The perfect match

American icon Garret Oliver has written arguably the definitive book on food and beer matching. Zak Avery met him and tasted some of his pairings

Garrett Oliver is an iconic figure within the brewing world. As brewmaster of the Brooklyn brewery, and the author of the definitive book on beer and food matching (The Brewmaster’s Table), there’s not a lot that he doesn’t know about the gastronomy of beer. He’s also an affable, gregarious host, and a snappy dresser to boot.

Anthony Flinn is head chef of his eponymous restaurant in Leeds, unquestionably one of the best restaurants in Britain. He receives praise from people who wear Michelin stars like most of us wear buttons.

Not only is it a great restaurant, but it has a beer list with a dozen or so beers on, and every one of them is a classic, from the crisp, seaside-fresh Belgian pilsner Jupiler (5.2% ABV) to the coffee and chocolate-accented American Anchor Porter (5.6%), and a veritable world tour of all points in between.

So when I was given the opportunity to attend a beer and food lunch at Anthony’s, sponsored by Clays and hosted by Garrett Oliver, what do you think I said?

We are launched onto the seas of beer and food matching with a splash of Champagne across our bows; Deus (11.5%), the legendary ‘Champagne’ beer is an excellent aperitif. Brewed by Bosteels in Belgium, this complex beer undergoes the same maturation process as Champagne; refermentation in the bottle, riddling (a process of rotating and inverting the bottle over many weeks to make the yeast form a plug in the neck), and degorgement (freezing the plug of dead yeast in the neck and allowing the .....

To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue or subscribe to Beers of the World to have every issue delivered direct to your door.

By Zak Avery

Section : Beer Trends

Page number : 30