Raw talent

May 30 2008 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

WHAT’S for afters? We’ve combined beer and cheese, beer and chocolate, beer and pies and beer and shellfish in a food and drink bandwagon that’s gathering pace.

It’s dawning on a lot of people that beer by its very nature is a far more versatile dinner companion or picnic basket sideshow than wine is.

The synergy potential around hops, water, malted barley and yeast is infinite, so possibly in an attempt to catch some of us out, the question posed recently was: Which beer is perfect for which sushi – and why?

Two chefs from five-star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London, decided to put the notion to the test, choosing beers which they then matched to sushis.

Executive chef Steve Munkley and sushi chef Ricky Idris made the significant decision to steer clear of traditional Japanese beers such as Asahi, Kirin or Sapporo, judging that with their high rice inclusion they would lack flexibility and the multi-dimensions of sensation required.

Instead, they presented the sushis alongside a selection of beer styles from Germany, Holland, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Belgium, France and the UK.

The event was organised by Rupert Ponsonby, co-founder of the Beer Academy, the initiative that encourages education and training in the understanding and appreciation of beer.

He says: “Beer needs to be more aspirational. It pairs brilliantly with a wide variety of cuisines, but many restaurants and food lovers are still unaware of its potential.

“Pairing beer with sushi is our latest gastronomic challenge and the consensus from our guests was quite surprising, favouring beers with low hop bitterness, but with greater than expected barley sweetness. The potential for beer and gastronomy is massive.”

The combinations tasted included:

Fruh Kolsch (4.8% alcohol by volume) from Germany, with sweet prawn nigiri

A pale, delicate, spritzy beer with a wonderful balance of malt and soft delicate hops matched with a sushi that uses prawns kept in their cooking brine, which is naturally slightly sweet.

Sol (4.5% ABV) from Mexico, with warm grilled eel nigiri

A clear, smooth, refreshing beer, delicately flavoured, with light, nutty flavours. The eel is marinated in citrus oil, lightly grilled and sliced on to rice then brushed with a combination of sake and soy-based sweet sauce.

Grolsch Premium Weizen (5.3% ABV) from Holland, with natto

Produced from 60% wheat and 40% barley, this is a soft, creamy, slightly sweet beer, partnered with natto – fermented soya bean and spring onion sushi.

Schneider Weiss (5.4% ABV) from Germany, with sea bass and ginger and soy sauce

A rich and full-bodied wheat beer, tan in colour, with a clove-like, fruity bouquet, matched with a basic sushi nigiri, but using sea bass which has a flavour of its own.

Zatec Pilsner (4.6% ABV) from the Czech Republic, with minted cucumber maki rolls

A Czech pilsner with a full, complex palate. Fruity and woody characters dance with citrus tones from the Saaz hops, delivering a symphonic blast of flavour – a reminder of bitter honey – matched with thinly cut pieces of cucumber marinated in mint sauce before being wrapped in the sushi rice of a maki roll.

Dos Equis (4.8% ABV) from Mexico, with salted salmon skin maki roll

A rich and robust Vienna-style lager, with nutty toffee, baked apple and dark rum flavours, presented with sushi made by lightly salting and toasting the salmon skin before wrapping it in sushi rice with spring onions.

Duvel (8.5% ABV) from Belgium, with tempura prawn maki roll

A classic Belgian golden ale which is smooth, light and lively – almost creamy – with citrus and vanilla flavours in abundance, matched with tempura prawn maki roll, a crisp fried prawn surrounded with soft rice and the hit of wasabi mayonnaise.

Worthington’s White Shield IPA (5.6% ABV) from Britain, with ikura sushi (salmon roe)

A bottle-conditioned India Pale Ale brewed with dual yeast, which means it will mature for at least three years. The really hoppy, dry rich marmalade flavours are an exhilarating match for the saltiness of the salmon eggs placed on top of this sushi lozenge with seaweed wrapped around it.

Bacchus Kriek (5% ABV) from Belgium, with California roll

A highly traditional Belgian sour beer, flavoured with cherries and partnered by a reversed maki roll – the toasted seaweed sheet ends up inside, rubbing shoulders with complementary flavours of avocado, crab stick and mayonnaise.

Kasteel Cru (5.2% ABV) from France, with chicken teriyaki sichimi roll

Fermented with Champagne yeast, this beer has very low bitterness, low astringency and a slight dryness on the finish, a lively carbonation and yellow citrus zing partners the chicken teriyaki sichimi roll perfectly which has the sweetness of teriyaki and the heat of sichimi pepper to complement the rice.

The Czech Zatec Pilsner with minted cucumber maki rolls proved to be the overall favourite. The full, sweet Bohemian barley malts provide a rigid torque to the beer and a perfect foil for the mint in the sushi. At the same time, the cool, refreshing taste of the mint balances with the spicy, hoppy flavours in the beer. This winning combination is doubly satisfying as the brewery and its people are personal favourites.

Zatec Brewery is owned by entrepreneur and former Durham University rowing blue, Rolf Munding. He was also one of the Oxford crew who beat Cambridge with monotonous regularity in the 1970s. He bought the brewery – based in the castle in the town – from the local greengrocer and invested heavily in plant and personnel.

Zatec is the hop-growing region of the Czech Republic; its reddish-brown, ferrous oxide-rich soil is ideally suited to their cultivation and the development of their lemon citrus nature. The rest of the world knows them as Saaz hops (the German translation).