This is a continuation of a blog about the Shore Craft Beer Talk and Tasting held at the Clarion Fountainebleu in early 2016.
The difficulty here is both to not oversell the cheese and not undersell the beer. Maytag Blue Cheese is better described on this link, but I’ll say it has almost the consistency of butter. It is thick and rich and nearly too much. Angry Clown Brown acted almost like a sorbet washing every wonderful morsel with its lightly malted goodness.
Jason at Assawoman has been a brewer for decades and on the restaurant side ran Dogfish Head Brewings and Eats for awhile, so I wasn’t shocked at how precisely these two things were paired together. I was really surprised at what the pairing meant. In this case, the cheese turned what many people would think of as a heaver beer into a lighter one. It’s like when you go from the sauna into a cold shower and it takes a second for your body to burn off the warm and recognize the cold. Is that too weird?
I feel like this would be a good beer and cheese to serve to non-beer lovers, because even on its own the Angry Clown is accessible but with this cheese it is glorious.
Author: Tony Russo
Tony Russo has worked as a print and digital journalist for the better part of the 21st century, writing for and editing regional weeklies and dailies before joining the team that produces OceanCity.com and ShoreCraftBeer.com among other destination websites. In addition to having documented everything from zoning changes to art movements on the Delmarva Peninsula, Tony has written two books on beer for the History Press. Eastern Shore Beer was published in 2014 and Delaware Beer in 2016. He lives in Delmar, Md. with his wife Kelly and the only of his four daughters who hasn't moved out. Together they keep their two dogs comfortable.
