Artisan Cheese + Craft Beer

Kevin Jenkins – Founder, www.thecheesewheel.co.nz

Like marriage, wine and cheese go together like a horse and carriage. You don’t see a lot of horses pulling carriages nowadays though and matching a quality tipple with your quality cheese has moved on too. The flourishing of experimentation by myriad craft beer brewers and artisan cheesemakers has opened up endless opportunities to have fun matching the two.

Janet and Miles King of Kingsmeade Cheese in the Wairarapa are recognised pioneers in both animal husbandry and artisan cheesemaking . They abandoned their plans for a berryfruit orchard and established their dairy sheep operation in 1998 . They’ve had their ups and downs, but their achievements are legendary . Their range of cheeses are second to none, and of course they developed their own breed of dairy sheep, the Dairymeade . You can read more about their story here . Janet and Miles never stop experimenting, with one of my favourites being their Robelino which they have produced in recent years . This is a fabulous, delicately flavoured fresh sheep milk cheese . In fact, this is a signature of sheep and goat milk artisan cheese makers in New Zealand – they are always looking for exciting new styles or variations to bring to market . This ever-evolving range of innovative cheeses, often made in small quantities, is the foundation of our artisan cheese subscription service – bringing better sheep and goat milk cheese (and others) to the people . What we have found though is that there is huge appetite for mixing and matching these with other artisan products…and especially NZ craft beer . We had the idea of showcasing small volume sheep and goat milk cheeses as part of the Wellington On A Plate (WOAP) festival a few years ago . Being craft beer aficionados, we thought we’d innovate ourselves and match cheeses with beer instead of wine (hey, we still like matching cheese with wine though!) . We partnered with a small brew pub in the hip Cuba Quarter and were stunned when all 32 available places sold out in less than half an hour . We advertised a second night and that sold out too . In subsequent years we have run WOAP events with leading craft brewer Fortune Favours at their Cuba Quarter bar and have sold out two 72-seat events each year . We now get approached regularly for cheese and beer matching events . We’ve run them in a range of craft beer bars, but also for groups like the Wellington Young Farmers, and company social clubs . We’ve also run online cheese tasting events – without the beer – for a south Auckland Rotary Club and lots of other groups .

One of the first points we’ll make is how bacteria is fundamental to both cheese and beer . We also note how some experts argue that beer goes with cheese better than wine because of its freshness, carbonation and complex taste notes . The carbonation helps because it cuts through the density and richness of many cheeses . The more heavy and riper cheeses go well with those beers with a sweeter, slightly caramelised flavour profile .

Kingsmeade presentation at the Wellington Club