Last week I spent a few days on a business trip, when I had the opportunity to drink some new beer, but this Saturday morning, I will use it to share with you the continuation of the tasting of the beer I bought in Kavala.
On that way I was in one of the markets, at the urging of a local colleague, I bought old goat's cheese.
I woke up thirsty this morning and thought, this morning, even though it's a weird part of the day for drinking beer, I'm going to have a beer, and with that, I'm going to check how this cheese goes with beer.
My colleague told me that it goes perfectly, but he only drinks industrial beers, so I had to read a few recommendations to see how to combine this cheese with the beers I had chilled for tasting.
Marmita Red ALE and Marmita POWWOW.
It's good that last Saturday I drank APA and Stout, which had IBU 43 and high bitterness, along with goat cheese, less bitter beers are recommended, so that the bitterness from the beer does not completely cancel the taste of the cheese.
For this Red ALE, with less bitterness, it was recommended to taste the cheese on toasted bread, so that the palate can feel the caramel and sweet notes that come from the malt, and that sweetness will soften the acidity and saltiness of the goat cheese.
For this beer, the producer states:
Marmite "Red" Ale is a mild & balanced tasting, fresh, unpasteurised, unfiltered, handcrafted beer. It pairs well with smoked cheese, citrus poultry, sweet & sour"
I didn't have smoked cheese, but this goat cheese was perfect as well 🙂
The beer has a beautiful reddish color, it is not too dark, when it is poured, it gives a finger-thick foam that is not persistent, but it lasts long enough that as soon as you bring the glass to your nose and lips, you can feel the aroma of caramel with the slight smell of tropical fruit that gives this beer hops.
With a bitterness of IBU 23, a nice color of EBC 27 and 5.7% alcohol, this beer was a perfect match for cheese on toast.
For the POWWOW IPA tasting, pairing it with aged goat cheese was a little more challenging.
Slightly higher, but still moderate bitterness of IBU32 beer did not completely overpower the taste of the cheese, and the hops introduced interesting fruity aromas, which agree very well with the structure, smell and taste of aged goat cheese.
In order to further highlight the flavors and create a perfect balance of the beer and goat cheese flavors, and to soften the bitterness of the beer and thus highlight the cheese flavor, I added a little honey over the cheese.
I was not wrong 🙂
The producer for this interesting IPA beer states the following:
"POWWOW Slightly cloudy and blonde, with intense tasting notes of pineapple, maracuya and grapefruit. Marmite POWWOW is an almost classic IPA. with delicate botanical and floral aromas, complimented by Funky hops and harmonic bittemess."
Moderately bitter, very light, but cloudy, unpasteurized and unfiltered beer stirred the sediment at the bottom of the bottle during pouring and introduced pieces of yeast and hop protein into the glass along with the rich foam.
Thick, thick foam, with wonderful tropical fruit aromas, with a beautiful color, contributed to the enjoyment of the smell, and when this beer mixed with the taste of cheese in my mouth, I can say that the taste is perfect.
In addition to the smell and taste, the color of this hazy unpasteurized, extremely light beer with 6% alcohol is perfect.
The combination of hops: Columns, Centennial, Simcoe and Citra, is perfectly blended in this beer.
Since I still have cheese, I have to taste it with the other beers I have in my fridge, which I will leave for next Saturday.
Now I have to finish some duties on the laptop, and a little later I have to drive, so it wouldn't be wise to taste another beer this morning.