TABLE FOR BREW
Two Metre Tall’s Ashley & Jane Huntington
FINE-DINING SCENE?
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ine-dining and wine go together handin-hand. The list of drinks is still called a wine list, not a beer list or even a beverage list, as it’s assumed that wine is the only choice to accompany good food. Beer is for barbecues, wine is for fine-dining, this is a dichotomy that seems to persist even today, with the Australian craft beer boom in full swing. We checked out the lists of several top-end restaurants and found beer was still relegated to the back pages, rarely split into styles and often less than ten listed, in comparison to the hundreds of wines on offer. To find out more about the future of craft beer and food, we chatted to several restaurateurs, hospitality figures and brewers to see what they thought about the place of beer in fine-dining. One brewer whose beers can often be found in good restaurants is Boatrocker co-founder Matt Houghton, with Saison du Bateau and Miss Pinky being the most popular options. Houghton says that no matter the beer style, if the beer is great it will go with fine food. “Beer is the great matcher, better than wine, because it can be all the things wine can (fruity, acidic, vinous, oaky, dry, sweet,
tannic, still, etc) but it can have the added bonus of carbonation, which can really help please the palate between mouthfuls.” Houghton says Boatrocker’s balanced beers are a boon for chefs, who love a beverage that will pair harmoniously with food. “The other area that we feel strongly about is beer that has personality, often found in the form of Brettanomyces [yeast]. There’s a real complexity in these beautiful yeasts that help give beer a defining edge without dominating the conversation.” La Sirène beers are also finding their way into restaurants, no doubt helped by the beautiful bottles as well as the complex yet refreshing brews within. Brand ambassador Will McDonald says, “At La Sirène the only thing we enjoy more than drinking great beer is eating great food. So naturally, when creating new beer we always have food in mind.” Specialising in farmhouse ales, La Sirène creates brews that are often acidic and complex. “As modern-day yeast wranglers, we deal with complex fermentation profiles and a high level of attenuation and carbonation in our final beers, making them excellent food pairings that are able to cut through salt and fat, scrubbing the palate ready for another mouthful,” says McDonald. “The right beer can lend more to a good food pairing than wine, in our opinion. Beer can have acidity, complex fermentation esters and phenols, malt and hop character plus the addition of carbonation to mouthfeel and overall structure. Not to mention many other possible additions like fruit, botanicals, wild yeast and bacteria.” Another Melbourne brewery, Edge Brewing Project, also has a long history of collaborating with world-class restaurants, including two-Michelin-starred Noma. Edge beers have been poured in such top Australian restaurants as Attica, St Crispin, Vue Du Monde, Brae, Ides, Minamishima, Ryne, Lake House, Saint Peter and Supernormal, and brewer and
co-founder Adam Betts admits that he and partner Michelle have always been drawn to amazing food. “You will often find us travelling, sleeping in the back of our van or a cheapo backpackers, saving our dollars to splurge at the city’s best restaurants.” Betts says that in 2016, the pair were “shell-shocked” when Noma (four-time winner of the world’s best restaurant) approached them to brew an exclusive beer. “They had been visiting Australia a fair bit for research, and thoroughly enjoyed our beers, as well as our mantra of using native ingredients in all natural beers with no filtration or pasteurisation. “For Noma, we brewed a light, refreshing beer with a lot of subtle layers of complexity – a wheat ale infused with freshly picked cherries from the Yarra Valley. To obtain their tart profile, we picked the cherries in November at the very start of the season, when they are green/light red in colour. The beer was then transferred into local pinot barrels, to rest on oak for three months. Finally, the beer was filtered through a bed of lemon myrtle leaves, giving a fresh burst in aroma, before undergoing bottle conditioning for a very fine, soft carbonation. The subtle fruitiness and refreshing nature of this beer paired perfectly with the delicate fresh seafood at Noma, with the tartness in the beer cutting through the dish’s natural oil.” Last year, Edge also released a beer designed with Brae, voted Australia’s top restaurant. The beer, a light-bodied ale
“SOMMELIERS ARE BEGINNING TO CONSIDER A WHOLE RANGE OF BEVERAGES OTHER THAN WINE.”
Despite its secluded location, Tasmanian brewery Two Metre Tall, run by Jane and Ashley Huntington, creates sought-after farmhouse-style brews that often feature on fine-dining menus. Tucked away on a farm in the Derwent Valley, there is no sense of hurry at the brewery, and the beers are left to mature at their own pace. Two Metre Tall beers are often spontaneously fermented, and the combination of time and natural processes leads to the unique flavours and acid profile. Jane and Ashley explain: “This acidity is developed over time and comes from the naturally occurring wild yeast and bacteria, the predominant players of which are wild saccharomyces species, lactic acid bacteria and other wild yeast, such as Brettanomyces species. Mixed culture, spontaneous and all other variations of wild fermentation for us is the key.” Edge’s Michelle Vanspall and Adam Betts with Noma’s Rene Redzepi
FIND A PLACE IN THE
Formerly winemakers, the couple has long been involved in the confluence of food and drink. In 2015 they were approached by Noma Australia to create an aperitif beverage for their degustation menu. “Traditionally fine-dining establishments will turn to a champagne or sparkling wine. We instead created our ‘Snakebite’, a blend of barrel-aged cider and wild fermented, soured ale. Poured into a long stemmed wine glass … perfect!” Jane and Ashley believe sommeliers’ attitudes are evolving in Australia, which is “genuinely exciting”. “They are beginning to consider a whole range of beverages other than wine and this should be encouraged. Wine is only fermented grapes and, whilst it comes from a long tradition of restaurant dining, we think certain forms of ale and cider and other beverages (eg. sake) can be their equal.” Those working in the hospitality industry to create beer lists are juggling similar criteria as they choose what to include. Trev Birks, co-founder of the Bendigo on the Hop beer festival, has created beer lists for The Woodhouse, GPO, Harvest, and The Mill, Echuca. He says that when trying to educate and encourage people to move away from mainstream beer, the style of food served obviously affects the beers on tap and in the fridge. “In regional areas, local produce is the hero (and a major tourist drawcard) so it’s always great to maintain great relationships with food producers by sitting down with them, munching on their delicious samples and chatting about which beer would match well. Basically, I always include the following in beer lists when having food in mind: something local, something safe for the non-adventurous, something out there for the openminded, something for the beer geeks.” Zac Hill from craft beer bar Hop Temple in Ballarat says that the venue is “different to your classical restaurant as we are more beer hall-style with a focus on range”. “It gives us the ability to play in both spaces, both the high consumables and broad range pleasers, as well as the weird and wonderful. We target our beer seasonally with a focus to still try to represent as many styles as possible. “In terms of choosing beer it is 100% about making sure you are choosing beers that are accessible to your clients. I love a big 10%-plus Russian Imperial Stout, but Bruce Beer who mainly drinks Pale Ale, Lager and lighter styles may be intimidated and turned off by such a beer. It is important to challenge clients with new beer and styles and provide that education, but at the end of the day it’s not going to be for everyone, so having more accessible options is key.” Bron Kabboord, former owner of Merricote in Northcote with her husband, currently works at Carlton gastropub The Lincoln and explains her theory behind creating an engaging beer list. “We are passionate about creating a list to appeal to beer drinkers. It is so often an afterthought, or just ticking the basic boxes. I created a list to show a range of beer styles, and always with the thought of complementing
photo by Tim Grey
CAN CRAFT BEER
structured like Berliner Weisse, included honey and red gum flowers hand-picked from Brae’s backyard, offering lovely nuances. This delightful ale went on to win Gold at the Australian International Beer Awards. “At the restaurant, the beer sensationally matched their barbecue beetroot seasoned with Brae farm honey and rainbow trout roe,” says Adam. “The sourness played off well with the umami in the dish, and the subtle salty sweetness of the roe lifting the floral notes.” Betts says Edge’s key to success with fine dining is while their beers are often innovative or use left-of-centre ingredients, each beer is wellbalanced and has a refreshing, dry finish. “These characteristics often pair well with fine food, without overpowering the dish or destroying your palate like some over-the-top beers might do.” Betts thinks attitudes towards beer are changing. “A decade ago you would more often than not find wine at the table when enjoying fine food, with beer only seen as a cheap afterthought or pre-meal drink to guzzle. The industry and consumer opinions have certainly changed for the better, with most top restaurants now putting equal effort into their beer selection, and offering thought-out beer degustations.”
the food. I really like to showcase lesser-known producers and styles. “Our beer list had about 30 listings. Our wine list was 50 bottles, so if gives you an idea of how seriously we took our beer list. As a sommelier I feel that all aspects of the beverage program need the same consideration. I choose beers in the same way that I build a wine list, showing a range of styles, local and iconic producers.” Like Betts, Kabboord thinks there is a path available to craft beers to enter the fine-dining space. “I think that more restaurants are open to offering more challenging and exciting beers. I believe we are incredibly lucky in Australia with the beers we have imported, there is no excuse to create a boring list. I also think the local beer scene is exploding at the moment, and as a lover of sours and barrel-aged beers, I couldn’t be more excited to see what is available from guys like Boatrocker, La Sirene and Wildflower. “It will take a while to see exciting beer lists across the board, but there are a lot of Aussie drinkers asking for a change, and I am confident that we will continue in the right direction.” Scott McKinnon from Wolf of the Willows: I think one of the biggest things for me is beer has always been an ugly cousin to wine in terms of the typical consumer perception of creating something to enhance a culinary experience. And I think that comes from the traditional European foodie regions of the world being Italy and France, and not surprisingly they have pretty extensive indigenous grape varieties and literally thousands of years of winemaking history so, it’s pretty obvious that’s that’s where I think it’s naturally come from. I think with beer with it more having its origins in Germany and the UK, where I’d say the food is … a different style of food – traditionally heavier and heartier – they’re traditionally more colder regions so a bit heavier. So it’s probably been in my view only the last five or ten years that beer and food has really come to the fore. And for me personally I think beer has a much greater variety and plethora of tastes – flavours, aromas and sensations, then wine can offer, and in some ways it offers a greater opportunity to really pair with food in a different way and on a different scale than wine. But the same principles that obviously wine and food matching tries to utilise – cut, contrast, complement – very much applies to beer and food matching, I think that’s a pretty easy thing for everyone to remember. I think that’s where our love for it came – just sitting at home on a Sunday arvo and cooking a few different dishes and really having a variety of beers. And I think that’s a really awesome journey for everyone to go on. Froth Beer Magazine p15