Ted beers all again

… what … more beer again this week Ted? Yes but wait … this time it’s a “Food meets Beer” coming together at the fabulous Borough market. A summer weekend festival of beer and food matching with education of the fun type galore – beer safaris, cooking demonstrations, brewers and beer guru’s including the renowned Melissa Cole “SommALEier” talking about beer, and of course lots of beer and food to sample, consume, and take home.

There was only one small problem … while it might officially be summer calendar-wise it certainly wasn't weather-wise, and not even the most patriotic and weather hardened Londoner could pretend otherwise.  It was freezing - 12 degrees celsius - 53 for you farenheighters!!! Look at what the people are wearing ...winter clothes!!! I had to keep changing the hand I was holding my beer in as it was freezing my hand (probably ever so slightly dramatic there Ted). In the interests of education I soldiered on and learnt amongst other things that hops once picked must be dried within a matter of days or they will rot. 

Today the majority of the brewers use hop pellets which are much more concentrated than their dried leafy equivalents and have the added advantage of not leaving a wet mulch of hop residue at the bottom of the fermenter that has to be cleaned out by hand before the next batch can be brewed.

They were kind enough to provide some food and beer pairing principles for guidance. Like wine pairing you can choose complement or contrast as your starting point - and then consider the flavours, fat, acid, etc and the weight of the beverage for the food.

Along with the many traditional combinations like cheese and charcuterie I found some pretty interesting suggested “meetings” like freshly shucked oysters with London Brewing pHuchsia, a slightly sour cherry and raspberry beer to contrast with the sweetness of the oysters. Then there was lemon cheesecake with Wild Goose Chase farmhouse ale brewed with gooseberries giving tart flavours to offset the creaminess of the cheesecake, and beer caramels made with Fourpure Amber Ale accompanied by the same ale for the perfect complement.

Food (and beer) for thought isn't it …

Ted and the missing person

Who is Melissa Cole .. why is she famous and why can’t I find her?  She describes herself as a sommALEier, which means she’s really an expert on beer. Every cool beer event I have been to in the last little while people keep saying to me “Hey Ted did you see Melissa?, she was just here” or “oh no Ted you just missed Melissa”.  I was beginning to wonder if this was some big joke that I wasn't in on like the Tom Collins cocktail story.  So when I saw she was doing an “off flavours” beer tutorial as part of the beer festival in London of course I jumped at the chance to finally meet her. Once I got to the "tasting" it suddenly dawned on me .. did I actually know what “off flavours” meant in reality, and in my haste to finally meet Melissa, had I made a really gigantic mistake.

I felt better once I sat down and we were given a little sample of good beer from the pub hosting the event. BrewDog “Dead Pony Club” and no ... I didn’t ask about the ingredients.

 Melissa told us we would be given beer samples that reflected three "off" flavours per round (mercifully only two rounds) and we had to guess, oh I mean decide, through superior old factory and taste bud analysis, which was which. Thankfully, the samples were small. Off flavours can range from the almost innocuous like butter and banana, through metallic and blood, to the truly unpleasant, seriously ... baby sick or skunk anyone!!

We asked Melissa “who made all these terribly flawed beers?” and she laughed and said “oh they are ghosts” ... Huh? ... apparently you buy the most ubiquitous industrially produced lager you can find and add the “I prepared these earlier” flawed characteristics "flavour" capsules.

I am happy to report that my table mates and I got all six of the “offs” correct.  Lucky for them as they are soon to open a store in up and coming Peckham to offer great beer, fabulous vinyl of the music type, and hot sauce … Hop Burns and Black.

As a prize we were given BrewDog currency, with no less than the Governor of the Bank of England's signature on it, to purchase something that we would actually like to drink. I chose the Roosters “Baby Face Assassin” ... and went home happy.