Beer and food matching 101. (A leap of faith.)

Quite recently, Mr Steve Saldana, very kindly presented me with a bottle of, 3 Floyds 2023 Darklord. He also advised, that such a big beer, (weighing in at a hefty 15% abv.) might best be enjoyed if shared with friends. Taking Steve at his word, we invited Ed and Sarah Sharman over for dinner. Gina and I then set about the task of planning a menu, along with the all important beer and food pairings.

Food and drink matching is usually a fairly straight forward affair, first comes the basic decision as to whether the the beer used should contrast with the flavours of the dish or, if instead, the taste profile is better off complimenting the food and working in tandem, running parallel with the flavours present.

At this point, Gina and I were faced with something of a problem, Gina had been given a bottle of Darklord back in 2013/14 while managing Utobeer`s drinks cage, she shared it with her staff and, alas! I was not present. I, have still (until this week.) never had the opportunity to try it, and even if I had, 3 Floyds uses a different recipe in each year of production, and so that was not going to help us with our task. Having not actually sampled this year`s offering, matching the beer with food might prove slightly more challenging than usual. However, there are, of course ways of getting around this issue. My initial approach was to simply read the label on the bottle, however, on this occasion, this proved to be of little use, the bottle yielding up the following six words. `Imperial stout, Dark lord, three Floyds`. (not even an ABV.) It was back to the drawing board, and after a brief trawl of the internet, I was able to piece together the following consensus.

3 Floyds 2023 DarkLord.

A 15% abv Imperial Russian stout, brewed with coffee, Mexican vanilla & Indian sugar. (I assume that this is either jaggery or possibly Muscovado)

O.K! We were finally cooking, in addition to this description, we already knew that the beer would be very dark, very rich, and very strong with all kinds of flavours competing with, and hopefully, ultimately, balancing nicely with each other.

The food & Beer match.

After giving the issue at hand, due and careful consideration, I finally decided to revisit an old favourite, my Double Chocolate & Triple Chili Dark Mousse. Green & Black`s 70%, and Maya Gold, spiced Orange chocolate are gently melted together, Ancho and Chipotle chili powders are added along with sweet, smoked paprika, and a third of a cup of orange liquor. Finally, whipped cream is gently folded in, and the mousse is placed in the fridge to chill. Just before serving Chantilly cream is piped on the top of each mousse in a decorative swirl.

The verdict.

The beer and dessert worked beautifully together, the richness of the darklord being balanced by the lightness of the mousse, while the coffee and chocolate complimented each other perfectly, and the vanilla running through both beer and mousse acted as a common thread. In the end, I felt that the contented silence around the dinner table spoke for itself.

Cheers Chums!