carry specialty beers). As a result of their efforts, Don and Wendy were honored to be the first Americans ever inducted into the Belgian Brewer’s Guild in its 500-year history.
THE AUDACIOUS BEER AND CHEESE FESTIVAL TASTING – WISCONSIN
SUMMER 2011 This great fundraiser and beer event was held in the countryside outside Milwaukee. We had our beers paired with Saxon’s wonderful cheeses. Jerry did special editions of washed rind cheeses using our beers too. Awesome event!
Vanberg & DeWulf – Don Feinberg and Wendy Littlefield
Saxon Homestead Cheese – Jerry Heimerl
Flight One
Green Fields
A semi-soft washed rind from raw cow’s milk, carefully tended to for 70 days then wrapped in a special breathable package for its journey from our creamery to you.
Avril- Brasserie Dupont, Belgium
Bieres de table are not the heavy hitters Belgium is so famous for – but are central to Belgian beer culture because they are how Belgians learn to appreciate beer. They are typically enjoyed with home cooked meals at the family fining table. There is no finer example of the style than Avril, one of the most commended session beers in the world. Avril is USDA certified organic, aromatic like fresh bread, full in the mouth and light on the finish.
Flight Two
Saxony
A sophisticated cheese with a nutty flavor and a supple body, as comfortable in the kitchen as it is in on the table. Cooked pressed curds from whole raw cow’s milk with a light, dry, washed rind ripened a minimum of 90 days, peaking a 150, with a shelf life of 9 months.
Scaldis Peche Mel- Brasserie Dubuisson, Belgium
A deliciously drinkable beer with the heady aroma of peach, a well-balanced malt character, and a surprisingly dry finish. This beauty is based on a favorite drink made by students that combined peach lambic and classic Scaldis, Peche Mel redefines what a fruit beer can taste like.
Flight Three
Big Ed’s
Young, mild, but full of flavor, with a buttery body. Enthusiastic, like Ed Klessig, whom it was names after, it hugs you back, never offends, and is great both for first time tasters and aficionados. A clean rind cheese made from raw cow’s milk formed into cooked, pressed curds and ripened 120 days, with a shelf life of six months- clean rind cheeses are meticulously wiped to keep them clean, cultivating a near perfect rind.
Saison Dupont- Brasserie Dupont, Belgium
“Legendary, hailed as the world’s best saison. Piquant, peppery hop bitterness rounded out by green apple, sugared grapefruit, and unyielding yeast character.”- Ben McFarland, World’s Best Beers
“Beautifully balanced, complex example of truly artisanal brewing. Classic producer of the style.” -Michael Jackson
“The best beer in the world. Period.” – Men’s Journal
Flight Four
Pastures
A meaty cheese, young, but dense, mellow but full of flavor, creamy, with a sweet taste that lingers. Bandaged wrapped raw milk cheese aged 120 days.
Hop Ruiter- Vanberg & Dewulf Selection
We love telling customers Hop Ruiter is imported from 1982 – when Don was a grad student in Belgium and strong golden ales were funky, malty, and full of character! This 8%abv bottle-conditioned strong golden ale combines Belgian appreciation for aromatic esters with the American love of hops. But unlike American IPA’s and Belgian IPA wannabes, Hop Ruiter celebrates the finesse Belgians bring to using hops. Three different varieties (none American) are used; one in the boil and two in dry hopping. Winner best new beer from a Belgian microbrewery at the most prestigious competition in Belgium, in Antwerp (2011).
Flight Five
Green Fields 1st Edition: Specially Aged with Scaldis Beer
A semi-soft washed rind from raw cow’s milk and washed with Scaldis, a Strong Belgian Ale.
Scaldis- Brasserie Dupont, Belgium
Scaldis was created in 1933 by Alfred Dubuisson, grandfather of the present family brewer, Hugues Dubuisson. It’s amber color is due to the use of caramel malt in the production process. Its bitter-sweet taste provides it with firm body and character.
Ingredients:
Herb Roasted Chicken:
