Copper Kettle Brewing hosts a beer & cheese pairing on the second Thursday of every month.  Cheeses from The Truffle Cheese Shop (2906 E. 6th Avenue Denver) are paired with Copper Kettle’s brews.  $20 gets you four pairings.  I attended my first one last night, and I must say I was not disappointed.

When I arrived shortly before the event was to begin, I ordered a Mexican Chocolate Stout, as I’d heard great things about it but had yet to try it myself.  And not only had I heard great things about it, it won a Gold Medal at GABF in 2011 in the category “Herb and Spice Beers.”  Herb and spice is pretty much dead on.  I’d describe this beer as tasting like a piece of toast with cinnamon sugar, lightly sprinkled with finely diced jalapenos.  I fell in love with it at first sip!  It’s one of the best stouts I’ve had. 

Once the event began, it started off with the most mild pairing:  Bavarian Helles, a German style blonde lager, and Flat Rock cheese, a raw cow’s milk cheese modeled after the French mountain cheese Abondance.  While I’m not a fan of lagers, the cheese really brought out the flavor of this light-tasting beer.  The Flat Rock was my favorite cheese of all four. 

Next came Copper Kettle’s American Amber and Toma Maccagno Rosa cheese.  As with lagers, I’ don’t love ambers either.  But this one was very drinkable compared to most.  And the cheese, which reminded me of brie, made the beer all the more enjoyable. 

The third pair was Better Half IPA (which I raved about in a prior post about Copper Kettle) and Camembert Normandie or, as it was described by the hosts–stinky cheese.  And stinky it was; to me it smelled like an old pair of gym shoes.  I hoped it would taste better than it smelled.  It did!  It was very pungent and strong-tasting, and it was paired with the IPA because it too is bursting with flavor.  If this cheese was paired with a lighter beer, it would have completely overpowered the taste of the beer.  So that was nicely done.

The final pairing of the evening was Copper’s Bloody Best (British Best Bitter) with Caciocavallo Afumicato, a smoked cheese similar to provolone.  I don’t like things that are too smoky, and this was just right.  Though the beer is called a bitter, I did not find it to be so.  In fact it tasted a little sweet and buttery, which I was not expecting.  It was quite different but went well with the cheese, which was fairly salty (salty=good) and delicious. 

I truly enjoyed all of the pairings.  Jeremy (owner and head brewer), Kristen (owner and manager), and Justin (lead bartender) were very friendly and wanted to make sure everyone was pleased with the experience.  My only wish is that I would have been able to hear Jeremy and the guy from the cheese shop (sorry–I did not catch his name) talk about the pairings.  But there was so much extra noise from the patrons at the bar (who were not there for the event) it was extremely difficult to make out what the gentlemen were saying.  Jeremy did apologize and mentioned the event normally takes place in the brewery iteslf, but they did not have the space to do so on this particular night.  But it was still a good time and an overall great experience.  Excellent job, Copper Kettle and Truffle Cheese Shop!  You’ll see me again in the near future.