The Beer and Cheese Class

The Adult Ed community has finally caught on to my generation, or at least me in my generation.  They've forgone the classiness of the wine-drinking crowd and embraced beer.  

I am a beer-drinker.  Recently, the hoppier the better.  So when I saw that Brookline Adult & Community Education was offering a Beer and Cheese class where they would pair IPA's (India Pale Ale) and Blue Cheeses, I hopped on board.  It was worth it!

We sampled five domestic micro-brew IPA's and three blue cheeses (two domestic, one Italian).  Our teachers were Matt Webster, a guy who has made a career out of knowing about, and encouraging people to drink beer, and a guy whose name I cannot remember for the life of me who works for the The Meat House.  He is a beer/cheese/wine specialist for them.  He also is trying to become some sort of world cheese competition judge, and I have to say that now knowing that that career exists, I am seriously reconsidering my choice of occupation.  

The class met at my high school, which was disconcerting and kind of satisfying at the same time.  We sampled five beers and were told to become familiar with each beer and each cheese before trying them together.

We started with the Great Divide Titan IPA (ABV: 7.1%, IBU:65) and then the Avery IPA (ABV 6.3%, IBU 69)

 

Next was the Port Brewing Company Wipe Out IPA (ABV 7%, IBU 78)

 Fourth was the Stone IPA (ABV 6.9%, IBU 77).

The last beer we tasted was the Dogfish Head 90 Minute.

In the meantime, there were three AMAZING blue cheeses.  They were Bayley Haze Blue by Jasper Hill Farm, a Gorgonzala from Lombardy, Italy, and Crater Lake Blue by Rogue Creamery.

The three cheeses were very different, but all incredible.

(I don't remember which is which)

It was interesting how much the beers differed and how much different beers went better with one cheese versus another.  For example, the Titan and the Avery both went well with the Crater Lake, whicke the Wipe Out was much better with the Bayley Haze. 

The beers in my order of preference: Titan, Wipe Out, Avery, Stone, 90 Minute.  This was also pretty close to the order they came in, so my preferences might have something to do with my blood alcohol level as well.  I would have preferred the beers come in a sampler so we could have compared them to each other and to the cheeses all together.

As you can see, we enoyed outselves!