We visited the brewery yesterday and plopped ourselves down at the bar with the following cheeses:
- September Farm Honey Brook 3 Year Cheddar
- Springside Morel Mushroom and Leek Jack
- Yancey’s Steakhouse Onion
Tin Cannon Brewing has a nice variety of beers, mostly on the light side, but all delightful. We decided on the following beers to try out with the cheese:
- Breakfast of Champions – an experimental beer made with bacon and chipotle peppers.
- Humble Admiration – a nice brown ale with a hoppy profile
- Rusted Pipe Red IPA – it’s, well, a red IPA!
- Honey We’re On a Date – a hefeweizen style, brewed with dates and honey
We had the Steakhouse Onion with the Breakfast of Champions first. Seriously, all I wanted after that pairing was a nice grilled Italian sausage sub, covered in this cheese, with a pint of that beer! Sadly, the Breakfast of Champions is down to it’s last keg. And it seems it won’t be back for a while. The Humble Admiration and Rusted Pipe were paired with the 3 year cheddar. Although both beers have a hoppy profile, each reacted differently. The Humble had it’s hoppy notes smoothed out and the cheese really pulled the nuttiness typically found in brown ales to the forefront. The Rusted Pipe was less bitter and the cheddar really brought the floral notes of the hops up front and center. But by far the best pairing of the evening was the Honey We’re on A Date with the Morel/Leek Monterey Jack. The beer stands nicely on it’s own, with a slightly sweet profile but very drinkable. When we tried the cheese, much to our surprise, the beer became more like a SAISON! It was crazy. We kept eating the cheese, drinking the beer, then doing it again. I couldn’t have imagined the beer would take on such different characteristics simply by eating this cheese. If you are ever in the Gainesville area, be sure to stop in and visit Tin Cannon Brewing. They are great people with great beer and it’s just a fun place to hang out.
The Cheesy Beer Wench 