The CWB Beer vs Wine Curry Off

Does beer or wine go better with curry?

I recently reviewed two Tesco wines with a curry for National Curry Week and was pleasantly surprised at how well they went together.

Gewurz with curry is a go-to much-cited match that I have never been really convinced about, but it worked rather well here.

Red wine and curry is a much tougher ask, in my opinion, but a chilled Carménère was a surprisingly successful match with rogan josh.

A bit of discussion on Twitter about the food and wine combinations led me to the following conclusions:

- curry works best with high acidity, relatively neutral wines with a good mid-palate;

- traditional method fizzes meet all these criteria, so don't be afraid to try Cava and curry; it's generally quite inexpensive, so a more affordable starting point for experimentation than vintage Grand Marque Champagne

- crisp, citrussy and bubbly, Cava is also not dissimilar to a good lager; the traditional match for a curry

- if you want other inexpensive refreshing bubbles with curry, I would advise that you avoid Prosecco; with its shorter fermentation and more floral profile, it does not really stand up to the spicy bitter-umami of Indian foods

- chilling reds enhances the freshness and suppresses the flavours; this works with curry and is most suitable for simply, juicy wines rather than anything too high-end, tannic or complex

- bear in mind that chilled reds become a different wine, albeit chilling does not quite turn them into white wines; they retain a texture that is still red, even if they lose their "red wine" flavours

- you can chill expensive Cali Zinfandel if you want and it will then match with a curry; but why? It is something akin to a Monster Truck - Big, Expensive, Pointless, Blue-Collar Dumb Fun.

Beer and Curry - the curry

For this experiment, we started with poppadoms and sauces; mango and lime chutneys are a complete palate-killer so, unsurprisingly, the beers won out here.

For mains, I made a (version of) coconut and tamarind chicken curry from a Meera Sodha recipe: Coconut and tamarind chicken curry | Meera Sodha

It's similar to a European stew, slightly sweet from the coconut and not too spicy with exotic flavours of ginger and cinnamon.

Beer and Curry - the beers

I tried two traditional "curry beers" from Tesco; unsurprisingly, they both worked well.

Kingfisher Lager - £2.00/650ml bottle, Tesco

Kingfisher is an Indian lager brewed in the UK, but crucially to the same recipe as the original. It is India's best-selling lager and dates back to 1978.

hoppy and aromatic; crisp, citrussy and expressively hoppy with zippy grapefruit zest and a food-friendly bitter-sweetness.

Matches well with the curry and stands up to the strong flavours - unanimously agreed as the popular favourite.

Good.

Cobra Indian Premium Lager - £2.00/620ml bottle, Tesco

Cobra is brewed in the UK from barley, rice, maize wheat and four varieties of hops; the company was founded in 1989 by Karan Bilimoria who wanted to create a beer with the refreshment of a lager, but with the smoothness of an ale.

malty and savoury with subtle aromatics; rich, smooth and refreshing with an easy-drinking sweetness; very well-made, well-balanced and harmonious if a little neutral and unassuming.

Works well with the curry, but very much in a supporting role; lacks the immediate appeal of the Kingfisher.

Good.

Alternatives and rejects

I tried a couple of other wines I had on the go to see how they went with curry - in general they did not work, so the advice here is: approach with caution.

Chateau La Negly La Clape, France (Co-op, £12)

A lovely wine, but the "red wine" fruit flavours clash with the curry; interestingly, the acidity and tannins work well with the food, so chilled down, it might be a much better match.

Copper Crew Discovers Sauvignon Blanc (around £4 per can)

A WIGIG limited-edition from Copper Crew that I had on the go, this works well with the curry on most, but not quite all fronts. With plenty of acidity and a bit of lees aging, it has the freshness and the savouriness not to be overpowered by the food.

The acidity works well on the front palate and the leesy savouriness carries it through to the back palate; but the mid-palate sweetness and spices of the curry are just too much.

Surprisingly successful with the curry, it also just-about stands up to poppadums and onion salsa. If you drink mainly Sauvignon and must have wine with your curry, this is about as close as it gets.

Tesco Finest Puemo Carménère, Valle de Cachapoal, Wine of Chile, 2019 (£8, Tesco)

This had worked well with a savoury rogan josh when chilled, but like the Negly, failed completely with a sweeter, coconut-based curry when at room temperature.

Finally, here is WineMatcher Fiona Beckett's take on curry and wine matching: What wine to pair with curry - my top 5 picks | Matching Food & Wine (matchingfoodandwine.com)

Top Selection Portfolio Tasting

A portfolio tasting of Top Selection's wines

Top Selection is not a great name for a wine merchant; it has something of a budget supermarket's premium own brand about it. Which is a pity because the wines themselves are superb.

From traditional classics, to emerging regions and some really off-piste wines, if you are prepared to start buying in low double-digits and move up from there, there is a huge breadth to explore.

I liked every wine I tried and scored all of them at least a Good, so here are my highlights:

- more Hungarian dry Furmint, especially Szepsy, and Heimann's red Kekfrankos

- Styrian Sauvignon from Tement; it is lovely to see these wines back in the UK, steely, precise and mineral, they are some of my favourite Sauvignons

- elegant Swiss wines; they're not cheap, they're not good value but they are unique, pure and sometimes so silent that it takes time to hear them

- Nathan Kendall New York whites; fresh and distinctive

- Anton Bauer Austrian Gruener, a long-time favourite, plus his Blaufraenkisch and superb sweet wines from Burgenland's Kracher

- Moroccan wines from Meknes; a first for me

- aged Italian wines are really quite amazing; Campaperi, Ca' la Bionda, Terenzi

- really outstanding Cahors wines from Lagrezette; at £80 the Paragon is pricy but still exceptional value for the quality

- Yves Cuilleron Condrieu; not cheap but lovely

- 100yo solera sherries from Bodegas Yuste

- Canadian aged ice cider is a thing; Leduc -Piedemonte 2011

- Frederiksdal Kirsebaervin's Danish cherry wine; complex and savoury from long fermentations

- German Riesling beer; a "personal project" blend of 1/3rd Riesling with 2/3rds beer to give fruit-pickers something refreshing after a long day in the vineyard

Ch'ti Blonde

A sophisticated northern French beer from Castelain

Driving holidays in France are an opportunity to bring back a few bottles of wine; this summer we mixed it up a bit with cider and beer as well.

North East France is too cold for grape cultivation, but as in neighbouring Belgium and Germany,  the French make an art form of producing beers with a strength and complexity beyond mere quaffers.

Ch'ti, by the way, is slang for this part of France - as evidenced by the comedy film, Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (translated as "Welcome to the Sticks") about a man who is moved by his firm from the south of France to the North where it is very cold, rainy, and "they talk funny".

This beer is marked as a "biere de garde", a beer that will also improve with aging - even if this one did not get the chance.

Ch'ti Blonde (around €2 for 75cl, Intermarché) 6.4% alcohol; a strong, malty blonde ale, rich with some balanced sweetness and gently hopped for aromatic bitterness; fresh, supple and yeasty with mixed fruit and some sweet spice. Adept and complex.

Good.

Match with sausages, tarte flambee or picnic food such as pork pies and cold cuts.

The Belgian Beer-Off

Three Belgian beers

The Belgians seem to combine a Gallic love of gastronomy and religion with a Germanic affinity for beer and  Byzantine complexity.

Too northerly a climate for wine, Belgium produces a vast array of beers, often made in abbeys by  Trappist monks, of different styles, colours, alcohol levels and sweetness each with its own, impenetrable code of dubbel, trippel and quadrupel (see guide here) and often their own bespoke glasses.

Belgians also seem to share a Teutonic love of eating and drinking out as a competitive sport; it is hard to pin this down precisely but for Italians eating and drinking well is part of a general lifestyle statement; for the French, it is an innate raison d'etre while for Germans, and quasi-Germans, it is a status symbol and public announcement of general success in life.

Returning from a family holiday in Bruges last year, we decided to being back some of the local stuff.

Brugse Zot from local brewery De Halve Maan, rich, malty and complex golden ale.

Thoroughly pleasant.

Westmalle Tripel bigger, stronger, sweeter and more bitter. Citrussy and floral, too. More of everything.

Good.

Trappistes Rochefort 8 sweetish dark ale, complex with fruitcake, bitter, roasted nuts and spices Good.

More Pizzas, Pots and Pints

Cambridge is to get a second Pizza, Pots and Pints, the award-winning artisan pizza-and-beer pub from Charles Wells.

The chain first launched in Cambridge in 2015 at The Salisbury Arms and is to open another site at The Carpenter’s Arms on Victoria Road at the end of March 2018, making this the fifth Pizza, Pots and Pints in the region.

If you like the sound of freshly made artisan pizzas, cooked in wood-fired ovens, warming terracotta pots of comfort food like mac n cheese with bottled craft beers, pints of cask ale, and wines and spirits from across the world, plus events and menu deals such as 2-4-1 Mondays, Live Music on a Friday, or Sunday Roast, there will always be something happening at The Carpenter’s Arms that locals can be a part of.

If you can't wait until March, check out The Salisbury Arms in the meantime.

Lancaster Bomber Ale

Marston's Lancaster Bomber Ale

A relative received a year's supply of beer for taking part in an event - not a bad result.

His first delivery was several cases of Marston's Lancaster Bomber ale; it proved a little devisive with other members of the family, so he asked me to sample it and give an opinion.

I was only too happy to oblige.

A multi-award winning, classic English ale, it is chestnut in colour with a lovely full-bodied flavour, enriched with a wonderful late hop character - so says the website and it's hard to disagree with any of that.

Darker, richer and weightier than a lager, it is still mid-weight at 4.4% alcohol and with just a balancing sweetness.

Lancaster Bomber Amber-chestnut, with complex biscuity floral aromas; rich, full-flavoured and hoppy with fruitcake flavours. Clean, balanced and refreshing.

Good.

Match with pubby dishes, like steak and ale pie or roast beef.

Happy 90th Birthday Ma'am

The Co-op's MA'AM beer

"It's Ma'am as in ham, not Marm as in palm," says Helena Bonham Carter as The Queen in The King's Speech.

Her Maj is 90 this year and to celebrate, the Co-op has created a beer as British as jam sandwiches, bunting and a rained-out street party.

A light golden ale, it is citrussy, malty and rich with sweet caramel and mixed-fruit flavours.

Match with meat pies, picnic food or toad-in-the-hole.

Adorned with a Union Jack and silhouette of our longest-serving monarch, the label is topped off appropriately with a golden crown.

Happy birthday Ma'am.

£1.99 or three for £5 and available only during May and June 2016; provided for review.

Other related articles
Co-op local beers #1
Co-op local beers #2

Co-op Local Beers

Three more local beers from the Co-op

Another day, another assessment of some local beers from the Co-op.

Adnam's Ghost Ship (4.5%) malty and refreshing with bitter almond and grapefruit flavours

Greene King Old Crafty Hen (6.5%) like the citrus-hoppy-caramel Old Speckled Hen, but richer, fuller, maltier and sweeter.

Good.

Will stand up to a turkey with all the trimmings.

Adnam's Broadside (6.3%) a complex beer with dark fruitcake, aromatic grapefruit hoppiness, bitter-sweet roasted spices, citrus and savouriness. Very Good.

Match with a rich steak and ale pie or a home-made marmalade ham.

These beers are priced at £1.99 each, or 3 for £5 - provided for review.

Other related articles
The Co-op Truly Irresistible Jubilation Ale
Orval - Trappist Abbey and Beer

The Co-op's Local Beer Range

Three local beers from The Co-op

Technically, Cambridge is in East Anglia; however, it is also not that far from the East Midlands - or even the northern Home Counties.

Our nearest significant local breweries are Greene King in Bury St Edmunds and Adnams on the Suffolk coast, whilst Oakham Ales turns out to be based in Cambridgeshire itself.

Adnam's Explorer (5%) crisp, citrussy and refreshing easy-drinker with wheaty aromas and malty depth.

Match with salmon en croute

Oakham Ales' Citra (4.6%) refreshing malty blond ale with complex pungent grapefruit and lychees. Distinctive and very enjoyable.

Good.

Match with chicken-and-leek pie.

Greene King Old Speckled Hen (5%) citrus and hoppy with caramel and butterscotch flavours. Tasty and expressive.

Good.

Match with roast chicken and gravy.

These beers are priced at £1.99 each, or 3 for £5 - provided for review.

Other related articles
The Co-op Truly Irresistible Jubilation Ale
Orval - Trappist Abbey and Beer

Mr Trotter's Great British Chestnut Ale

Inspired by a pre-hop age when brewers would add all sorts of seasonal ingredients to spice up their brews, Mr Trotter's Great British Chestnut Ale uses roasted chestnuts for a nutty creaminess and is the only chestnut beer to be brewed and bottled in the UK.

This all rather reminds me of a university housemate who made his own coffee oatmeal stout, but perhaps the less said about that particular experiment the better.

Autumnal copper-brown in the glass, there are warming aromas of roasted sweet chestnuts and freshly-baked bread.

Sweet roasted chestnuts, maltiness and honeyed, warming spice on the palate give way to sharp, hoppy grapefruit and a pleasing, food-friendly bitterness on the finish.

Match with pies, rustic pates, autumnal stews or roast beef - or a couple of bags of Mr Trotter pork crackling.

Priced at £2.45 per 50cl bottle or £26.10 for a case of 8 from Selfridges, Booth's, farm shops and delis; provided for review.

Other related articles
Marston's Single Hop Ales
Little Creatures Pale Ale
Orval - Trappist Abbey and Beer‏
Links
Mr Trotter - website

Pavitt's Pies - Beef And Ale with Moonshine Porter‏

The other day, Carri Pavitt of Pavitt's Pies brought me round a couple of her new Beef and Ale pies to sample.

The pies are not due to be launched until later in the year at the Cambridge Retro Disco on October 26th, but we were afforded a sneak preview; unlike Carri's standard beef and ale pies, this one is made with Night Watch porter from Moonshine Brewery in Fulbourn.

For the uninitiated, porter is a dark, usually sweet bitter beer, rather like a stout - and there is clearly a reasonable amount used in the pie, as the flavour is noticeable.

As a result, you'll probably need to match this pie with more beer, rather than wine.

As for the rest of the ingredients, they are up to the usual excellent standards of Pavitt's - the beef is exceptionally tender and full of flavour; the sweetness of the porter is complemented by the carrot-and-celery based gravy.

The pie is generously filled - the meat goes all the way up to the top - and the pastry is deliciously buttery.

Wonderful comfort food; serve with mash, green beans and plenty of beer - ideally more Moonshine porter, but any well-flavoured real ale will do.


Pavitt's Pies are available from Urban Larder, The Larder at Burwash Manor or direct from Pavitt's Pies via home delivery.

Links

Pavitt's Pies - website, twitter, Facebook
Moonshine Brewery - http://www.moonshinebrewery.co.uk/
Urban Larder - http://urbanlarder.co.uk/
The Larder at Burwash Manor - http://www.burwashlarder.com/

Marston's Single Hop Ales

If you want to learn what the various ingredients in beer provide in the way of flavours, it is a good idea to sample them separately in their raw state; I was lucky enough to get to do this a few years ago at a local micro-brewery in Cambridge and came away with a much better understanding of the toasty cereal flavours of malt and the bitter, citrussy flavours imparted by hops.

Different hops have different characteristics and if you can't find a friendly brewery, the next best option is to try a range of beers with different hops.

Step forward Marston's Single Hop Ales - a range of six beers each brewed with a single hop, rather than the (more common) blend.

With the extended heavy rain of the last few months now a seemingly distant memory, I spent some time in the garden over the weekend trying out two of these ales.

Marynka - £1.80, Booths

Made from a Polish hop developed 25 years ago to provide a herbal, berry fruit and floral aroma, this beer commemorates Poland's hosting of Euro 2012 in June.

A deep gold colour, it is malty with lots of hoppy bitterness, floral and grapefruit flavours, complex with caramel and toffee notes, spice.

Sovereign - £1.80, Morrisons

Sovereign is an English hop with floral and mint aromas.

No prizes for guessing that this one is intended as a Jubilee celebration beer, and if National Pride is particularly your thing, it was also brewed on St George's Day.

Golden in the glass, this is malty and floral with grapefruit aromas and pithy hoppy bitterness.

Links

Marston's - http://www.marstons.co.uk/
Booths - http://www.booths.co.uk/
Morrisons - http://www.morrisons.co.uk/

The Co-op Truly Irresistible Jubilation Ale‏

Have we all gone Jubilee-mad ? Or do we just need a good old party to lift our spirits from this recessionary funk ?

I must admit to more than a degree of cynicism about the idea of slapping the word "Jubilee" on any old product and commercialising our heritage: overpriced jam sandwiches in "Union-Flag Bunting" packaging, anyone ?

However, if you must do something Jubilee-related then this limited edition, commemorative Co-op Truly Irresistible Jubilation Ale‏ is hand-brewed in the Forest of Dean and made from Warminster and Bramling Cross hops with malt from the country's oldest malting house.

Golden in the glass, it is a crisp, refreshing and well-made ale with aromas of citrus and grapefruit.

Light enough to drink at a street party, it will also match with food.

Available at the Co-operative for £1.69 until June 12th; provided for review.

Links

The Co-op (food and drink) - http://www.co-operative.coop/food/welcome/

Little Creatures Pale Ale - Wineaux

When I recently met Barry McCaughley of Wineaux and, also more latterly, Barry James Wines, as well as chatting wine and business, we also talked beer and he gave me a bottle of Australian brewer Little Creatures Pale Ale to take away.

According to its website, selected malts are kilned in small batches and are used exclusively in our pale ale. Two different yeasts are used to both ferment and bottle condition the beer ... From brewing to release, a batch of pale ale takes about six weeks, allowing for two weeks conditioning in the bottle after packaging. No artificial preservatives or additives are included, just great ingredients.

Opening it up the other night with a fish and chip supper, it was amber in the glass with elegantly aromatic elderflower and grapefruit.

At 5.2%, it is a grown-up beer, but feels refreshing, crisp and malty with hoppy flavours - apparently Cascade and Galaxy whole hop flowers are used, but in any case Barry tells me it's one of his favourites and a best-seller on his site.

It also proved an inspired match with the food.

£39.99 for a case of 24 33cl bottles, provided for review.

Links

Wineaux - http://www.wineaux.co.uk/
Barry James Wines - http://barryjameswines.com/
Little Creatures - http://www.wineaux.co.uk/

Orval - Trappist Abbey and Beer‏

Belgium has no wine-making tradition but more than makes up for this with its many and varied beers of which the Trappist ales, made at one of the country's six Trappist monasteries, are amongst the best.

Too northerly for viticulture, Belgium was originally a region of city-states whose monasteries were bastions of knowledge with their libraries, herb gardens and beer and cheese-making.

After a day spent visiting Bouillon (see here) en route to France's wine regions, we stopped by Orval Abbey for a mixture of sightseeing and beer-purchasing.

The original Cistercian monastery dates from 1132 but is now in ruins after being destroyed in 1793 by French forces - its contemporary replacement, dating from 1935, is unadorned and futuristic - and also not generally open to the public, so we contented ourselves with a wander round the much more beautiful and atmospheric ruins.

Afterwards, exiting through the monastical gift shop, there were opportunities to buy religious trinkets and imagery, but more importantly boxes of Orval beer (we passed on the Orval beer glasses and decided the Orval cheese, whilst good, would not keep during our journey).

The beer itself is quite strong, 6.2% alcohol, and is fermented using Brettanomyces yeast. Like many Belgian beers, it undergoes secondary fermentation in bottle meaning it has a sediment and is extremely fizzy, so out of a small-ish bottle of 33cl, around a quarter is lost.

Many bottle-conditioned ales improve with age just like a fine wine and finding this to be the case with the Orval, after the first few bottles, I tucked the rest away to be sampled periodically over the next 18 months or so.

Early bottles were crisp and refreshing, well-structured and balanced with orangey, coriander-seed hints.

The development from bottle to bottle every couple of months was barely perceptible but after a year or so, it had become noticeably fuller, richer and more strongly-flavoured, but still did not appear to have peaked.

Moreover, with a little of the gas escaping via the crown top, it was a little less explosive on opening.

This then, is a beer for cellaring - for at least a year or two, so if you happen to be passing through the Belgian Ardennes, it's worth stocking up with a few cases.

Links

Orval Abbey - http://www.orval.be/an/FS_an.html

Some light relief at half-term: The Plough at Coton‏

It was half-term recently and my turn to look after the kids. With only a little encouragement from me, my daughter decided she would like to do a bike ride and have a pub lunch somewhere.

As I have mentioned before, the quality of eating establishments in central Cambridge is not generally that great as many have only the tourist trade to consider. Moreover, whilst central Cambridge is an undeniably lovely place with its historic colleges, pedestrianised medieval street layout, the river Cam and the backs, the surrounding countryside is rather less impressive. So it was something of a challenge to think of a scenic route of 10-15 miles, suitable for a young cyclist, going via a decent country pub.

In the end, we started at Castle Mound, the highest point in the city with views of various chapels and rooftops, then wound our way between the colleges and along the backs to Grantchester Meadows and on to Grantchester itself before taking a minor road up to Coton about three miles west of Cambridge where we stopped at The Plough.

The Plough had been on my radar for a while as a gastropub worth visiting, but somehow we had never got round to it - any trips west of Cambridge have generally been to the excellent Three Horseshoes in nearby Madingley.

Set more or less in the centre of Coton, The Plough has that typical gastropub look of a cosy olde worlde exterior contrasting with a smart, modern interior. As that day it happened to be not only not raining, but also rather hot in fact, we decided to sit under an umbrella outside at the back.

I went for the three-course set lunch, whilst my daughter ordered from the children's menu. The food was proper gastropub-style, that is to say traditional pub food, well-made and presented, with perhaps the odd twist here and there, but not overly fancy restaurant food that happens to be served in a pub setting.

My starter of duck and black pudding terrine was served with slices of baguette and some dressed salad leaves and the waiting staff obligingly brought my daughter's fish and chips at the same time so that she did not have to sit and wait for her food.

My main, when it arrived, was a deliciously buttery piece of cod, lightly cooked to perfection and served on roasted peppers with a manchego crust and tapenade - a paste of black olives. At home, I would not be brave enough to try and mix the heavy salty flavours of tapenade with cheese and cod for fear of overwhelming the subtlety of the fish, but this worked really well, especially with the sweetness of the peppers.

My daughter's fish and chips were equally well made, with light crispy batter, succulent fresh fish and proper fat chips perfectly cooked - I can say this with authority having tried more than a few myself, much to her annoyance.

To finish, we had both chosen the same thing - chocolate brownie with ice-cream. Sadly, I was informed, their supplies only ran to a child's portion, so I re-ordered a cheesecake with amaretto, chocolate chips and raspberry topping. It was due to be served with clotted cream ice-cream (the main reason I had ordered it, to be honest) but actually came with a small saucer of double cream. I overcame my mild disappointment at this by pouring the cream over the cheesecake and also trying some of my daughter's ice-cream and brownie sundae which was lovely - the brownie soft and moist, the rich home-made ice-cream flecked with dots of vanilla.

My cheesecake was also delicious - I am not sure I could discern any Amaretto in it and the chocolate chips did not seem to add much to it, but these were minor points.

There is a large garden at the back of the pub with additional seating, some trees and play equipment for children, so my daughter went off to try these out whilst I finished off my beer - a lovely pint of Adnams bitter - before a gentle ride back into Cambridge, again via Grantchester.
 
Having finally visited The Plough, I now don't know why we haven't been there before; we will certainly be back soon.
 
Links
 
The Plough - http://www.theploughcoton.co.uk/
 
Adnams - http://adnams.co.uk/
 
Our approximate route can be found on Multimap directions - Cambridge to Coton via Grantchester: http://www.multimap.com/directions/

Cambridge's Golden Square - The Devonshire Arms

Until recently, Cambridge had a Golden Triangle in the buzzy, cosmopolitan area of Mill Road (a two-mile strip of independent stores just to the south of the centre). The axes of this triangle were the three real ale pubs - the Kingston Arms, the Live and Let Live and the Cambridge Blue. A recent addition to this holy trinity of places of beer worship is the newly made-over Devonshire Arms.

Formerly a rather grubby establishment, the Devonshire Arms is now a smart and modern, but back-to-basics pub selling mainly beers from the Milton brewery based just north of the city. It is run by Individual Pubs who have five pubs in the south and east, all serving Milton beers.

Milton brewery is sited in a small, anonymous shack on a mini business park in Milton just north of Cambridge and makes beer only in casks - sadly, you can't get their stuff in bottles. I visited the brewery with the Cambridge Food and Wine Society as one of their more "off-piste" events a while ago for a talk from one of the brewing staff whilst samples of two of their beers (a light ale and a wheat beer) flowed liberally from two casks.

The enthusiasm of our speaker was infectious as he pointed out that beer was the basis of civilised society, requiring farming techniques and collaboration to grow the barley and hops for making the beer whilst the end result is a much safer drink than untreated water in many places.

We sampled some of the raw ingredients, malted barley and hops to get a sense of the qualities they add to the finished brew. It was a revelation to me to try rubbing hops (essentially flowers) between my fingers releasing the aromatic but bitter oils that are used not only to flavour beer, but also to preserve it - interestingly, hops have no known use other than in beer. Lagers have a much lower hop content and therefore lack the bitterness of an ale, whilst addition of extra hops results in an IPA, India Pale Ale (the extra hops originally being used to preserve the beer on its long sea journey to expats in the Raj).

Back at the Devonshire Arms, we sampled Milton's Tiki and Icarus - both golden coloured with rich malt and aromatic bitterness - as well as Nero, a stout with strong coffee overtones.

Several other beers from the brewery, all with Classical names were available but, as a fellow committee member pointed out a number of Milton's beers tend to follow a "house style" fairly closely with differences often being limited to mainly the level of alcohol. Guest beers included a Ripper at a whopping 8.5% and a Canary (presumably for Norwich City fans, but actually made up the road in Lowestoft).

We had used the pub as a venue for a committee meeting of the Cambridge Food and Wine Society and whilst its attractions as such were obvious, we had not reckoned on it being so busy - or so noisy - so sadly, we will not be going back for another meeting there.

But that does not preclude another visit on a social basis, especially now that they serve food; the menu is like the decor - simple and unfussy with prices to match.

Links

Cambridge Food and Wine Society - http://www.cambridgefoodandwinesociety.org.uk/

The Devonshire Arms - http://www.individualpubs.co.uk/devonshire/

Individual Pubs - http://www.individualpubs.co.uk/

Milton Brewery - http://www.miltonbrewery.co.uk/

Sausage and Beer Tasting with the Cambridge Food and Wine Society

Cambridge's status as a tourist centre means that, in general, it is not a great area for eating out as most of the restaurant chains in the centre of town do not have to rely on repeat business.

However, the good news for those of us that actually live and do our shopping here, is that Cambridge and its environs are blessed with a good number of delicatessens and butchers' supplying organic, free-range meat in various forms.

The Cambridge Food and Wine Society had previously held a butchery evening, run by Knibbs Meat Safe, but here was a chance to sample the produce of various local butchers' and delis in a comparative testing of sausages with home-made chutneys and beers to wash it all down.

As a newcomer to sausage-tasting, I was intrigued to learn the basis for tasting and judging sausages - without going into too much detail about the process, there are points awarded for appearance (both cooked and uncooked), level of fattiness, taste, texture and so on. For me, judging a sausage on its uncooked appearance seems a bit like judging a red Burgundy based on whether you happen to find Pinot Noir a particularly attractive sort of grape variety, but in any case there were no raw sausages on display here.

All the sausages had been pre-cooked (some shallow-fried, some poached) and were served cold with chutneys and accompanying beers. On our table, we followed the order of the beers as the sausages were served - I don't know how much thought had gone into matching the beers to the sausages, but they did seem go very well together.

There was an element of "blind-tasting" in the way the sausages were presented - we were given details of where they had come from and had to guess at the meat used plus any flavourings. We then scored each sausage against various criteria and came up with a total score for each.

At the end of the evening, there was a show of hands to determine the top (hot) dog of the sausage challenge. In the end, it was a tie between the "Herby" sausage from Knibbs Meat Safe at Burwash Manor and a "Black Olive, Parma Ham and Pork" sausage from Barker Brothers in Shelford.

For me, the Herby sausage scored well, but was not my overall favourite - that was the Gloucester Old Spot Apple and Cider from Pigs in Parcels, based in Fowlmere, which tasted lovely, had great texture and just the right level of fattiness. The black olive etc sausage I found a little over-salted and actually was my lowest-scoring sausage. However, it was not all bad news for Barker Brothers, as their second offering of the night, called simply the "Special" was my second favourite - like the Gloucester Old Spot, it was a well-made but traditional sausage of pork and sage.

Perhaps the most exotic sausage of the evening came from Andrew Northrop and had a Thai theme, with chili, paprika, coconut and lemongrass. Other more unusual sausages included game from Radwinter Wild Game, a South African Boewors from Baobab Treats and a pork double minced with ginger from Gog Magog Hills.

The chutneys were a mixture of shop-bought and home-made and I particularly liked the apple, orange and walnut, which tasted like a Christmas pudding chutney and was delicious. The beers, a mixture of real ales, stouts and the odd lager were all excellent, but Foreign Extra Guinness deserves a special mention not just as it is somewhat unusual and hard to find but also for its heady 7.3% alcohol level.

A full run-down of the sausages with prices per kilo, beers and chutneys is below:

Sausages

- Knibbs Meat Safe, £6.25, Coriander and Red Onion
- Radwinter Wild Game Co £6.55, Wild Game
- Knibbs Meat Safe, £6.99, Herby
- Pigs in Parcels, £9.43, Gloucester Old Spot, Apple and Cider
- Priors Hall Farm, £9.40, Traditional Pork
- Barker Brothers, £10.00, Black Olive, Parma Ham and Pork
- Waller and Son, £6.70, Royal Cambridge
- Barker Brothers, £10.00, Special
- Andrew Northrop, £7.69, Red Thai and Coconut
- Baobab Treats, £9.09, Boewors
- Gog Magog Hills, £7.25, Pork double minced with ginger

Chutneys

- Apple, orange and walnut (a Christmas pudding chutney)
- Hot pear (very hot !)
- Garlic and apricot (deliciously sweet)
- Red tomato (sharp and crunchy)

Beers

SA GOLD, BRAINS, 4.7%: bright golden colour. After an initial malty aroma, the chicory qualities of the hops come through, with a touch of flint. On the palate that broad, caramel and burnt orange malt character is again quite powerful, but it is balanced by the fresh, leafy hoppiness and a zesty appeal. Dry and fresh in the finish, this is a crisp and satisfying beer. [Short-listed for CAMRA Golden Ale of the Year 2009]

MAPLE MOON HOLTS 4.8% A Silver Medal winner in the International Brewing Awards, this beer is brewed using unique subtle maple flavouring, giving it a rather sweet caramel after taste. A lighter more malty ale perfect for complementing spicy foods.

BARN STORMER BATH ALES 4.5%: Brewed with a mixture of Maris Otter, Chocolate and Crystal malts together with Brambling Cross hops, this full-bodied dark ale is well balanced and smooth with a malty, bitter, dry finish. [Short-listed for CAMRA Strong Bitter of the Year 2009]

OLD SPECKLED HEN GREEN KING 5.2%: There's a distinctive biscuity quality on the nose, and quite complex set of spice, fruit and hop aromas. On the palate the beer is surprisingly light in some respects,though there is plenty of flavour, with more of that shortbread and malty richness and a nice bitter finish. (Originally brewed at Morlands of Abingdon)

BUDVEISER BUDVAR 5.0%: Medium gold colour with quite a persistent white head. Perfumed floral note on the nose at first, before a gentle, grassy hoppiness emerges and just a hint of toast. On the palate it is mellow and smooth, with quite a creamy texture and moderate, subtle hop bitterness. There's an orangy tang of citrus acidity in the finish of this elegant, very drinkable lager.

ORIGINAL GUINNESS 4.5%: This is an Irish-brewed version of Guinness, and it pours a very dark amber which is almost black, with a coffee-coloured head. The nose is biscuity, with a nice hoppy edge. On the palate it is smooth and creamy-textured, with a big raft of bitter, burnt, dark-roasted hop bitterness and good acidity in the finish.

FOREIGN EXTRA GUINNESS 7.3%: Foreign Extra Stout (FES) is brewed with pale malt, 25% flaked barley and 10% roasted barley. Galena, Nugget and Target hop varieties create a mighty 60 units of bitterness. The aroma is complex, with bitter roasted grain, a woody and vinous note and spicy hop resins. The palate is bitter from roasted grain and hops, balanced by dark fruit, with a long, dry and bitter finish with hints of liquorice and dark mysterious fruits, including something akin to sour bananas.

Links

Knibbs Meat Safe - http://www.burwashmanor.net/01_shops_kms.asp
Radwinter Wild Game - http://www.radwinterwildgame.com/
Pigs in Parcels - http://www.pigsinparcels.co.uk/
Priors Hall Farm - no website, located at Priors Hall, Lindsell, Dunmow, Essex CM63QR
Barker Brothers - http://www.barkerbrosbutchers.co.uk/Site/HOME.html
A Waller & Son - no website, located at 15A Victoria Avenue, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB4 1EG
Andrew Northrop - no website, located at 114 Mill Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB1 2BQ
Gog Magog Hills - http://www.gogmagoghills.com/