THE festive season is often seized upon as a chance to publicise the diversity of the wine world and to promote how different wines suit different situations and complement different foods.
Sadly beer is often overlooked on Christmas Day being relegated to a supporting role at the Boxing Day BBQ. This is a real shame as the beer world offers up some fantastic flavours and aromas which can work extremely well with Christmas fare.
This Christmas I will start the day with croissants, ham, salmon and eggs, the traditional Haslett-Moore family Christmas breakfast. With it I will serve tall flutes of the classic French Biere de Garde, 3 Monts Golden, malt accented, effervescent with a hint of funky cellar character, 3 Monts has just enough acidity and carbonation to handle the rich oily breakfast.
For Christmas dinner I will be serving up a Christmas ham, grilled herb encrusted crayfish and a Greek salad. With this I will serve the phenomenal Three Boys Golden Ale. With it’s overt fruity New Zealand hop character and firm pale malt backbone Three Boys Golden Ale has loads of passionfruit, gooseberry and citrus notes to complement the herbs and salad, and enough bitterness to cut the richness of the ham.
By mid afternoon it will be time to break out the Christmas cake, Stilton and a bottle of the phenomenal Fullers Vintage Ale 09. Fullers Vintage Ale is an absolute classic English barley wine. Marmalade aromas, light citrus hop notes and a rich full malt profile perfectly complement the rich sweet fruit notes of the Christmas cake.
By the time evening rolls around and the cold cuts come out I will be tempted to crack open a soothing bottle of chocolaty Invercargill Pitch Black Stout. Or perhaps more likely it will be time have a cup of tea!
Cheers and Merry Christmas!