Counter Weight Brewing: Cheese, Beer & Wine Pairing

One would think that cheese and wine go together like peanut butter and chocolate, but with today's endless styles of local craft beer the game has changed.

What factors make beer more favorable? No tannins, lower ABV and the big one, BUBBLES!! If you remember anything from this blog post it should be that bubbles assist in cutting through fat and making flavor pop in cheese. Sparkling wine, Champagne, etc follow the same logic. There's a time and place for red wine, but they will require something a little more substantial from your cheese selection.

On this night, we were invited back to our friends at Counter Weight Brewing in Hamden, CT for another round of cheese, wine and beer to showcase to people the possibilities and diversity of today's craft beer in food pairings.

Matt Westfall welcomes everyone and gets into the mechanics of tonight's beer selections for the pairing.

I try desperately to impress 50 hardcore Counter Weight fans that wine is the better choice with my stellar wine lineup.

The "rules" are simple, 4 cheeses, 4 beers, 4 wines. Which one paired better in their respected bracket. Loser gets pelted with either empty beer cans or wine corks.

Odin's Valhalla is actually made by local George Tafuto. Really tasty red blend.