Today begins a new feature on Guilty Kitchen, which Adrian and I have been working on for a few weeks. Well, let’s be honest, since we turned the legal drinking age and could muster a not yet inebriated effort to eat something with our beer. Now that we have kids though, and we only have one drink with our weeknight meals, it’s gotten a lot more important that we absolutely love that beer, or cocktail, or wine.
So without further ado, welcome to Tipple Tuesdays with Adrian!
Elizabeth and I have all sorts of discussions about Guilty Kitchen. “What should we write about?” being the main discussion. After talking about it for far too long we’re finally kicking off Tipple Tuesdays. It will be a pairing of food with some kind of libation of the liquid variety.
Some things you can come to expect from Tipple Tuesdays:
- Beer and food pairings
- Cocktails and food
- Wine and food
- Did I mention beer?… Oh! and lets not forget food!
I hope you are sensing the pattern here. This week I wanted to jump into the Christmas drinking early. I actually had a lager post I was writing up until Liz slapped me upside the head with a 650ml bottle of Granville Island Brewing Imperial Chocolate Stout. She was then heard to exclaim, “IT’S CHRISTMAS! People don’t need to hear about lager…”
How could I be so stupid? Trying to teach a lesson about lager during the busiest drinking month of the year! So we set off on a journey to pick our next beer. After going to three different stores in town looking for what I really had my eyes set on, we found it! In a little hole in the wall liquor store in a small strip mall in a rural part of Victoria. $6.09 later we walked out with a bottle of Phillips Trainwreck Barley Wine. 10% ABV of pure beer enjoyment. I was ecstatic. Considering we had already bought the food pairings to go with this particular beer, let’s just say we were more than a little cheerful.
But what, pray tell, did we pair with our barley wine? Well, before we get into that I should describe what a barley wine is. Barley wine is simply a beer that has an alochol content of between 8% and 12%. The strength of wine, but since it isn’t made with fruit (grapes) but grain (barley) it is actually a beer.
Barley wines are generally bold malty flavours that are quite strong. However, if left to age (sometimes for years), these flavours can mellow out into a very alluring concoction. It is a truly complex brew worth savouring on its own (sans food). As a final note I would recommend serving a barley wine at cellar temperature. (12-14C or 53-58F)
Phillips Trainwreck Barley Wine:
Name: Trainwreck
Brewery: Phillips Brewing
Tasting Notes: Sour nose. Earthy to start with sweet caramel notes and a pleasant slightly sour taste. Lightly carbonated. Nice bitter bite at the finish.
Adrian’s Rating: 4.5/5 – I really enjoy a loud beer and this was mellow but packed a wallop.
Elizabeth’s Rating: 4/5 I love the caramel notes and strong flavour of this beer. I give it a four instead of a five simply because it is so strong. When you are used to drinking a couple of beers, this one will shock you in that you may not feel like having more than one.
What to Pair with Barley Wine:
Barley wine, being such a strong bold flavour is a bit difficult to pair with your every day food (simply because it’s not your every day beer). When we decided on barley wine, my first thought went to bold, but not overly filling flavours. Charcuterie. Cheese. Nuts. Olives. I was heading towards a simple Mediterranean tapas platter, my all time favourite meal. I could eat it every day of my life. It’s so simple to make and you can change the meats, cheese, nuts and olives for any other variety of the same. For this particular pairing, we decided to go with some strong flavours. For our cheese we chose Pont L’eveque and Qualicum Cheeseworks Brie. The Brie was just because we had it, but it did pair well. The Pont l’Eveque is a slightly pungent French cheese from the Normandy region and is similar in it’s style to Brie. We paired these cheese with a duck salami and a bison Bresoala. And just for a little special note (cause I like to indulge once in a while), we had a slice of foie gras mousse with black truffles. All these meats came from a great little delicatessen in Victoria called Choux Choux Charcuterie, probably one of my favourites in town. We also had a lovely fresh baguette from Fol Epi Bakery. It was lovely, satisfying and a perfect meal for the weekend. We also had little dishes of grainy Dijon, kalamata olives and salted, roasted nuts.
Final notes: Barley wine pairs well with most strong flavoured cheeses, especially blue. It also goes extremely well with dark chocolate, so maybe next time, we’ll eat dessert first.
Okay, I LOVE this. I’m going to get my husband so into this new column it’s not EVEN FUNNY.
And I want to try this beer now.
Bev Weidner recently posted..Meyer Lemon Hot Toddy
Yes, bring the boys Bev!
Thanks Bev! The more the merrier!
I haven’t tried the Granville island chocolate strout but I have tried German varities. It is now I like to roll for the holidays:D
I just love a good stout and adding either chocolate or vanilla just makes it so lovely.
I really enjoyed the GIB Chocolate. it was very loud yet really well balanced. Served at cellar temperature for sure to pick up all the subtly.
I bet barley wine would go fantastically with a Blue Castello or a Cambazola since they’re basically a blue cheese/brie hybrid. Charcuterie platters are one of my favorite things to eat, but I usually pair them with sparkling wine, so barley wine will be something different.
Deanna recently posted..Chicken in a Jar (aka Chicken Rillettes)
Oh how I love a good Cambozola, one of my top ten favourite cheeses for sure! The Castello blue are not a Brie hybrid though, unless you are talking about a specific variety I’ve never heard of. The Castello Blues are a pretty widespread label. They make a billion different varieties of cheese (including many blue cheeses)….
I’m going to love this series! E- very genius way of getting the other half to participate. 🙂
I’ll look out for this one at the local market- I haven’t had it yet. Based on your recommendations, I’ll probably start with one.
[K]
Hi Kim! Thanks 🙂
If you are referring to the beer, unfortunately that one doesn’t make it out of Victoria. However, if you can find another barley wine do try it! They are a taste journey.
Thanks for sharing this informative post to us..I really appreciate this to us..
Although you say barley wine is a beer it should be drunk like a wine, lol, it’s very strong!
Well, once we open a 650ml bottle, we just get right into it…:) We use tulip glasses usually so that we have one and a half glasses each.
I agree, it needs to be sipped and appreciated, not guzzled. I used the larger glasses because our tulip glasses are smaller at the opening. You want a wide glass for this brew to truly appreciate its nose along with the taste.
Ah, now you’re just making me jealous. Couldn’t find ANY of those foods or beverages down here if I went to every store from here to Cabo. I’ll just have to wait til we get home. Then you can help educated my palate.
The column is awesome, now I’m off to make Truffles.
Awesome. Let’s do it more when you get back!
Loooooove that this will be regular feature:-) Charcuterie = awesome, and you’ve taken it to the next level with game meats (bonus points for you guys). Shropshire might be a great pairing with Barley wine since it wants to be both an aged cheddar AND and blue. I need to try the VI Doughead Gingerbread Ale but I don’t know that it will pair well with savoury foods–maybe with tourtiere? Have you tried it?
Christine @ The Savoury Traveller recently posted..One Primo Lunch Date
Oh yes. The Doughhead is wonderful and I think it would pair very well with Tourtiere. Sadly, it’s only available on tap around town…
Love the name of this barley wine, Trainwreck…this post is anything but that though. What a lovely addition to this blog and Tipple Tuesday is going to be a feature to watch and follow. All the best to you all for a wonderful Christmas.
Thank you Paula and Happy Holidays to you and yours!
I’m a big fan of the newest addition to one of my favorite blogs – what a pair the two of you are! I really enjoyed the writing and am looking forward to expanding my horizons through TT. Thankfully, I’m long past the days of youthfully drinking anything in sight, not choosing for taste, but the buzz factor – God, remember Vex ciders?? I know now what I enjoy on a very basic level, but look forward to learning and taking this fun (hiccup!) journey with you both! Three cheers to Tipple Tuesdays!
Thank you Nadia! And Vex ciders, pshhh, I was totally into paralysers and Mike’s Hard Lemonade…;)
That’s really awesome, looks very good, i totally love Barley !
Seanna Rhei recently posted..Sephora Printable Coupons
[…] via Like this:LikeBe the first to like this. Tagged Beer Tasting Party, Birthday, Party, Themed parties […]