Pairing beer with dessert

If you were going to introduce someone to beer the last course you’d probably think of would be a dessert but as I discovered at a beer and pudding matching session at Brown’s Hotel in London it can be a surprisingly successful combination.

The problem is that when it works it’s sublime and when it doesn’t hit the spot it can be downright weird. Added to which not everyone agrees which the pairings work best . . . Here are my own impressions with the following ratings:

***** Sublime. An all-time-great pairing
**** Very good - the drink enhances the food and vice versa
*** A sound reliable match (generally)
** Fine but no fireworks
* A feasible match but one which may diminish the wine or the food
No stars A misfiring match

Lime and mango Eton Mess with Sol lager
You could see the thinking behind this pairing. You drink lime with Sol, lime goes with mango ergo Sol goes with mango but it didn’t quite work like that. For a start the Sol was served (oddly) in a red wine glass without its lime. And the Eton Mess - with alphonso mangoes I would guess was exceptionally rich and sweet. I asked to try it with the Sol served the traditional way in a bottle with a wedge of lime stuck in the neck and it was much better but you wouldn’t really want to serve it that way at home with a posh dessert, would you?
Rating *

Steamed orange pudding with Blue Moonwheat beer
This by contrast was a surprise hit. Blue Moon is an American wheat beer brewed in the Belgian style with a big hit of orange which actually complemented the orange in the light, airy steamed orange pudding perfectly. Lovely
Rating ****

Poached pear in white wine and Grolsch Weizen
Again you could see where this pairing was coming from. The Grolsch which is more in the style of a German weiss bier has quite a strong banana-y note which was actually quite in tune with the delicate vanilla flavour of the poached pear but it was slightly too sweet for the beer. Also you wouldn’t serve a dessert unadorned like that and when we added cream the beer immediately tasted bittr. An odd one.
Rating **

Spotted Dick with custard and Aventinus
It was worth attending the tasting just to experience this combination which everyone agreed was the best pairing. Why? Well this traditional English fruited pudding brought out a whole raft of spicy raisiny flavours in the beer which in turn gave an extra dimension to the dessert - almost like a sticky raisin sauce. Totally unexpected and totally brilliant!
Rating *****

Raspberry crème brulée with Innis & Gunn oak-aged beer, Bacchus Frambozen beer and Hix Oyster ale
These were the combinations that caused the most discussion and disagreement. Personally I thought the dessert too light and too sweet for both the richly malted Innis & Gunn and for the Oyster Ale, de-naturing them and making them taste excessively bitter but the majority preferred them to the Frambozen (raspberry beer which was also very sweet. I’ve tried berry-flavoured beers with creamy desserts before and they’ve worked (especially cheesecake) so I think it’s just a question of tweaking the level of sweetness in the dessert (panna cotta might have been better than crème brulée with its caramelised topping) and adding some fresh raspberries rather than cooked ones. (Innis & Gunn is a much better cheese beer IMO and porter a better match with chocolate.
Rating: Innis & Gunn and Hix Oyster Ale * Bacchus Frambozen ***

Ginger parkin and Worthington’s White Shield
Actually porter might have come into its own here too. Worthington’s White Shield, a very dry hoppy ale, certainly didn’t work for me. The very sweet dessert stripped it of all of its flavour. Again it would have been much, much happier - and hoppier - with cheese
Rating: no stars

Pannacotta with caramelised oranges with Goose Island IPA
If you taste it on its own, Goose Island is big, rich, sweet and generous. You wouldn’t have known it with this dessert. The orange really blew all those flavours away making it taste one-dimensional and bitter.
Rating: no stars

Verdict
A fascinating tasting that hinted at a number of interesting possibilities. Yes, several pairings misfired but if other beers and desserts had been chosen (odd that there was no chocolate dessert and no barley wine, for instance and no desserts with a spicy element which I think would have helped the matches) I think the hit rate would have significantly increased. Certainly, on the basis of this tasting, beer is a better match for steamed English puddings than wine is.

Photo by Valeria Boltneva

What to drink with cake (updated)

A recent email from a reader asked me to suggest a wine to go with “a triple coconut cake with a tangy pineapple icing served with fresh fruit salsa that has kiwi, strawberry, mandarine oranges, blueberries and fresh pineapple in it”.

Quite a challenge (I suggested demi-sec Champagne or a peach-flavoured liqueur topped up with fizz) but it got me thinking that there are many possible pairings for cake beyond a cup of tea or coffee, particularly if you’re serving it as a dessert.

Drink Pairings for Popular Cakes

Here are my latest thoughts on what to drink with cake. Bear in mind the overall sweetness richness and density of the cake and whether there are any accompanying ingredients such as fruit or cream when you’re choosing between the options.

Plain madeira, pound cakes or almond cakes

A high quality tea like Darjeeling, a chilled 10 year old tawny port, a cream sherry or a spiced rum like Morgan’s or Sailor Jerry would be my top picks. Panettone is better with Prosecco or a Moscato d’Asti.

Orange flavoured cakes

Particularly delicious with sweet sherries. You could also try an orange-flavoured sherry liqueur (Harvey’s does one) or even a dark cream sherry served over ice with a slice of orange. A Spanish Moscatel de Valencia will work if the orange flavour in the cake isn’t too pronounced or if it has fresh oranges alongside.

Lemon cakes

Lemon can be tricky if the lemon flavour is particularly intense. A very sweet Riesling is often a good option or, if the cake is light and airy - more like a gâteau - try a Moscato d’Asti or other light, sweet sparkling wine or an elderflower spritzer. I also like green tea and Earl Grey tea with lemon flavours.

Recipe idea: Try Add Kimber’s Olive Oil Pistachio and Lemon Snack Cake with a glass of prosecco or a shot of limoncello.

Fruit cakes

A great opportunity to show off a sweet sherry or Madeira. A sweet oloroso sherry like Matusalem is delicious with crumbly, rich fruit cakes as is a sweet 5 or 10 year old Madeira. (Bual would be my favourite style here).

Photo by TalyaAL at shutterstock.com

A richly flavoured whisky aged in sherry casks - something like The Macallan - can also be great with a fruit cake. Or an Irish whiskey as you can see from this pairing of Dundee cake (above) with Midleton Very Rare. A barley wine (strong, sweet beer) works too.

Light, airy gateaux and airy pastries like mille-feuille

In general these go well with off-dry Champagne which doesn’t necessarily mean demi-sec. If the cake isn’t too sweet or is accompanied by unsweetened fruits such as raspberries or strawberries you can accompany it with a standard Champagne. (Almost all Champagnes have some sweet wine added to them at the end of the bottling process so very few are completely dry.) Rosé Champagne or sparkling wine work particularly well with berries.

If the gâteau is slightly richer and sweeter or contains ice cream you might be better off with a fruit liqueur or a liqueur topped up with sparkling wine as I suggested to the lady who contacted me. Or, if you’re feeling brave with a matching fruit beer! A peach gâteau, for example could be served with iced shots of a peach-flavoured liqueur like Archers or with a peach, passion fruit or mango-flavoured beer. (The best ones come from Belgium.)

Iced cakes such as cupcakes

The extra sweetness from the icing may strip out the sweetness of a dessert wine. I’m not sure this isn’t one for a milky coffee such as a cappucino or a latte (unless they’re chocolate in which case see below). Cupcakes are comfort food after all.

Gingerbread

One of those like-meets-like combinations but ginger wine (Stone’s is a good brand) or a ginger liqueur works well. Or even a Whisky Mac (a 50/50 mixture of whisky and ginger wine). For contrast try a liqueur Muscat or sweet sherry.

Chocolate cake

Usually needs something to cut through the richness though the sweet-toothed may go for the matching sweetness of a sweet sherry or a liqueur Muscat. Personally I like it with something bitter like a double espresso, a porter or a coffee beer .

An alternative route, particularly if the cake contains cherries is to go for deep red fruit flavours - a Late Bottled Vintage or Vintage Character port, a Banyuls or Maury from the south of France or even a chilled shot of cherry brandy (very good with intensely rich, dark chocolate cakes and puddings). 

A lighter chocolate cake like a roulade can be delicious with a cherry beer (Kriek) or raspberry beer (frambozen), particularly if it includes those fruits. Or try this fabulous pairing of a frozen milk chocolate and raspberry cake with light, sparkling Brachetto d’Acqui

Orange flavoured liqueurs such as Grand Marnier are also good with anything made from dark chocolate.

Recipe idea: Serve this chocolate and cherry roulade with a Recioto della Valpolicella 

Coffee, toffee and walnut cakes

Good with sweet sherry, Madeira and aged tawny port (a 20 year old is particularly good with coffee cake). Or an Australian liqueur Muscat which would work really well with the cake below

Recipe idea: Try Rosie Sykes delicious Queen Elizabeth Cake.

Photo by Patricia Niven

Coconut cake

Oddly coconut and Champagne have an affinity so that’s worth considering. More conventionally I’d go for a Sauternes or similar sweet Bordeaux. Or maybe try a pina colada!

Recipe idea: Try Rukmini Iyer’s Coconut and Mango Yoghurt Cake with a late harvest sauvignon

See also What wine - and other drinks - to pair with Cheesecake.

Top image ©Patrycja Jadach at unsplash.com

Best beers for Christmas

How many of you will be putting beer on the table at Christmas? Not that many, I suspect, but if you can bring yourself to break with tradition you could be in for a treat. Most supermarkets now carry a sufficiently wide range for you to be able to serve a different beer with each course, should you be so minded. And here’s how to do it:

• As an aperitif or with the smoked salmon I suggest a good quality pilsner or a fragrant cloudy witbier like Hoegaarden or a Bavarian weissbier

• With turkey I’d go for a blonde beer like Leffe, a strong Belgian ale such as Duvel or an American IPA such as Goose Island IPA

• With the pudding - or Christmas cake - you could try a stout or a porter such as Meantime’s (the strong, dark, bitter flavour of the beer will be a great contrast to the sweet, sticky dried fruits) and with the cheese, especially the Stilton, I recommend a vintage ale such as J.W.Lees Harvest ale or other barley wine

There are a number of seasonal beers around such as Young’s fruity, spicy Christmas Pudding Ale but I suggest you again drink those with the cheese or enjoy them on their own rather than pairing them with Christmas pudding, as the name perhaps suggests. The sweet, spicy pudding will knock out the same flavours in the beer leaving you with a dry thin-tasting drink.

For more seasonal beer drinking ideas, check out these posts: 

• Which beer to drink on New Year’s Eve?
• 5 great beer pairings for roast turkey

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