Beer Talk with Plymouth WI

I did an unusual beer talk a few weeks ago as a guest of the lovely ladies of Plymouth Women's Institute. To make this more interesting we did some beer and food matching. I have to say I was very impressed with the ladies and in particular their palates, which seemed quite deceptive to the extent that unprompted they were able to describe many of the hop and malt flavours present. So perhaps their is some merit to the belief that ladies taste buds are more receptive than those of men?

On with the evening and we started the tasting with a locally brewed beer in South Hams Eddystone. A tasty 4.8% IPA style beer with the cascade hop being the most dominant. This was paired with some fine pistachio milk chocolate that was quite sweet. I've found the bitter citrus hops of an IPA can match quiet well with the contrast of the sweet chocolate. The ladies loved the match but found the beer a bit of a challenge.

Second came a beer at the opposite end of the flavour spectrum with Penpont Beast of Bodmin, a big bold brassy 5.0% malt driven beer which was paired with a strong mature cheddar. The two flavours worked well together, there are few better matches with beer and food when if comes to a mature cheddar! The ladies liked this one a little better, the sweet biscuit flavours and hint toffee of the beer being more to their palate.

Next to the favourite match of the night, St Austell Brewery Clouded Yellow paired with a Bavarian smoked cheese. The ladies loved this beer, its low bitterness levels scoring highly with them and many were able to identify this wheat beers banana and clove flavours. Again the smoked cheese offers something different with the food match and Clouded Yellow seems to work well in cleansing the palate with this lightly smoked flavour.

The least favourite came next. Not unexpected, the stout matched with chilli chocolate. Nothing wrong with either, indeed Ramsbury Silver Pig stout is a wonderful beer with traditional liquorice and roasted camp coffee flavours that were a match for the bitter chocolate and its late chilli kick, however the stout flavours were just too challenging for the ladies palate.

The final beer and food match was St Austell Tamar Creek and pate. The former is a proper Lambic style cherry flavoured ale with enough tartness and acidity to make the lips purl. The oily pate was a fine contrast and this was perhaps the second favourite match of the night. A very challenging beer, the ladies were very prepared to give it a chance and they appreciated its character and understood its role as an aperitif beer.

The purpose of the night was to showcase beer to the female palate, but I was both surprised and delighted with the expertise with which they were quickly able to describe flavours and their interest shown in beer. It was also a fun night matching the beers with the food and I'm sure many ladies will have left thinking about the weekends meals and matching to beer rather than wine. Hopefully it will also mean some husbands and friends receive interesting tasty beers as Christmas gifts this year to accompany the obligatory boxing day jumper!