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Loading ...April/May 2012 | The Variety Pack
Victory Helios Ale and Birchrun Hills Fat Cat make for a complementary tasting.
This spring, it’s farmhouse meets farmhouse. Our cheese is Fat Cat from Sue Miller of Birchrun Hills Farm in Chester County. Sue makes some of the most interesting farmstead cheeses around, and it doesn’t hurt either that she’s one of the most accessible, affable cheesemaking characters I know.
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Enjoy the natural complements of earth and fruit.
Al and Catherine Renzi run something of a nanobrewery of the cheeseworld. Operating on just eight acres of land with a small herd of goats, the Yellow Springs Farm cheese output is tiny, and very, very special. The Renzi’s business is not just dairy, they also are passionate about native plants and run their farm based around purposeful, conservation-minded agriculture. If you manage to find them down their winding road in Chester County, you’re sure to be taken by the Walden-esque beauty of the farm; a stone barn that houses the cheese room, a historic springhouse overlooking a pond and wetland, and floppy-eared goats amidst over 200 species of native plants.
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Pairing the best local cheeses with your favorite local beers.
Toma Primavera
What’s a cheese plate without boldness? This one has it in spades. Toma is a washed-rind, raw milk tomme from Cherry Grove, a biodiverse farmstead near Princeton. Let it sit out a good while and a whiff of almonds and cultured butter will hit the air. Taste it and get all that, plus a tang reminiscent at once of briny caper berries and blackberry.
Pairing: Try something on the spicy side like River Horse Belgian Freeze or Philadelphia Brewing Co. Winter Wünder. Going in the opposite direction with a sour or tart beer, such as Weyerbacher Riserva, would work nicely as well. Read more…
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This aged farmhouse cheese plays right into JavaHead’s coffee flavors.
This issue’s pairing comes out of Hidden Hills Dairy in Western PA and from the Trogner brothers in Harrisburg. JavaHead is a stout, a coffee beer brewed with actual beans that marries deliciously well with Hidden Hill’s Old Gold. Old Gold is an aged Gouda, and I affectionately assert aged Gouda’s are one of the “gateway drugs” of the real cheese world. With their candied flavors of caramel and toffee brittle, they have an addictive Wonka-bar affect on the tongue. Read more…
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A pairing of River Horse’s fruity Double Wit & Shellbark’s punchy Sharp Chevre.
The beer is River Horse’s Double Wit out of Lambertville, NJ. To define: this is a Belgianstyle wheat brewed with orange peel, lemon peel, and coriander. But it sure doesn’t taste like many Belgian’s I’ve had. When poured, this thing reeks of fresh squeezed tangerine juice. Belgian hallmarks are there for sure, but these flavors are wearing a Hawaiian shirt at the beach, not garbed in monk’s robes. You get piles of lemon zest, a light herbaceous quality, and a definite post-gulp whop of coriander. But there is also a sweet pleasing, heavy finish at the end. Read more…
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Keswick Tommenator and Stoudts Karnival Kölsch.
With every season, there is a cheese and beer. Winter indulges pairings of warming barleywines and robust cheeses, or funky, mineralic blues with darker holiday ales. Spring calls for something lighter, zestier, and awakening! Normally, I reach for witbiers and maibocks, but to my surprise, Stoudts Karnival Kölsch is the thing for my spring spirit. This isn’t a beer that screams profundity, you won’t be writing that long awaited novella over it, or arguing hop varieties into the night with the beer intelligentsia. It is, however, exactly what I will be reaching for (again and again) come early picnics and my first days of outdoor gardening. It is approachable, fairly low ABV, and damn refreshing. Read more…
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The perfect holiday beer and cheese pairing.
With the change of season and the approaching holidays,breweries have started putting out their darker, stronger beers. On cold winter nights, holiday ales and winter warmers are the perfect complement to complete an evening. Weyerbacher Winter Ale is a great example of such a beer. Brewed with deep-roasted chocolate malts, Winter Ale is the malt heavy brew that, despite a surprisingly low alcohol percentage of 5.6%, is ideal for keeping you warm no matter how cold it is outside. Read more…
