Mushroom soup and Rignes Polaris Røykbokk

This was part of an expertly paired meal at a restaurant in Trondheim called To Rom og Kjøkken (Two Rooms and a Kitchen) last Saturday night.

It might seem perverse to pick out a beer when there were so many good wines on offer but the combination was perfect.

The soup was really rich and sweet - you’d almost think it had chestnuts in (maybe it did) and finished with truffle foam but the beer, a dark, smoky, savoury bock-style from Ringnes, which it turns out is part of the Carlsberg group, offset it perfectly. I’m hard pushed to think of a wine that would have worked better. Madeira perhaps but it was served as the third course of a five course menu and I’m not sure it wouldn’t have been too strong. Maybe a barbera or a nebbiolo.

It’s not the first time I’ve discovered dark beer goes well with mushroom soup - I recommended it in my book An Appetite for Ale and in the post below

Which wines and beers pair best with mushrooms