Food for thought

Food for thought

Following a hard day at the Sommeliers v Bartenders challenge, some of London’s finest liquid luminaries converged on Bumpkin for an enlightening evening of matching British beer with food

Look around and you can’t miss it. Beer has got its mojo back. Sales of craft beer, and cask ale especially, are soaring and the number of specialist beer bars has mushroomed in the last year or so – be it the Euston Tap, Mason & Taylor or Westminster Arms in London, the Port Street Beer House in Manchester or the new Brewdog bar in Edinburgh.

With craft beer’s stock rising among both discerning drinkers and diners, neither sommeliers nor bartenders can reasonably afford to exclude it from their liquid learning. Yet traditionally beer knowledge tends to lag behind both wine and spirits and, despite its recent renaissance, beer still remains an educational afterthought among far too many on-trade operators.

Shepherd Neame, Britain’s oldest brewer and one of the most respected regional players, is at the forefront of improving the understanding of beer in the bar and restaurant trade. Addressing the group of sommeliers and bartenders ahead of a five-course British beer banquet courtesy of Bumpkin, chief executive and the fifth generation of Neames (they bought out the Shepherds in 1877), Jonathan Neame, set about broadening beer horizons.

‘Beer is one of the most misunderstood products in the alcohol category and mired in misconceptions and myths,’ he said. ‘For example, not a lot of people know that traditional ale hasn’t been brewed for centuries in this country. Ale was originally just beer made with just water and malt, without the addition of hops, which arrived from Holland in the 14th century. Debunking dietary concerns, Neame added; ‘There is no fat in beer, it contains less carbs than a gin and tonic and contains no cholesterol.’

Know your hops

Introducing beer’s key ingredients, Neame explained that, prior to Louis Pasteur exposing it as a single cell organism, brewers referred to yeast as ‘god is good’, while hops are part of the same botanical family as cannabis and have shoots that can be eaten like asparagus. They’re also an aphrodisiac for men yet cure insomnia for women which, on reflection, isn’t ideal.

Shepherd Neame is based in Kent, historically the heartland of British hops, and the company’s beers are renowned for their hoppy character. ‘All our beers use Kentish hops – apart from Whitstable Bay, an organic ale made with hops from New Zealand. East Kent Golding hops are fabulously aromatic and in the UK we are world class at malting barley,’ said Neame.

In a provocative claim, Neame said that hops, barley, water and yeast combine to create a drink that more than rivals wine in its complexity. ‘I would argue that beer has got a wider variety of styles, flavours and textures than wine. It can do things with food that wines simply can’t’.

While some sommeliers questioned Neame’s claim, Shepherd Neame’s head brewer David Holmes confirmed that beer’s flavour wheel had more spokes than wine’s. ‘There are 300 identifiable characteristics in beer and there are more quantifiable technical flavours,’ he said. ‘A beer characteristic that’s entirely absent in wine is bitterness – which cuts through indulgent textures and stands up to spicy food.’

On the menu

The proof, as always, was in the pudding – or more precisely, the first course – which paired copper-coloured Whitstable Bay ale with lobster tail and apple-cured Loch Duart salmon. Sean Ware, bartender at Callooh Callay, backed the brewer’s claim. ‘It works amazingly well,’ he said. ‘As a sommelier or bartender you need to open up your mind to new experiences and beer can genuinely provide an added dimension to the dining table.’

For the main course, Bumpkin’s head chef Raymond Fulton combined Spitfire, a classic Kentish ale, with organic black mountain chicken with baby leeks and a warm egg yolk herb salad. Particularly inspired, however, was the Spitfire consommé poured over the poultry. ‘Chefs don’t do beer justice generally – they just use it for beer batter but that doesn’t showcase its myriad flavours,’ said Fulton.
Early Bird, a spring breeze of blossom, pine and lychee, was paired with Oxford Isis cheese; while Fulton chose a baked custard with summer berries to go with the bottle-conditioned 1698; and finished off with Whitechapel Porter, a dark and delicious Dickensian drop, with coffee
and porter-infused chocolates.

What’s the verdict?

Each course impressed Stuart Hudson of Kanaloa, a passionate proponent of pairing beer with food. ‘Beer has just as much right to sit at the head of the dinner table as wine and can go toe-to-toe with wines, but apathy and arrogance will prevent sommeliers recognising this,’ he declared. ‘Beer can stand up to any food match and I’m more than happy to prove this alongside a sommelier!’

Kelvin McCabe, sommelier at Zuma, said: ‘I certainly think beer has a role to play with certain dishes but I think wine has just as much, if not more, to offer.’ Michael Nicolian, formerly head bartender at Alice House, added: ‘Being British, we need to celebrate beer. Beer is what we do well. Bars tend to opt for exotic beers from abroad but some of the best beer in the world is being brewed on our doorstep.’

Finally Neame brought the evening of ale-inspired epicurean enlightenment to an end: ‘Beer is like liquid bread,’ he concluded. ‘As a regional brewer, we are creating flavoursome, artisan breads,
we’re not manufacturing bland white sliced bread. I hope we’ve provided a compelling argument that beer warrants gastronomic consideration.’

Editorial feature from Imbibe Magazine – July/August 2011