mac'n'cheese and arcadia ipa

[studentofbeer]

had a nice meal/pairing tonight, tho it was pretty basic, mac and cheese and ipa.

started the mac'n'cheese bye making a rous, added dried mustard, chili powder and paprika, then a ton of sharp cheddar and some chopped mushrooms. cooked the pasta. added the cheese sauce to the pasta, then dropped in chopped tomato and avocado and a few spritzes of tabasco.

was trying to decide between the arcadia ipa and a spaten premium, and i went with the ipa and im glad i did. the hops cut right through the cheese, the mushrooms added some base flavor and the tomato some sweetness. The cheese and butter in the rous as well as the sweetness from the tomato went really well with the relatively prominent diacytl characteristic from the yeast. the hops came through at the end to cleanse the palette and contrast it all, but it's not a super hoppy beer and has a nice malt background that goes with the diacytl (which may distract some, but isn't too bad for this beer-- i think it tastes a bit out of line in their brown).

this was fun because i paired an exact beer with a meal. any pale ale or ipa would have been good, as would the spaten premium or a good pilsner.

[chazwicke]

Interesting pairing. I also found the suggestion of Dead Guy with pizza the otherday interesting.

[fretlessman71]

Heck, I found it delicious! :D

[steveh]

I had some leftover pizza with the second half of my -- Conniston Bluebird!

Wasn't all bad -- pepperoni and mushrooms with a little Marris Otter and herbal Challenger (Challenger?) hops. I thought the spicy pepperoni would deaden the Bluebird's flavor, but it really didn't.

S.

Stude, your doctored mac n' cheese is far from "basic!"

[kevin]

I picked up a sixer of arcadia ipa about a month ago and I thought it tasted more like an esb than a ipa. Maybe its the British yeast they use, but overall I wasn't really impressed with this as a ipa.

[studentofbeer]

Originally posted by kevin
I picked up a sixer of arcadia ipa about a month ago and I thought it tasted more like an esb than a ipa. Maybe its the British yeast they use, but overall I wasn't really impressed with this as a ipa.

i think arcadia was trying to go for a more british ipa all the way around, which for whatever reason means a lot less hoppiness than americans have interpreted the style. i wonder what a 19th C. ipa on its way to india would have tasted like.

[fretlessman71]

Samuel Smith makes an "India Ale" that purportedly is precisely that. It's even in an amber bottle - give it a try! I really enjoyed it.

[chazwicke]

I'm thinking Garrett Oliver said at a tasting several years ago that his Brooklyn IPA is supposed to be an accurate version too. I think He may have studied old recipes.