How do you match beers with cheese? Does it really work? And is beer as good as, or better than, wine or port with cheese? There are certainly particular styles of cheese that benefit from pairing with beer rather than wine but the reverse is also true. The ascendancy of craft beer, introducing a much wider spectrum of flavours, has given cheese lovers a lot more to play with when choosing what to drink with their cheese. John Kelly knows a few things about beer having been heavily involved with the early importing of American-style IPAs (bringing Sierra Nevada to these shores!) that have now become a mainstay of the current beer revolution. He went on to become managing director of Kirkstall Brewery, and is one half of the Yorkshire beer-power couple (his wife, Christa Sandquist, is operations manager at the brilliant brewer Magic Rock). So it seemed appropriate that The Courtyard Dairy should ask John to find the perfect match for each style of cheese they offer. “There are no hard and fast rules, so no-one should ever feel embarrassed because they decide they like a certain beer with a particular style of cheese. There are, however, a few…
