Christmas Day Lunch – time to bring out the beers!

Here’s beer sommelier, Annabel Smith’s beer suggestions for Christmas Day:

Before you open that calorie laden bottle of Prosecco, or hangover inducing Chateauneuf-de-Pape with your turkey dinner this year, take some advice from the Dea Latis crew and reach for the beer.

Beer has no problem with any of the traditional comestibles we devour on Christmas day, and what’s more, it’s better for you, contains less calories and you’ll wake up on Boxing Day feeling far fresher!

We’ll start with a plate of smoked salmon for breakfast. Pour yourself a glass of refreshing, fizzy wheat beer, such as Vedett White, Erdinger Heffeweisse or Franziskaner Weissebier. Make sure it’s in a champagne flute; the carbonation and citrus will slice through the oiliness of the salmon with a knife, refreshing the palate and complementing the fish. For the veggies amongst you, bake a whole Camembert and serve with chunks of bread, accompanied by Leffe Blonde or Affligem Tripel. These beers blow wine out of the water with their sweet breadiness.

With a clear head, you can start on the star attraction – the turkey. Substitute the cranberry sauce with a cheeky glass of Titanic Plum Porter. The fruitiness of this beer is a perfect foil to the delicate flavours of white meat. If pork is your meat of choice, there’s no better beer than Jenning’s Cumberland Ale, it’s got a lovely apple peel aroma and flavour. For the nut roast gals out there, we recommend the gorgeous Brooklyn lager, full of toffee, caramel and sweet notes.

Onto the Christmas pudding, reach for Shepherd Neame Bishop’s Finger or Robinson’s Old Tom – both are full of stewed and dried fruit flavours which complement the richness of the dessert.

Here comes the cheeseboard, laden with Stilton, and we’re going to be drinking Theakston’s Old Peculier or Fullers London Porter. Both there beers tone down the metallic, coppery elements in the cheese. It’s a weird combination but it works so well!

And finally…well Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a chocolate or two. Settle back and sip a glass of Liefman’s Kriek to recreate that cherry liqueur experience

Liverpool ladies love their beer

 

Annabel Smith, Graham Evans MP, Lisa Harlow

We hosted our first ever event in Liverpool, offering a six-course meal with matching beers to an audience of local women – and a handful of men including chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group, Graham Evans MP.

The tasting, held at the city’s Old Blind School, was led by award-winning Beer Sommelier Annabel Smith, who guided the audience through six different styles of beer, including brews from two local brewers Mad Hatter and Neptune Brewery. Each beer was accompanied by a complementary food, ranging from cheese and fish to cheesecake and chocolate.

Annabel said, “The response from our guests was overwhelmingly positive; non-beer drinkers had their preconceptions about beer overturned as they found at least one beer they enjoyed and will consider drinking in future. Women already drinking beer broadened their repertoire by trying new styles.

The beer and food matches served to the women of Liverpool were:

• Freedom Pilsner with Welsh Rarebit
• Blue Moon with Smoked Haddock Fishcake with Chorizo (as well as with Terry’s Chocolate Orange)
• Lagunitas IPA with Tandoori Salmon
• Neptune Brewery Abyss Stout with Six-Hour Roasted Lamb
• Mad Hatter Brewery Liverpool Tart Sour Beer with Vimto and blackcurrant cheesecake
• Robinson’s Old Tom with Chocolate Mousse
  

Dea Latis organiser, Lisa Harlow said: “We had great support from the local Ladies That Beer group who meet regularly in Liverpool and I think we converted quite a few beer novices too.

“Many women still have preconceptions about beer, so our events are about trying to bust some of those myths and show that beer doesn’t make you fat, doesn’t have to be served in pint glasses and isn’t all brown and bitter!”

Birkenhead-based CPL Training who sponsored the event also donated a voucher for a free online course about beer styles for every guest.

Dea Latis welcomes support from brewers, pub groups, licensees and others who share their aim of bringing beer to women. To find out more please email us.

See the video from our evening here.