SACRAMENTO, CA
Welcome to this installment of Beer and Cheese Pairings. For this edition, I’ve paired three flavorful cheeses with Brouwerij Van Steenberge’s Gulden Draak 9000 Quadruple. Let’s jump right in.
BEER:
Gulden Draak 9000 Quadruple is the quadrupel varient of the dark Belgian beer Gulden Draak, brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge. This high alcohol beer (10.70%) consists of 3 different kinds of malt added to a volume of 4 times the content in lager. It has a strong fruity scent and should make for an interesting pairing with these three tasty cheeses.
CHEESES:
Tete de Moine is a raw cow’s milk cheese imported by Murray’s Cheese from Switzerland. This semi-hard cheese has a dense texture and boasts an intense, fruity flavor. This cheese stuck a nice balance with the beer–allowing its heavy fruitiness to play off of the subtle, fruity tones of the quad. 
Merlot Bellavitano® is a delicious cheese created by master cheesemakers at Sartori in Plymouth, Wisconsin. This cheese is rich and creamy with a full flavor. It is then soaked in merlot to give it extra tang and delicious merlot flavor. I was excited to try this cheese with the beer and was not disappointed. This pairing, my favorite of the day, was perfectly balanced and surprisingly deep. 
Casatica di Bufala is made from Italian water buffalo milk and imported by Murray’s Cheese. This soft-ripened stracchino-style cheese is rich and creamy with a custardy texture that is barely restrained by its bloomy rind. This cheese also paired nicely with the beer, but was unable to match the balance of the previous pairing.
Be sure to check back for more delicious beer and cheese pairings.
