Today we shared not only an old Rioja, but a couple beers also. Cheese and wine is usually a pairing that I don't like - the wines tend to taste "dirty" with cheese, especially if they are even a little bit soft. But beers can be very cheese friendly indeed!
With a selection of Stilton, Kuttu-Ville (goat, a little like Tomme de Chevre), Fromagerie Berthaut's Le Trou du Cru Epoisses and Beira Baixa (Portugal, goat) we had:
Cantillon Gueuze which totally rocked! This is a funky and Musar Blanc-like beer, highly acidic, very savoury, very dry and was a great match with the cheeses. It neither killed them by being too strong and not even the Epoisses managed to kill the beer! Lovely stuff.
Adnams The Bitter Classic Beer was pretty bland: it tasted industrial and superficially sweet. Very boring.
Hook Norton AD 303 was not on the standard of the Cantillon, but was a nice bitter (maybe the best available that Finnish consumers can buy to take home). Very dry, hoppy, but friendly and forward and hoppy and refreshing enough to work very well with the cheese.
A good, hoppy beer and a good, stinky chunk of cheese has to be among the most hedonistic pleasures known to man!
-O-