Tasting Recap

So Sunday brought overcast skies and plenty of quality cheese to the Richmond area. Myself and fellow BeerAdvocate Steve set up a beer and cheese pairing event that had everything: glamour, glitz, some quality items for pairing, and... not many people.

Still, Steve was able to round up some friends on Sunday afternoon, and while being relatively new to craft beer, they seemed to have fun. Or at least have fun laughing at the two beer nerds. Regardless, the spread was listed in previous post, and was quite delicious.

The first stop was Legend's brewpub for a pint and to meet with a fellow BA that never showed. Unfortunate, but I did get to sample their Chocolate Porter and Russian Imperial Stout, which was good since I haven't been keeping tabs on their seasonals like I should. The Chocolate Porter seemed to go a little overboard with the actual chocolate in the recipe, without providing a counterbalance for it or something to temper it a bit. The RIS was way too vinegary, with hints of soy sauce, which wasn't too appealing to my tastebuds at the time. At least they're putting the effort into these styles, though. Besides they're practically the only game in town in terms of Richmond-area brewpubs with the ability to continuously put out such a wide variety of beers.

As for the beer and cheese event, there were some really stellar pairings and some that weren't as riveting. The idea was to have two mild cheeses and two more extreme ones, so that we could note differences in the way each beer reacted to its dairy counterpart. One thing that didn't go over so well was the insanely tangy and strong bleu cheese we picked out. That's a tough style of cheese for many to get acquainted with, especially trying to pair it with a beer or two. Speaking for myself, I thought it was worth the attempt to pair it with some of the offerings, like the Trois Pistoles, to see how it stacked up. Granted, I wasn't amazed with any combinations that were selected around this cheese, but I'm still glad that I did some experimenting. Perhaps a different bleu cheese and different beers will prove me wrong in the future, who knows?

The Pepper Jack seemed to be a crowd favorite, as it went together swimmingly with two Double/Imperial IPAs, as well as the milder Anchor Steam. Personally, I thought the Fuller's ESB went great with the gouda, the caramel and buttery notes in the beer pairing nicely with the buttery and slightly smoked notes of the cheese. Then again, I'm a sucker for a good gouda.

Our event was later followed by some early evening football and buffet-style dinner that hit the spot. All those slices of pumpernickel and "multi-grain, dawg" crackers were tasty, but not enough to keep us satiated once the dinner hour hit. Overall, this was a success, simply due to the fact that even though some beer enthusiasts in the area couldn't make it, we turned some others on to craft beer and cheese pairings, and had a great time in the process.


Oh, and one more thing...

Could it be?! It is! The previously-mentioned Matt from Wine & Beer Westpark in our local paper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, on wine of all things. Here we are, hosting a beer and cheese pairing, and he's lending his mug to help the wine crowd host a party! Traitorous activities are afoot over there with this guy.

(Purely in jest, of course. They're great over at W & B Westpark.)