| Brewing with Beer |
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In answering the question "what to pair with coffee at the dining table", dessert readily springs to mind; there are any number of sweet treats that can be enjoyed with good coffee. As for drinks, the matching of coffee and port is a classic way to end a meal, as is coffee and a fine liqueur. While these are all great matches, the inquisitive gourmet's ongoing search for new taste partners is turning up some surprises. Discerning diners are discovering that beer can be the perfect accompaniment to coffee, and it can sit just as nicely with a dessert. For those Australians, who only equate ‘beer' with the pale amber fluid that comes in a can labelled Tooheys, VB or XXXX, the suggestion that beer and coffee should be drunk together might bring on scornful looks. But just as the majority of Australians once thought good coffee came in a jar, they are now discovering that there is a world of beer out there, and it is a world worth discovering. Sydney's Redoak Boutique Beer Café is an Australian leader in the quest for great beer and food matches and for head brewer Dave Hollyoak their ability to find a beer to match their menu - including coffee - is a source of pride. Hollyoak says the key to good matches is understanding which tastes compliment each other and which contrast. "I think matching beer to desert is one of our specialties, " he says. "If you are having something sweet for dessert you want something to contrast with that and so you go with something quite dry to cleanse the palate. Dave says coffee goes well with sweet desserts because it's a classic bitter/sweet combination. He says that in matching beers to coffee you are looking for the same combination.
"This is where beer can work with dessert, because beer can have bitterness and nice strong coffee flavours that really contrast with that sweetness." "On the other hand, when you match beer to coffee, coffee already has the bitter component so you want to go with something sweet. "For that we match something like our Special Strong Ale, the Wee Heavy Ale, the Bock or the Baltic Porter. They all have quite a bit of residual sweetness coming from the malt and that would provide the sweet component that would contrast with coffee's bitterness," Dave says. Redoak's Wee Heavy Ale is a prime example of Dave's passion for making beer. He uses a peat-smoked malt, specially imported from McCallans Distillery in Scotland, giving the Wee Heavy a smokiness reminiscent of a fine whiskey. With an alcohol content of 8 per cent, it is a rich and malty sweet ale that pairs beautifully with coffee to celebrate the end of a meal. So seriously do Redoak take their coffee that they searched very hard for a coffee roaster that matched their approach before settling on Sydney coffee house La Casa del Caffe. La Casa's General Manager Louise Kennedy says that apart from enjoying a beer at the café on occasion, she has enjoyed working with Redoak on their coffee needs. "Beer and coffee are a great combination, depending on how each is made they can both be bitter or sweet, which go very well together," Louise said. Louise said that La Casa has provided a variety of coffee blends designed to provide Redoak with a range of flavours to help him get the beer right. "Obviously different coffee blends will give you different things. Robusta will give you more body and crema, while arabica tends to be milder, so we are helping him out with a few flavour ideas." So next time you're reaching for the port to go with your coffee, stop and have another look at the menu. It may be that the taste you are after is on the beer list, not the wine... |
Coffee and beer are two of Australia's favourite drinks. As Matt Kirkegaard discovers they don't need to be drunk at the opposite ends of the day.
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