Specialty Food Magazine

Bock and Doppelbock: Sadly underrepresented in most retail beer offerings, German-style bocks and doppelbocks are exceptionally cheese friendly. Bocks are dark and richly malty lagers—the monks who brewed them in times past called them "liquid bread"— with a smooth, satiny texture and aromas of roasted grain, molasses, and cooked wild rice. Doppelbocks have more alcohol (from 7 to 10 percent) and sometimes a chocolatey aroma. Both are low in IBUs and typically finish a bit sweet. Cheeses to try: nutty Alpine and Alpine- style cow's milk cheeses such as Comté, Gruyère, Hornbacher, Spring Brook Farm Tarentaise, and Uplands Cheese Pleasant Ridge Reserve. Porter and Stout: These dark English beer styles are malt forward, with aromas of coffee, chocolate, licorice, toast, and toffee. They tend to be low to moderate in bitterness and alcohol (imperial porters and stouts are stronger) and rarely show any of the fruity or floral hops aromas. They are not highly carbonated, oatmeal stout is particularly creamy. Cheeses to try: Medium-aged cow's milk cheese with a creamy texture and buttery or nutty aromas, such as Point Reyes Farmstead Toma, Sweet Grass Dairy Griffin, or Cascadia Creamery Sleeping Beauty, aged goat cheeses with caramel notes such as Goat Lady Dairy Providence, Garrotxa, La Dama Sagrada, Andante Dairy Tomme Dolce, and Pardou Pur Chèvre. American Pale Ale: For many drinkers, pale ales offer just the right balance of hops, malt, and alcohol. They don't lead with their bitterness, like IPAs often do, and they have an appealing malty middle to cushion the bitter. Aromatically, they can show citrus or grassy notes from hops with a hint of toasty malt. They are midrange in alcohol, too, usually around 5 to 6 percent. Cheeses to try: Aged cow's milk cheeses like Vella Mezzo Secco, Vella Dry Jack, and Valley Ford's Estero Gold Reserve, mellow Cheddars such as Beecher's Flagship, Face Rock Clothbound, and Flory's Truckle, Tomme de Savoie. India Pale Ale: Without a doubt the most popular craft beer style, IPAs are all about bitterness. These are high- IBU brews that grip your tongue and seduce you with hoppy aromas of citrus, grass, pineapple, and pine. IPAs typically have vigorous carbonation, moderate alcoholic strength, and a dry, refreshing finish. Cheeses to try: Tangy traditional Cheddars such as Fiscalini Farmstead, Cabot Clothbound, Hook's 5-Year, and Montgomery's. Saison: This Belgian style is popular among American craft brewers. Traditional saison exhibits abundant fruity and spicy aromas from Belgian yeast—scents of banana, green apple, pear cider, and clove. It's common to flavor saison with coriander, dried orange peel, and black or white pepper, but American brewers sometimes get more creative. Saisons are highly effervescent, moderate in alcohol, and low in IBUs. Cheeses to try: bloomy-rind cheeses such as Jasper Hill Farm Moses Sleeper, Von Trapp Farmstead Mt. Alice, Camembert Fermier, Vermont Creamery Cremont. Dubbel: This Belgian style is dark and spicy, with a creamy, viscous body and a thick head. Expect bakeshop aromas like toffee, raisin, clove, and dried fig, abundant alcohol (around 8 percent) and little to no hops bitterness or scent. Dubbels are about the malt, first and foremost. Despite their fruitcake-like aromas, most dubbels finish crisp and dry. Cheeses to try: nutty, beefy cow's milk mountain cheeses such as Challerhocker and L'Etivaz, nutty aged sheep cheeses such as Ossau-Iraty, goat, cow, or sheep Gouda, Murcia curado. Tripel: These golden brews are among the finest examples of the Belgian brewer's craft. The color of pale caramel, they produce a a thick, foamy, long- lasting head when poured properly into a chalice. The aromas are complex and captivating—banana, apple, gingerbread, apricot, spice cake, and orange peel—and the finish is pleasantly bitter and often dry. Tripels are dangerously easy to drink given that they can reach 8 to 10 percent in alcohol. Cheeses to try: washed-rind cheeses such as Chimay, Munster, and Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk, nutty Basque sheep cheeses. Sours: These bracingly tart, often brazenly funky brews don't appeal to everyone, but many beer aficionados appreciate their rusticity. Most sours rely on wild yeasts and bacteria—whatever is in the air and on the brewery walls—for the fermentation, and the results can resemble raspberry or apple cider vinegar. The best are complex and almost wine-like, but others have earthy aromas from Brettanomyces yeast and a mouth-puckering finish. Cheeses to try: Not the easiest style to pair with cheeses as the beers vary greatly but good bets include double- or triple-cream cheeses like Hudson Valley Camembert and Four Fat Fowl St. Stephen, aged Gouda or Mimolette. Janet Fletcher writes the email newsletter Planet Cheese and is the author of Cheese & Wine and Cheese & Beer. FALL 2022 21

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