September 25, 2009
“Cheese Chooses Beer”
Some argue that craft beers play better with cheese than wine (via):
Mr. Di Vincenzo, who led two of the beer workshops, says pairing beer and cheese is a no-brainer — “like bread and cheese. Beer is a bit like liquid bread.”
“The bitter note of hops gives a skimming strength that allows to cleanse the mouth from the fat” in cheeses, allowing for a better savoring of the flavors, he says.
Part of the appeal comes from the fact that beer and cheese are part of a common farm cycle. In the 19th century, Belgian monks would brew beer, feeding their cows the leftover barley husks. The cows’ milk yielded cheese that the monks — many of them vegetarians — liked to munch while enjoying their beers.
“You will often hear the argument that cows don’t eat grapes,” says Justin Philips, owner of New York’s Beer Table, a gourmet beer bar in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood. Mr. Philips, who has been serving beer and cheese since opening the bar a year and a half ago, says palates have warmed quickly to the pairing, such as his proposed meeting of Swiss cheese with Swiss Rebetez beer.
Of course, the argument is a journalistic gloss. Any lover of taste (I refuse to call myself a ‘foodie.’) knows that context rules the day: some cheeses may go better with beer than wine and vice versa. The whole experience is contingent on mood, weather, style of cheese and wine or beer, the topic of conversation, etc., etc.
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