Cheese and Beer Pairings - Schlafly

As a huge fan of Schlafly beers, I was especially excited about this month’s cheese and beer class at Dierbergs Des Peres. Believe it or not, I actually got try some beers that were new to me: the Bier de Garde and the Lewis Osterweis Ginger beer.

Schlafly lineup

Our welcome beer was the easy-drinking Summer Lager, and is brewed only during a specific season in St. Louis called “baseball season”. Also a good palate cleanser!

The first beer was the Lewis Osterweiss & Sons Hard Ginger beer, following a ginger trend these days. The ginger beer is actually recommended to be used in mixed cocktails although you certainly can drink it on its own. The sharp ginger flavor really helped to cut through the cheese, Reypenaer, a one-year aged gouda. Paring the two together gave off a sweet flavor. Mixed with a pear paste, the combination actually created a maple flavor altogether.

Cheese lineup

Next up was one of my favorites, the very popular Hefeweizen, because it’s so light and refreshing. I learned that Hefe is German for yeast, which is a good name for an unfiltered wheat beer. This was paired with a Wensleydale cheese with cranberries, so it had a butter finish that was slightly chalky, but still a hint of fruit to cut through. These lighter beers pair well with the fruit, although the two together gave a pancake flavor. The best part of this pairing was adding a bite of milk chocolate, which made for a super sweet combination like a rich dessert! Chocolate cream pie!

An ale/lager hybrid, Kolsh, is another beer I enjoy regularly and I learned that not too many breweries make it because the yeast strain must come from Koln, Germany. Luckily, co-founder Tom Schlafly happened to marry a native of Koln and they were able to make the proper connection. This beer was paired with a Karst (meaning cave) cave aged cheese (around 7 months). The toasted rye bread flavor of the beer paired well with the cooked butter and nutty flavor of the aged cheese. The beer did a good job to cut through the creaminess of the cheese and the oil from the addition of salami.

Now the Biere de Garde came in a tall bottle so I automatically assumed it’d be a big beer, but that wasn't the case at all and I found it very easy to drink. This beer is traditionally aged (hence the name) and has secondary fermentation in the bottle resulting in small, tight bubbles. The beer helped to chill out the cheese, which was thick, creamy, and intense. The apricot dried fruit helped to add sweetness to tame down the cheese some more.

At the end, we finally had the big beer, Extra Irish Stout, which was paired with the flavorful Apple Smoked Cheddar. I found this cheddar to be fairly mild in its flavor and I probably would have swapped it with the previous cheese. The stout had a roasted coffee and chocolate flavor and a thick, creamy head. The creaminess of the cheese fit well, but the beer really dominated this pairing. The added Spanish almonds helped to take away some of the smokiness of the cheese for a mild flavor as well, but I really would perfer the bigger beer to help cut through a bigger cheese.

Resources:

Schlafly (St. Louis Brewing Company) = http://schlafly.com/

Dierbergs = http://www.dierbergs.com/

Cheese & Beer Pairings at Dierbergs - Urban Chestnut

I was beyond thrilled to be invited to a new series at Dierbergs Cooking School called "The Tastings", which is a monthly series of cheese and beer pairings. That's right! Cheese! And what a unique idea to pair it with beer...actually a different local craft brewery each month!

To kick off the series, Urban Chestnut was the featured beer and the cheese was selected by Michael Landis, a cheese and beer pairing expert from Gourmet Foods International.

Urban Chestnut

Urban Chestnut was kind enough to kick off the evening with a "welcome beer", which was their easy-to-drink Zwickel lager. You can see the pale yellow lager in the cup on the left and you know that it's perfect for drinking on a summer afternoon.

Completely opposite was the first beer paired, the Harwood Myth English-style Porter. You can see how dark brown this beer is in the second plastic cup as compared to the Zwickel in front of it in. Yet, the beer still had a smooth finish and I'd classify it as an easy-to-drink winter beer. This was paired with the Cypress Grove Lamb Chopper cheese. (YES! The same Cypress Grove who also makes my favorite cheese, Midnight Moon!). The slight bitterness of the goat cheese helped to cancel out any bitterness in the darker beer.

We went back to a lighter beer with the Stammtisch German-style Pilsner, although there was a definite crispness to this beer, which helped to cut through the sharpness of the 24-month aged cheese. The Barbers 1833 cheddar is an English cheese that has been passed down through six generations and has a slight maple flavor.

The Roth Kase Grand Cru is actually a Gruyere cheese, but since this Wisconsin cheesemaker is actually owned by a Swiss company, they had to play by the rules and change the name to avoid any conflicts with Swiss Gruyere. This cheese is very mild and was an evenly balanced match with the H.M.S. English-style India Pale Ale. Now normally I would not even get close to an IPA, but this one was so incredibly mild, that I would have never guessed it was an IPA! I would definitely order this beer again.

Another popular Urban Chestnut beer is the Winged Nut, which to me is very hoppy and therefore has that strong grapefruit finish. An equally strong cheese is needed for an IPA, and the La Bonne Vie ("The Good Life") Garlic & Herb fresh goat cheese stood up to the big flavor of the beer by coating the inside of your mouth. You definitely needed the beer to help cut through the cheese!

The last beer we tried was a traditional IPA, but since it's a mix of styles, it really cannot be classified, although it is said to be similar to a chestnut ale. Again, the hops flavor required a cheese that could stand up to it and the Beehive Creamery "Barely Buzzed" cheese did just that since it is rubbed in coffee grinds, giving it more of a bitter chocolate flavor.

The next class will take place on February 11th, 6pm at the Dierbergs Des Peres. You can sign up here: https://www.cookingschoolsofamerica.com/dierbergsdesperes/index.php?page=classes#685

Resources:

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

Urban Chestnut = http://urbanchestnut.com/

Gourmet Foods International = http://www.gfifoods.com/

Cypress Grove = http://www.cypressgrovechevre.com/

Barbers 1833 = http://www.barbers1833.co.uk/

Roth Kase = http://us.emmi.com/

La Bonne Vie = http://www.labonneviecheese.com/

Beehive Creamery = https://www.beehivecheese.com/