SACRAMENTO, CA
Welcome to this week’s Beer & Cheese Pairing. For this installment, I decided to have some fun with a diverse mix of cheeses paired with Einstök Ölgerð’s Icelandic Toasted Porter. Let’s get started.
BEER: 
This Icelandic Toasted Porter is roasty and rich, with a medium robust body. This award winning beer is brewed 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle using water that flows from prehistoric glaciers. Toasted and chocolate malts give it its dark black color and smooth taste. With a beer this flavorful, I chose three cheeses that should be up to the task.
CHEESES:
Ascutney Mountain Cheese from Cobb Hill Cheese is a sweet and nutty cows’ milk cheese similar to Gruyère, Appenzeller, or Raclette. Aged 8 to 10 months, this cheese develops a very complex character. It is firm yet creamy and has tiny holes scattered throughout the interior. Paired with the porter, the flavors meshed surprisingly well. The nuttiness of the cheese was a nice compliment to the beer’s scorched caramel undertones.
Cremont from Vermont Creamery is a mixed-milk cheese combing cows’ milk, goats’ milk and a hint of Vermont cream. The delicious nutty taste and creamy texture is housed in the wrinkled geotrichum rind. The fresh curd it shaped by had and aged for two weeks for its unique color and smooth interior. Even with a completely different flavor profile than the Ascutney Mountain, the strength of the Cremont paired really nicely with the porter.
Robiola Bosina from Murray’s Cheese is a creamy Italian cheese made from pasteurized milk from Piedmont cows and sheep, which gives it a balanced mushroomy, salty and sweet flavor. It is aged for 1 to 2 months and has a tender interior inside of an edible rind. Though all three pairings were delicious, this was my personal favorite of the day. The unique earthy flavors of the cheese created a balanced pair with the porter.
Be sure to check back for more delicious beer and cheese pairings.
