Rickards Taste Experience
Ah yes, beer and food, an obvious pairing but not necessarily a well thought out one. Even the idea of pairing beer with food seems somewhat foreign and culturally advanced for the average beer guzzler. And, unlike wine beer tends to be an after thought when paired with food, as in (these wings are waaay spicy better get a brew to douse these flames). So when our friends at Rickards invited us to attend a beer and food tasting Chuck and I gladly jumped at the opportunity to learn a little more about this underrated and often disregarded pairing.
Upon entering the Academy of spherical Arts we were greeted by our lovely hosts with two pints of Rickards white and red. Fighting the urge to immediately down the two beverages like a hyped up frat boy, I instead took my seat and exchanged pleasantries with my fellow foodies.
The first of the speakers was Rickards Draught specialist Paul Lipson who greeted the group and gave us a brief overview of why we were all here. Lisa Duizer, sensory analyst expert came next, providing the group with some insight on how to properly approach your beer by using your senses and flavor factors (temperature, carbonation and beer bud profile). After a brief question period we tasted our beers with the intent to point out the specific flavor profiles of our two pints. The white a wheat beer, was aromatic, light in carbonation with a hint of caramel and the red a full flavored lager, with well-balanced carbonation and bitterness.
The next speaker Mirella Amato, beer tasting expert and contributor to taps magazine followed her brief introduction with a tasting of mini bites to go along with our slowly disappearing brews. The white was paired with, grilled shrimp skewers, a spicy mango salad and a sweet banana bread and cream cheese mini sandwich. The red, paired withgrilled BBQ chicken skewers, balsamic and hazelnut Portobello mushrooms and a ham and Swiss roll. Of all the small bites that were consumed I found that the mango salad paired the best with its chosen beer, matching the whites subtle sweetness with the mango and providing a similar refreshing mouth feel with the cucumber and pickled onion.
The presentation ended with a Todd Fowler, Rickards’s Brewer, explaining the brewing process of the two beers, but with three pints already consumed and a fourth nearly approaching the whole spiel became a bit of a blur.
With the presentation over the lightness of the whole event became more apparent, as pints were more easily consumed and conversation and merriment followed. All in all the entire event provided a great introduction towards the pairing of beer and food. And, With many local, foreign and smaller micro breweries providing beer drinkers with a more complex flavor profile, the idea of beer and food pairings seems more likely. So to all you beer drinkers out there, a little sophistication wouldn’t hurt, and those guys and gals at Rickards sure know how to make a great beer. Wink, wink.
by Sean Santos
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by C.O.
