Beer

Food Pairing: Cheese and Chocolate with Drake’s

October 11, 2011

A week from Friday, Drake’s is teaming up with Tcho Chocolates for a Beer, Cheese and Chocolate Pairing event, and so, to prepare the best line-up of pairings for that night we thought it would be a good idea to have a pre-tasting here at the Brewery. Also, we just really really like cheese, chocolate and beer…mmm.

Last Friday at the Barrel House we gathered our bounty. With five cheeses — smoked gouda, chevre, Dubliner Irish Sharp Cheddar, Triple Cream, and Roquefort blue — six chocolates — Classic Milk, Dark Milk, Fruity Dark, Citrus Dark, Nutty Dark and Pure Chocolatey Dark — and the DBH’s grand wall of over twenty taps we proceeded (in a very orderly fashion and not at all like animals who hadn’t eaten in days…) to work to find perfect pairings.

It was arduous eating all that cheese and chocolate and drinking Drake’s beers… truly it was… but it had to be done.

BUT in the end we were triumphant, coming to several conclusions that we can now share with you.

  1. Drakonic Imperial Stout, blue cheese and Pure Dark Chocolate- Simple Perfection.
  2. Drake’s IPA, tangy chevre and dark milk chocolate. This one caught us a bit off-guard, but the tangy flavor of the chevre both worked with the grapefruit, citrus characteristics of our hoppy flagship and balanced perfectly with the malt tones and the bitterness. The sweetness of the dark milk chocolate was then the perfect cap that brought it all together.
  3. Drake’s 1500, Dubliner cheddar and fruity dark chocolate. Our hop-foward 1500 paired great with the sharp and nutty cheddar, and the fruity dark chocolate was a harmonious match with the citrus flavors from the hops in the Pale Ale.
  4. Smoked Cheeses are tough to pair as they just make all the beers taste like smoked beers. But, they seemed to work best with our Black Robusto Porter.
  5. Triple Cream also worked well with the Drakonic. The one we had was more mild but a funkier cheese would have been absolutely perfect. A triple cream blue would be amazing.
  6. While we weren’t looking at the Barrel Aged beers too closely- they had some amazing pairings too. One that was particularly stellar: Midnight Run- sour imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels – and Blue Cheese.

So, now we know you’re jealous and marking Oct. 21 on your calendar to go hang out with some Drake’s beers, cheese and chocolate in the city, but if by some terrible coarse of events you can’t make it we have a solution. Gather your own cheese, chocolate tasting smorgasbord and come down to the Barrel House. If you come up with any great pairings of your own- let us know! Cheers.