Next time, I'll have to order a loaf of bread because although the vast amount of cheese was wonderful (even though often the cheese would not necessarily marry best with the beer), we really needed a palate cleanser besides a glass of water.
The lineup included
- A jumpstart on the alcoholism (if you hadn't already ordered a beer while waiting for it to start as seating was at 5 and the tasting was at 6) with a special tasting of Rogue Spirit's Dead Guy Whiskey. A pretty smooth whiskey.
- Full Sail Ltd 03 Lager with Fern's Edge Fresh Chevre. Great chevre, just so light and airy
- Eugene City Brewery Honey Orange Wheat with Willamette Valley Gouda. Great summer beer, very flavorful gouda- but that didn't in my opinion go well together as the gouda overwhelmed the subtle honey orange
- Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar with Alsea Feta. I already knew I liked the beer, but the feta was surprisingly not too salty. And, I got lots of it because the table didn't particularly care for it. I forgot to take a picture of this one as I was getting greedy with the feta.
- Rogue Dead Guy Ale with Monteillet Mejean. This was the smelliest cheese, but since it didn't smell like foot fungus and certainly didn't even worsen upon breathing out after taking a taste of it, it is not the worst cheese I have ever had. It is pretty barnyard-y though. I see the humor in pairing it with a beer called "Dead Guy" because of this, but seriously this needed a much stronger beer.. maybe even a merlot with some tannin to balance it
- Rogue Mocha Porter with Rogue Creamery Chocolate Stout Cheddar. Thank goodness this safe combination cleared our palates. Would be a great combination for fondue I think.
- Deschutes Twilight Ale with Bravo Cheddar Special Reserve. I kept this cheese as an "emergency cheese" in case as we got to stronger beers another Mejean appeared in the lineup. Who knew what Humblodt Fog or Oregonzola would actually turn out to be like…
- Terminal Gravity India Pale Ale with Cypress Grove Humblodt Fog. Turns out this was my favorite cheese, and maybe a bit of it was that finally, there was some bread to cleanse our palates too: all we have had is what I showed pictured and a glass of water (and perhaps a leftover pint from while we were squatting our booth before the tasting started). At the end the waitress was kind enough to bring some of the leftovers the kitchen had from the tasting, including 5 of these which I could not stop eating when I tried to snack on just one.
- Issaquah Brewery Menage a Frog with Rogue Creamery Chipotle Cheddar. I totally forgot to take a picture of this one. I was disappointed they did not pair this with Rogue's own chipotle ale or smoke ale.
- Hair of the Dog Fred Strong Ale with Rogue Creamery Oregonzola
- Rogue Imperial Stout with Maytag Blue of Iowa. Maytag is already my go-to bleu cheese, and I was happy to rack up all the leftover blue cheese from the rest of the table that I put on some potatoes the next day. Great combo since the potatoes didn't need anything but me mashing them and spreading the cheese around (I always eat the skin at home because I wash them and know they are clean).
At $25 (member cost for the event, prepaid) for all this tasting, it was a lot more beer and cheese than I had experienced at other tastings. 10 beers and cheeses and a taste of whiskey! Still, I think next time I'll make sure we have crackers or nuts or something as it got really overwhelming for me at the end.
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