Beer and Cheese Party January 9th

Hi EWI!

Thanks to Laura's beer and cheese expertise (and Young's gracious hosting), we had quite the tasting adventure on Saturday night!

Apparently, beer and cheese are a sure-fire way to ensure attendance, we had a staggering 23 people show-up after a 20 person RSVP list. A good time was had by all! I think the most surprising beer for me was the one that tasted like soy sauce, forgive me for not remembering the precise name, but I was washing down the beer with martini's! (I did
say it was a good time!)

The cheese selection was great! Laura could probably give much better (and more accurate) descriptions of them all, but needless to say, they ran the gamut from intense Swiss to mild creamy goat's cheese to an array of blues: all delicious. The aged beers were met with interest and caution by most of us. As the aged bottles were passed around and poured, they were eyed with suspicion! I am no beer aficionado, so far be it from me to pass accurate judgement, they were all interesting. One tasted like lemon and mustard, there was the aforementioned soy sauce beer, deep grainy dark brews and Kaitlin even brought a raspberry beer that tasted like soda! It was definitely an experience!

Laura's List:

I want to thank everyone for showing up.. It was exactly what I was looking for to share those beers with, and I'm glad everyone enjoyed. I'm super impressed how fast that cheese went, too!

Here's the list:
Brooklyn Black Ops '08
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout 05-06, 07-08, 09
Brooklyn Monster 2002
Captain Lawrence NorEaster
Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak, wine barrel
Unibroue Quelque Chose
Unibroue 2004
Deiu du Ciel Peche Mortel (the coffee stout)
Cantillon Bio Geueze '05, (the first, sour 'lambic')
Kiuchi (Hitachino) Commemorative Ale '09
Russian River Salvation '08
Rodenbach.. at least '05
Sam Adams Triple Bock (the soy sauce beer :) )

Plus reinforcements from Lindemann's Cherry Lambic (or was it raspberry?), Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and a few others..

Cheeses:
Lake's Edge La Luna
Jasper Hill Bayley Hazen Blue
Cabot Clothbound Cheddar aged at Jasper Hill Farms
Westfield Farm Hubbardston Blue
Lazy Lady Lady in Blue
Quattro Portino Casatica (buffalo)
Vacherin Mont d'Or
Ewephoria sheep gouda
Capriole O'Banon

At the risk of advertisement, all the cheeses came from the shop I work at, called Provisions in Fort Greene. We've got a huge handful of new labels, about 200 varieties, and a lot of fun supporting small farms across the US and europe.