food companion

It astonishes me sometimes, that beer is seen by some as purely a 'pub drink' rather than something to be enjoyed as an accompaniment to food in the same way that fine wine is.
Good beer is at least as varied and distinct in flavour as is wine. In fact I would even say that styles vary more. It's not a case of red, white and rose. We have blonde beers, amber, dark, porters, stouts, wheat beers (both light and dark), lagers, fruit beers...the list goes on. There must be something there for everyone and every food!

Imagine a nice, rich smoke porter with rich venison stew. Or a Zesty, fruity blonde ale or a bottle conditioned Belgian wheat beer and white fish. Delicious!

The camra website has some useful ideas for beer as a food companion. No point re-writing it so i'll stick a link on here.

http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=282021

flavoured beers

I'm a traditionalist at heart. Having said that I find myself a closet fan of flavoured beers. Fruit beers have been around for ages, Belgian beers are an obvious example, but there are also some superb British examples that really float my boat!
One of the most popular, brewed by the Willaim's Brothers in Scotland, is Froach. A light, almost lager like beer flavoured with Heather. It's nice but i prefer some of their lesser know products. Ebulum, a black Elderberry ale. Alba, a pine flavoured beer and a sweet, Tayberry flavoured beer called Roisin. Big fan.

There's also a growing trend towards cask maturisation using old spirit barrels. The most famous probably being Innis & Gunn oak aged beer. There's quite a few now using old whisky casks, Tullibardine 1488 and Brewdog Paradox but the most interesting i've sampled to date is from closer to home in Somerset. Justin at Moor Beer Company has very sucessfully combined the superb Old Freddie Walker dark ale with the full, powerful flavours of Somerset Cider Brandy. Rich, awesomely complex cask matured ale. I love it!

Moor Beer Fusion from www.westcountryales.co.uk

IPA

Got to thinking recently about modern IPA's. I've got more than a few in stock at the minute but the differences in flavour, strength and individual interpretation of this historic beer style is quite something.
The latest one to arrive comes in at a very modest 3.8%abv. Now, it has it's own merits, nice floral hops and a refreshing zestiness but personally I love a beer along the lines of the old imperial IPA's. Big on hops, alcohol and soapy bitterness. For me the merits of this style rest on it's potential for massive flavours. My favourite to date has to be Moor Beer JJJ IPA. An awesome 9.5% and packed full of hops and huge barely wine flavours. Magic!
Any other suggestions very welcome as this has to be one of my favourite beer styles.