Perfect with porter
In the latest of our series on beer and food, Ben McFarland looks at what to eat with porter.
Like wheat beers, porter is a beer style enjoying a renaissance. After years of being in the shadow of stout – its drier, more bitter and opaque ale cousin, porter is finding favour with those looking for a slightly sweeter, dark malt-driven, drinkable alternative.
Porter can be ‘London’ in style, infused with honey, blessed with coffee and chocolate notes, heavily hopped (rare) or brewed using smoked malts. Porter oiled the wheels of the industrial revolution and was the thirst-quenching beers of the masses. With a mouse and powerpoint presentations the only things we struggle with these days, we’re not quite as parched but, fear not, for porter has the sophistication and intrigue to take pride of place at the dinner table.
Rupert Ponsonby Co-founder of the Beer Academy which currently runs a number of educational and entertaining courses on matching beer with food “Porters are mood-friendly brews. They are deep, they are dark and they are supremely dangerous.
“The word ‘moreish’ was invented for them.
They are a witch’s brew, combining wickedness and sensuality, with their velvety smoothness, their creamy texture, and their taste of the past.
“But they are also, gastronomically, a taste of the future – and I split them into two camps: the vinous, slightly soured brews; and those more modern brews with coffee overtones.
“The vinous, old-fashioned porters are the ones I like best, reminiscent of the sourness picked up historically in their long barrel ageing. And they .....
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By Ben McFarland
Section : Beer and Food
Page number : 40
