This past weekend, my wife, Carrie, and I hosted our first beer and food pairing. I decided to focus on saisons as they are a strange group of brews that aren't widely understood and appreciated. We sampled seven different saisons (two Belgians, two from New York, and three from local Minnesota breweries).
THE SET-UP
If you decide to host your own beer and food pairing, just know that it takes a lot of preparation. Not only do you have to make sure your home and dining table are all set, but you also should do your homework so that you can tell your guests about what they are consuming. A book that really helped me out was one that I received for my birthday last week. The Oxford Companion to Beer by Garret Oliver is a wellspring of knowledge for anything you may want to know about beer. I found a couple encyclopedia-like entries about several of the beers that we were drinking as well as information about the saison style and its ingredients. This book is also on the Cicerone study guide.
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I started by going down to my local bottle shop, Ale Jail, and perused their Belgian section and found a couple recommended saisons. I then went home and checked out the breweries' websites and various beer review websites to learn about the ingredients as well as the history of the breweries. I was then able to grab some pilsner malts and some German noble hops from the brewery I worked at so that our guests could actually sample the ingredients.
You also want to make sure that your setting is conducive to tasting. Your sense of smell is extremely important when picking out the subtle differences between each beer (it accounts for approximately 70% of your sense of taste). For this reason, I snuffed out all of the candles, I advised that people abstain from any fragrances, hand lotions, or lipsticks. You will also want to provide lots of water. Not just as a palate cleanser or a rinser for your glass, but also so that people stay hydrated and don't lose their senses to the alcohol. We also provided a bucket for guests to dump their rinse water. Don't forget to use proper glassware such as tulip or wine glasses so that the beer is presented in the best possible way.
We decided to also rank the beers we were drinking, so we printed some tasting sheets from the Brewers Association website and made a chart to record everybody's rankings.
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THE FOOD
Saisons are like champagne when it comes to food pairings. They are highly effervescent and have a complex flavor profile that allow them to be paired with nearly anything. We paired them with a cheese, an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert.
For the cheese, Carrie found a cheddar-gruyere mix. The sharpness of the cheddar and the funk from the gruyere complemented the same flavors of the saisons. It also provided a nice palate cleanser when switching from one saison to another.
Mussels are a perfect pairing for a saison. They are both light in flavor and won't overwhelm the other. The sweetness and effervescence of the saison bring out the salinity and natural sweetness of the oyster. We grabbed some frozen mussels from Trader Joe's that were steamed in a white wine sauce. They were super easy (just took a while to boil the water) and super cheap (these tastings can be expensive to host, so save where you can).
For dinner we grabbed some pad thai take out from a local restaurant. The peppery and fruity flavors of the yeast as well as the spices that are added to some saisons go well with spicy middle-eastern and Asian foods. Our Minnesota palates were not accustomed to the overly spicy dishes, so we needed to go back to the cheese round to soothe our burned tongues.
Our friend baked an absolutely delicious dessert for us. It was a green apple crumble pie with extra cinnamon and nutmeg. Many of the flavors in the pie were also found in the beer. Green apple esters as well as some pepper phenols were accentuated by each bite of the pie. I highly recommend this pairing.
THE BEER!
Now for the most important part, the beer! I'll list each beer with some of the notes that were taken by everybody. As a note, this was a blind tasting so nobody knew what they were drinking until it was revealed at the end.
APPEARANCE: This one was darker than the others with a light copper/amber color. It was filtered and clear. Higher carbonation with a thick lacing pattern.
AROMA: Light in aroma. Caramel. Several artificial fruit notes.
FLAVOR: Sweet butterscotch. Artificial sweetness with a light hop bitter finish. Some said a grapefruit or lemon citrus flavor and one person suggested a metallic flavor.
OVERALL: This one received generally high marks with an averaged score of 6.25. Most peopled noted that this was probably not the best representation of the style, but was still enjoyable.
Harmony Farm by Lakes & Legends
APPEARANCE: This one also had a copper color with a slight haze, but was lighter than the Cynic. Light lacing and low carbonation (could be due to it being from a growler).
AROMA: This one was agreed to have more of the stylistic barnyard/hay/earthy smell.
FLAVOR: Definitely sweeter. Some of the pepper spice. We were split on our ability to pick up the hop bitterness, but if it was present it was light.
OVERALL: I was nervous to include this one, as I have a sense of pride when it comes to the beers that Lakes & Legends puts out. Overall though, people seemed to like it and gave it an average score of 5.75 landing it right in the middle.
Hennepin by Ommegang
APPEARANCE: Lighter straw color and much hazier. Highly carbonated.
AROMA: The aroma on this one was one of the best. Fruity esters of pear, banana, and strawberry.
FLAVOR: The flavor was much more subtle than the aroma. Citrusy with notes of orange peel. Clean finish and some champagne dryness.
OVERALL: This would make a nice spring or summer beer with its light flavor and blissful aroma. It received an average score of 6.25.
Sorachi Ace by Brooklyn Brewery
APPEARANCE: Cloudy with a gold color.
AROMA: Definite citrus aromas. Strong lemon aroma. Almost an apricot or tangerine.
FLAVOR: It had a strong orange pith flavor. Not sweet. Very dry finish (makes sense since they add champagne yeast).
OVERALL: This one is unique as it uses the Sorachi Ace hops which were developed by a Japanese brewery and aren't commonly used. This was not a crowd favorite and received the worst score of 4.25.
Saison Dupont (Vielle Provision) by Brasserie Dupont
APPEARANCE: Highly carbonated. Light color. Cloudy and sediment present.
AROMA: This also had the barnyard aroma. A bit of a wit-like orange aroma.
FLAVOR: The hop bitterness/spiciness was definitely more present in this one than others. More of a wheat flavor. A long lasting finish.
OVERALL: The Saison Dupont is the quintessential guide to what a saison is. I was very happy that this one received top marks from everyone resulting in the highest score of 7.0.
Farm Girl by Lift Bridge
APPEARANCE: Very light color with a slight haze. Low carb (also from a growler)
AROMA: Very little hop aroma and I think this one may have had some off flavors of diacetyl because several of us picked up on some butter popcorn aromas.
FLAVOR: Very light in flavor. A bit of an orange fruit taste. Someone even said it was a bit like a lager in its drinkability.
OVERALL: Nobody in our group was wowed by this one, however it did receive higher marks for being one of the easiest to drink. It was pretty balanced and could easily be enjoyed via a full six pack. Farm Girl received an average score of 6.25.
Avec les Bons Voeux de la Brasserie Dupont (Bons Voeux) by Brasserie Dupont
APPEARANCE: Super hazy with quite a bit of sediment. Slight carbonation.
AROMA: You could definitely smell the saison barnyard funk. Some hay or wet grass. Yeasty. There was some hop spice. I picked up some artificial grape aroma. The higher ABV of 9.5% was also apparent in the smell.
FLAVOR: The barnyard character was apparent in the flavor as well giving it a hay or sour taste. It had more of an earthy tone than a fruity one.
OVERALL: Bons Voeux originally was not made available to the general public. It was brewed a a happy new year beer for Dupont's special clients and friends. Translated it means "With the best of wishes of the brewery Dupont. Because this beer has a special tradition, I was a little disappointed to see it only receive an average score of 5.625.
This was a really fun experience and I can't wait to do this again. I'm thinking it would be fun to do a tasting with American IPAs vs English IPAs to better understand the differences in flavor between the two hop families. One thing I would do differently next time would be to limit the number of beers. Toward the end it was hard to remember what the first beers tasted like. I would also recommend buying more of each beer than you think you would need. Just to help people remember the first couple beers, it would be nice if they could try another splash. I highly recommend hosting a tasting of your own as it is really educational and a lot of fun.
Proost!
