Meet The Brewers: Devil’s Peak Brewing Company

JC Steyn, Head Brewer at Devils Peak introduced his range of beers and our very own Chef Roy paired their wonderful beers with some interesting treats to challenge the taste buds.

Beer does not suffer from the same issues of acidity that wine does when it comes to pairing with food. So the first rule of beer and food paring is “Anything goes!”. Beer being a food product itself lends itself very well to food pairing. The four key ingredients in beer, water, grains, hops and yeast all add flavour components and the combinations are seemingly endless. With that in mind you will do well to concentrate on complimenting the food and beer’s flavour profile. Choose a beer that will draw out the flavours in the food and visa versa. However its equally and arguably more powerful to contrast the flavour profiles. The beer can literally change the flavour of the food. Our favourite example on our permanent food pairing menu is Heffeweizen changing dried mulberries into white chocolate.

Some combinations from our event seemed to work well.

Silver Tree Saison with it’s peppery spice and effervescent carbonation worked well with the earthy spicy qualities of Chicken Liver Paté and Black Olives.

The First Light Golden Ale with its fruity aroma, melon-y tropical fruit, balanced light sweet malt and hop bitterness worked well with the Apricot & Amaretto Baklava.

The Woodhead Amber went down a treat with BBQ Pork Baby Back Ribs. The bitterness accentuates the salt whilst calming the bitterness and complimenting the sweetness of the BBQ.

The Imperial IPA seemed to work well with all the dishes but especially the Slow Braised Shoulder of Lamb.

Thanks again to JC and Roy for putting on a great event and we are looking forward to many more. The next “Meet The Brewer” event will be with Morne Uys of Lakeside Beerworks on 14 April. See you then