Boston returns!

I can now add two more things to my list of “Stuff I hold to be absolutely true”.  One is that a Boston Brewery Beer event is always worth it and the other is that the locals in my village won’t notice a good a thing if it bit them in the arse and started burrowing.  ⁽¹⁾ All this from a single event at the country club attended by all of 10 people.  Sages I should say.  A food and beer pairing event hosted by Boston marketing guy Russell Meyer and food from the club’s restaurant. 

1^st pairing a smoked salmon mix on a toasted bread, (They called it a canapé.  I call it lovely.)  With the Johnny Gold Weiss. ⁽²⁾ The idea is that classic German Weiss pairs well with seafood.  As a fan of the former and not the latter I think that this Weiss pairs very well with air.  This pairing worked nearly as well.

Up next the nearly incomparable in SA Whale Tale Ale.  I used drink quite a lot of this, but have been logistically constraint in my intake lately.  Here paired with sosaties of boerewors and cheese griller on baked mash.  Just look at it!  Maltiness paired with proteins the idea here and it worked very well.  Consensus around our table was that this was really good to drink, lowish alcohol and why the hell don’t we drink this more often?  Luckily Boston delivers in Cape Town.

They make 9 different beers and also brew some beer for others on contract, but it was a school night, so they stuck to 4 beers.   

The first brewed commercially, and flagship, Boston Lager, served with a steak pie and chips.  The cow that ended up in the steak pie died an honourable death and completed it’s use in a delicious pie served with the lager.  A good beer and a good match.  Really, the only way you can go wrong with this lager is if you washed your hair with it.  While it is probably good for your hair, it would be wrong not to drink it. 

 

Previously I’ve encountered stout and chocolate cake and generally it makes for a good match.  The darkly roasted malts echoing something in the cocoa.  So the Coffee stout (with actual coffee beans added to the boil) was a little rough on its own, but formed a lovely duet with the chocolate cake. Russell made this match, but added a wild card in the form of the Van Hunks Pumpkin Ale. This ale with butternut, pumpkin, cinnamon and coriander works extremely well with Thai green curry.  And with most curries come think of it.  It also worked here with the chocolate cake.  I wish I knew why, but that’s why they pay Russell the big bucks I guess.  

 

(1)    OK, maybe this is not a good idea, but I liked the analogy.

(2)    And if that joke has to be explained to you, your Google skills suck.

pictures of the food by myself and the logos from Boston's website