First things first, the consumption of beer with food happened in this order.
1) Hefewiezen w/ fresh figs done two ways a) caramelized with fennel and b) chili poached with blur cheese mousse - I found the caramel-ized fig was complimented well with the Hef, to the point it diminished the flavour of the beer greatly. However it did seem to work well in texture. The poached seemed to contrast with the beer, I think especially the blue cheese, and so was able to get more flavour from the beer. The hef also seemed to refresh the mouth from the hint of chili.
2) Pale Ale w/ whole king prawn wrapped in pancetta with ashed goats cheese filling - My least favourite beer of the night with my most favourite food from the night. The beer was quite dry I found, and in combo with the food, helped bring a smokey quality from the pancetta which lingers. However, the beer helped to cleanse the mouth of the cheese, allowing me to enjoy every mouthful of the prawn.
3) Dark Ale w/ slow roasted pork belly on candied sweet potato with spiced banana jus - Probably the one I was looking forward to the most, and the meat was definitely sweet. There was a good texture in the beer with slight sweetness to go with the meat, but the beer does contrast enough to cleanse the tongue. To be honest though, I would have liked it if the two had complimented more.
4) Pilsner w/ cherry rice cake and barbecued duck breast - At this point I was getting into some good conversation with the couple sitting near me, so the notes start to diminish a bit, but finding the pilsner seemed to have a more honeyed hop flavour (they don't use Saaz in it), it went really well with the duck, and the tingling hop sensation really cuts through the subtle meat flavour.
5) Stout '09 and '10 w/ a) roasted malt ma'maoul and b) stout and pistachio ricotta cake - Ok first the beers by themselves showed the '09 had aged to bring out a nice chocolate smell with alcohol, but was very dry on the tongue. In contrast, the '10 had more alcohol smell and was a bit spirity in combo with the malt. There is more of that imperial stout flavour in this with a good balance and could see this come along nicely with some aging. I found the cake went well with the '09, but the beer was still too dry for dessert and the ma'maoul went better with the '10. I also really like there was some pieces of caramelised roasted malt on the plate, which I enjoyed putting together with each dessert.
Big thanks to Owen and Jon for coming over and going through the journey with some nice informative notes to share (and for Jon mentioning me in his talk) and willingness to take any questions/comments from the crowd. Myself and the couple were the last to leave the dining area talking beer and such and would like to wish Alistair a happy 21st for this Wednesday. I'll be in Adelaide enjoying a Rogues Chocolate Stout, but can tell you that you have chosen well in following Moo Brew.
Of course a big thanks to Beer Delux for putting on the event, and the previous nights Pilsner tasting.
Cheers,
Beef
PS: I can tell you that from the free tasting I had last night at Purvis, that out of the bottle, the pils, hef, pale and dark all come out of the bottle with a very soft texture. All seem to be less flavourful from the bottle, especially the pale, but still enjoyed the banana from the hef quite a bit, and was my favourite from the bottle. I really look forward to trying out the new Saison from Moo Brew, hopefully while I am down there at the end of next month.
No comments:
Post a Comment