Cheese and Beer Pairings - Sam Adams Part 2

Samuel Adams got another chance to be featured at the Cheese and Beer pairing night at Dierberg's last month. I would have preferred there be an emphasis on local beers, but I admit that I was happy to try this round of beers since they focused on summer and lighter beers.

You can read about my first cheese and beer pairing class with Samuel Adams here:
http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/02/cheese-beer-pairings-at-dierbergs.html

The welcome beer was just Samuel Adams Light and since it wasn't too cold, I didn't have too much of it. I knew better and saved room for the other, tastier beers.

Cheese and Samuel Adams lineup

We started off with a twist on cider beer with the Angry Orchard Summer Honey. There is indeed a slight honey flavor, but not too sweet. The Parrano cheese is a gouda style made from Holland, so it was typically smooth, creamy, and nutty. This cheese made the beer less crisp on on the finish and bring out the butter and honey flavors of the beer. The bonus pairing was the apricot paste, which brought out more fruit and cream flavors.

I really thought the Summer Ale would be the best beer since Schlafly's Summer Lager is my favorite, but this beer was a little too strong on the wheat and yeast flavor. This was paired with a Van Kaas Red Wax Gouda so it helped to stand up to the rich cheese. Together, you get more of the fruit and lemon flavor and the beer does cut through the cream. Dried apricots were the extra pairing here and it made the beer less sweet.

My favorite beer of the night ended up being the Porch Rocker, which is their version of a Radler. I would call this a "porch pounder" myself as you could easily drink a few of these in a row with only 4.5% ABV. This beer was paired with a Kerrygold Cashel Blue, which I thought overpowered the lemon flavor of the beer. The extra pairing of pear paste helped to chill out the cheese a little bit.

Another new beer to me, the DownTime Pilsner, had a big floral note to it and was a bit too hoppy for me. I did think the drier Sartori Asiago, an Italian style cheese, was a good balance with this beer. The extra pairing of chocolate almonds (delicious by itself!) also brought out more of the savory flavors.

For the Rebel Rider IPA, the Comte was definitely needed to help deal with the mild hoppiness in this IPA. The fruit nut bar helped a little, but I would probably prefer the cheese by itself.

Dierberg's is now switching to wine and cheese pairings for next month, but I do think there will be more beer and cheese pairings later this year!

Beer Lineup

Resources:

Dierbergs Cooking School = http://www.dierbergs.com/School

Samuel Adams = http://www.samueladams.com/