Finding the Perfect Beer Pairing for Jasper Hill Caspian

Back in April the creamery at Jasper Hill Farm announced that it had released a new cheese based on the tomme cheeses of the French Savoie region. The announcement (and the cheese label) included the suggestion that Caspian might be paired with “a tart Geuze” to accentuate the cheese’s citrusy flavor characteristics. As a veteran beer geek I thought, “who am I to argue with such a fine notion?”

So, upon receiving a sample of Caspian, I laid tracks to find a gueuze (the spelling varies due the multitude of languages and dialects of its Belgian homeland). At The Beer Temple in Chicago, I ended up with three.

 

What is Gueuze?

Now you might ask, what’s a gueuze, and what makes it so special? It’s true, that even the beers of the broader lambic family (of which gueuze is a sub-style) aren’t among the world’s most well-known, or easy-to-attain Belgian beers. Other styles from the tiny European nation (thinking Trappist ales, and witbier) enjoy more widespread notoriety and distribution than Lambics. The rarity of lambics can be attributed as much to the laborious and time-consuming production processes as to their unique flavors. And they are special, indeed. In his 1991 book The Great Beers of Belgium, the late beer author Michael Jackson devoted several pages to these complex, tart beers. 

“Drinkers who find Lambics too assertive may simply be suffering from the shock of a taste that they did not expect in a beer,” Jackson wrote. While praising their complexity and depth of flavor, Jackson also noted that unlike most beer styles, lambics develop through spontaneous fermentation involving native wild yeasts. They are also fermented and aged in wooden casks, and many (particularly gueuze) are then bottle conditioned and aged in bottles similar to those used for sparkling wines. The result is a beer that is bubbly, shockingly tart and bone dry, but never one dimensional. Even in the unfruited/unsweetened lambic and gueuze there are flavor notes and aromas suggesting stone fruit, sourdough and even leather and “horse blanket.”

Guezue is a blend of old and new beers from two or even several casks. The younger components of the blend contribute a lively carbonation to the bottled beer, while the older beer helps to impart that immense complexity of flavor. These beers, highly sought-after by the world’s most serious beer aficionados, have inspired craft brewers worldwide to develop a variety of contemporary sours. Some are spot-on for the classics, while others, often laced with fruit and usually produced without the laborious processes of the traditional Belgian brews, are lacking complexity. Those who have encountered the latter would be well served to seek the originals or the beers from a much smaller number of new world brewers who employ the most traditional methods of open fermentation, wood aging and bottle conditioning. 

 

What is Caspian?

Regular readers of the Cheese Professor are familiar with Vermont’s Jasper Hill Farm and the Cellars of Jasper Hill (read more about Jasper Hill Farm’s cheese production).  For more than 20 years they have produced great cheeses including Moses Sleeper, Winnimere, Bayley Hazen Blue, and the collaborative Cabot Clothbound Cheddar. And now we have Caspian. Named after a local lake that is significant to the founders of Jasper Hill, it is made from the raw milk of the creamery’s own herd. Tommes, and tomas are a loosely associated group of cheeses often described as farmer’s cheeses. They are simple and rustic, designed to showcase the unique characteristics of a single farm’s milk, and are often produced for the farmer’s own consumption. Like the tommes of the Savoie, Caspian is flat and round with a concave edge, and it displays a mottled gray rustic rind. When we opened our wedge, we saw the signature rind characteristics, and a nearly white paste, with slight oozy softness beneath the rind. The slightly chalky, yet springy center paste reminded us of the UK’s caerphilly cheese. 

 

Why Jasper Hill Caspian Pairs with Gueze

On its website, Jasper Hill describes “a vibrant range of flavors. Its bright, lactic, herbaceous center evolves to cultured butter and mushrooms along the outer edges.”  The lemony lactic flavors were at the forefront for us, and the rind had a pleasant mouthfeel, and a mild flavor reflecting the earthiness of the paste.  On the tongue it melted into a smooth creaminess with salty, savory flavors on the finish. 

I tasted the pairing with two besties both of whom are pretty beer- and cheese-savvy. The three beers were remarkably similar, but the one we found most complex was the Vat 108 Mono Blend Old Geuze Boon from Boon Brewery. This beer poured with a healthy carbonation and bright lemony aroma. Citrus flavor notes lead to savory oak and leather on the finish. With the cheese, the lactic flavors played together nicely, and the savory notes of the cheese emerged, finishing with rich salted butter notes.  Served with almonds, cured ham, cornichons and a baguette, this would make an excellent light lunch.  We gave the pairing four out of five stars.

The other two beers were Tre Fontinen Oude Geueze and Oude Gueuze Tilquin, and both also paired well with the Caspian. Among the U.S. brewers making spontaneously fermented, lambic style beers are Allagash, in Maine, Jester King in Texas, Hill Farmstead in Vermont (neighbors of Jasper Hill), Russian River Brewing of California, Garden Path Fermentation of Washington, de Garde Brewing of Oregon, and Averie Swanson of Keeping Together Brewing, a traveling brewer who is currently working to establish a brewery in Texas.