Boutique beer. It’s kind of a big deal these days. Everywhere you go in Melbourne it’s inescapable and on tap at every local from Brunswick to Brighton. But despite quaffing it by the litre every passing weekend, it’s safe to say very few of us actually know how to complement food with beer or vice versa.
Luckily for us, James Squire‘s Brewmaster Dr. Chuck Hahn is out to educate us. As the founder of the Hahn Brewery, Australia’s largest microbrewery, Chuck knows his way around a pint or two — describing it as the perfect ‘social lubricant’. As such, Chuck is particularly passionate about having us complement food with beer just as we do with wine to enhance its effect on the palette.
At last week’s Mission Australia fundraiser, Chuck had attendees drink a number of his Malt Shovel’s brewery’s James Squire range of beers paired with certain dishes to demonstrate the complementary effect on the palette that consuming certain types of hops with certain types of foods can have.
The One Fifty Lashes Pale Ale was consumed with a fish taco, the Four Wives Pilsner was accompanied by a spicy prawn pastry, Nine Tales Original Amber Ale arrived with a roast beef pie, Chancer Golden Ale was paired up with a pork crackling burger, the Jack of Spades Porter ‘San Churro’ like donut dipped in chocolate and a Hahn Super Dry arrived last as a palette cleanser.
Each dish was presented by the The Swanston Hotel’s kitchen, so much so it was hard to know who was complementing whom: the beer to the food, or the food to the beer?
– Tymon
Tymon is a beer aficionado by day and film director by night, oh wait is it the other way around? Sometimes it’s hard to disentangle the two. Needless to say, either way he’s always on the hunt for fun!
